Chapter XXXIII: The Last Step I

Demonic Wildlands Near the Great Plateau

Month of the Garuda 37, 172 ,328 DE

"More disgusting than interesting. Those things practically drip Chaos. Those pack mothers are all Demonic."

As a bit of confusion mixes into his scent, Vorn looks at me. "You talk about Chaos and Chaos corruption like they're obvious. How can you tell?"

"Experience. Look at their eyes. Beasts or humans only have that kind of light in their eyes after they become Demonic. If they weren't downwind, even your dull nose would smell the corruption. Be careful of them. Their physical strength should be in the lower level of the Core Formation realm, maybe higher. They, also, might have strange powers resembling Martial techniques. They must die before they spread their corruption further!"

Bloodlust rises from within my Soul, and my Body kicks into high gear. My breathing deepens and my heart pumps faster, feeding oxygen to my muscles. The warmth of Trinity heats up my blood, feeling like the heat of a forge has ignited within me. I spring toward the Gnoll. As they stab at me with their spears, they seem to move slightly slower than before, not much slower, but enough.

I dodge the lethal spearheads and bury each knife in the belly of a different Gnoll. My muscles bulge, and with my knives still buried in the bellies of the two mortally wounded Gnolls, I lift both into the air. After leaning back, I use my body like a whip, hurling the dying Gnolls into more of their ilk and leap after them.

Shaking off his momentary stupor, Vorn charges into the Gnolls near me. His growling voice barely sounds human any longer. "Asshole hog! You've still been holding back!"

I give Vorn a mocking smirk. "So says the smug cat that turned into a big, fat Bugbear. I just a had breakthrough. Fighting and killing is how you grow faster."

Vorn chops down a few more Gnolls before staring at me, with narrowed eyes, for a second. "Beasts consolidate and release their accumulated strength in battle. Humans almost never can."

"Humans are weak. Don't you have the Blood of some cat Beast in you?"

Vorn splits a Gnoll open from shoulder to cunt and glares at me. "I'm a Son of the Great Bear!"

As a Gnoll tries to attack me from behind, I dodge its battle axe and slit its throat. Kicking the dying Beastman into the press of oncoming Gnolls, I glance at Vorn. Seeing that he is looking in my direction, I smirk. "Of course, neko-chan. Of course, you are."

Vorn snarls. "You're an asshole."

I make my voice sound as smug as I can. "I practice."

"Yaaaaaa! Yaaaaaa! Ya-Ya! Ya-Ya!"

Vorn's head snaps around to look in the direction of the Demonic Gnolls. "Those Chaos Gnolls are coming toward us. The scout don't even have their bows raised."

I grin. "Good. Where is the mottled Gnoll?"

Vorn spins around and hacks apart three Gnolls trying to get at our backs. He looks around while killing more Gnolls in an almost offhanded manner. "The yellow and brown one? I don't see it.."

"Stop here. Let the Demonic Gnolls come to us. They'll have a harder time running if they're stuck in the middle of this pack."

Vorn and I stand back to back. We both have dozens of minor wounds, but the worst is the arrow hole in my shoulder. Blood still flows from it, but more slowly. My blood clots fast. In general, the blood of higher tier Ferocious Beast clots faster, and nothing can be considered higher than a Great Wolf in this universe.

Vorn and I have killed or crippled, at least, a hundred Gnolls, but two hundred or more still surround us. As the Demonic Gnolls move near, the Gnolls pull back, leaving us in an open area some ten meters in diameter. Like hyenas, Gnolls hunt in packs. Their pack mentality extends to how they fight in larger groups. Among Gnolls, their alpha bitches want to kill strong enemies themselves. They probably see it as showing off their strength to the other bitches and reinforcing their place in the pack.

Surreal quiet settles over the forest. The near incessant yipping of the Gnolls quietens. Only the footsteps of the Demonic Gnolls rises above the creaking of leather, the soft clanking of metal on metal, and the susurrus of the wind through the forest canopy.

The mannerisms of the lead Gnoll look odd. Its, almost calm, face does not display the rampant aggression of the other Gnolls. As it surveys the corpses surrounding Vorn and me, an expression that could be disdain momentarily shows on its Beastly face. The other Gnolls appear wary of it.

The odd snake-like scent that I do not recognize clings to these Gnolls, but as with the

As I watch the Demonic Gnolls approach, some of the heat in my Blood recedes. The flow of Trinity slightly ebbs, but it seems to gather deep within my Body. Despite having a clear sense of its movement, I still cannot cross the final gap to grasp onto it.

The Gnoll, which appears to be the top bitch in the war band, stops and stares at Vorn for a moment. A hint of curiosity mixes with the corruption in its scent. It opens its mouth, and more or less clear Sengoku language words come out of it. "You human but not human. What are you?"

Confusion fills Vorn's scent, and as he stares at the lead Gnoll, his eyes narrow.

I snicker. "The Gnoll bitch has a better nose than you, Bugbear cat."

Vorn frowns but does not take his eyes off the lead Gnoll. Anger floods into his scent.

