"To hell with you, human!" he shouted, his voice cracking as he tried to resist the invisible weight pressing him down.
Another followed suit, and another after that, until a small group of them broke free from their fear, letting rage take control.
They charged recklessly, their roars echoing through the forest.
"Kill him!"
"Don't just stand there!"
"Attack!"
Axton sighed softly, his expression showing nothing but disappointnt.
"Fools," he muttered, tightening his grip around the handle of his hamr.
They ca at him with everything they had.
Swords glead.
Dark energy pulsed and crackled.
Arrows coated in demonic magic whistled through the air.
Axton didn't move.
He stood still, his cloak fluttering lightly as the first wave of attacks ca crashing down on him.
'Just how foolish can they get,' he thought as the explosions and blasts filled the air around him.
The smoke cleared.
And he was still standing in the sa spot.
Not a scratch.
The demons' faces twisted in disbelief.
Their combined attacks hadn't even left a mark.
Before they could process what had happened, Axton moved.
His hamr cut through the air with a sharp, whistling sound that seed to tear through the forest itself.
Swoosh!
The weapon connected with the first group of demons, and in that instant, everything stopped.
A bright flash.
A surge of force.
And then…
Bang!
The forest trembled.
The explosion tore through the air like thunder, shaking the trees and scattering black leaves everywhere.
The earth cracked under the pressure, and what followed was silence — a heavy, suffocating silence.
When the dust began to settle, only fragnts of demon bodies were left scattered across the ground.
So were reduced to ashes.
Others lay motionless, half-buried in the dirt.
The stench of burnt flesh filled the air.
Axton stood at the center of it all, the faint light from above outlining his figure.
He hadn't moved an inch since the hamr's swing.
His eyes, cold and unreadable, swept through the devastation before him.
Not a single one of the charging demons had survived.
He exhaled quietly and rested his hamr on the ground with a dull thud. "Pathetic."
The remaining demons, those who hadn't joined the charge, were frozen in place.
Their faces twisted in horror. Their bodies trembled uncontrollably.
The fear that had only grazed them monts ago now wrapped tightly around their throats, suffocating them completely.
One of them collapsed to his knees, shaking violently. "W-We can't fight him," he whispered. "We'll all die here."
Another demon stepped backward, tripping over a root as his eyes darted from corpse to corpse. "He killed them all in one strike…"
Axton raised his gaze slowly and locked eyes with the demon who had spoken.
That alone was enough to make the creature gasp and scramble back further.
The human hadn't said anything, yet his silence carried more threat than a thousand war cries.
"I'll ask once more," Axton said, his voice calm but cold.
"What do you know about the Undead race and the City of Anarnia?"
The demons hesitated, exchanging terrified looks.
Axton tilted his head slightly, and the air around him grew heavier.
"If you waste my ti," he added, "I'll start breaking bones until one of you speaks."
That was enough to make one of them crack.
A trembling demon raised his hand, his voice barely more than a stutter. "I-I heard sothing, but I don't know if it's true!"
Axton's eyes narrowed. "Speak."
"Th-The undead…" the demon stamred, forcing the words out, "they… they were seen near the southern borders of this domain. There's talk that they're… building sothing there."
Axton's brow furrowed slightly. "Building sothing?"
"I-I don't know what it is," the demon said quickly. "But it's huge. So say it's a fortress… others think it's a gate."
Axton said nothing, only listening quietly.
Another demon, perhaps hoping to save himself, jumped in. "And the City of Anarnia — there's a rumor spreading among the demons that the path between realms is still open! The undead might be using it to move freely!"
That caught Axton's attention. His eyes sharpened.
So Queen Lamia and Jackal hadn't been mistaken after all.
If that passage remains open, the undead could invade Anarnia again at any ti.
The first demon continued, his voice trembling. "That's all we know! Please… that's all I know!"
Axton nodded once. "I see."
For a mont, there was silence again.
The demons dared to hope he might let them live.
But Axton's expression didn't change.
He raised his hamr, resting it lightly on his shoulder once more. "You've served your purpose."
The demons' eyes widened in terror. "W-Wait—!"
Before they could finish, Axton vanished from sight.
A single sound broke the silence.
Crack!
He reappeared behind them.
Bodies hit the ground one by one, lifeless, their expressions frozen in fear.
The forest fell quiet again.
Axton wiped a faint sar of blood from his cheek and began walking forward, deeper into the Black Forest.
His senses were alert.
He could feel multiple hostile auras watching him from afar—cowards who hadn't shown themselves yet.
"They're waiting," he muttered, glancing briefly around. "Good. Saves the trouble of finding them."
He gripped his hamr tighter and kept moving.
******
Further ahead, in the darker parts of the forest, a different group of demons stood waiting near a large obsidian rock formation.
Their leader, a tall demon with curved horns and dark red armor, stared in the direction of the explosion that had shaken the forest minutes ago.
"So… he's here," the leader said, his tone unreadable.
One of his subordinates swallowed hard. "That blast earlier… that was him, wasn't it?"
"Yes," the leader replied, his gaze hardening. "The human known as Khan."
The demon clenched his jaw.
"He killed Quiala. He destroyed the elites sent to capture him. And now… he's walking straight toward us."
"Then we'll stop him," the leader said coldly. "If we retreat, it will be our heads anyway. I'd rather die fighting."
He turned to the others, spreading his arms wide.
"Form the barrier. Prepare the traps. If he gets this far, we'll greet him with everything we've got."
They began moving imdiately.
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