The demon looked similar to what Red remembered, but there were a few things that stood out in its current appearance.

‘It’s bigger.’

Indeed. The lizard demon’s height back then was about that of your average human, but now the creature had grown substantially. It stood at over two meters tall, and its entire body seemed to be bursting with muscles beneath its scaly hide. The demon, who was already dangerous enough with its knife-like claws before, now seemed to have the brute strength to back it up too.

Suddenly, Red remembered something. Something Narcha had mentioned to him before.

‘That demon was close to breaking through to the Lesser Ring Realm.’

The boy shuddered.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise?” Reinhart grimaced. “And here I thought the demon was supposed to be hiding deeper into the forest.”

The creature snarled, staring down the knight.

“From what I last heard, too, it wasn’t supposed to be this strong.” the man frowned, taking a step back and raising his blade. “Has it broken into the Lesser Ring Realm?”

The demon snarled again, but it didn’t seem to have any intention of charging at Reinhart. Instead, once it noticed the knight stepping back, it ignored him and turned around to face Red and Allen.

The young master shivered once he noticed the creature looking over. “W-why is it staring at us?”

Red didn’t respond, instead pulling Allen back. “Get ready to run.”

“W-what do you mean?” the young master’s eyes widened. “Can we even-”

The beast’s loud roar interrupted their conversation. It dropped on all fours and approached the boys. The demon, however, didn’t seem to be in a hurry and took slow steps forward, its eyes trained on its prey the entire time.

‘No… It’s looking at me.’

Allen looked like he was about to run in a panic, but Red held him back. He didn’t dare to make any abrupt movements, afraid it would set the creature off. Instead, he looked past the demon at Reinhart, who was observing the whole situation with interest.

“Well, this is a surprise!” the man said with a smile. “It’s ignoring me.”

“If we die here, Hector will come looking for you!” Red yelled, his mind working in overdrive to think of a way out.

“Since when did this turn into me protecting you, brat?” Reinhart said while shaking his head. “Still, I suppose I was the one who got you into this mess in the first place…”

The knight pulled something out of a pouch at his waist. While they were talking, the demon had already reduced the distance to the boys to less than ten meters.

Red looked over at Reinhart from afar. “Quickly!”

“Shush, don’t hurry me, kid! You always need to wait until the last second to save someone.” the man shook the object in his hand in the air, and an orange glow started to come out of it.

It was a talisman.

Just as the demon looked ready to pounce, it felt the Spiritual Energy disturbance behind it. It looked back in alarm, just in time to see Reinhart staring at it with his usual smug grin.

“I sure hope this is effective.” the man then threw the talisman in the creature’s direction.

Suddenly, the slip of paper caught on fire, forming a large ball of flame midair that shot out towards the demon in a flash. The creature didn’t even have time to react before the elemental technique struck it, and an explosion of fire and smoke blasted out from the point of impact.

The boys, who were very close to the explosion, were thrown back by the shockwave. Red felt like his chest was just hit by a heavy blow, and his ears were ringing from the loud noise. Still, he did his best to compose himself and get to his feet.

Allen, however, was still on the ground, looking at the impact center in a daze. “W-what just happened….”

“No time for that now.” Red shook his head, helping the young master up.

They both looked back at the area of the explosion, but the smoke was still rising in the air, making it impossible to see the demon’s condition.

“Do you think it’s dead?” Allen asked, concern in his voice.

“No. It’s still alive.” Red frowned.

Indeed, he could feel it - the fluctuation. It was still pulsating, as strong as it had ever been. When the smoke finally cleared up, they could see the demon’s condition.

Dark burn marks littered the front of the monster where the fireball had hit. Several of the demon’s scales had also been torn off in multiple spots, blood pouring out of these wounds. The creature was drawing heavy breaths, winded by the powerful blow it had been dealt. Still, it did not falter, and was staring Reinhart down with a maddened look on its face.

“Not dead yet?” the man frowned. “If an Early Lesser Ring cultivator took that head on, they wouldn’t have survived. But then again, I suppose you’re not human anymore, are you?”

The demon roared and charged at the man.

“That’s your cue, kid!” Reinhart turned around and fled from his pursuer.

Red didn’t have time to respond before the figures of the demon and the man disappeared behind the tree lines.

He turned around to look at Allen. “We need to leave, quickly!”

“But what about Reinhart?” the young master looked in the direction the man had run off.

“What do you mean?!” Red almost felt like slapping the boy. “He’s the one that got us in this mess in the first place, and you’re worried about his life now?!”

“I-I didn’t say that!” Allen shook his head. “It’s just…”

“It doesn’t matter. He probably has other talismans with him, and we can’t help him even if we wanted to.”

“But-”

“No!” Red frowned. “We need to go!”

In the end, Allen nodded and followed behind the youth. Red ran in the opposite direction Reinhart and the demon had run off to, until his crimson sense couldn’t detect them anymore. Still, they didn’t stop moving until five more minutes had passed and they had covered a good amount of ground.

“Do you think we lost them?” Allen asked, looking back in the direction they had come from.

