Mutagen

Day 151 - 11:19 PM - Mountain Farming Village, Barangay Mabini, Municipality of Viga, Catanduanes

From the forests, the arrows rained on the army of Demons. Many of the Demons could only let out wails and grunts of shock and pain as arrows pierced their bodies while they were devoid of their sight.

The weaker ones of the Demons were the most affected. Some of them immediately fell as the arrows pierced their heads and vital organs.

Unfortunately, the rain of arrows was more akin to a drizzle than a downpour. Even in this case, the numbers mattered a lot.

Diwata Iraya's side had three hundred warriors at most. However, in that number, not all of them were capable of wielding bows as weapons. The best example for these individuals were the Sylphs and other small-bodied Spirits and Elementals. Even the Yasaws present had no way of using a bow to shoot arrows that would hit the Demons at their current distance.

Furthermore, these archers were not trained in this kind of strategy. Far from the showy volleys of arrows shown in movies, this scene was more like a rapid-fire contest. Since there was no time to practice, Mark also suggested this action. It was to fire all the arrows they could before the enemies began to retaliate.

Beauty and style did not matter as long as the arrows reached their target. And to say, it was a bit hard to miss since the Demons were packed together, protecting their Lord at the center. As long as the arrows reached the Demons, it was likely to hit.

***

"It's amazing that those arrows worked on those Demons," Emika remarked, watching the show. "Back in Japan, many people say that powerful Demons can't even be hurt by bullets."

Japan had a deep culture about Spirits and Demons. Many were true, and many were false. But of course, it was true that many Demon races were impervious to regular human weaponry. That was why special and hidden divisions exist in the military. Those highly trained soldiers were also equipped with special weaponry against these creatures.

"Those are not regular arrows, though."

Mark explained as he took out a sample from his ring.

Everyone looked at the arrow on Mark's hand. Pefile and Berrak seemed to be familiar with it, but everyone else was not.

Looking at the arrow, it was unexpectedly not similar to what they knew. It was not a wooden stick with a pointed, metal, or stone tip. It was actually a thin twisted root-like wood with a clear crystal tip. Even the feathers used as fletching did not appear to be normal at all.

"So, they used enchanted arrows." Berrak nodded. "Regular arrows would not really work, but this should be able to kill the weaker guys and even injure some stronger ones."

"It just looks like some weird arrow, though?"

Emika said in confusion. Well, she was not wrong. It was really a weird-looking arrow.

"That crystal is a magical stone imbued by a pure being's magical energy," Berrak explained. "In this case, the magical energy should be from that Diwata, isn't it?"

To Berrak's words, Mark nodded.

"This kind of magical energy is one of the banes of Demons. Once these crystals enter their bodies, they will create a deadly reaction due to contradicting energies inside their bodies. The weaker Demons won't be able to resist the reaction and will immediately die."

***

It was just less than a minute after the arrows started firing from the forest. Yet, more than a hundred Demons already fell to their deaths after being struck by the magical arrows.

As for the slightly stronger Demons, many were injured by the arrows.

The only difference was the main group of Demons that arrived last. They were beings with strong bodies. This kind of attack would not kill them.

"TCH!"

Lord Seis clicked his tongue as an arrow bounced off his tough skin. He was the strongest among these Demons. These arrows were not effective against him at all.

Even so, Lord Seis was infuriated.

"IRAYA!!!"

Lord Seis roared on top of his lungs. His voice caused a massive shockwave that spread out with him at the center.

The shockwave caused the arrows to lose momentum and fall. Many that were close to the Lord of these Demons even flew back from the strong impact.

At this point, the arrows were now ineffective.

Strangely, the moment the arrows were deflected, no other arrows were fired. It was as if the Spirits and Elementals knew that this would happen and decided not to waste more arrows.

Finally, Lord Seis' eyes recovered. Even though he was only affected for less than a minute, it already showed that what Diwata Iraya did manage to affect him a lot. After all, they were creatures of the night. They were sensitive to light. Lord Seis was not an exception to this.

Lord Seis turned his eyes back to where Diwata Iraya stood before. However, she was already gone. It showed that blinding them was her only purpose for showing up.

Gritting his teeth, Lord Seis looked around. Not all of the Demons had recovered their sight and everyone was in disarray. Since the arrows already stopped, it was an opportunity for them to reorganize.

Inside his mind, Lord Seis admit. Diwata Iraya got them good.

However, it was not enough.

Once everyone regained their sight, they would force themselves out of this encirclement. Even with the remaining Demons they had, their numbers were still far greater than Diwata Iraya's side.

But then...

ROAR!!!

A Demon suddenly roared in pain.

Lord Seis immediately turned his head only to see a Demon impaled with a spear on his chest.

"A spear?!" Lord Seis was starting to lose his temper. "How in the world."

Lord Seis was confused. How in the world would a spear suddenly appear and impale one of his subordinates. Furthermore, it was not a low-ranked Demon but a stronger one among his troops. There was no sign of the spear being thrown at all. A spear was bigger than an arrow and a thrown spear would make more sounds as it tore the air apart. But none of those sounds were heard by him at all.

Suddenly

"ARRG!"

"GROWL!"

One after another, the Demons in the outer perimeter had spears embedded on their bodies. However, even though Lord Seis was already wary of the surroundings, he saw not a single one spear fly out of the forest.

"My Lord..."  Muggur seemed to have recovered his eyes and was also observing the situation. "It was the Yasaws!"