The Gnoll glances sidelong at me, with a very human-like expression of irritation showing on it Beastly face. But it cannot hide the uneasiness that seeps into its scent.

I smile at the Gnoll, but there is no humor or joy in the expression. "You're a surprise. I've never heard a Beastman bitch do such a good job mimicking human speech."

A flash of anger overrides the lead Gnolls irrational, but it visibly takes control over its emotions, a first in my experience with Gnolls. When Old Man Jones would take me into the Demonic Wildlands for training, he would often have me hunt Beastmen. Most have almost no control over their emotions, and Gnolls are among the worst of them.

The Gnoll shifts its attention to me and displays a disgusting leer. "You're the seme?"

As I laugh, more confusion fills Vorn's scent, and he glances at me for an instant. "You call that a good job of mimicking human speech? It's butchering the vocabulary."

Vorn may speak the Sengoku language more or less fluently, but he does not understand the insults. Surprisingly, the Gnoll does.

I let out a single bark of laughter. "That breeding bitch is doing just fine. You just don't understand Sengoku slang. It said I fuck you in the ass."

Gnolls are a matriarchy, and the lowest rung of Gnoll females are the females used solely for breeding. Their status is lower than the Scouts, the males allowed to use weapons. The hunter and warrior females treat like shit and constantly abuse them.

I smile at the Gnoll. "What do you want, breeding bitch?"

As anger fills the scent of the Gnoll leader, the Demonic Gnolls behind it bristle. But when the Gnoll leader glares at the other Gnolls, they settle down, and the acrid stench of fear mixed into their scents.

The Gnoll leader glowers at me. "I want nothing from a seme. The A lmughayir wants you. Serve t he A lmughayir and you will live! Serve t he A lmughayir and destroy the Dragon Gods!"

Before I stamp out the shock I feel at the Gnoll leader's words, my scent changes. The Gnoll leader's nose twitches and the corners of its lips faintly pull up in a mockery of a human smile.

"Almughayir?" Vorn mumbles the word in obvious confusion.

A lmughayirs are not not Ferocious Beasts or Demonic Beasts. They are actual Demons from the borderlands between Chaos and our Second Metaverse, low-level Demons, but still Demons. They are described in one of Old Man Jones' books, but I do not know if even that shitty old man has ever seen one. According to the book, the Almughayir are a race of reptile-like shape-shifters. The weakest of them, meaning the youngest, should be no stronger than a human at the Third or Fourth Circle of Coalescence.

The Almughayir and the Dragons may be enemies, but the enemy of my enemy is not even close to being my friend. Dragons have been corrupted by all four Primal Powers, but other than the lackeys of Order, the minions of the Primal Powers fight amongst themselves all the time. At least, that is what is written in Old Man Jones' books.

I glance around, looking for the mottled yellow and brown Gnoll, but it is nowhere to be seen. It should be the Almughayir. "I don't see your Almughayir, breeding bitch."

The Gnoll leader gnashes its teeth. As strong willed as it may be, it wants to kill me for repeatedly insulting it. "Do you choose to server the Almughayir?"

With a predator's smile, I spring at the Gnoll leader. "Die!"

Springing back as fast as I do, the Gnoll leader swings its spear at me like a staff. The strike comes too fast for me to dodge, but I bring one knife up to block it. My arm almost buckles from the force of the blow.

A fraction of a second behind me, Vorn charges into the other Demonic Gnolls. He lays about with both sword and axe, but the Demonic Gnolls block his attacks, halting Vorn's momentum.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

As the polychromatic glow in the Gnoll leader's eyes brightens, the eyes themselves, including the pupils, turn blood red. The stomach churning stench of Chaos fills the air around it. It rains down blows too fast for me to do anything but block. With each blow, its strength grows, and the acrid odor of rage mixes in with its scent.

As I struggle to block the Gnoll's attacks, my heartbeats become heavier and faster. Like molten metal, Trinity pours through my bloodstream. My Body feels ready to explode, but with each blow, my reaction speed and movement speed seems to increase. The movements of the common Gnolls appear to slow down. With each block, I have an easier time withstanding the Gnoll's strength. With Vorn thoroughly suppressed and on the defensive, two of the other Demonic Gnolls move to back up the Gnoll leader. Under the assault of all three, I am steadily forced back.

As the Gnoll leader swings its spear, it shrieks out the same command over and over, but unlike the Demonic Gnolls, none of the common Gnolls take action. With their eyes opening wide in shock, the common Gnolls shrink back. As they stare at the Gnoll leader attacking me, the bloody red glow in the eyes of the common Gnolls dims. The acrid stench of their fear spreads through the air.

Despite Vorn's Bear Transformation, the attacks of the other four Demonic Gnolls steadily push him back. The heads of their spears and the blades of their swords find their way past his defenses, and blood stains more of his fur, a new shade of red.

Under the Gnolls' assault, my Body steadily becomes denser. In less than a minute, I put on ten kilograms of mass.

Crackle.

The sound does not come from the Soma. It comes from the Pneuma, from the seal that resides within my Soul.