“I don’t know.” Red shook his head.

‘The problem is how the demon found us in the first place.’

Red didn’t think their encounter was a coincidence. As Reinhart mentioned, the demon was supposed to be deeper into the forest. If it had truly moved up to this region, though, someone would have probably spotted it by now with its murderous nature. This either meant the move was recent, or the demon had been hiding itself from the eyes of others in the forest, which showed a level of intelligence Red didn’t think the demon had.

The actual concern, though, was why the demon revealed itself to attack Red, of all people.

‘Is it the crimson mist again?’

The boy didn’t know. Unlike the insectoid core, the crimson mist hadn’t displayed any signs of its existence since it had entered his body. So how could the demon track Red through it? Was it exuding some kind of energy the boy couldn’t sense? If he couldn’t figure out the reason behind this, then sooner or later the demon would find him again, and at that point they might not have a Reinhart to save them.

‘If the necromancer wasn’t enough, now I also have to worry about the demon.’

Red also checked his crimson sense for any undead creatures in their vicinity. For now, though, it seemed the necromancer had lost sight of him.

“Uh, Red?” Allen said, interrupting his thoughts.

“What is it?” the boy turned around.

“What do we do now?”

His words gave Red pause. “… I need to check the map.”

The boy tried to find their precise location on the map. Right now, they were around three to four hours out from town, which was still not very far.

However, Red hesitated to make a return trip. “We should return to town, but it’s going to be risky. The necromancer might attack us while we are alone, and the demon might also return to chase us.”

“Why would the demon chase us too?!” Allen's eyes widened in fear.

“I just have a hunch.” Red put the matter aside. “Either way, just the necromancer is enough reason to worry about. What we should do right now is try to reunite with our companions. Our meeting spot is closer to town and they can help us with the necromancer and the demon.”

“That’s a great idea!” the young master nodded with joy.

“However…”

Allen’s face fell.

“If we want to move directly towards our meeting spot, we’ll just be going back to the same area where we just encountered the demon.” Red said.

“That’s…” the young master shivered. “What do we do then?”

“We can still meet up with Narcha and the others, but we’ll need to take a detour. It’ll still be faster and more secure than trying to go back to town, though. Not to mention, it’s likely Rog is also looking for us at this exact moment, so we might stumble upon them on the way.”

“That’s good, but don’t we still have the necromancer to worry about?

“I’d rather take my chances with the necromancer than the demon.” Red shook his head. “Didn’t you hear what Reinhart said? It had already broken through to the Lesser Ring Realm.”

“That…” Allen looked shocked. “I wasn’t really listening to him. But you’re right, we should do as you say.”

The young master looked ready to get a move on.

“… There’s still something I need to ask of you though.” Red said.

“What is it?” Allen looked back at the youth with some eagerness.

“I need you to stop hesitating.”

“W-what…” Allen looked confused. “What do you mean by that?”

“Back then, you were arguing with me while our lives were on the line. I understand this is the first time you’ve done something this dangerous, but I want you to understand how close we were to dying back then. If Reinhart hadn’t helped us, or his talisman wasn’t as effective, that demon could have ripped us apart in a second. One second lost, or one wrong decision could have been the difference between life or death back then.”

The young master’s face paled, and he looked down in embarrassment.

“I understand your concerns.” Red nodded. “This is an abnormal adventure, and an extreme jump in danger for someone who is travelling into the forest for the first time. However, this is the situation we find ourselves in, whether you like it or not. You don’t have the privilege to take your time with learning. One wrong step, and both of us will be dead… You need to make the right decision and follow me. Do you understand that?”

“I… I do.” Allen nodded. “I just don’t know how you can do it, Red. Being able to remain calm and make the right decision while facing things like zombies and that demon… Those things could have killed us if we were unlucky. I don’t know if I can do the same.”

‘I have heard these words before.’

“Let me ask you something, Allen.” Red stared the boy dead in the eyes. “What are you doing out here in the forest?”

“I-I thought we were supposed to be investigating the imperial agents.”

“But why do you want to do that?”

“Because the Empire is evil!” Allen looked angry as the topic was brought up. “They destroyed my entire sect and killed my parents! They need to be stopped!”

This was the first time Red heard about Allen’s parents. However, that didn’t give him pause. “Then would you say that cause is important for you?”

“Yes! It’s the most important thing in the world to me!” Allen replied without hesitation.

“Then would you be willing to risk your life to achieve that aim?”

“That…” the young master hesitated, but he ended up nodding. “I would risk everything to achieve that aim!”

“Then use that resolve to see you through danger.” Red nodded. “Your path will not be easy, but whenever you falter in front of adversity, think about what you still want to do, what you want to achieve in your life… Then consider that if you fall there, you can do none of the things you want. That will give you the strength to see it through. That is how I do it.”

“I… I think I understand.” Allen nodded, but he still seemed to hesitate.

“What is it?”

“What do you want to achieve, Red? What gives you the strength you talked about?” the young master asked. “Uh, to risk your life, I mean.”

Red closed his eyes and contemplated. “I just want to be free…”