The kill

Darkness surged in like a tide, first swallowing the beer bottles and scattered cigarette butts beside the pool, then the writhing figures.

The subwoofer still thundered, but it seemed to come from far away, more like muffled thunder rising from underground.

The pool no longer reflected any light. Instead, it resembled an obsidian mirror, reflecting distorted images. The thugs beside it gradually lost their outlines, leaving only swaying masses of shadow.

The villa's once-boisterous backyard had become an eerie, dark courtyard.

The air no longer smelled of alcohol and marijuana, but of damp stone walls, rotting straw, and a faint, rusty tang of blood.

In the distance, there seemed to be wolves howling-or perhaps it was the wind sobbing through broken windows.

George was still half-reclining on the lounge chair. The bottle in his hand had long since rolled away, and his sleeping consciousness had been drawn out.

He slowly straightened, his spine cracking as though someone inside were reassembling his skeleton. Moments later, jet-black bone spurs emerged from his back like a crown of thorns.

His fingers lengthened, his nails curling into hooks that dripped corrosive green fluid. His mouth split open to his ears, revealing two rows of sawlike teeth.

Things in nightmares never cared about logic.

George stood in the center of this twisted, dark courtyard without fear in his heart.

Instead, a wild, uncontrollable power flowed through his chest. He tilted his head toward the crescent moon in the sky, a deep growl rising from his throat.

Just then, he abruptly sensed something. The hairs on the back of his neck instantly stood on end, as though countless tiny needles had pierced his skin at once.

A figure slowly emerged from the darkness.

His long black coat gleamed coldly in the moonlight, its hem stirring faintly like something alive.

Lin Rui had appeared-at this moment, he was no longer the ordinary young man who sweated away at the gym, but a demon hunter cloaked in nightmare.

"You... it's you." A hideous voice squeezed from George's split maw, black saliva dripping between his fangs. "You're that Leon... you actually dare show yourself before me."

Lin Rui said nothing. He merely watched him in silence.

Deep in his mind, the familiar notification suddenly sounded, cold and clear:

"Demon hunter, in the dark courtyard, you have encountered an elite fallen one-a high-ranking servant of an evil spirit. Today marks your first battle alone."

"Quest issued: defeat the elite fallen one, George, head-on. Harvest his rotten soul, and let light shine upon this land once more."

"Side quest: eliminate the three lackeys following the fallen one, George. Erase all traces of their existence, and set this erroneous world right."

"Quest reward: kill these evil disciples who scorn you and trample their despicable wills. You will receive one free attribute point."

The instant the notification ended, Lin Rui activated the Attribute Enhancement Card he carried with a thought.

A warm current surged from his dantian, shooting through his limbs and bones like electricity. His muscles instantly tightened, and his bones gave faint cracks.

Strength 16, constitution 17.5, spirit 15, agility 11.5, charisma 17.5.

He swept his right hand over the longsword at his waist. The blade gave a soft hum, and fierce flames instantly coiled around it.

The blazing, gold-edged white flames lit his face and the entire courtyard, like the fire of judgment fallen from heaven.

This was the Flame Enchantment he had sought from the old priest.

When the old priest learned that Lin Rui was going to slay demons, he sighed and said, "Child, the darkness runs deep. May the Lord's light be with you."

The firelight stabbed painfully into George's slit pupils. He instinctively stepped back, a beastlike growl rumbling in his throat.

Behind him, three equally distorted figures staggered into view-his three lackeys had also become complete demons:

One had bony wings sprouting from his back, their membranes covered in blood vessels;

One had arms transformed into tentacles, their tips dripping corrosive black fluid;

The last had a second mouth split open on his head, with a forked tongue lashing from it like a whip.

Lin Rui waved his left hand. The air abruptly condensed, and a crystalline ice shield materialized out of nothing. Frost spread like a living thing along his arm, shoulder, and chest, instantly forming a suit of translucent ice armor.

The helmet covered his face, leaving only a pair of silver-bright eyes exposed. Cold mist flowed over the armor, reflecting a bone-piercing chill beneath the moonlight.

This was Sophia's gift. The coldly beautiful witch had told him, "Take it, kid. Don't die too ugly a death. I'll be waiting for you to come back."

Lin Rui drew a deep breath. His heart beat like a war drum, blood surged through his veins, and his heavy breathing rumbled like thunder.

Gripping the flaming longsword in his right hand and the ice shield in his left, he kicked hard off the ground and shot toward George like an arrow loosed from a bow.

George roared, his body swelling. Years of football had given him rocklike muscles, and now he looked even more like a moving mountain of flesh. Lowering his head and leaning his shoulder forward, he charged straight at Lin Rui like a raging bull.

