An Unborn Hero

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For getting your message across, [Light] advances to level 9.

"Finally!" thought Mystery. "She has an ability to purge miasma in a wide area, and as far as I can see, demons practically run on miasma. Why didn't she use it right at the start?"

Mystery was forgetting that her ability to see miasma was a rare sub-skill that grew out of her ability to see mana, which itself was uncommon. Not everyone advanced their skill sets as easily as she did, nor did they encounter miasma on a regular basis. As far as the magical girl squad were concerned, Grace had fired her ability three times, and on each occasion, it had achieved nothing. They hadn't seen the way it had pushed back the fine mist of corrupted mana leaking from the forest.

When Rose had been caught, a desperate Mystery had floated in front of Grace, using [Light] to produce an expanding white shell, trying to convince her to use her ability, but she'd completely failed to understand. It took Zyfyl'p's mockery to remind her it existed. Even then, she probably wouldn't have tried it without Mystery's insistence.

It was fortunate that she had. Zyfyl'p wasn't in a good way, roaring with pain as his chitin shell sizzled and blackened, a network of fine cracks running across it. Never one to let an advantage go to waste, Rose leapt forward, freshly summoned sword in hand, and stabbed it into the demon's leg. This time, it bit deeply into the weakened exoskeleton before snapping.

The demon responded with a punch straight to Rose's solar plexus, launching her into the air with a grunt of pain. His sword abandoned, he turned and charged at Grace. Despite the ease with which he'd been handling it, it was obvious the weight had slowed him down. Not only had Rose completely failed to evade the straightforward punch, but his charge was significantly faster. Against the agile magical girls, his weapon had been more of a detriment than an aid.

Grace gave an undignified squeak, reflexively shielding her face with her hands as she emitted another burst of her purification ability and hence missing the sight as the wave once again tore through the demon. He tripped as the magic sent his muscles into a brief spasm, but he'd already built up enough momentum to barrel straight into Grace, the pair of them falling to the floor in a tangled mess.

"Hold him there a second!" shouted Rose as she ran in turn at Hayedalf to get another sword enchanted.

"How?!" screamed Grace, who was a third of the size of the demon and rather thoroughly pinned beneath him.

Zyfyl'p emitted a roar of pure rage, drawing back a fist and aiming straight for Grace's face. Of course, she responded reflexively by unleashing another miasma-purging blast, right into his face.

Another spasm meant that his fist collided with the ground, missing Grace by inches and merely splattering her with mud. And that was enough time for Rose to rush to the pair, enchanted sword in hand.

A summoned sword alone had bitten deeply into the chitin, but that had been after a single blast. Now he'd taken three, and Rose had the support of Kellela's barriers to reinforce her blade. It plunged through the demon's armoured skin and deep into the flesh beyond before the barriers broke and the blade delivered Hayedalf's explosive blast right into the demon's heart.

This resulted in some amount of mess.

"Yuk! I have demon in my mouth!" yelled Rose, backing away and gagging.

Grace climbed silently to her feet, no longer the white one. Thanks to her fall, her back was caked with mud and her lengthened hair was filthy, her plait shrouded in muck. Her front was caked with demon, her costume barely visible beneath the layers of black blood and cooked flesh. A lump of something that may once have been an internal organ slowly peeled off her face.

"I think..." she mumbled, sounding slightly concussed, "when we get back, I'm going to learn some cleaning magic."

"Don't you dare collapse on us!" yelled Hayedalf, looking around nervously at the ring of monsters. Thankfully, no further wyrms had shown up, but quantity had a quality all of its own. "Don't forget where we are!"

Which was, of course, the perfect signal for the monsters to realise they were free of the demon's control, and that there was one very tasty snack in front of them.

There were also a pair of things that smelt of the demon that had been controlling them, and one more that had been smeared with the excrement of a much stronger monster, clearly marking it as that monster's property.

There was a moment of perfect stillness as each monster considered the possibility of getting their fangs into the tasty-smelling morsel, but having spent the previous few days controlled by the demon, they decided against it, believing the other monsters around them to be a far safer meal. A mass brawl immediately broke out.

