I wandered out into an open plain with as much flat land as I could find, and channeled essence into my eyes, amplifying my presence to the absolute limit.
"Come on at me, bastards."
Only a few seconds later, rhythmic rumbles surrounded me. Just shy of a hundred demonic beasts came rushing to the vile energy I emitted.
The first to show up was a pack of snake-centipede hybrids, three meters in length.
"Sepulchers, huh? You know, I'm keeping one of your kind as a pet. Lovely guy, that one."
The hunger driven Sepulchers didn't care for my ramblings.
But that was alright. I wasn't here to chat anyways.
I got down on all fours.
Or would it be all threes? Since one of my arms is a sword now? No, that sounds dumb.
The grass beneath my feet coiled in on itself, and rapidly expanded with a springing motion, propelling me forwards in a burst of speed.
I leaped over the closest Sepulcher, dodging its teeth by a hair's breadth, and pressed my hand into its hard carapace.
It squealed in agony as its near-indestructible shell fell apart under my touch like string cheese. But I didn't have the time to harm it any further.
Two more lunged in.
I parried the first one's assault with my bladed arm, and allowed the second one's bite to connect with my flesh.
The pain wasn't anything to write home about, after the torturous experience of fusing a blade into my arm.
"Got you."
With a wicked smile, I leaned even further into the clueless Sepulcher, sinking my teeth into one of its many eyeballs-
*Sqelch*
And aggressively jerked my head back, leaving strands of muscle and nervous tissue hanging limply from the wound.
Invisible to the naked eye, strings of essence were pulled out of the poor guy's soul, invigorating me.
"Ahahahaha!! Yes, this is it!"
I was overcome with euphoria, driven to kill by my instincts.
And this time, I didn't need to resist the call.
I kept slashing and biting at the beasts - and all the while, more came flooding in.
It seems I'll be getting a whole feast today. How nice.
I dodged, jumped, lunged, and maneuvered between them with precision, leaving corpse after corpse in my wake; throughout it all, my strength only grew, every next kill adding more fuel to my rapidly expanding reserves.
Of course, I also accumulated injuries of my own. At my level, this quantity of enemies was overwhelming.
Still, it was nothing I couldn't mend, what with the abundance of essence.
Amidst the mad brawl, I overlooked an attack; Something bit into my side, leaving a deep gouge on my stomach. Blood streamed out.
I barely registered the wound.
At one point, a swarm of Hammerhead Goblins surrounded me with no room to escape. In response, I slashed my blade in a wide arc, beheading a dozen goblins on the spot.
Normally, my strength wouldn't have been enough to perform such a maneuver, but after the extensive fight, I had plenty of essence to spare.
Right as the blade came in contact with the goblins' necks, their flesh softened in accordance with my will.
It didn't matter how durable their skin was - any living being's hide became no tougher than a peasant's clothing with its structure broken down into malleable threads.
As a dozen heads rolled on the floor, I stumbled due to the overwhelming flow of energy seeping into my body.
The beasts didn't miss the chance, and I was left with more wounds yet again. I kicked one in the stomach - it was left with a gaping hole directly through it.
Woah. Did I get that much strength through all of this? Sure doesn't feel like I fought for that long.
Finally, I gave the battlefield a look-over in search of more enemies to kill…
And only then did I realize that I was now standing alone amidst the pools of blood and meat.
"Umm, what? Wait, is that all? I lost track of time, I guess?"
At this point, no more would show up; even if they were stupid, the sight of an apex predator was enough to scare them off.
Still, my mood soured when I scanned my state up and down.
"Oof, that's a lot of injuries. Gonna be a bitch and a half to heal, I reckon…"
Sure, I had more than enough essence now to recover from damn near any would, but nobody said restoring those would be a pleasant process.
After all, the only way I could heal was by reconstructing the damaged parts of my body. And the first step of reconstruction was, of course, disassembly.
In other words, I would have to unfurl any injured organ into threads before weaving it back into acceptable shape.
But, what else could I do?
"Haha, fuck. Here goes nothing…"
And so, I spent the next hour in agonized laughter yet again, with intermittent breaks to fend off the occasional straggling demon unfortunate enough to stumble upon my angered self.
***
Bill was too stunned to speak.
A young man, no older than twenty five going off of looks alone, sat cross legged in the very center of all the bloodshed with a displeased expression.
Just then, the man noticed Bill's party, and let out a dumb sound.
"Huh?"
"…"
"…"
Kanna, Rennie, and Bill returned the him the dumbfounded stare.
