Ch.23Humanoid Demon – 1

Generally speaking, demonic beasts are just animals with significantly higher physical specs.

They simply don’t have the concept of consuming food to survive, and can maintain almost permanent activity with minimal mana.

Despite countless experiments conducted by numerous magic towers, the secret behind their incredible efficiency has never been revealed.

Seeing them attack and devour humans suggests they can eat, but demonic beasts strangely show no interest in anything other than humans.

Experiments where animals were placed in cages with captured demonic beasts all failed. The animals would cower in corners while the demonic beasts went berserk trying to catch the humans outside the cage.

This is precisely why ordinary animals and demonic beasts can coexist in the same forest.

Animals instinctively know demonic beasts are much stronger, so they avoid them and never provoke them first.

Likewise, demonic beasts don’t need to hunt animals for survival, and since animals don’t bother them, they remain indifferent.

So why aren’t carnivores that occasionally attack humans officially designated for extermination like demonic beasts? The reason is simple.

Unlike demonic beasts, their very purpose for living isn’t to attack and kill humans.

Demonic beasts charge recklessly at humans on sight and rampage until either all humans disappear or they themselves die.

There have been instances where a single demonic beast devoured an entire city’s population. That’s why adventurers are hired as mercenaries with bounties to exterminate them.

Moreover, their byproducts serve as excellent materials.

So, one could definitively state that it was impossible for a demonic beast to live among humans.

“KYAAAARK!”

At least until I saw the demonic beast that had been Scarface, shrieking right before my eyes.

I pulled the wooden stake piercing my chest forward. All sorts of clumped matter flowed out from the gaping hole in my chest.

My left arm was caught in its mouth. Both legs were nowhere to be seen. My head was spinning from rolling around on the ground so much.

As regeneration began, my left arm was yanked from its mouth. My legs, which had been missing, were each embedded in nearby partially destroyed houses.

I stood firmly on my now-intact legs. Despite watching me regain my posture, the demonic beast leisurely licked around its mouth with its long tongue.

Its composure was natural since this wasn’t even a proper fight. I carelessly tossed aside the toothless sword in my right hand.

It must have barely maintained its form, as the sword broke in half immediately upon hitting the ground. It had only blocked a glancing attack, yet ended up in that state.

I had no effective means of attack.

Even low-rank adventurers could cause pain by swinging their fists while crudely surrounding their bodies with mana, accepting that their fingers would be crushed. But my punches wouldn’t have the slightest effect on that thing.

Not only did I lack a suitable weapon, but I doubted whether any weapon I could wield would even scratch that armor-like skin.

By the way, that thing was actually metal. When I swung a sword at it, I heard a “clang” rather than a “thud.”

In the end, the only effective attack method against this demonic beast was a scroll with a magic circle drawn on it.

I still had one more scroll in my chest pocket. It was also drawn by Charlotte herself.

The rest were in the bag I carried on my side, which had flown off somewhere when my body was shattered.

The demonic beast, seemingly recognizing the danger of the scrolls, had kicked the bag far away.

Since I’d already used Purgatory, the remaining one must be Abyss. It was a spell that needed to be detonated when the target came close enough, but that wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

After grabbing and beating me, it seemed to remember falling for my psychological warfare and getting hit once, so it never stayed near me for more than a second.

It would smash and burst my head, then retreat; when my body recovered, it would approach and slice my body with its claws; when I recovered again, it would kick me, churning my internal organs and sending me flying.

This wasn’t the movement of an ordinary demonic beast. Those would charge at humans before them regardless of traps, intent on killing.

However, I had no intention of using that scroll.

‘…It seems to have learning ability.’

In all my life, I’d never heard of demonic beasts possessing learning abilities. If that were possible, all lowest and low-rank adventurers would have been wiped out.

Some demonic beasts even had their capture methods published in manuals. These methods, based on extensive field data, had nearly 100% success rates barring unusual variables.

If this truly was a demonic beast in humanoid form with learning abilities, it was no longer just this city’s problem.

It was a problem requiring official support from the royal palace. If these things started commanding other demonic beasts, the damage would be unimaginable.

We were barely compensating for the enormous physical spec gap with our intelligence advantage. If that intelligence gap narrowed, the exchange ratio would become obvious with minimal thought.

And if this was either a human transformed into a demonic beast, or a demonic beast transformed into a human mixing among people, it was an even bigger problem.

Both scenarios could cause severe distrust in human society. Just the rumor that someone nearby might be a demonic beast would create tremendous anxiety.

I needed information—information about which side this thing belonged to. And to get that information, I couldn’t rashly kill it.

‘Assuming it has learning ability, I need to determine its level.’

There was little doubt that this demonic beast’s previous form was Scarface.

The Purgatory magic had melted everything around, and only Scarface and I were there. Unless this thing had been hiding underground and crawled out right after Scarface died.

The question was how it had transformed like that.

Perhaps trying to speak to it would be faster. It seemed like a good idea. Nothing to lose, after all.

If it didn’t respond to my words, I’d suffer no harm, but if by chance it answered, that would be an enormous gain.

Moreover, that gesture—raising the corner of its mouth and licking around it while looking at me after kicking me away—was clearly a taunt directed at me. It was worth a try.

“Hey.”

The demonic beast flinched when I opened my mouth.

“Can you understand what I’m saying?”

“KRAAAARK!”

It let out a roar.

How stupid, I sneered inwardly. Responding to my words with a roar naturally raises suspicion.

If it truly wanted to hide the fact that it understood me, it should have maintained complete silence or ignored my words and attacked.

This confirmed it halfway. It was at least intelligent enough to understand my words. The remaining question was whether it could speak or not.

“You’d be better off not wasting effort. You understand everything I’m saying, don’t you?”

