NOVEL NEXT Chapter 406: Caw!
Damon stepped off Erin's coils and into the black sand that bled seamlessly into the treeline. Erin slithered after him, her serpent form low to the ground, scales rasping against root and stone.
Behind them, the ocean stirred. Dozens of glowing eyes still hovered on the surf, merwomen and mermen waiting like a silent jury, eager to see if the bloodsucker would live up to his boast.
Damon chuckled under his breath. It looked like he would need to put on a show today. If he was going to do this, he might as well make it a performance worth remembering.
Just like how the holy and divine items he had used for the show helped him gain a little traction with these guys, putting on a show here would help too.
But first, he had to see what this demon was. Nothing in the bloodlands could be underestimated. Otherwise, he would have to pay the price.
He hadn't gone more than a dozen steps into the treeline before the air split with a sharp caw. A piercing cry echoed through the mist, vibrating with malice. The trees shivered as though they themselves feared the sound.
Damon tilted his head upward, crimson eyes narrowing as a shape cut across the dim sky.
A massive crow, its feathers blacker than midnight, swooped from the canopy. Its wingspan stretched wider than two men lying end to end. Two baleful crimson eyes glowed in its skull-like face, burning with predatory hatred.
[Ding! Crow Demon (Level 120).]
The crow wheeled above them. The mist recoiled from its wings as it circled Damon and Erin with a terrifying speed.
Damon grinned slowly. "So this is the Shorebreaker, huh? I was expecting a demon, not a scavenger bird. Still…"
His crimson aura flared as blood lances appeared all around him. To defeat this thing, simple blood lances were more than enough. He did want to put on a show, but at the same time, he also did not want to reveal too much of his strength. Just a little would do.
Damon's blood lances, dozens of them, tore through the air like a storm of crimson javelins. To anyone watching from the surf, it must have looked like the heavens themselves were bleeding, raining death upon the massive crow. The merfolk gasped, their voices carrying over the waves, yet the awe turned to shock in the very next moment.
Because the crow was faster.
Its wings snapped open with a whip-crack, and its body blurred into a streak of black against the purple sky. Every single lance missed. The blood projectiles tore through trees, shattered rocks, and burst against the sand, but not one so much as grazed its midnight feathers.
With a bone-rattling screech, the Shorebreaker retaliated, its talons slashing the air. Wind blades, sharp enough to shear through steel, screamed toward Damon in a deadly crosshatch.
Damon's eyes narrowed, crimson light flickering across his pupils. Now he understood why the merfolk had struggled so much against this demon. It wasn't just its size or its hunger, it was its element. Wind.
On the coast, where the sea met the land, the crow could dive faster than an arrow loosed from the mightiest bow. Using the wind to dive, strike, and retreat, it could skewer a merwoman in a blink and be gone before a counterstrike was ever launched. On dry land, where the merpeople were sluggish and exposed, the bird reigned as the perfect predator.
But if the demon crow thought Damon was just another one of them, just another unlucky fool stranded on dry sand, it was sorely mistaken. His lips curled into a grin as his aura surged once more, blood swirling around him like a rising storm.
"You're fast," he said, voice steady even as the wind howled, "but speed alone won't save you from me."
The first wind slash carved into him, except it didn't. Damon's body blurred, dissolving into a shadow that bled into the mist. The slash cleaved empty air. His voice followed, cold and amused, echoing across the clearing.
"Too slow."
A heartbeat later, he reformed directly above the crow, two magnificent wings of blood stretching behind his back. A big, thick crimson lance formed in his hand, and in one single strike, he hurled it downward.
The crimson lance howled as it split the air, trailing a tail of scarlet mist like a falling comet. It smashed into the crow mid-dive with bone-shattering force, and the impact detonated like thunder.
Feathers black as night scattered in every direction, and the Shorebreaker shrieked, its body spiraling down toward the treeline.
The trees below shattered as if a hurricane had slammed through them. Branches splintered, roots tore free, and the ground itself cracked where the demon crashed. A wave of dust and broken foliage rolled outward, shaking the forest like an earthquake.
From the shoreline, the merfolk gasped again, their glowing eyes wide. None of them had ever seen the beast forced from the skies before.
Damon descended slowly, his blood wings dissolving into mist as he landed atop the ruined treeline, crimson aura still swirling around him like a cloak. His gaze cut through the settling dust. The crow wasn't dead, not yet.
If he wanted it dead, he could have already one-shotted it with his poisonous blood, but he was making sure that the audience got a good show, something that they can root for.
Its massive body twitched, blood leaking from the wound where the lance had skewered its wing. But even crippled, the Shorebreaker let out another screech, whipping up a gale strong enough to flatten the surviving trees around it.
Damon smirked, lowering his hand as another set of lances began to form behind him like a halo of sharpened red light. "Not bad. You survived that. But I told you already…" He raised his arm, pointing a single blood-tipped finger at the struggling crow. "…speed alone won't save you."
***
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