Page 8 of A Soul to Touch

Roughly after midnight, she heard it – the first sounds of ugly life.

The swallowing shadows gave it the perfect shelter to hide from sight until it was in the clearing, but the snarls coming from the left notified her where she needed to look.

She pulled back her arrow, extending the string of her bow to a medium placement as she lined it up. She’d eventually pull back harder when she knew how big it was and where to shoot. There was no point in tiring out her arms when she didn’t need to.

There was no smile of triumph when it burst into the clearing and headed straight for the boar. It was medium in size, a difficult opponent to fight on her own, but if she shot it in the right spot, she could kill it near instantly.

Since the carcass was so high in the air, the Demon’s black, void-like body jumped up and down to reach it. It clawed at the stake as it tried to get purchase to climb, adding to the many marks already on the distressed timber.

It had a lizard-like shape with a long tail behind its thin arse, and it made snarling hisses as it struggled for its prey.

“Come here, come here!” it wheezed, froth beginning to build at its mouth.

Mayumi’s eyes only narrowed, having heard many Demons speak in the past. She didn’t release her arrow, even when the Demon paused its frantic jumping to sniff around the base of the stake to figure out another way to get to the carcass.

There was only one way up, and it was too stupid to realise that cutting the rope tied to the metal spike in the ground would release it.

Come on,she thought, readying herself even further by bringing the feathers of her arrow up to brush her cheek.Hurry up!

Finally, it managed to get purchase and started to dig its claws in to climb. The Demon was moving swiftly. She waited for it to grab the boar with its teeth and start tugging before she truly lined up her shot.

Got you.

Right before she released her arrow, a shiver-inducing roar sounded from the left.

Mayumi paused, knowing that roar could only be created by a larger Demon, and aimed her shot in that direction instead.

I’ll need to wait.The Demons would fight for their meal.

It would be pointless for the smaller Demon as the larger one would likely win, but it meant the latter would be weakened before she tried to kill it herself.

Loud, crunching, thumping footsteps came from the left of the house, slightly behind her, making it difficult to catch its face. The speed at which it sprinted was faster than anything she’d ever seen, showing the creature as nothing but a black blur with the dark of night shadowing it.

What she thought would be a battle ended up being a barrage of swiping claws as the bigger Demon broke into the clearing. It slaughtered the small one before it even finished lifting its head from the boar it’d managed to rip to the ground.

That was so fast!Thankfully she didn’t gasp and give away her hiding spot, but she’d started from surprise, and usually nothing surprised Mayumi.

The smaller Demon was forgotten, barely moving, as the larger one ate what remained of the small boar. It was so big that it just threw it into the air and swallowed it whole.

Then her upper lip twisted with a disgusted sneer when it turned for the smaller Demon.Fucking cannibals.

The bigger Demon kept its back to her as it ate the smaller one. From this angle, she could only see it shaking its head from side-to-side until it had torn it in half.

Without hesitation, she lined up her shot and waited.

I have to get it between the eyes.

It was... it was massive from what she could tell, bigger than any other Demon she’d ever faced. One of this size would be classified as a suicide mission for a lone Demonslayer – unless they shot it between the eyes.

The back of the head wasn’t enough. The arrow could go through its throat with the downward angle she was shooting from.

On all fours, it continued to messily eat, never turning around for her to get a clear shot.

Turn, damn you!

Mayumi was a sitting duck like this. The moment it finished its meal, it would likely start investigating the human smell that wafted from her house. It was currently seeking fresh blood, a free meal, but soon it would grow interested inher.

The masking incense she’d lit on the porch railing wouldn’t be enough, not once the carcass was gone.

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