Wreathed in flames, the Shrike flailed its long branches in all directions desperately. Each time it moved one of its many limbs, drops of red flames would be sent flying in all directions.

Being made out of wood, The Shrike was unsurprisingly very flammable. Not long after Hyde bathed it in fire, sharp crackling sounds came from the burning monster.

The Shrike began to curl up and shrivel as the fire started to die out. After the fire went out, what was left behind was an ashy shrivelled plant.

The dark brown bark had been bleached grey and was peeling off. Despite all of this, the Shrike was still alive. Hyde could tell this because the Shrike's roots were stretching out towards the forest in a desperate last-ditch effort to live.

Hyde frowned when he saw that the Shrike was still alive. "This thing is tough as shit."

In the distance, Fike pulled himself up from where he had landed after the rope snapped and shouted out "There's more coming Hyde! Kill it quick so we can bring it with us."

From the thunderous noises echoing out of the forest, Hyde could tell that far more than one Shrike was coming. Since it was so difficult to kill this one, he didn't feel like fighting a whole group of them.

As the crashing sounds of trees being broken by something heavy grew closer, Hyde took action. He ran up to the barely alive Shrike and grabbed it by the roots.

Without pause, he dragged it up the side of the sand dune. The Shrike was about the size of a city bus, so Hyde ended up calling Fike for help and they both grabbed the tree and pulled it up the dune.

Dragging the monster up the sand dune left a massive tract in the sand. If the Shrike were willing to leave the forest, it wouldn't be hard to find Hyde and Fike.

Thankfully, when all the crashing sounds from the forest came to a stop, Hyde turned around to see various monstrous Shrike lining the divide between desert and forest. They had completely stopped at the sand.

"It looks they won't step into the desert Fike. Stupid fucking trees. I can't believe I nearly got my head taken off by one of these bastards." Hyde swore.

As if they could hear him, one of the Shrike moved back towards a smaller tree. Wrapping its twisted branches around the tree it pulled. The pitiful tree was ripped out of the ground with a sickening tear.

"Shit!"

As if on cue all the other Shrike began picking up anything heavy nearby. Taking the lead, the first Shrike lifted up the tree. It pulled back its branches until they were taught and then...

With a whoosh the tree was airborne. Whistling through the air like a missile, the tree was upon Hyde in a second.

He barely managed to let go of the roots he was holding and rolled out of the way without a second to spare.

The tree slammed into the Shrike Hyde had been pulling and decimated its brittle body. Pieces of wooden shrapnel and ash sprayed out from the strike zone hitting Fike.

"Jesus! These things can attack from range." Fike would have liked to say more but he was interrupted by a boulder that slammed into the sand beside him.

More and more projectiles were being thrown and the two unfortunate demons felt like they were underneath an artillery bombardment.

Hyde growled in anger and his eyes turned red in bloodlust. The transparent orange flames that usually surrounded him flared up in an inferno. He crouched down on all fours and his muscles tensed up, ready to spring at a moments notice. He was like a wolf ready to burst into a sprint.

"No Hyde stop! You're going to get killed if you attack all of them at once." Fike shouted

Fike tried to snap Hyde out of it but didn't get a response. He made a snap decision and dropped the roots of the battered Shrike before running towards the crouching Hyde.

With a thump, Fike tackled Hyde to the ground and the pair rolled about in the sand for a second kicking up dust.

"Get it together! We can come back for the Shrike!" He yelled.

Hyde looked up in a daze with glowing red eyes. Fike was roaring at him but he couldn't hear properly. His ears were buzzing and his mind was being overloaded with bloodlust. All he cared about right now was a good fight. Couldn't this idiot see that?

A deep growl came from Hyde's throat but Fike cut it off with a heavy slap. As if a switch had flipped, Hyde'a blood-red eyes cleared and he looked confused for a second.

This confusion was cut short when a rock the size of his head was buried in the sand near his feet.

He nodded to Fike and they both jumped up and ran up the slope. They made sure not to run in a straight line so as not to present an easy target to the Shrike. Although they did look rather pitiful running all over the place trying to dodge the trees and rocks that rained from the sky it was better than getting hit.

Once they were around halfway up the slope, the projectiles being thrown at them lessened. Now that they were about 300 metres away it seemed that the Shrike couldn't reach them.

"I think we should be safe..."

"Will you stop setting off flags Hyde!"

On cue, a particularly huge boulder landed lust above them on the slope.

Hyde turned down to the forest incredulously, "What sort of thing could have thrown that?"

Deeper in the forest, behind the original Shrikes an enormous Shrike emerged from the tree cover. It was at least twice as large as the normal ones and had far more skeletons hanging from its gnarled branches.

Wrapped in those branches was an enormous tree that it was pulling back, ready to be thrown at any moment.

Spurred on by the thought of getting hit by something that huge, the pair but on a burst of speed. The tree was thrown so fast that they barely had time to react. The best they could do was keep running and pray.