The three demonic lackeys behind him shrieked in unison. Tentacles, bony wings, and a second mouth spread wide as they pounced on their prey like three hellhounds.

The two sides slammed into each other in the center of the courtyard with the most primal, brutal force.

Boom!

The tremendous crash sounded like two trains colliding head-on.

The shock wave whipped up dust and broken glass from the ground, while columns of black pool water erupted several meters high.

The flaming sword met George's huge claws in a shower of sparks. The ice shield collided with tentacles, and cold mist and black fluid instantly froze into shards of ice.

The flaming sword cut a charred gash into George's huge claw. He threw back his head and let out a heart-rending roar of pain.

The sword's light was a dragon; the ice shield, a wall.

Kill!

In the villa's backyard, the absurd party reached its wildest peak at midnight.

The subwoofer pounded against their chests like the heartbeat of a giant beast, making even the ground tremble faintly.

Teenage boys and girls crowded together, their bodies twisting, colliding, and tangling to the beat. Some screamed, some laughed wildly, and some were so excited they could barely breathe.

No one noticed anything wrong with the lounge chair beside the pool.

George lay on his back. At first, only his fingers twitched slightly, as though lightly touched by an electric current. Gradually, the spasms spread to his arms, shoulders, and entire upper body.

His head began shaking uncontrollably from side to side. His clenched teeth chattered, and low, muddled mutters squeezed from his throat like a beast's dying gasps.

His three lackeys were no better off.

The green-haired boy lay sprawled on an inflatable float beside the pool. As though pulled by invisible strings, his body repeatedly arched violently upward before slamming back onto the plastic;

The "scene kid" sitting against the fence clutched his hair with both hands, his nails digging bloody furrows into his scalp, yet he felt nothing;

The third, the "punk," rolled on the lawn like a dead fish, flailing his limbs and knocking over a nearby beer crate. The music swallowed the sound of shattering glass.

Their convulsions grew increasingly violent, as though an invisible hand were churning madly inside their bodies.

A heavily made-up girl was vomiting beneath the backyard hedge, covering the ground in filth. Her head cleared a little. She staggered forward a few steps, her gaze falling on George in the lounge chair.

George's convulsions had become horrifying.

His back arched at an extreme angle, as though it would snap. Blood faintly showed through the skin beneath his bandages, and the wounds over his broken ribs had torn open again.

An indistinct sound came from his mouth, something between crying and laughter. His eyes were half-open, their whites rolled up frighteningly.

The girl froze for several seconds. Much of her drunkenness faded, and a chill shot from the soles of her feet up her back. Swallowing, she called to the people around her in a trembling voice:

"Hey... hey! Something looks wrong with George! Should we... should we call an ambulance?"

Only the speakers' endless drumbeat and someone's excited screams in the distance answered her.

The people around her seemed to exist in another dimension. Some kept dancing, some kept drinking, and some simply sprawled on the ground and rolled around. Nothing outside their world concerned them.

The girl glanced at George again-his limbs were twisting at angles beyond the limits of the human body, like a puppet controlled by invisible hands.

She took one step back, then another, her heart pounding as though it would burst from her chest. The next second, she turned and ran toward the villa's side gate, stumbling but fast.

Outside the villa, the night wind was icy. She leaned against the wall, gasping, and pulled out her phone with trembling fingers. Her fingertips slid over the screen several times before she managed to dial 911.

"Hello... hello! Fortieth Block, the Bronx, 132 Seventh Street... someone here... someone's convulsing really badly... they look like they're dying... please send someone..."

The dark courtyard had become a battlefield.

The crescent moon hung high like a torn silver platter, shedding cold, thin light. The ground was cracked, with broken glass and charred wood splinters scattered everywhere, like ruins trampled by a giant beast.

Lin Rui stood in the center of the courtyard, his ice armor shattered in several places.

A long crack split the left side of his helmet, exposing half his stern face; huge claws had gouged three deep marks into his breastplate, and cold mist poured wildly from the cracks like white steam;

The ice shield on his left arm was even more riddled with holes, its edges shattered into jagged teeth and its surface speckled with congealed black blood. But he did not retreat.

Instead, his fighting spirit blazed like a prairie fire.

He raised the flaming longsword high. The gold-white flames coiling around its blade trailed several meters behind it, like a fire dragon come alive and roaring in the night sky.

The flames lit his eyes-their silver gleam thick with killing intent.

He drew a deep breath. Even the air in his chest seemed to ignite. Blood thundered through his veins, and every inch of his muscles burned.

"You piece of shit, you wanted to kill me, didn't you? You didn't expect me to come kill you first, did you?" he demanded in a low voice, its natural edge stabbing straight into every fallen one's soul.

