’No... not in my wildest dreams will i be approaching something like you!’
Ishiki thought, of course he didn’t say it out loud. Who would want a demon with three meat tentacles to be agitated by them.
He simply ran past the humanoid demon, and as he suspected, none of the damned tentacles followed him, however there was a strange look of something that resembled anger on the face of the demon himself.
"ARE YOU IGNORING ME KID?" he said, his hoarse and strong voice felt like scrapping of metals.
Ishiki really wanted to scream ’Shut up’ to its face, but instead he ran and soon collided with the wall. The impact sent him tumbling to the ground, and... Nothing happened.
Now... it was the perfect time to loose his mind. ’Aggggh! Fuck it.’
There was nothing but solid wall here, his last gambit had turned out to be a big failure... but still somehow he pushed himself back up and looked at the now angry demon, who was starring at him.
’How the hell did i manage to anger a demon because i didn’t reply? would have been nice if it was a cute girl... ughhh, shut up idiot!’
He grimaced, forcing himself to look at the ghastly figure standing mere meters away. It wasn’t pleasant—not even remotely. The meat abomination regarded him with palpable resentment radiating from its unnatural form.
But then to Ishiki’s surprise it smiled, and then laughed. Ishiki’s brows furrowed as he looked at the demon laughing.
’What is so funny, huh?’
But he kept it to himself, why would he want to anger the demon further... that would only chip at his chances of survival.
The demon’s laughter abruptly ceased, and when it spoke again, the voice sent literal chills cascading down Ishiki’s spine.
"I DON’T GET IT IT, YOU ARE JUST A WEAK HUMAN... WHY DID MASTER SENT AL-" But then suddenly his words were cut short.
Ishiki’s eyes widened. ’H...How?’
There was a silver sword piercing right though his chest, where his heart should have been... hoping his anatomy resembled humans in the least.
The demon’s spat a mouthful of blood and tried to turn around... but before it could, the blade twisted inside its flesh and then cut all the way upwards, splitting its skull and turning the fearsome demon into a fountain of thick blood.
Ishiki stared at it bewildered as the tentacles lost their color and fell to the ground, sending a tremor through the whole temple...
The shinobi stepped down, cleaned his sword and stepped forward from over the corpse of the dead demon.
’That couldn’t have been as easy as it looked, Right? RIGHT!’
The whole temple structure groaned, telling that it won’t be able to hold on for long. The shinobi appeared on Ishiki’s side, and spoke with a calm but urgent voice.
"We have to get out of here... but remember, once we are out of the temple, there would be hordes of demons that will be trying to kill us."
Ishiki paled a little. A horde... that didn’t sound too good and he didn’t had a weapon still.
’Shit!’
Suddenly as if answering his vague call... the wall behind him shuddered and then fell. He and the shinobi rolled to the sides at the last moment to avoid becoming a paste under the falling wall.
As the wall fell, something tumbled from behind it and stopped a few meters from Ishiki. He looked at it with twitching brows.
It was a spear... carved from a single obsidian stone, it missed any joints on its body and seemed really sturdy.
’I’ll be damned.’
He stood shakily and examined the wall—or rather, walls. Two distinct surfaces: the false one that had fallen, and the authentic structural wall still standing behind it, concealing this hidden cache.
Finally walking to the spear, he it picked up. The obsidian spear, was almost as large as Ishiki was tall and ended with a really, really sharp pointed head and, the entire construct was indeed a single unified entity, seamlessly crafted.
Its surface was cold to the touch and soon as Ishiki picked it up front, a system message accompanied.
[You have obtained a Vestige]
Ishiki regarded the message with complicated emotions swirling through his chest. He still needed to investigate these system classifications. Thus far, he could conclude that the system designated certain items as "Vestiges"—though what distinguished as a Vestige and what not remained frustratingly unclear.
Suddenly another groan came from the collapsing structure. followed by a few crackling and rubble voices overhead.
The temple had started to fall.
He looked at the shinobi who was already at the wall, and the next moment he broke through the wall with a punch.
’How strong... i wanna do that too! But first i need to survive this.’
Ishiki followed the shinobi through the improvised opening and sprinted toward the forest line, escaping the clearing that surrounded the doomed temple.
Behind them, the entire structure shuddered one final time before collapsing into rubble—reduced to broken stone and splintered wood in mere seconds.
A mix of emotions flared in Ishiki’s chest. Leaving the maiden behind... he couldn’t even give her a proper burial.
’How unexpected can life be...’
The thought tasted bitter.
Suddenly, the shinobi halted abruptly and placed a restraining hand across Ishiki’s chest, stopping his forward momentum. Then he delivered a warning in that eerily calm voice.
"Get ready."
The way he spoke, clearly indicated that their circumstances were far more dire now than they had been moments earlier.
Which was saying something, considering they’d just fought a tentacled demon inside a collapsing temple.
Ishiki took a deep, shuddering breath and raised the obsidian spear he clutched in trembling hands.
He’d never learned proper spearcraft, never trained in martial weapons, never even held something like this before, and yet somehow, he felt he would be able to wield it.
The wilderness around them, rustled. Then dozens of red eyes materialized from the darkness, staring at them from the forest floor and the high branches of ancient trees.