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Imps...short and stocky demons.
They have pitch-black and cracked skin with glowing red eyes. They used pitchforks as weapons and had tiny bat wings. They are small, most of them barely even reach a foot tall, the tallest being 3-foot maximum.
On their own, they are weak. Even a Tier 3 could defeat a single imp on their own. But see, Imps never travel alone. They hunt in packs, like wolves. A pack of Imps is a dozen. A few walk above ground to serve as bait while the rest either fly up or burrow underground to ambush unsuspecting victims.
The Squad #1 braced for impact. They are about to encounter their first fight outside of the walls. Through Cedric's orders, they waited for them to co.
Swoosh!
A two-foot-tall Imp running towards them suddenly threw its pitchfork at them. In response, a squad mber stepped forward and raised his shield to catch the attack.
It was blocked squarely, the defender wasn't even forced back an inch.
"Careful, the ones underground are coming!" One of the scanners warned.
As soon as his words ca out, the imps underground burst above with their pitchforks aid at the humans. Thanks to the warning of their teammate, they readily received the attack. The ones behind the defenders threw attacks of their own, killing most of the imps who attacked.
The scanners were keeping an eye out for the ones above ground who were still running/flying towards them.
As much as the scanners did their jobs the best they could, their senses weren't as broad as Cedric's. They failed to sense the big one, the pack leader of the imps, since it was hiding deeper underground.
Well, Cedric couldn't bla them for this so he decided to take matters into his own hands.
He grabbed his standard-issued pistol and gathered his Ki into it. He aid and shot the pack leader despite it being underground. He used enough energy to give the shot sufficient oomph to penetrate the murky and corrupted ground and blast the 3-foot-tall Imp's head, killing it in a single shot.
Due to the heat of the battle, so of his squadmates didn't even see what he did. They were busy handling the imps harassing them. They didn't do horrible. They culled the pack as swiftly as they could, eliminating them with extre prejudice as Cedric ordered.
Five minutes later, no imps could be seen around. The squad relaxed and the scanners reported:
"I don't see any hostiles. How about you guys?"
The other scanners replied saying that they don't see any either.
"Wait! We haven't seen the pack leader! I think its—"
"Dead." Cedric interrupted. "Shot it earlier when you were busy. Pack's dead. Good work, team. Do the pulse, y'all are dirty."
Following his orders, the team perford Ki Pulse to cleanse themselves of corruption.
While they were mostly untouched and unhard by the imps, the re presence of demons was enough for corruption to infect them. Not by much, but considering where they are, this will snowball until it becos unbearable. It's better to get rid of it now to stop that from happening.
Since the squad perford their Ki Pulse as a group, multiple pulses swept through everybody, eliminating the hold of corruption completely. Once they were done with this, they continued heading deeper into their area of responsibility to continue their mission.
As he led the group, Cedric paid close attention to his surroundings. He could see all sorts of nightmarish scenes around them. He could feel strange movents above and underground. He could also feel the tension within the group.
The Black Lands itself was already looking more terrible than Purgatory itself. And they haven't even uncovered every inch of it. To think that there are places out there that are far more sinister and dangerous compared to this one really puts things into perspective.
'This world must be in so much pain...' Cedric lanted inwardly.
The sheer disgust and hate he felt towards the Demonic Corruption was almost primal. He had been keeping the instinct to just spray Sunfire on everything in his sight because he didn't want to attract trouble, but it was hard. Really hard.
To keep the team alert and present, he periodically talks to them, ordering them to report their findings and/do sothing. This is to prevent them from spending too much ti in their heads because out here, that's dangerous.
Demonic Corruption is horrible like that. It takes advantage of vulnerabilities of any kind, and once it latches on you, there's only so much you can do before it starts taking effect.
As they patrolled, the team faced more demons on the way. After Imps, there were insects, followed by carnivorous plants, more imps, and a few beast demons.
Cedric left the team to handle most of them, only stepping in to cover the areas that they missed. He did this to help them realize that, so long as they're being thodical about it, they could handle the threats coming their way.
Through this, he's shattering the image of invincibility that the Demon Race established so far in the psyches of his squadmates. The Demons are not invincible, they can be killed in their territory. The humans haven't lost yet.
He's igniting hope and determination within his team. But of course, he's not fostering it to over-confidence because that will kill them. In a way, he's training them still, because this wouldn't be the last ti that they'd be here.
"Stop."
The squad paused before they could think (effects of Cedric's conditioning). They looked at him in curiosity and saw that his expression had changed into an alard one. That made them feel nervous.
"Formation F, now." Cedric ordered softly.
Once again, the squad found themselves moving before they could think.
Actually, it would've been better if they couldn't think at all because upon realizing what he just ordered, the squad imdiately knew that things had gotten seriously dangerous.
Formation F, 'F' stands for 'Fade'. It's sothing that squads/platoons would only use whenever they encounter sothing that they have to avoid or they can't handle.
The squad gathered closely, like skin to skin close since that's a requirent, they then supplied energy to the sigils on the back of their left hand. With this, the formation was set and the presence of the squad faded into nothingness.
Boom!
Not even a minute after they hid, an explosion occurred right in front of them, causing the majority of the squad to flinch.
'Hold. Breathe through your nose and out to your mouth. Try to not make any sounds. If you can't handle it, don't look. I'll keep an eye out for you. Just be ready to move when I tell you to.
Otherwise, stay completely still.'
Cedric's flat yet strangely comforting voice echoed in their ears. It was enough to keep the team grounded despite the hulking nace trying to sniff them out.
Yes, a demon was hunting them.
It was a ten-foot-tall demon with a goat head, humanoid torso, and large hooves for feet. It is holding two large cleavers on both hands, made from the bones of its own kind.
Its upper body was covered in fur but the tough sinews beneath that were still noticeable. There was no doubt that this was a very strong and dangerous demon. It released an aura that could compete with Tier 9s easily so there's no doubt that the squad would be demolished if they were to fight this.
'A Capra Demon...I wasn't aware that they roam this near to the walls.' Cedric muttered inwardly.
What really made Capra Demons scary was its combat instinct. It's flexible and agile. It's capable of recognizing patterns and even imitating them. Fight them long enough and they might just surpass their targets in the skills they copied.
Within the squad, only a few could look at the Capra Demon properly, and even if they could, they couldn't suppress the fear they felt.
Thankfully, Cedric warned them earlier. Had they the caught completely off-guard by this thing, it would've been over for them.
But as the team relaxed and remained completely still to hide from the Capra Demon, they didn't notice the clouded expression dawning on Cedric's face.
The reason for this is because, in his field of senses, he saw another Capra Demon roaming around. Not just that, there's also a Taurus Demon, a Hellfire Demon, and Nightmare Worm slithering underground.
All of these demons aren't weaker than Tier 9s. To make it worse, Cedric was sure that that Nightmare Worm was a Planar Traveller!
'What the hell is going on here?'
Cedric was sweating. Isn't this a little too much? How are they supposed to survive this? Is the army aware of this?
Too many questions erged on his mind but they remain unanswered. The best he could do right now was to stay alert and be prepared if things go south.
'I better let Captain Silverwing know this. Thankfully, the traces of these demons are scattered everywhere, I can forge a report that would hide my capabilities without lessening my credibility.'
And just so you know, their shift hasn't even gone for an hour yet.
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