The creature stopped roaring.

“I don’t know if becoming a demonic beast made you dumber, or if you were always this stupid. If you wanted to hide that you understand speech, you should have attacked me instead of roaring, you thick-headed bastard.”

My words had two purposes. First, to determine whether this was a human transformed into a demonic beast or a demonic beast transformed into a human.

The Scarface I knew would never tolerate being insulted by a human he considered inferior.

If Scarface had truly transformed into this demonic beast, he would certainly react to the word “intelligence.”

The second purpose was obviously to initiate dialogue. If it took the bait and opened its mouth, my objective would be somewhat achieved.

There’s a world of difference between simply understanding words and engaging in conversation. And the result quickly became apparent.

“Shut your mouth!”

A much deeper voice erupted in anger. Just as I thought. I quietly mocked Scarface, who had abandoned his pretense of being a demonic beast after falling for a few simple words.

“So you can speak after all. And understand words too. Then why pretend to be a demonic beast? ‘KRAAAARK?’ Give me a break. That’s not even funny.”

As my provocation continued, blood seemed to rush to his head as his thick tail pounded the floor repeatedly. Broken tile fragments scattered everywhere.

There was much more I wanted to discover, but this was enough for now. Unable to contain his rage, Scarface charged at me with a thunderous sound, creating cracks in the ground.

As he half-curled his fingers, the claws at their tips gleamed ominously. Those claws could slice through stone or metal with just a graze, and my body would be no exception.

I had anticipated the charge. But even though I was prepared, the speed of his right arm swing was beyond what my eyes could follow.

With a ripping sound, my upper body was severed diagonally from the left shoulder. The gap between us was already severe, and it seemed to have widened further after his transformation.

Before the severed part could hit the floor, his claws pierced my neck. His hand was so massive that it simultaneously impaled my neck and heart, protruding out through my back.

Scarface, with my upper body skewered on his claws, opened his mouth wide. Drool dripped between his jagged teeth. He seemed intent on chewing my head.

I refuse to experience having my head chewed by this thing. I accelerated my regeneration. The holes in my heart and neck closed, pushing out the claws.

Since Scarface’s attack had been so swift, my lower body and the half-remaining upper body, which had been standing alone until now, reattached.

Having recovered while my body was horizontally impaled on his claws, I lost balance and fell.

Scarface raised his leg. This time I could follow it with my eyes, but my body couldn’t react. He brought his raised leg down hard.

My ribs completely collapsed with a horrific chorus of sounds.

Blood surged back from my crushed lungs and heart, gushing out of my mouth. As quickly as possible, I accelerated regeneration again.

The foot that had trampled my chest lifted.

His tongue flickered as he looked down at me with his widely opened maw. He seemed to be feeling some sense of superiority from trampling me.

“Explo—”

Before I could finish, my head was torn off. I felt something mushy from my left skull—he had kicked my head, separating it from my neck.

Hearing just the first word, he must have panicked and kicked to silence me immediately. The experience of being directly hit by Purgatory’s flames must have left quite a trauma.

My flying head abruptly stopped in mid-air. Then it began returning toward my body, which was still being trampled under the demonic beast’s foot.

As always, I found it unsettling to watch severed body parts returning to recover after flying away. The sight was just too bizarre.

Scarface flailed his arms trying to catch my head as it attempted to reattach to my body. Once regeneration begins, nothing can stop it.

This was a fact I had learned during my time at the magic tower, using teleportation magic and even the three rare metals—mythril, orichalcum, and adamantium.

When my body was restored, he jumped back in terror, creating distance between us. His posture suggested he was ready to flee without looking back if I tried to activate a scroll.

If he escaped now, it would be problematic for me, and I couldn’t let that happen. I reached into my chest pocket and pulled out the scroll.

As soon as I brought it out, it tore into shreds and fell to the floor. This was a special type of magic that Charlotte had placed on it.

Now, even if someone examined these scroll fragments, they would find nothing more than ordinary paper.

“Ah.”

I deliberately let out a small sigh of disappointment. I put on an expression of someone whose last resort had just vanished pathetically.

It was an expression I’d practiced many times whenever my attempts to die had failed.

The corners of Scarface’s mouth rose almost to the point of tearing. A grotesque snickering sound, “kirruk, kirruk,” could be heard. How amusing that he was laughing with joy, not realizing this was a trap.

Now with nothing to fear, his movements became much bolder. Until just now, he had moved to prevent me from activating the scroll, but now he was moving purely to kill me.

In an instant, Scarface approached right in front of me and tore off my right arm. My knee joint shattered as it bent backward. My side was sliced off in chunks, spilling my intestines.

In no time, my entire body was transformed into butchered meat.

Of course, my recovery ability had no exceptions. The horrific lump of meat instantly regained its original form.

Seeing me immediately restore my body, Scarface wrinkled his hideously ugly face and flickered his tongue.

“Yes, yes. This is how it should be with someone like you. It wouldn’t be fun if you died too easily.”

“……”

“Even regenerators feel pain, right? Then there’s no reason for me not to beat you up.”

My head was smashed by a casually swung arm. My vision went dark momentarily, then brightened again as my recovery ability activated.

It was quite amusing to see him trembling in fear of being caught in magic one moment, then becoming so arrogant the next.

“You bastard, are you laughing?”

“Oh, you noticed?”

Various parts of my body were sliced off again. After I completed my recovery, Scarface stepped on the back of my head and smashed my forehead into the floor.

This time he must have carefully controlled his strength since my head didn’t burst.

“The most persistent regenerating demonic beast I’ve killed before lasted about 30 minutes.”

Crack—the sound of my skull fracturing. So much for controlling his strength.

“Let’s experiment today to see how long you can last.”