It was in this desperate manner that the pair made it to the top of the dune. Battered and bruised they looked down at the moving forest. The Shrike at the boundary between the desert had become even more numerous than earlier.

"It kind of reminds me of piranhas," Said Fike while panting.

"You do know your fish, so I'll take your word for it," Wheezed Hyde.

"Thanks, oh, look. Now that we are far enough away they are taking back the body." Said Fike with a sigh.

Following Fike's gaze, Hyde looked down at where the Shrike they had killed was. The Shrike was being surrounded by thousands of long whispy roots that wrapped around it and dragged it back towards the forest.

Surprisingly, when it was completely covered in roots, the Shrike that they had thought was dead started to struggle intensely. Even more than when Fike had trapped it with the harpoon.

Thankfully, Fike had managed to retrieve his harpoon before they were attacked. He wasn't sure if he could regrow one.

After a while, the Shrike's struggles grew weaker. Right as it was about to die, the enormous Shrike that was twice as large as the others threw all of the nearby Shrikes out of the way.

Bulldozing all of the roots of other Shrikes off the almost dead one, the biggest Shrike brought it roots up to the Shrike that was clinging to life.

Ruthlessly, the big Shrike stabbed those roots into the still-living one. The roots pulsed disgustingly as the near-death Shrike tried to struggle free.

Hyde and FIke watched in morbid fascination as the weaker Shrike began shrivelling up. Its bark dried and fell off and roots turned grey and stiff. The Shrikes struggles grew weaker and eventually stopped entirely.

After the Shrike's struggles stopped entirely, two things happened.

The first one was that the larger Shrike threw away the dried out husk which promptly shattered like it was made of brittle glass. Then without pause all of the swarming shrikes sunk back into the forest, leaving massive swathes of undergrowth crushed behind them.

The second thing that happened was this. Right after the injured shrike died and was tossed aside, a black light bobbed up from the smashed corpse.

The black light split off into two glowing orbs and then zipped up the sides of the dune. Inside the blackness of the orb, faces screamed in transfixed agony and helplessness.

On top of the sand dune, Hyde and Fike watched transfixed as this black light zoomed up the slope and barrelled towards them.

For some reason, they didn't even think of dodging and instead stood still as the light collided with them.

When the orbs of black light came into contact with their skin, the screaming faces inside twisted and exploded into black sparks.

Hyde couldn't really feel anything strange when this orb hit him, he also couldn't explain why he let it hit him in the first place. It all seemed very strange.

Suddenly, Hyde felt his heart speed up and warmth began to bloom within. It wasn't a comfortable warmth and felt like his chest was on fire, but since it was nowhere near as agonising as the one he had felt from the underworld fruit, he could bear it.

The warmth spread through his veins and reached every part of his body in an instant. In his heart, something began to form. If Hyde could cut open his chest, he would see that a small black crystal was growing inside his heart.

Aside from the internal changes, the orange flames that surrounded Hyde flared up again and seemed to resonate with the warmth in his chest.

Besides him, Fike was going through the same thing. The difference was that he didn't feel a warmth spread out from his heart. The feeling he got was more esoteric, yet he felt that he understood something within that feeling.

At this moment, some information was delivered to the confused pair. An unfamiliar voice sounded in their heads. They would have thought they had gone crazy if not for the fact that both of them heard the same thing.

"Congratulations, your first soul of the damned has been purged. You have collected the energy from this soul and turned it into an immortal core."

"From now on, please continue in this manner. And remember, Only those with an elementary core will be qualified to pass on to the next circle of hell."

The voice that sounded in their head was the same booming one that had announced their departure to war.

The voice laughed for a while and then continued "This is purely for my own entertainment and there won't be any prizes, but, if you picture it in your head and say "Leaderboard" a leaderboard will appear that ranks all participating demons"

"I think that added a competitive element makes it more fun no?"

With that, the voice cut off and Hyde's mind returned to only containing his own thoughts.

He couldn't help himself and out of curiosity, he thought 'Leaderboard' and it really it appear.

"Wow! Fike, we are in the top 5000... wait there are only 5000 people registered so far. nevermind."

"Yeah, I'm looking now. How the Hell did the top guy get 25 points already? It has only been a day." Exclaimed Fike.

"He must have already failed once and be really experienced. Seriously though, we only got 1 point for all that and he is on 25. What a maniac!" Said Hyde, thoroughly shocked

"It can't be helped, we only had a few days to prepare. Still, I feel like if we work hard enough we can catch up," Fike confidently claimed.

"You're right. I hate to say it, but I don't think we can afford to wait for fo Solomon if we are aiming for first place." Hyde said solemnly.

"We can always carry him a bit once we get used to the fights. I don't know how to explain it, but I feel as though I have gotten a bit stronger after absorbing that soul."

"Same here, I have a hunch that my fire breath might have gotten more powerful"

"Damnit!" Fike cursed. He still remembered when Hyde nearly burnt him the other day.

"What was that?" Hyde asked innocently.

"Nothing..."