Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Chapter 45

Karshim the Iron Fist

“What the hell?!” Nick exclaimed. “Gelded Flayers!”

As soon as they heard the order, the Gelded Flayers leapt into action.

They were fast and moved with incredible speed. Their sharp claws scarred the earth and the trees as they bounded from trees to trees to ground surging towards the hapless women.

Nick had made his move and used Shield Rush. His body was shrouded in light and he rushed forward like a bull, bumping off the first Flayer with the weight of his shield. A second one came at his back, which he fended off by swinging his sword in an arc and cutting its right arm. He did not waste any time and hacked off its head. The things had torsos no wider than a man’s wrist. Thrusting motions would have little chance of hitting them. One of most rookie spearwielders’ sin on the frontline.

“Martell! To me!”

Nick situated himself before the women as Martel ran over with his short legs.

Nick had some experiences fighting these things and did not keep his focus on one enemy.

“Gelded Flayers has very low intelligence but are efficient and fearless. You have to kill them before they swarm you, Mylady!!”

“A bit late there, Nick,” Connie stated.

The other three Gelded Flayers had gathered around Connie, separated only by a few feet. They were stalking her like wolves would their prey.

Unfortunately for them, Connie was anything but prey.

They pounced together soundlessly as they had no mouths. Two aiming at her head and one at her leg. She jumped and kicked with both legs split apart and used the two as a platform to gain leverage.

“Disgusting things!” Connie waved her sleeves and sent out Yin Energy that pulverized one where it landed. She the trounced on the one aiming at her leg by grabbing its head and stabbing into its eyes with the other hand’s forefinger, killing it then throwing the dead body at the last one.

The other one had leaped back in response, but was caught unaware by Nick, who was at the direction it escaped to.

“Shield Bash!” Nick slammed his shield to its body and stabbed his sword into its head.

The Maiden of Water was agape seeing her defeating them with ease.

“W-what are these monstrosities?” Henrietta shrieked with fear and disgust.

“Geeelded…Flayer,” the Maiden said with eerily calm voice. “They are…creaaatures…made from…the deeemons’…arcane magiiic…from the corpses…ooof humans.” the Maiden of Water spoke with halted sentences. Which slightly but certainly were rather grating Connie’s nerves. It really did not help the current situation in any way or form.

The scruffy Paladin’s eyes became serious. Though they had killed 5, there was 1 left. Normal soldiers would be easily petrified fighting these bizarre creatures. But His employer had the tendency to surprise him. Though the two of them just barely recovered from their last venture into the dungeon, something like Gelded Flayers were nothing. What worried him most was the demon.

It was intelligent with the capability of speech in the common tongue. Never a good sign.

Connie eyed the last Gelded Flayer, prepared for an attack. She was a bit winded after the continuous action. The damage I took after using the Art of Impermanence was more than I expected.

She was about to advance when a large grey arm shot forward and grasped the Gelded Flayer’s head with one arm, lifting its body as it struggled futilely.

“Useless things. No matter what form they took, a fodder is nothing but a fodder.”

It crushed the head of the Flayer within its grasp effortlessly. There was no blood on the demon’s hand as the arcane creature itself was nothing more than a husk.

It then opened its lips, revealing a mouth filled with hundreds of human-like teeth. “Hear my name, humans. I am Karshim the Iron Fist! Remember that as I pulverized your flesh and take the Maiden bitch as my prize!!”

“A Naamed…Deemon!” the Maiden cried out in surprise.

“What’s that?” Martell asked.

“Bad news is what it is. A Named Demon is an Elite of the Demon King’s army,” Nick said without taking his eyes off the demonic creatures stalking them. “One of them routed my whole platoon by itself!”

Connie’s eyes grasped the bulky body, the strong, developed muscles and the thick looking skin. She concluded that she would have to fight it seriously. She checked the condition of her body and thought. A bit more than half. Just enough.

“Take the women and run. I’ll hold it off.”

“Can you win?” Martell asked.

“Not if I have to protect you guys too. Just run!” Connie shouted.