Around ten seconds passed like that, all four exchanging confused glances, until finally, the young man gave them a smile:
"Umm, hi?"
***
My heart sank.
Three humans just appeared before me, and I, in all my 'wisdom', was too distracted with performing self repairs to notice their approach.
Before they had the time to notice anything out of place, I made a swift decision; I hid my hands behind my back and dismissed the blade entirely, all the while keeping my expression neutral to avoid showing the pain of losing a limb.
It was through sheer luck that I had my arms hidden by overly long sleeves - they didn't seem to notice the sword protruding from my arm, giving me the chance to disconnect it in a timely manner.
Now what?
I must've looked suspicious as hell, sitting here without a care.
Deciding that things would only turn worse If remained silent, I spoke to the group with a wave of my hand.
"Umm, hi?"
They stared at me some more before finally, the tall woman took a step forward and responded with an affable smile.
"Hey there. Are you a fellow adventurer, by chance?"
At her question, my thoughts churned.
I can't tell them that I am. I've tried it before, the lasts time I ran into a human; they'll ask me for my guild card, no doubt.
That only left me with one choice.
It was time to start lying through my teeth.
"Ah, no, no. Nothing like that. I'm just a hermit. I live around these lands, you see."
She raised an eyebrow.
"You live 'here'?"
She motioned over the surrounding. The message was clear:
'Are you crazy? You live in this monster infested forest?'
Or something along those lines.
I quickly shook my head.
"Don't misunderstand, please. I don't live here, exactly. There's a safe spot not too far away, and I've set up camp there."
Eventually, the bulky man with gauntlets and a luscious beard - oddly well kept for someone of his stature - also spoke.
"Then, what about all this bloodshed? Was this your doing?"
I gave him my best attempt at a shocked expression.
"What? Obviously not! I just came over here at the sounds of battle. But by the time I arrived, the one responsible was long gone, so I helped myself to all these goodies."
Every word I said was accompanied by awkward gesticulation, planting the image of a helpless kid into their minds.
It seemed to have worked, as I finally sensed their tension subside. If only slightly.
They asked me a few more questions about this and that, and I masterfully deflected nearly every single one.
Eventually, feeling like I'd built up enough trust, I went on to introduce myself.
"I'm Ori, by the way. What about you?"
"Call me Bill. Billiardean's the actual name, but it's a mouthful to say, so you can stick with Bill."
I stood up and dusted myself off, only to realize I was soaked in blood from head to toe.
Uhh, huh… Well, they didn't ask anything about that, so I guess I'm good? Yeah, I'm sure it'll be fine.
After a handshake that didn't go as smoothly as planned - I reached out with my severed stump at first, which was a little embarrassing - I proceeded to take turns greeting the rest of his party.
The staff weirder called herself Kanna, and she also introduced the sorceress:
"Ah, don't mind her, she's just terrible with social interactions. Her name's Rennie."
"..Right. Well then, nice to meet you all. Care for a meal? I can cook up a mean stew."
I flashed the party a smile, which prompted them all to take a couple steps back.
Shit. Forgot to clean the blood off my teeth. Why do i keep fumbling everything?
Naturally, I knew the actual reason. I was anxious beyond words. Scared, even, to meet humans after all this time.
Finally, I managed to convince them to follow me into my house, to build a stronger alibi. I had to make sure, beyond a shred of doubt, that they believed I was simply a random kid living in a safe part of the forest, and not some dangerous entity capable of slaying nearly a hundred demons all on my own.
I turned away from the party to lead the way, wiping the friendly smile clean off my face - my expression grew grim as I calculated my next move.
The biggest issue was simple.
They're suspicious of me.
As much as they tried to conceal any signs of concern, the changes in their sweat secretion and heartbeat couldn't escape my sensitive ears and nose.
Which was why I believed it was the best choice to show them my safe, mundane hideout.
Though by now, as we'd nearly approached the hut, I've started regretting that choice dearly.
What if I left some sort of clue about myself out in the open? I don't think there any dead giveaways, but who knows? I might've forgotten to, for example, cover my emergency stash of steel threads scavenged from dead adventurers' weapons and armor…
Just as my anxiety reached its peak, and I was about to suggest turning around, a rundown shack came into view.
Haah, goddamnit. So, it's come to this.
Well, then. I should my dear guests a nice welcome, shouldn't I?
With those thoughts, I turned to face the party, looking friendly as ever.
This was the final gamble. Whether or not I would keep them alive now hinged on their smarts and my own acting chops.