Reborn to Devour: A Demonic LitRPG

From my side, the trees exploded into splinters as the Corpse-Watcher bounded up the side of the hill. Deep scars were carved into the flesh of the hill with each growling step that it took.

Bonnie, though it was far later than Capitaine requested, summoned her rain patch to intercept the Corpse-Watcher’s path. Only a few droplets of water managed to make contact with the monster’s fur and slowed it down for even a half second.

“Ishmael, grab it!” Capitaine barked as they swung their gun to point directly at the Corpse-Watcher.

I moved decisively, discarding any thoughts that would potentially serve to make me hesitate. My body barreled in the direction of my prey with enhanced speed. I would match strength with strength and overcome it.

The Corpse-Watcher, seeing my charge and the spiral of Capitaine’s rifle, leapt to the side and slipped into the forests to disappear again. I could feel it circling around the hill to rethink its plan of attack. While relief that we had enough power to thwart it entered my mind, the disconcerting realization that this beast was far more intelligent than anything I’d faced doused my confidence like a cold shower.

“Remember the kiss of my lead, do you?” Capitaine cackled, in joy at the retreat. “But, you’re not going to let me take even the smallest patch of your land, will you?”

Silence was all that met Capitaine. The Corpse-Watcher refused to play by the hyena’s rules. However, a large metallic snap notified all of us that it fell into one of the numerous traps that Capitaine littered around the battlefield.

“Bonnie! Rain!” Capitaine ordered.

The rain cloud disappeared from its original position to land in the vicinity around where the noise came from. Before the water even started to fall, an ear shattering sound left the barrel of Capitaine’s gun as an explosive round fired into the darkness.

A pained howl told us that the shot landed true. Capitaine immediately scrambled to reload their gun.

“Aurochs, cover me,” they ordered their bull-shaped companion who obeyed immediately.

If the Corpse-Watcher was smart enough to remember the pain of the bullet, it was more than smart enough to remember how long it took between shots. Without hesitation or consideration for the damage it took, it charged our position again with confidence.

“Aurochs, intercept. Bonnie, rain. Ishmael, guard Bonnie,” Capitaine ordered.

Bonnie’s rain poured down again to slow the Corpse-Watcher’s advance. The beast powered through the slowing field and pounced on top Aurochs. Claws and teeth dug into the creature’s flesh and rent it into messy ribbons.

As Aurochs brayed and groaned in anguish from its dismemberment, Capitaine finished reloading their weapon. They aimed it directly at the feasting beast and fired point blank at the Corpse-Watcher.

The Corpse-Watcher flicked its head up and drug Aurochs’ body into the path of the bullet. Lead burrowed into the cow beast’s thick flesh. After a second, the round exploded inside Aurochs and turned the guardian monster into black mist. Unharmed red eyes flashed through the smoking remains as it continued upwards.

“Ishmael, intercept!” Capitaine shouted as they rapidly went back to reload their gun.

It was my turn to go into the meat grinder. I moved to stop the already slowed Corpse-Watcher. I silently thanked Aurochs for going off to the quiet goodnight before me.

Lowering into a proper form tackle, I rushed downhill towards the living annihilation. Teeth punctured my shoulder and I felt like I was thrown into a garbage disposal. Pain mounted as health dwindled. Blood sprayed from punctured scales and splashed into the Corpse-Watcher’s mouth. Upon tasting my toxic blood, the beast whipped its head around and flung my body backwards.

I went flying several feet backwards and rag-dolled partway up the hill. When I got back on my feet, the Corpse-Watcher had disappeared back into the trees. Without thinking, I backpedaled up the hill to return to my position on the summit.

“Ishmael, heal,” Capitaine commanded right after a recovery potion landed in my hand.

“And is that supposed to make me heal more?” I asked with a snarky tone.

“Yes,” they replied.

As I drank the potion, my health recovered to match the equivalent of a potion one grade higher than the one I used.

“Fucker,” I spat in annoyance.

Corpse-Seeker defeated. You have earned 2500XP.

Finally, some good news arrived from the other party. Only three more of the minions remained before the Corpse-Watcher would be surrounded by our full might.

Meanwhile, at our doorstep, the Corpse-Watcher remained active. This time, it found a new target to shred to pieces. One of the nearby chiens screeched out its death throes, but Capitaine remained cold-hearted at the death of his pets. More chirps and screeches came from all directions, but Capitaine kept their trigger discipline.

“You already used this trick on me, mon amour,” Capitaine chastised the beast.

Then, another snap of a bear trap alerted us to a new direction. Though Capitaine issued the orders, Bonnie was already fully familiarized with her role and deployed her rain with greater speed and accuracy while Capitaine fired.

The bullet struck true as a whine of pain echoed through the forest. However, a notification appeared that made all our hearts sink.

Corpse-Seeker defeated. You have earned 2500XP.

“Shit! Watch for it!” Capitaine shouted without providing a specific order. They began to fumble around to load another round.

From the opposite direction of the bear trap, the Corpse-Watcher charged the hill. This time, Bonnie was on point and instantly moved her mini monsoon over the target and I charged down the hill again.

Not wanting to test my toxic flesh again, the Corpse-Watch lowered its haunches and leapt over my head. I tried to jump and grab at anything I could, but my forward momentum only allowed my jump forwards a great deal. I dug my feet into the dirt and pivoted to summit the hill. The only thought my head could muster was ‘Shit!’