"Looks like the [Lieutenant] was spot on," commented Kellela, unaware of their likely fate had Grace actually known any cleaning magic.

"Good. Let's get back to the farm," said Hayedalf.

"It's still in one piece?" asked Rose, picking up the stunned Grace in a highly appropriate princess carry. "Did the wards really hold out all this time?"

Hayedalf spent a moment checking the feedback from his wards. Alas, there was rather less of it than the last time he'd checked. "They broke through the inner wall and into our house, but the panic room is still intact. Hopefully, the soldiers made it in there."

"... The panic room? How big is that room, exactly?"

"It would be a squeeze, but yes, they'd all fit."

And they had indeed fitted. Thankfully for them, the intensity of the attack had dropped off once Kellela had left and pulled away Zyfyl'p's attention. The monsters kept attacking anyway, following their last orders, but once the inner wall fell, they had no further direction, and attacked indiscriminately. Had they focused their assault, even the panic room wouldn't have survived.

Then again, had the demon employed even simple tactics in the first place, Kellela never would have had the chance to leave the farm. Had Rose not coated herself and Grace in demon guts, they wouldn't have escaped the monster encirclement. Had the wyrm not been ordered to eat them alive, they'd never have beaten it. They had no idea just how lucky they were.

Neither did Mystery, who, after keeping her unphysical eye out for a bit to make sure nothing else was going to happen, was reading through her list of messages.

For using it to slay a greater demon, [Magical Girl Transformation] advances to level 18.

"Cool. It jumped two levels at once!"

Achievement unlocked: [Demon Slayer II].

Demon Slayer II (Epic)
Very few have the misfortune of meeting a greater demon. Fewer still survive the encounter. Your party has done so, not by hiding or fleeing, but by striking back and slaying the evil. You gain a 25% boost to offensive and defensive abilities when fighting demons, a 10% boost to physical abilities, and effects of miasma poisoning are reduced by 50%.

"I seem to be stacking lots of physical ability boosts recently. Seems a bit of a waste. At least the girls probably got the same achievement."

For your careful examination of the flows of miasma within a demon when exposed to purification magic, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 30.
Achievement unlocked: [Journeyman].

Journeyman (Uncommon)
You have reached level 30 in a skill, taking another step on your journey towards its mastery. Be careful not to focus your training too narrowly. Boosts experience gain for all skills below level 30 by 10%, 20% for those below level 20, or 30% for those below level 10.

"How do you expect me to not be narrow? I haven't been born yet! There are limits to what I can do!"

She had to concede the point, though. It had been a long time since she'd last earned herself a new skill. Not that she planned to do anything about it immediately; the battlefield was hardly the place for experimentation. Maybe an opportunity would present itself later?

Instead, she floated above Kellela's head, keeping her metaphorical eye open and on watch for any attackers. She was seriously pushing against the limits of [Astral Projection], but she didn't want to hide inside Kellela, blinding herself, during such a serious battle. Besides, even if she couldn't get new skills, she could continue to level up her existing ones.

She stared around, trying to see in every direction at once, but the magical girl squad were doing perfectly well without her help. Most of the monsters were busy attacking each other, but now that they were running through them instead of around, some did try their luck. Kellela did a good job at keeping them away, while Rose thinned their numbers with projectile swords and Hayedalf dispatched some larger specimens that stood in their way.

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You have mastered the art of looking behind yourself without turning your head, upgrading [Soul's Eye] with [Multi-focal].
For observing a new aspect of reality, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 31.

"Of course I haven't been turning my head; I don't have one!"

Multi-focal (Rare)
In many species, peripheral vision serves primarily to detect movement. An important ability when on the lookout for predators, admittedly, but the most dangerous foes could do a lot of damage in the time it takes to turn and look at them properly. With this sub-skill, you no longer have to, as it will let you focus on everything within your visual field regardless of distance or location.

"Not the skill I was trying to level up, but still cool," thought Mystery as the amount of visual information piling into her soul jumped by an order of magnitude. "Also, ouch! Why do I keep getting headaches when I don't have a head?!"

