First Move, Checkmate: How Will You Respond?

Chapter 46: Don't Look Down on Me, Soulless!

“Miss…Miss Caifla!?”

Erica Duquois stood rooted to the spot, completely taken aback that the person who had arrived was Gwen’s sister.

Upon seeing this purple-haired beauty, Hennie was also a bit puzzled.

“Erica, who is this…?”

“This is… the sister of Gwen, the Captain of the Royal Knight Corps.”

Seeing Hennie still had a puzzled look, as if trying to sort out the relationship, Erica waved her hand and said:

“Never mind, it’s a bit complicated to explain right now.”

Hearing the two of them discussing, Caifla narrowed her eyes and chuckled:

“So, Erica, can you tell me what you’re doing here?”

She was naturally referring to the magic that Erica had just used.

Devon Raser let out a huge sigh of relief. Just a moment ago, he thought he was about to meet his maker.

Fortunately, this woman who suddenly appeared saved him in the nick of time.

With the immediate threat to his life removed, Devon reverted to his original arrogant demeanor.

“Hey! You there! I don’t care who you are! Save me! I can give you anything you want.”

Before he could finish, several blades appeared out of nowhere, stabbing into the ground around Devon Raser, missing his head by a hair’s breadth.

“I didn’t ask you to speak, so shut your mouth.”

Without even looking at Devon, she warned him.

Terrified, Devon quickly closed his mouth, not daring to utter another word.

The world quieted down. Caifla turned her gaze to Hennie, a dangerous glint flashing in her eyes.

“So, Miss, are you not going to explain?”

Hennie was a bit frightened, feeling the intense hostility from the other woman and unconsciously taking a step back.

Seeing this, Erica quickly stepped in to explain.

“It was Devon Raser who started by insulting Hennie, and he did many outrageous things!”

“This menace must not remain in the academy…”

But before she could finish, Caifla stopped her.

“That’s enough, Erica, you don’t need to say more.”

“Actually, I couldn’t care less about that pig’s fate.”

Hearing this, Devon Raser’s nerves tightened once more.

From the sound of it, was he still going to die?

But no one cared about him at the moment.

Caifla looked at Erica, her face devoid of the usual smile.

“He should be handled by others, not you, Erica.”

“Your father’s position isn’t stable, especially after the last time.”

“If you make a mistake this time, Victor won’t come to your aid again.”

Hearing Caifla’s words, Erica felt a little panicked.

She didn’t want to cause trouble for her father, nor did she want to rely on Victor for everything.

So, she hurriedly began to explain:

“We can easily blame his death on the Demons…”

The moment she mentioned Demons, Caifla’s eyes changed.

They became incredibly cold and sharp.

“It seems you do know something.”

Erica froze, her body breaking out in goosebumps.

She felt danger.

Even during the volcano incident, despite the looming threat of death, she never felt like this.

It was an oppressive feeling emanating from Caifla.

She was terrifying.

As if she had shed her usual facade, the real Caifla was like a fearsome hunter.

‘Does Caifla want to kill me?’

‘No… wait!’

This tangible killing intent wasn’t aimed at her.

It seemed to brush past her and lock onto the person behind her.

Erica quickly turned around, her eyes locked onto Hennie behind her.

“Hennie!”

Almost simultaneously, Hennie appeared to lose her sanity.

The tentacles around her began to thrash wildly as if responding to the astounding murderous intent.

“So it’s a Demon Host after all.”

Caifla’s expression gradually shifted to one of madness.

As early as yesterday, she had detected Erica Duquois’ scent.

It was a filthy smell unique to demons.

Distinctive, yet difficult to identify.

But as a seasoned Demon Hunter, Caifla had killed countless Demons and their hosts.

Bathed in the blood of demons, a Demon Host would react to her tangible murderous intent, thus losing its sanity.

And now, Hennie’s condition confirmed everything.

At this point, Erica also realized why Caifla was here.

“So, when you asked me yesterday where I had been…”

“It was because of this Demon, wasn’t it?”

She opened her mouth, hoping to get an answer from Caifla.

However, Caifla was too consumed by her killing intent to respond. It surged like a tide, insane to the extreme.

Her purple hair even began to glow mysteriously.

Caifla licked her lips, an expression of excitement in the face of her prey.

But she didn’t neglect to warn Erica.

“Erica, stay away from her.”

It didn’t take any more words for anyone to see that something was wrong with Hennie.

Dark Tentacles on the ground, as if called by a command, quickly congregated and enveloped Hennie.

Soon, a figure entirely wrapped in shadows emerged, with only Hennie’s face faintly visible.

In an instant, a few silver daggers on the ground suddenly connected, forming ripple-like patterns that controlled the center of the scene.

A delicate silver magic circle appeared in front of them.

A long time ago, Caifla had been pursuing this Demon from all over the world to the Royal Capital.

And now, she had finally caught her. She wouldn’t let her escape again.

Hennie, feeling the pain, cried out. The magic circle around her began to ripple, and magic started to form out of thin air.

Her instinct to survive prompted her to resist automatically.

Erica hadn’t expected things to escalate so abruptly. She anxiously watched the standoff between the two, stamping her foot in frustration.

“Professor Victor! We need your help!”

The next second, Caifla and Hennie collided.

Countless tentacles, like spiked whips, cut through the air with a sharp whistle!

They tore through the layers of air, aiming for Caifla.

