"Eh?"
Nanoda thought Linie was swinging her axe to close the distance and probe her defenses, but the axe in Linie's hand suddenly transformed into a meteor hammer, smashing directly toward Nanoda's face.
Just like the Hero starting a fight with a beam of sword energy, is ranged attacks the trend for warriors nowadays?
Nanoda pulled out the two broken horns she kept in her leg pouch. With a wave of one hand, she effortlessly deflected the oncoming meteor hammer.
"The creativity is nice, but the power is lacking."
Linie froze for a moment. She retracted the meteor hammer, spun it twice in her hand, and it transformed back into a longsword.
She hadn't expected her opponent to also be a warrior who reinforced their body with magic.
In reality, Nanoda wasn't using magic to reinforce herself at all; it was simply that her body from the Mythical Era was excessively tough.
Linie held the sword horizontally in front of her, assuming a very familiar stance. Nanoda recognized it at a glance—this was Hero Himmel's swordsmanship.
Unleashing that extremely fast and powerful strike again, Linie instantly turned into countless afterimages as she assaulted Nanoda.
Clang. The longsword collided with the broken horn, grinding out sparks. Nanoda crossed her broken horns, locking the blade in place.
"Sorry, I'm already familiar with this move. Also, although the stance is the same, the power and speed are not enough."
Seeing the sword move was ineffective, the longsword in Linie's hand dissolved into a mass of black mana, which she withdrew and reformed into a double-sided axe, chopping down heavily.
Thud. Nanoda blocked it again, but this time it wasn't so effortless. This appeared to be the technique of the strongest warrior, Eisen; with every clever swing of the axe, the applied force would grow a fraction stronger.
They exchanged over a dozen moves, stirring up rolling waves of air between them.
Aura watched from the side with great enjoyment, gnawing on an apple she had picked from who knows where.
She could see that while Linie's offensive looked extremely ferocious on the surface—forcing Nanoda to only block—in reality, Nanoda was just going easy on her to test what moves Linie had.
"Those are moves from the Hero's bunch, huh? What an interesting fellow. Back in the day, she could barely count as a General."
Aura was quite satisfied with Linie; the team happened to lack a guard who could fight in close quarters.
Feeling that she had utilized her strength to the limit yet her opponent remained completely unmoved, Linie was very troubled.
She immediately unleashed various martial skills using sabers, spears, sticks, and clubs, but the result was that Nanoda didn't even suffer a scratch. Those two broken horns used as weapons seemed to possess some kind of magic, actually blocking every single attack.
"Huff, huff."
Linie was tired from fighting. In all the time since she was born, this was the first time she had encountered such a shameless opponent.
"I concede. You are indeed very strong."
The spiked club in her hand faded into nothingness; she had even exhausted the mana required to maintain her weapon. Linie stood motionless on the spot, as if she would allow Nanoda to slaughter her.
"Can you change it into any new tricks?"
Nanoda had memorized quite a few moves containing martial arts and felt greatly inspired. The way she looked at Linie right now was simply like looking at a treasure chest.
"I've already done my best. How can I become as strong as you?"
Linie tilted her head. She had already acknowledged Nanoda as her superior.
"Your training is still insufficient. Even with perfectly imitated martial arts moves, you cannot fully exert them without sufficient physical strength. Do you want to walk with us? I can guide you, but in exchange, you must obey my orders."
"Okay. Linie will obey you."
Linie appeared very submissive. On one hand, she was very simple-minded; on the other, the instinct of the Demon Race was to be relatively obedient to stronger existences.
"Then good. From now on, you cannot kill or eat humans at will. Can you do this?"
Although Nanoda had considered directly having Aura use the Magic of Obedience on Linie to force her compliance, she wanted to conduct an experiment now—an experiment on whether the Demon Race could change.
"No problem. I didn't have much interest in humans to begin with."
Linie answered very plainly.
Sure enough, the attitude toward humans varied among different individuals within the Demon Race. Compared to Linie, Solitir, who was much older than her, was very interested in humans and frequently used them as test subjects.
Could it be that Demons all develop this symptom when they reach a certain age? Just like the Demon King and the Golden Land, who both developed curiosity toward human emotions.
This had been a question of Nanoda's for a long time.
"Is it over? I'm hungry."
Aura voiced her complaints. This life of running around everywhere was indeed not as comfortable as staying in the Gaderia Lord's Manor.
"Aura, now that Linie has joined us, our team has grown. Do we need a base? Moreover, the Hero is sweeping through the area right now, so it's hard for us to find new companions. If we go and reorganize the Demon armies after the Hero leaves, we can also have a guarantee of living quarters and logistics."
"I think that's not bad. I approve."
Aura nodded. She was also getting somewhat fed up with days of sleeping outdoors.
"What do you think, Linie?"
Nanoda asked for Linie's opinion.
"I'm fine with anything. Just arrange it as you see fit."
Linie shook her head to indicate she had no issues.
"Ah, speaking of bases, I remember I left a few hiding places for myself. I can take you guys to have a look."
Aura suddenly remembered something.
"Why do you have hiding places?"
"Isn't it obvious? When the Demon Race and humanity went to full-scale war, the prudent and witty me left a few escape routes for myself just to prevent any accidents. After being defeated by the Hero's Party, the retreat was too hasty, so I didn't get a chance to go to them."
"Alright then. No wonder you want to bolt the moment you see the Hero; turns out you were prepared long ago."
"I didn't run this time, did I~"
Aura felt a bit aggrieved. Those were hideouts she had prepared for staging a comeback, and they contained quite a few supplies.
"Fine then, lead the way."
Hearing this, Aura gathered mana in her hand and molded a purple butterfly. The butterfly slowly flew up from her palm, pointing out a direction.
————
Inside the Gaderia Lord's Manor.
Baron Aaron was drinking wine again; some troubling matters had occurred recently.
A trade caravan trading with external cities had been hijacked on its way back. The scouts who went to check said there were traces of magic. He originally thought it was some Demon causing trouble from who knows where, but something felt very off.
The caravan had come from the south, the same direction as the Hero. There shouldn't be any Demons causing harm on that route, after all, the Hero had swept through it once already.
Yet, the caravan was hijacked just as it was about to reach the territory, and its whereabouts were still unknown.
Without those scarce supplies, the Gaderia Territory would find this winter very hard to endure.
"Is it a fish that slipped through the net of the Demon Race? Or..."
Baron Aaron frowned tightly; he had a constant premonition of something bad.
"Sigh, why are there so many problems specifically when I am the Lord?"
Baron Aaron looked toward Nanoda's bronze statue outside. If that strange Demon were here, what would she do?
____
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