Xhag’duul stared at a Human in a damp, dark room. Streams of light were let through the open door, the silhouette of a man standing within.
“D-Demon!” he shouted.
A half dozen ideas for what to do ran through Xhag’duul’s mind, none of him he could enact. Attack and kill him. No, he was forbidden due to his summoner’s orders. Plus, if this Human had a Class, there was a possibility he’d be overpowered regardless. Flee. Forbidden as well. Threaten him into leaving and staying quiet about me. He’d be restricted pretty heavily in that, too.
There was one thing that he knew might allow him to act, though. His summoner, when she’d given him all of these rules, had given plenty of caveats through which he could disobey certain orders. He couldn’t attack anyone, unless he was trying to protect her. He couldn’t destroy anything in here, unless the thing was going to harm him. And he couldn’t leave the room, unless he was protecting himself from imminent death. So then…
The Human started slowly backing away, fearful eyes locked onto Xhag’duul. “W-what are you doing here?! Where’s Aliss?!”
Normally, he would have responded with an attempt to calm the man down, since he didn’t know how powerful he was—something explaining his situation and saying that Aliss was out running an errand. But his goal wasn’t to deescalate this encounter.
Xhag’duul chuckled, standing tall and baring the natural claws that tipped his fingers. “Aliss? You mean lunch?”
The man’s face paled. “N-no, you didn’t.”
Perfect. Xhag’duul could read this guy like a book. He was afraid, which was a little suboptimal; if he ran away, that’d leave Xhag’duul stuck here with no options. But if he could get the man angry enough… “Not yet. But sitting here in this orphanage…I don’t know. I’m getting a little hungry. Little children like that can only keep a monster’s appetite sated for so long.”
With a gasp, the man glanced back at the exit. “You, you’re eating…?”Perfect. Now to bait him into attacking. “Maybe once I get a little stronger, I can graduate to adult Humans. It’s not quite lunchtime yet, you know. But I’ll be powerful enough to feed myself what I want to eat by then.”
“N…” the man gripped the hilt of the sword on his belt. “No, you will not!”
He drew the sword, holding it with both hands, pointed at Xhag’duul, who grinned—this time a genuine smile.
“D-die, foul beast!” the man screamed, charged forward.
Oh no, Xhag’duul thought, it looks like this Human is trying to kill me. My life is in imminent danger. Seems like the only way to survive without hurting him is to leave the room.
Instantly, it was like a section of his mind was unlocked. His limbs were unshackled, and he could suddenly feel the list of his allowed actions expand. He could go through that door. Though, he also felt the weight of all those caveats. He still couldn’t harm the man in any way unless he felt that there was absolutely no choice otherwise; he had to keep hidden while he was out of the room; he could only flee further from the room if he continued to feel his life was in danger; he would need to return back to the room once he felt safe. It went on and on.
The man charged forth, sword over his head. Normally, Xhag’duul would have nothing to fear from some random Human, but that changed when he lost all of his Levels. Of course, even at his base Level, a Devil was much more powerful than an Unclassed Human, but this one seemed like he had some combat experience under his belt, and Xhag’duul didn’t like his chances in that case.
However, even if his XP was gone, his experience wasn’t. He had centuries of battle training, and compared to this newbie, he could easily avoid the attack.
Xhag’duul sidestepped the simple swing, then took off, sprinting to the door. The man turned and stared for a moment in confusion, clearly not expecting his adversary to run off like that. But as Xhag’duul ran through the hallway and started climbing the ladder, he awoke from his shock and moved to chase.
Throwing the hatch open, Xhag’duul glanced around his new environment, eager to get out of the basement. Larger room, couches on the floor, and…there! A door leading outside. With the Human still giving chase, Xhag’duul was still allowed to keep fleeing. He leapt out of the hatch and started running to the door.
“W-what’s going on?” a small voice came from behind him. He glanced back to see a Human child peeking out from a hallway, but paid the kid no mind.
The man climbed out of the hatch just as Xhag’duul was slipping out the door, catching a glimpse as the man started running to catch up.
Outside, he found it was the middle of the night. Perfect; no one was around. He still felt his rules forcing him to at least try to stay as hidden as possible while fleeing, but he’d want to do that anyway. This Human knew of him, but that didn’t mean he’d want to go advertising his existence to any others. Besides, he wasn’t sure he’d actually be able to outrun this Human with their Stat difference. So his only option would be to lose him.
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After a glance around, he dashed off to the side, ducking into a tight alleyway between two run-down buildings just as he heard the Human open the door of the orphanage and run out. Hopefully he hadn’t been seen.
His heart was racing as he dashed from alley to alley, pressing his body up against walls when he heard footsteps, glancing around wildly at every moment. Heavy breathing, racing mind…Was this what real danger felt like? It’d been so long, he’d forgotten the feeling. True, primal fear. The closest he’d felt for as long as he could remember was the anxiety that came with being given a massive workload. But this was different. It was exciting. It was fun.