George had completely mutated. His two-and-a-half-meter body resembled a moving mountain of flesh. Veins bulged beneath black scales, and the wounds over his broken ribs no longer bled, instead spraying black, foul-smelling pus.

One lackey had already been cleaved in half by the flaming longsword. The two remaining lackeys lunged at him, shrieking.

One monster beat the bony wings on his back, whipping up a blood-reeking wind; the other had arms transformed into tentacles, their tips dripping corrosive black fluid that made the ground smoke wherever it landed.

Lin Rui moved.

He stamped his left foot hard against the ground. Frost exploded beneath his sole and spread like a spiderweb, instantly freezing the ground within three meters of him.

Using the rebound, he shot forward like a cannonball. His flaming longsword traced a blazing arc through the air, trailing a long tail of fire like a meteor plunging to earth.

His first strike slashed toward the bone-winged monster.

Blade struck bone wing in a shower of sparks, and flames instantly swallowed half a wing. The monster let out a piercing scream as his wing rapidly blackened and crumbled like burning paper.

He tried to flap away, only for Lin Rui's ice shield to slam into him head-on. Cold erupted from its surface, freezing half his body.

The next instant, the flaming sword swept across-splurt!

The sword's light flashed like a dragon, cleanly cleaving the monster in half from shoulder to waist.

Black blood gushed out. Organs and rotten flesh scattered across the ground, steaming white beneath the moonlight. Half the corpse crashed into the pool, sending out a ring of black waves.

His second strike thrust toward the tentacled monster.

Tentacles lashed toward him like whips. Lin Rui neither dodged nor evaded, meeting them with the ice shield in his left hand. The instant they hit its surface, they froze into rods of ice and shattered with a crack.

He closed in, thrusting the flaming sword straight into his opponent's chest.

The sword tip pierced the scales, and flames poured into the wound. The monster's body exploded like an ignited oil drum.

Black blood mixed with flames sprayed three meters high, like a blooming black flower of fire.

The monster fell, twitched a few times, and stopped moving.

Finally, only George remained.

Eighty percent of Lin Rui's injuries had been inflicted by this bastard.

He possessed boundless strength and extraordinary ferocity, feared neither pain nor injury, and was extremely difficult to handle.

But he had gained no advantage either. The flaming sword had stabbed his chest seven or eight times in succession, each strike drawing great gushes of foul-smelling black blood that blasted out like water from a high-pressure hose.

Blood splashed onto the ice armor, instantly freezing into black ice before the flames steamed it into white vapor.

George's slit pupils burned with pain. Large patches of scales peeled away, exposing rotten muscle beneath. He roared and swung his claws, but Lin Rui's ice shield blocked him every time, his claw blades scraping sparks and ice chips from its surface.

"You... you yellow-skinned monkey!" George's voice no longer sounded human, but like overlapping roars squeezed from hell's throat. "You have no right to challenge me!"

Lin Rui did not answer. He simply lunged forward, his flaming longsword tracing a half-moon arc in the simplest possible motion. Gold-white flames trailed several meters behind it, like a sword of heavenly punishment falling from the clouds.

"Cleave!"

The blade came crashing down with the force of wind and thunder.

George raised both claws to block, only to hear a sharp crack-his huge claws were severed by the blade, their stumps charred black, flesh curling outward.

The sword continued downward without slowing. The flaming longsword plunged straight into George's chest and pierced through him. Flames burst from its tip, like a miniature sun exploding inside George's body.

George's muscles burned and his bones burst. His form was his consciousness; if his form was destroyed, his consciousness would dissipate with it.

After that grievous blow, his slit pupils abruptly widened. Lin Rui's cold face was reflected in them-then they rapidly dimmed.

Black blood gushed from his wound, only to vaporize swiftly in the flames and rise in wisps of black smoke. George's body began disintegrating, like a wax figure collapsing in a raging fire.

Lin Rui pulled out his sword and stepped back, his hands and feet trembling faintly, his strength nearly exhausted.

The gold-white flames on his sword gradually subsided, leaving only a faint red glow along the blade.

The cracks in his ice armor slowly repaired themselves amid the cold mist. He looked down at George's remains, gradually dissolving into a puddle of black sludge, and let out a long breath.

In the dark courtyard, the crescent moon remained cold and white.

A notification sounded in Lin Rui's mind. "Demon hunter, you have withstood the trial of death and successfully survived the duel.

The tempering of blood and fire truly brings out a man's potential best. You have won an incredible victory. Your courage and combat skills deserve to be celebrated in song.

On the road to eradicating evil and restoring the light, you have taken one small step."