“Wait, Connie!” Henrietta cried out but was stopped halfway when Nick carried her over his shoulder and began running away. The Maiden and Martell followed behind.

“Sorry, Miss! Milady’s order!!”

Noticing the runners, the Demon reacted and quickly moved to catch its target.

Connie used this chance while it was distracted and shouted.

“Yao-er!”

The silkworm appeared from the back of her palm and shot out a sticky thread of silk which wound around the demon’s right leg.

Connie pulled it as it was raising its right leg and made it stumble forward.

“What’s the hurry? Let’s get acquainted! I always wanted to dissect a demon!!”

Having been stopped on its track hurt the grey demon’s pride and it roared in anger.

“Annoying bitch!” The demon angrily lashed out with a fist, which she dodged. It then unleashed flurry of punches which was faster than Illumca’s Hundred Thrusts skill. Connie nimbly kicked the ground with her heel and floated back like a leaf being blown by the wind, not bothering to face the fists head on. However, the fist did manage to graze her cheek and drew blood.

“This is my first time meeting a demon of this world…but compared to those things back at my former home you are not as strong,” she said, licking the blood on her cheek with her long tongue. “and much uglier.”

Connie jumped and released three blades of Yin Energy while on the air. Karshim used a strange footwork to dodge each blade, dashing forward with both arms tightly guarding its face.

“Double Hammer!”

The demon rushed forward with both arms pulled back, then with the full weight of its body, it planted its hoof to the ground and unleashed an attack with both fists. The Skill projected the image of two giant fists which collided with her body midair.

“Gagh!!”

The impact blew her away, wrecking her insides and making her spurt blood. Her body landed a few feet away.

“Ooh. That really hurts. It was like being hit by the Treant-Golem’s fist.”

Connie slowly got up from the ground and found that her right arm bent the wrong way. With a level look she took hold of it and fixed the position manually. She then popped a Rejuvenation Pill and made a small movement to adjust the arm.

“A Skill. So even the demons use them,” she said, swallowing the blood in her mouth. "Iron Fist. A fitting name."

“You survived my Skill?!” The demon gazed at her with a slight curiosity. “My Skill could turn a boulder the size of a Manticore into dust!”

Connie licked the blood that was spilling from her lips with a grin. “I guess I’m just a bit tougher than a garden pebble.”

“Hooh. How rare,” The demon said when he saw her action. “That tongue. You are not fully human. Are you a half blood? To survive my attack, you must not be half bad. And with that face, you’d be a great bedwarmer to the higher echelons! How about this? Join me and you can enjoy a good life in the Demon Continent.”

When she heard that flimsy offer, Connie could not help but laugh. “Hahaha!! What an offer! If I was some piteous little weakling, I might have considered it. Or perhaps if a kingdom destroying beauty offered that to me. But you? You can’t afford me, you impotent little shit!”

She raised her finger and gave the demon the finger. “You don’t even have balls!!”

“YOOUU SHITTYY BBIITTCH!” Angered by her rude remarks, Karshim had forgotten its goal and the only thing on the demon’s mind was to turn the female human in front of it into meat paste.

Connie took a deep breath and blew a thick red colored smoke from her puckered mouth.

“Poison?! Your human poison will not work on me! HAH!!” it roared and ran though the smoke as it lunged at her. Connie rolled aside to dodge the incoming attack and retaliated.

“Then how about something more direct?!” She gathered poison #84 into her fingers and launched a claw attack at its abdomen, but the demon blocked it with both its arms.

The claw only left skin-deep marks on the surface of its skin, which quickly healed.

“Useless! Only the weak use poisons! A noble demon such as I shall never fall to such tricks!”

The demon adopted a stance with both arms angled forward evenly. The right hoof stepped to the front at shoulder width. The fists then alternated between guarding and punching, not allowing a single gap.

After a few exchanges without being able to break through, Connie could not help but praise the complex moves.

“Such tight moves and strange footwork!”

“You humans might be nothing more than prey, but some of you were strong. This is the skills we took from your kind! Die!!”