Caifla’s swift silver dual blades defended against the onslaught, but it was hard to ward off the multitude of tentacles.

Two tentacles pierced through the gaps in her defense!

“Ugh.”

Caifla felt a sharp pain in her lower abdomen. Looking down, she saw that two of the tentacles had torn open a bloody wound.

The tentacles were even trying to invade her body, intending to disembowel her.

Caifla seized the moment of Hennie’s sluggishness, stepped back, and with a flip of her blades, cut off the two tentacles.

The wounded tentacles turned into puddles of liquid on the ground.

Caifla quickly took out a red potion, took a sip to restore some of her stamina, and swiftly wound a bandage around her wound.

“Caifla!”

Erica called out anxiously, but in this situation, she could do nothing.

Caifla charged ahead again, and the Dark Tentacles on Hennie lashed out at her once more.

She stepped on a tentacle, flipped into the air, and the tentacle, as expected, folded back to pursue her.

A cold light flashed in Caifla’s eyes. In an instant, her figure moved like a shooting star, darting crazily.

With a flash of white light, she appeared behind Hennie.

The silvery-white dagger seemed to possess a special power, effortlessly slicing through the black membrane that wrapped around Hennie’s body.

Two wounds were left behind, tendrils of fresh blood seeping from Hennie’s back.

Hennie cried out in pain; the sensation of pain as if snapping her back to consciousness.

The next second, she felt a darkness envelop her vision, and she fell into unconsciousness.

“Hennie!”

Erica Duquois exclaimed in surprise, Hennie’s unconsciousness making her feel something was terribly wrong.

However, Caifla had already somersaulted away from Hennie, landing smoothly on the ground.

“Poor combat skills, thinking of using the same trick twice.”

Caifla twirled her dagger in her hand, purposely exposing a flaw to get herself hurt, thereby seizing an opportunity to attack.

She had indeed fallen for it.

Caifla tore off the crimson bandage on her body, revealing her waist.

The powerful regenerative abilities of a Demon Hunter had already completely healed her wound.

Not a single mark was left.

Suddenly, the surrounding tendrils began to move unconsciously, as if going completely mad.

Caifla held her dagger in front of her, her expression incredibly serious.

“Something’s wrong.”

Any Demon Host, when attacked by her special daggers, would be forcibly separated from the host’s body.

Caifla’s attack that seemed to harm Hennie was actually helping her break free from the Demon’s control.

But now, not only did the Demon’s true form not separate from the host, on the contrary…

“The power… has become even more violent?”

She couldn’t understand. The next moment, a thicker layer of Ink clung to Hennie’s body.

A deep echo, as though from the abyss, resonated around Hennie.

“Guh… You’re really impressive, Demon Hunter.”

Hearing this title, Erica was momentarily stunned.

Miss Caifla, she’s a Demon Hunter!?

Demon Hunters, also known as Demon Slayers, are the absolute nemesis of Demons.

No wonder Caifla had asked her those questions.

Perhaps from the moment she met her, she had sensed the Demon’s scent on Hennie.

Seeing that the other party had recognized her identity, Caifla wasn’t surprised, but an uncontrollable violent hue flashed in her Purple Pupils.

The Demon Hunter’s bloodline made it hard for her to control her emotions when facing these filthy creatures.

That was the instinct to hunt Demons.

If she had been able to maintain her sanity before, now, when the Demon’s true form appeared, she began to lose her sense of reason.

Hennie’s body mechanically stood up like a puppet on strings, the ink-like shadow behind her expanding continuously.

In an instant, a surge of Ink completely engulfed Hennie.

Erica watched everything happening in front of her, standing frozen in disbelief.

A dark and massive figure slowly began to rise up from the Ink.

Hennie’s small silhouette was obviously insufficient for the Demon’s true form to fully emerge.

So, it extended a gaping mouth, devouring the edges of the shadow.

In a moment, the shadow expanded to a grotesque extent.

What emerged was a skull with horns, lacking eyes and a nose, only a gigantic mouth with a hundred-meter-long tongue.

It sprayed a jet of Ink towards the sky, covering the already gloomy sky with endless darkness.

Its body seemed to squeeze out of the dark clouds, lumps of liquid-like flesh gradually rising from the shadow, forming a mound.

The wildly expanding body forced Erica and Caifla to retreat several tens of meters.

The two of them stared at the colossal beast before them.

Caifla became even more excited, her body trembling like a wild beast.

Erica looked at the sky-covering giant hand and the frenzied Caifla, her mind a blank for a moment.

This was something they couldn’t possibly defeat.

A vertical slit ripped open in the demon’s bloated body, suddenly gaping wide.

Thousands of sharp teeth, foul-smelling slime, and a myriad of corpses of various creatures.

These were the trophies of the demon.

Caifla couldn’t bear it any longer. A Demon Hunter would not fear any demon.

This led to only two possible outcomes for a Demon Hunter from birth.

One was to never encounter a demon in their lifetime, the other was to be killed by a powerful demon during the hunt.

Without any fear, she transformed into an arrow of white light and burst out in an instant.

But.

She had underestimated the demon.

The moment she stepped onto the demon’s body, a powerful dark hand grasped Caifla’s neck.

Seeing her pained expression, the demon laughed.

Its laughter was piercing, like a terror that delved into the abyss, stabbing at Caifla’s eardrums.

“You seemed to enjoy that beatdown, little one.”

“Now, it’s my turn.”