"What?" Lord Seis was confused. "What's with that weak children?"

"It's them that making the spears appear!"

Muggur replied in urgency.

Hearing Muggur, Lord Sies heightened his senses. At first, he was looking for flying spears, but it never came to his mind that a weak race like the Yasaws would be responsible for this.

Knowing what to look for, Lord Seis finally saw what was going on.

Yasaws were appearing in front of his Demons, however, they were not doing anything else aside from appearing and running away. Instead, when they appear, there was a spear just above their head containing the full strength of being thrown.

***

"You really utilized the little kids to their full extent, huh?"

Pefile remarked. His tone was quite positive, complementing Mark's idea.

The ability of the Yasaws did not only work on people. They could also use their ability on items that moved parallel to the direction they were traveling.  This time, the other Spirits would throw a spear forward with full force, and the Yasaws would carry the spears with their ability and appear in front of the target Demon. That was why it looked like the spears were appearing out of nowhere when it was actually transported by the Yasaws.

"They are quite a work, though," Mark said. "Their abilities were not a problem but their mindsets. These guys won't just try to do something dangerous as this as before since most of them were scaredy cats."

Of course, it was a given. The Yasaws were a weak race that was kicked around by those that were more powerful. They grew shy and easily scared. If it was before, none of the Yasaws would try this because of the potential danger as they appear before the Demons.

"A lot of them had a grudge at you now."

Suddenly, a voice echoed from behind. There, Aliya appeared, escorted by a few Yasaws that were glaring at Mark with both fear and hate.

"It can't be helped, Grandmother," Mark shrugged. "They needed to overcome their fear for all of this to work."

"But you didn't need to make them feel something far scarier than death, you know?"

Aliya reprimanded Mark with a bitter smile.

"They should be glad I didn't turn them like a certain Isekai rabbit race."

"What?"

Aliya was confused with what Mark said.

"No, don't mind me."

Mark shook his head. Among everyone here, it seemed that only Emika understood what he said.

In any case, it was true that the Yasaws both fear and hate him now.

During the preparations and planning, Mark did something horrible to the Yasaws. Using his [Emotion Induction], he channeled extreme fear to the poor child-like creatures. Now that they knew what death felt like, facing Demons was now not as hard as before.

"Grandmother, you're not going to join them?"

Mei asked Aliya respectively. After all, Aliya was also among the warriors of Diwata Iraya.

"I want to, but Diwata Iraya won't let me waste my energy fighting."

Aliya replied to Mei as she sat beside her.

"It's obvious." Mark chimed in. "This is a dangerous battle where people are bound to get injured, and only Grandmother had the ability to heal them."

Aliya nodded, agreeing with what Mark said.

"Though I really think that I'm going to get useless this time," Aliya grumbled. "From when the battle started, only a few people received scratches. They don't even need my healing."

Aliya then turned to Mark.

"The Yasaws might hate you now, but no one would be able to deny that you brought us this kind of battle where no one had yet to die."

Mark smiled with a shrug. He was not something special in this kind of thing. It was just the Demons were caught off-guard by things they did not know that was possible.

Still, Mark applied something that he knew. War was like a board of Chess. If you want to win, you have to throw the bait and anticipate the opponent's moves.

SHOOM!

Suddenly, an event on the battlefield took everyone's attention.

The army of Demons was not shrouded with thick mist. There was no way to see them at all.

At the same time, the Yasaws also retreated. At this point, even the spears were rendered unusable.

Seeing the situation, Mark smiled.

"This is the next phase," Mark said. "At this point, there are three possible moves for the Demons."

Hearing him, everyone began to listen.

"First, they will stay put and start to counterattack. Second, rush in every direction and tear the encirclement apart." Mark then tilted his head. "Last, they will move together and charge out of the encirclement."

"Nee Uncle," Emika called out. "How did you know that they will pick one of the three?"

At that question, Mark smirked.

"Because I created this scenario from the start."

Holding the initiative. That was what Mark did. Because if he had the initiative, it became easier to predict the movements of the enemies.

And if it was hard to predict their movements, then make a scenario that would make it predictable.

"Then what are the Demons going to do now?"

Padua chimed into the conversation.

And to everyone's surprise, Mark replied.

"The second one."

"Huh?" Padua was confused. "Isn't it better if they chose the third? They would have a better advantage after getting out of the encirclement. If they did, no one would be able to stop them."

"That is also what I thought before." Mark shrugged. "But when I saw their leader, I know."

"That guy is an intelligent madman."

Mark added as he pointed at the scene on the battlefield.

The mist suddenly tore apart. Demons upon Demons scattered, charging at the forests surrounding them. They aimed to eliminate the Spirits and Demons.

Everyone looked at Mark. He really predicted it right.

Mark could only shrug though. He would have preferred if the Demons either stayed put or rushed out. Out of the three possibilities, the second one was the most painful to deal with.

After all, even if they were surrounded, the Demons still had their advantage. It was their numbers.

There was no way that the Spirits and Elementals in the surroundings would be able to eliminate all the Demons before they reached their positions.

At this point, Mark stood up.

"Gege, are we going now?"

Mei asked, following Mark. Amihan also left Mark's head and flew beside him.

"Yep." Mark nodded. "We can't just watch anymore since aside from that Lord guy, there are three other troublesome guys."

That was right. There were a lot of strong Demons among Lord Seis' group. However, there were three that were more troublesome than the rest.

Those were the Mist Demon, the Flame Demon, and that Old Woman beside their Lord.