The demon reached forward with great speed. Its long limbs allowed it to catch the prey unguarded. But Connie caught the punch while jumping up, allowing the swing to reach its highest point before the momentum allowed her to spring her body back, landing her behind the creature.

If I can’t take the front, I’ll just go through the back.

She hooked her leg through the gap between Karshim’s leg and pushed forward with both hands.

“What?” Karshim did not expect her to do that, and in reaction the demon tried to stop its large body from falling using its long arms.

Connie smirked. She never intended for it to fall flat. this slight elevation allowed her to climb up to its back. Connie noticed the bones and the musculature under its skin. The size of the bones on its back might be exaggerated and the shapes might differ, but she made a guess that it should be the same as a human’s.

“I want your arms demon!”

“If I cannot cut, then pierce!!”

She focused Yin Energy into her fingers, forming an aura on both her hands that resembled the head of two vicious snakes. She rotated her wrists 180 degrees and stabbed both hands into the place where the shoulder blades should be.

“YAAARGH!!” The demon roared in pain.

Green blood the color of pus spurted through the holes she made, splashing her face and clothes with the warm liquid. She licked the blood around her lips and smacked her lips and sinister delight. It tasted similar to a human’s blood but was more bitter, like the taste of bile.

Karshim was enraged by the humiliation and tried to reach its back, but with Connie holding onto the shoulder blades so tightly, it could not lift its arms high.

Connie ignored the flailing demon, hooked her fingers under the shoulder blades and ripped them off its back with a powerful yank as she let out a yell.

“HHHRAAAHH!”

The sound of tearing muscles and creaking bones were gruesome to the ear. The girl did not care about her appearance and simply continued her effort before finally pulling them off with a feeling of satisfaction.

“AAAARGHHH!” The demon cried out in pain that came from deep in its proverbial gut.

“Denying the Nine Heavens: Carving Bones, Denying Alms,” Connie stated with a gruesome smile. She was still holding onto the bloody shoulder blades that her fingers had dug into. If anyone could see her right now, no one would be able to state which one was the demon.

Without those bones, Karshim could not move its powerful arms, much less raise them. The demon fell to the ground on its face and cried out curses.

“Damn you! Damn you shitty human!! How dare you humiliate Karshim the Iron Fist! AAARGH!!! You low-leveled shit!!”

Karshim screamed in pain as it trashed about, felling trees with its horns and what were left of its shoulders. It dug the nail of its toe deep into the ground and attempted to stand up, but Connie stopped it by dropping her heel from above onto the shins.

“AAGH!”

Connie then formed a blade out of Yin Energy with the side of both her hands and clasped them together as if in prayer and slashed down. The decapitating Technique managed to get halfway through before being stopped by the neck bone.

By then, the light on Karshim green eyes had gone.

She grunted and pulled her hand out of the half-severed neck. Blood spurted out of the opened wound. Disgusting green blood. After a few more tries, she managed to cut the head off.

The blonde-girl panted from exhaustion.

“Heavens! So thick! The muscles on this thing’s neck is much thicker and denser than a human’s!”

Connie looked at the dead body of Karshim, still twitching on some parts. It was a sloppy kill, she had to admit. Then again, she was not at her best.

Connie rolled her sleeves and inspected her arms. Some parts were slightly reddish and a little numb. She sighed resignedly when she saw the swollen forearms. She could still feel the damage in her insides too. There was a numb, stinging pain by her liver. “Even with the Yin Energy, it’s just not good enough. But if I stick to swords…”

A momentary doubt fell into her thoughts, but just as quickly she put it away. “No. That will just block the path to the dream that I’m aiming for. Ah, the road to the perfection of my Dao is far still.”

Connie tried lifting the body up, but it was too heavy.

“Whoa, this demon is heavier than it looked like. Maybe because it’s almost all muscles?”

She then tried putting it into the Item Ring. To her pleasant surprise. It actually worked.

“Haha. That’s neat.”

With the corpse of the demon in her Item Ring, Connie made her way back following the path she used before.

She used leisure gaits with some speed, allowing her to reach her destination while recovering her strength.

Not more than a few moments later, however, she noticed a white smoke rising into the sky.