Unable to tolerate her new sub-skill in broad daylight, she was forced back inside to get used to it, and thus missed the explosions and flashes of lightning that became visible as they approached the farm.

As has been mentioned, any group of monsters to which 'ten-thousand' was an applicable adjective had never had a chance of being stealthy, and the army had been picked up in Karn's Vigil the moment it had left the cover of the forest. Of course, dispatching a single squad of highly mobile adventurers would have achieved nothing against so many, so the [Commander] had taken the time to organise a stronger response. While Mystery's magical girls were chasing down the demon, an organised army of soldiers and adventurers had issued forth from the city, and shortly after Zyfyl'p's death, they had engaged.

With the monsters reduced to their base instincts, but left in an unnatural situation which those instincts had no answer for, the fight quickly became a massacre. Waves of arrows, bolts and magic slammed into the monsters from afar, the monsters too busy fighting each other to answer. Still, they had numbers on their side, so the clean-up took time, but eventually the monstrous army was no more.

"I have to admit, that was unexpected," commented Xry'kl from his vantage point just inside the forest.

Fylith snorted. "Zyfyl'p was a fool. He placed his own entertainment above his mission, and now he's paid the price."

"My, how cold. Not that I disagree, of course."

"It was only a pity so many reinforcements showed up, or I could have taken control of the monsters and ended this myself."

Xry'kl didn't answer. He knew full well the reinforcements had nothing to do with it; they'd arrived on the opposite side of the monstrous horde from their target, and there had been plentiful time to act without any danger of their interference.

The reason he didn't call Fylith out on her lie was because he knew the truth full well, and was just as terrified of it himself. The girl dressed in white had a purification ability that simply made no sense. It didn't obey any of the laws of magic as the demons knew them, and worse, she could cast it without gesture, vocalisation or even casting time. Repeatedly. Both were physically weaker than Zyfyl'p, and neither wanted to be on the receiving end of her spell.

"Now what?" he asked instead, wondering if it was worth heading back into the depths of the forest to bring out some of the more esoteric monsters that lived there, or if he'd be better off taking advantage of their damaged defences before they had a chance to rebuild.

Or perhaps he should return to the demons' dwelling and bring out reinforcements. Yes, they'd beaten Zyfyl'p, but even that purification wave wouldn't result in instant victory if they were up against a dozen similar demons. Or one arch-demon.

"I noted some amount of disharmony in the group, between the white and blue ones especially," answered the succubus, grinning cruelly. "I think I can use that."

Spoiler

μ̵̼͉̐υ̴̡̽̿σ̷̭͓̃̀τ̸͉̤̾̆ή̶͎̱͌ρ̸̤͕̏̿ι̷̬̾͜ό̸͈ (Human)
Age: -8 months
Occupation: Hero (L)
Skills:
- Soul's Eye (U) (31/90)
>> Sense Vitality (U)
>> Sense Soul (R)
>> Sense Mana (U)
>> Sense Light (C)
>> Sense Sound (C)
>> Pierce Illusions (U)
>> Sense Miasma (R)
>> Multi-focal (R)
- Astral Projection (U) (20/60)
>> Sure Navigation (U)
>> Uncontainable (U)
>> Tether of Will (L)
- Robust (C) (18/40)
>> Hardened Soul (R)
>> Secured Mana (U)
>> Pain Tolerance (C)
- Stealth (C) (3/20)
>> Camouflage Vitality (R)
- Magical Girl Transformation (R) (18/30)
>> Age Correction (R)
>> Gender Bending (R)
- Light (C) (9/20)
>> Heterochrome (U)
- Increased Attributes (C) (7/20)
>> Mana Storage (U)
Achievements:
- Early Bloomer II (R)
- First Skill (C)
- Journeyman (U)
- Survivor of Zarklaxxos, the Arcane Infernal (R)
- I Broke The System, And All I Got Was This Lousy Achievement (E)
- Astral Explorer I (R)
- First Spell (C)
- I Broke The System Again, And Now The Administrators Hate Me (E)
- Spell Forger (R)
- Demon Slayer II (E)
- Monster Slayer V (E)
- Curiosity (U)

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