However, as the Corpse-Watcher hung in the air, Capitaine barked an amused laugh. They kept their ammunition in their hands and pointed the empty weapon directly at their foe. The crimson eyes of the Corpse-Watcher flared in helpless surprise.

“Did you think you were the only one who brought new tricks?” Capitaine asked.

A beam of red light exited the rifle’s barrel and pierced directly through the airborne Corpse-Watcher. A sizable portion of the beast’s health evaporated as it continued to sail through the air and disappear back into the forest to lick its wounds.

Capitaine slumped onto the ground and slowly began to reload their weapon. Unsteady fingers gripped the lead round and dropped it.

“Load faster, me,” they ordered themselves as they sped up their work and got the gun ready.

“How many more of those shots do you have?” I asked Capitaine as they rose back to their feet and continued to scan the silent forests.

Capitaine chugged down a recovery potion before even bothering to answer my question. Even with that obvious opening, the Corpse-Watcher chose to lay low and continue to observe us from a safe distance.

“I have two more that I can use, but then I’ll die,” Capitaine explained. “Besides, it won’t fall for that trick twice. Keep getting in its way and we will get this done.”

Corpse-Seeker defeated. You have earned 2500XP.

Yoshitsune and Culuur only had to hunt down one more minion before the Corpse-Watcher became completely isolated. From the distant sounds of thunder and the faint bursts of sickly white light that pierced that heavy haze, it appeared that they were already on top of their final target.

“Fuck!” Capitaine yelled. “When did they get so far away?”

Unlike Bonnie and my reactions, as soon as the message appeared, Capitaine’s eyes widened. They immediately summoned more flares and shot them all up at once in different directions to turn the sky into a slow-motion firework. However, no flares came up in response. All we received were the booms of the thunder.

“What?” I asked before a distant howling clued me in on what they were so concerned about.

Corpse-Seeker defeated. You have earned 2500XP.

Alert

Party Member Culuur has died.

We stood in silence for a split second. Capitaine made a frustrated expression. While their orders were dutifully completed, we were going to lose our advance party in exchange. It didn’t take much tactical genius to know that we were trading tanks for landmines. Our oversight left all our firepower solely in Capitaine’s hands.

“Culuur?” Bonnie asked before she bit her lip in nervousness and took a step away from the light. “What’s the plan now?”

“We stay here,” Capitaine replied.

Flashes of crackling light carved a path through to our direction. Lightning shattered the sky as she navigated the ever changing landscape of the forests and the Corpse-Watcher’s continued ambushes.

“No, we need to go get Yoshitsune!” I yelled. “If we can recover her, then it will be a four on one.”

“We cannot,” Capitaine reiterated sharply. “Moving away from our position and into the darkness will leave us in unfamiliar terrain and without the high ground. You may not find it important, but even this slight incline makes worlds of difference. If Yoshitsune manages to escape the jaws of death and reach our position, we will rescue her.”

Yoshitsune was to be made into a sacrificial pawn in a subjugation that she was not initially interested in. A growing frustration grew inside me. It was an unpleasant feeling, like finding a crunchy bite in a bite of soft food. Everything about this, so far, was shit. I wanted to take these helpless feelings out on someone but was told to stand on the sidelines with my hands in my pockets like some sort of dipshit and watch someone get torn to shreds.

“This is bullshit,” I growled angrily. “If you won’t go down there and get her, then I will.”

“Ishmael, if you go now, you are fucking all of us,” Capitaine informed. “She won’t stay dead.”

I spat some acid into the ground near my feet and watched the liquid foam and corrode the soil. I knew that I was acting like a kid that didn’t get the toy he wanted because the money for it was taken by dad’s booze fund, but I didn’t want to listen to reason.

Scaled hands touched my own and I reflexively pulled away. Bonnie had tried to gently hold onto my hand. A look of determination was etched across her face and new resolve entered her mind.

“Relax,” she cooed, throwing my own words back at me.

All I could do was laugh at it all. If they needed me to be a good boy and sit, then I’d sit. But, if things all followed Capitaine’s plan and we still lose, then they better hope that their soul returns to their body before mine does. They introduced me to the more extravagant way of living, and I planned to show them the full extent of my creativity.

Yoshitsune’s desperate struggle to survive brought her ever closer to our position. However, the snarls and howls of the Corpse-Watcher remained in the shadow of the light. Each redirection showed another path that was closed off by the beast.

With another burst, Yoshitsune closed the distance to be visible in the light of the flares that formed the perimeter of the hill. Her armor was partially dismantled. Large gashes dug through the material and blood pooled against the cloth. Her left sleeve dangled and blood spurted from the opening to coat the ground in red.

Uprooted trees and guttural barks followed only a couple seconds behind, increasing my sense of urgency to get to reach the bottom of the hill.

“Yoshitsune, hold position!” Capitaine ordered as they pointed their gun directly at them.

Before I could tell Capitaine exactly how I felt about their lies, the Corpse-Watcher surged from the blackness to clamp down on Yoshitsune’s body. With the last strength left in her, she jammed her blade into the beast’s neck. The power needed to kill several elephants shot out of her body and scorched her enemy’s insides.

“Suffer,” Capitaine snarled as the second beam of red light pierced the small of Yoshitsune’s back and directly into the Corpse-Watcher’s head.

The Corpse-Watcher howled in tremendous pain. New crimson eyes appeared all over its body and it disappeared into the woods. All that remained in the flickering light of the torches was Yoshitsune’s bisected body; unmoving and steaming from the friendly fire.

Alert

Party Member Yoshitsune has died.