All Simon heard was the sound of the wind being sliced, and his instincts as a feline demon beastkin warning him of an incoming threat.
He saw nothing, but his brain and body instantly reacted to the threat.
He jumped back at a speed a normal human would never be able to accomplish, and the moment he did, a dagger swiped at his previous location.
To be more precise, it swiped where his neck was.
"You dodged that?"
Simon’s cat-like eyes constricted into pinholes as the air in front of him rippled, and a demon appeared.
Because it was his instincts as a demonic cat that took over and allowed him to react to the attack, he crouched like a cat after dodging the dagger.
But as he looked at the demon before him, Fearless instantly worked its magic, and he became calm.
He slowly and calmly got to his feet, then he observed the demon.
The demon wore a cloak with a hoodie that covered his head to their ankles.
Simon tried to see the demon’s face, but all he saw was darkness. There was a power that prevented him from seeing the demon’s face, and since he had not awakened his Demonic Heart, he had no power to pierce through the veil.
He looked at the demon’s feet, and he saw that the demon was barefooted.
The only thing he could see were bandages around the demon’s ankles.
Simon’s gaze then shifted to the demon’s dagger, and then their shadow.
A second later, the shadow rippled, and Simon’s gaze sharpened.
’A Velari demon?... This is bad.’
"Hmm? You’re not talking?" The demon tilted its head with a tinge of intrigue in their voice.
Simon noticed something else, something he was not surprised by. The demon’s voice was distorted and neutral.
Simon could not infer if the demon was a male or a female.
"Are you scared?" The demon asked, but Simon did not answer.
The gears in his mind were running at full speed as he thought of ways to survive. Then he looked at Zaglur, and his expression became more grave.
Zaglur was clutching his stomach, which was bleeding profusely, and a few meters in front of him were three demons with the same outfit as the demon in front of him.
’Completely black cloaks with nothing else on them and bandages on their bare feet, and daggers. These should be Velaris, but why are they attacking Zaglur?’
’Velaris are demons who can control shadows. They are assassins who mainly kill for money, and Daegrins should not be their target because Daegrins are one of the main clients of the Velaris.’
’In fact, whenever a Daegrin is killed or the entire Daegrin race wants to kill an individual or a group, the Velaris are usually the first demons they pay.’
’But now, four Velaris are attacking Zaglur, who is a Daegrin?’
Simon’s eyes suddenly landed on one of the Velaris whose shadow suddenly rose, and when he stretched out his hand into the shadow, he brought out a severed head from his shadow.
’Could that be the last demon Zaglur said was missing from his mercenary group?’
Simon frowned slightly in contemplation, but then his ears suddenly straightened as he heard the sound of the wind being disturbed.
His head snapped to the front, and his pupils constricted once again.
"Are you really ignoring me?"
The Velari in front of him stretched out his hand to grab his neck, but Simon’s reflexes, which were off the charts, allowed him to react.
His heart rate spiked, his blood flow drastically increased, and the movement of the hand became slow in his eyes.
It was not too slow, but it was also not so fast that he couldn’t see it.
Then... his body moved.
But this time, he did not jump back. Instead, he took a step to the side, utilizing his decades of experience as a hero.
For a moment, he had the urge to attack because he had taken the Velari by surprise, but he knew that doing such a thing would be foolish.
His current state was because of his demonic cat bloodline, which allowed him to have absurd reflexes along with a few other things. But neither of his bloodlines could give him the speed or the power to combat a Velari who was a thousand times more powerful than he was.
Even if he managed to touch the Velari, he would not cause it any harm. He would only anger the demon and put himself in more danger.
So, what he did was to perform a backward jump using his cat-like abilities.
But he did not just jump to any location, he jumped to the Horned Giant demon who was the captain of the mercenary group.
Beside the corpse was a sword that was not too big for him to use, but not perfect.
’It’ll have to do.’
Simon picked it up, then he swung it a few times before looking at the Velari, who was silently staring at him.
Simon could not see his face, but he could feel the anger radiating out of the demon.
’I guess I’m not worthy of his killing intent. He still sees me as an ant... Good.’
"Do you mind waiting for me to arm myself and find a way to also protect myself?"
"You want me... to give you time to search that corpse for something that can save you?" The Velari asked with an extremely baffled tone as he wondered if he heard correctly.
But to his surprise, Simon nodded. "Yes. As you can see, I have not awakened my Demonic Heart, but I have a little bit of talent. I would not feel at ease if I die without at least putting up a fight."
The Velari remained silent, and Simon shook his head with a disappointed expression.
"And here I thought you weren’t a coward."
"You can search for whatever you want. But I promise you, nothing would save you from my blade."
Simon’s lips curled up slightly. "I know that."
Without wasting any more time, he crouched, touched the Horned Giant, and acted like he was searching for something in the demon’s clothes.
Meanwhile, what he was truly doing was...
’Devour.’