South-Eastern Road, Ash's P.O.V.

I grab the wolf's jaw with both my hands and manage to stop its fangs from reaching my throat. I am stronger than it but with my shoulders pinned and it having better leverage it is all I can do to hold the thing still. I can feel drops of its saliva hitting my neck as the thing growls at me, then I get a nasty idea.

'Lion's Roar!'

The wolf takes the roar point blank, it leaps away with a yelp, and staggers when it lands. I surge to my feet and face the wolf, I can see it is bleeding from its ears, and seems unstable on its feet. That doesn't stop it from charging at me again, I stand my ground and wait for it to come to me.

I wait until the last possible second, then I take a single step to the side, and swing Blitz down at the spot I was just standing. It's not a clean kill but I do get a good cut into its neck, enough to stagger it and spray blood. It turns away from me and staggers towards the woods.

"Oh, no you don't!"

Taking off after it I catch up in seconds, this time I strike true and take its head off. The body collapses in the road and twitches a few times before it is still. I kneel down next to it and cut its chest open and remove the heart and take a big bite of it.

I immediately spit it out as it burns my mouth and tongue. When I rip out the core the entire body just melts and evaporates. I feel a strange energy coming from the core so I quickly shove it into my pouch.

Turning south I am about to head for the soldiers when I remember something, a quick look around and I spot the lance Marcadus dropped. I walk over and pick it up and put it in my pouch as well. Then I run down the road towards where the others attacked the soldiers.

By the time I get there it is already over, the soldiers are all either dead or fled. Ruby and the others are off to the side, while Myria and the girls are looting the dead. I walk over to join Ruby but I get intercepted by Leyla who forces me to sit down so she can take a look at my wounds.

She immediately starts treating my wounds as the others come over to join us. From the looks of Ruby and Alannis it was a decent fight, but their wounds have already been healed.

Drog says "Did you get him?"

"No, Marcadus managed to run off, but I killed the wolf."

Alannis says "From the look of you it was quite a fight, was the wolf tougher than the fang bears?"

"Much! I'd rather fight two or three bears than another wolf."

Ruby says "Well, you won. That is what matters!"

Leyla says "Please, hold still!"

"Sorry."

I can tell Leyla's spells are working, my mouth already feels better and the feeling is starting to come back to my arm. Although from the look on her face as she studies my arm something is not going the way she expected it to.

Leyla says "My lord, this wound is not accepting my healing magic."

I pull my arm from Leyla's grasp and turn it so I can see the wound. The wound itself and the flesh around it have already turned black, and there are black lines around the wound, kind of like a spiderweb. The wound looks rotten and it seems to be spreading quickly.

Leyla says "What caused that wound, my lord?"

"The hero's lance, and what's with calling me, my lord?"

Leyla says "It is just out of respect, the Goddess commanded me to serve you after all. The wound is resisting my attempts, is it possible it is a cursed weapon?"

"I have the lance, we can take a look at it I guess."

So I pull the lance out of my pouch and set it on the ground between us. Even without focusing on it I can see a dark aura around the weapon, I am starting to get a bad feeling about this. Drog sniffs at the lance and then starts growling at it.

Drog says "This is a possessed weapon!"

Leyla says "Possessed by what?"

Drog says "A low level shadow demon from the smell."

"So, Marcadus was using a weapon possessed by a shadow demon, and riding a shadow beast? Anyone else seeing a pattern here?"

Ruby says "Don't forget the major shadow demon living in the castle."

"Yeah, I'm guessing the shadow demon got to Marcadus."

Alannis says "Heroes corrupted and empowered by a shadow demon, that could make things a lot worse."

"That might explain why they are trying to corrupt all the heroes, to open them up to the demon's influence."

Leyla says "That still doesn't tell me how to heal your wound."

Drog says "Simple, the shadow demon is the source of the curse."

Alannis says "Are you saying we have to fight the shadow demon?"

Ruby says "Right. Kill the demon, heal the wound!"

"With my arm out of commission it won't be quite that easy."

Drog says "Your arm won't matter if you do it in the soulscape."

"Are you saying I should pull it from the weapon into a soulscape?"

Drog says "Well, unless you just want to send it back to the shadow realm."

"Alright, alright. But let's move back and make camp before I do this."

Everyone gets up and starts gathering things that the girls have piled up. I put the lance back in my pouch and then start loading the pile of weapons the girls made into my pouch as well. When we move back into the forest and return to camp, a quick count shows we now have thirty horses.

We will be able to cover more ground tomorrow, and the girls all have tents and bedding. Plus we have extras and extra supplies, all in all we should be good for days. I relax and wait for everyone to settle down and go to sleep.

Now before I do battle with a shadow demon, I think I should absorb the shadow wolf's core. This is probably going to hurt a lot, but better to be prepared.