Xhag’duul broke into a smile as he dashed across a wide road, hoping he hadn’t been seen. Maybe, if he got far enough, he could escape to outside the town limits and find some wild monsters. Kill them, Level up, get strong enough to break out of his magic shackles. He had a clear road in front of him. Concrete steps to improving his life; something he’d missed for so long.
Instinctively, he laughed, a manic expression painted across his face as he leaned against the side of a building. He barked out laughter just like a Human would, hands on his knees to keep himself from falling over from the utter exuberance he felt.
As he did, he heard the sound of boots on gravel as his would-be killer chased after the sound.
Alright, he thought, let’s not die.
Sinking his claws into the wooden walls that made up these dilapidated buildings, Xhag’duul pulled himself up and climbed to the rooftops, where he gazed down to see the Human still searching the area, looking down alleyways and behind broken crates to try and find a Demon that was not there. He suppressed more laughter—actually, he probably was being physically prevented from laughing right now, since he could now see a Human was close enough that making noise would alert him to his location.
Instead, Xhag’duul just smiled once again and tore off, leaping along the rooftops as he sprinted in search of a way to grow stronger.
Entismo checked, double-checked, and triple-checked the entire town block. It wasn’t there. The Demon he’d accidentally set free was not there.
“No, no, no…” he groaned to himself. “This cannot be happening. Please, someone find that beast and slay it. Please, do not let this come down to me…”
He’d replayed the scene over in his mind ten times now. The hatch had been covered by all of those heavy crates to begin with—clearly they had been put there to keep the Demon trapped in the basement! But now, it had escaped, and it was entirely Entismo’s fault. He wanted to curl up into a ball and pass out. He wanted to lie in bed for the next three weeks. He wanted to lock himself in his room until he died. How could he have let this happen?!
And now, he had to solve the problem. The problem he was clumsy enough to cause in the first place! Would he not just make it worse? He still had no idea what that thing was doing there, why it was threatening Aliss, or what it was going to do now! He hoped to the gods above it would just leave town and run as far as it could, perhaps back to Koinkar. But something told him there was something tying that thing to this place. It would not disappear so easily.
With a shaky breath, he set off. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to find it, but if he set the whole town on the task, perhaps another would. Then, the problem would solve itself.
Sprinting at top speed, it still took him a couple minutes to reach the guild lobby. But when he threw open the doors, he saw the place was almost completely empty. Of course. It was the middle of the night; who would still be awake? But he couldn’t return home yet. He had a duty to at least inform the guild itself, even if there was nobody around to solve the issue right now.
“E-excuse me,” he said, walking up to a tired-looking woman at the front desk. “I am here to report a monster sighting?”
She looked up at him with half-closed eyes, speaking in a bored tone. “What do you have to report?”
‘A-a Demon.”
Her eyes went wide.
“I saw it in the southeastern part of town, but it fled before I could kill it. I-I believe it was running in the general direction of—”
“Hold on,” she said, “you saw a Demon in the town walls?! What was it doing? How strong? How did you find it?”
“I…” Entismo’s face went red. How could he tell her the truth of what had happened? “I—I happened upon it in the streets. I do not know how it got there. And, er, we did not have a direct scuffle, so its Level and exact species are unfortunately unknown to me.”
“Shit,” she muttered, hurriedly shuffling through some paperwork. “I’ll put up an emergency request right away. And I guess I need to tell the guildmaster; he’s gonna wanna tell the mayor about this. This is horrible timing, with nobody awake right now, but hopefully at least the town guard will be on alert. I don’t suppose you know any powerful adventurers that would be available at this time?”
“I, I’m not sure. Aliss is still astray, and I do not believe I would be capable of locating Boy…perhaps Sylvie, as long as she has not disappeared somewhere to go drinking…”
“Hold on,” the woman at the desk said, “Sylvie? That’s the noble girl, right?”
“Y-yes, you know her?”
“She’s the one who killed the invaders with those Koinkarian fugitives, right? I saw them in the guild for a bit today.”
“Arlan and Erani are still here? They would be perfect! Where did they go?!”
“I don’t know, I just saw them sitting around in the lobby not too long ago. I think they were talking about leaving town, from the snippets of conversation I heard?”
“I, I see. I will try to find them, please get the town guard informed as quickly as possible!”
Before waiting to hear the woman’s reply, Entismo dashed out of the lobby. Arlan and Erani—they’d be perfect for killing a Demon! He needed to find them. With a sliver of hope in his mind, he prayed to the gods as he sprinted through the town streets. Please, please let them still be here! And please let that Demon be some random, insignificant scout, or something. If this gets out of control…
Xhag’duul grinned, spotting a pack of wild four-legged things wandering the fields outside of Human settlement. He’d managed to scale the walls from the inside and leap down into the tall grass, feeling his summoner’s commands being stretched to almost their fullest extent before he’d be forced to return. But these monsters he was looking at—they looked passive, slow, and weak. They looked like free XP.
He laughed to himself once more. Time to get out of control.