The forest was too quiet.
Everyone could feel something was wrong, but no one could say what. Then—without warning—a shadow leapt from the treeline.
It moved like a spear hurled by a giant, soaring high above the circle before plunging straight into the center. It landed soundlessly, as though it had materialized out of thin air. In the blink of an eye, it was simply there, towering over them.
The swordsmen in the outer ring never noticed. Their eyes were still fixed on the woods, watching for an attack that never came. None of them expected the true threat to be standing right behind them.
It wasn't that they failed to react.
There was no time to react.
Even Kimura and Eimi were caught off guard. Their gazes locked with the intruder's—its round, expressionless face, its cold, indifferent eyes. The creature's body was massive and muscular, its frame stretching at least two meters tall. The height made its lower limbs seem freakishly elongated, like stilts, and it looked down on them all as though they were insects.
At that moment, its gaze fell on a young woman standing in the circle.
She froze. Tears welled in her eyes as she turned to her comrades, silently begging for help. But the others stood paralyzed, too stunned even to lift their blades.
And then she was gone.
Her body shot into the air as though yanked by invisible strings. The world spun around her, her teammates shrinking below as the whistling wind roared in her ears.
She opened her mouth to scream—nothing came out. In the next heartbeat, she vanished into the darkness.
A strangled cry tore from her neighbor, raw and high like a pig being slaughtered. The scream jolted everyone, even making the lurking demons in the woods flinch.
The outer ring turned at once, blades drawn, expecting the enemy to be among them. But the circle's interior told the story. The survivors stood pale and shaking, breath shallow, eyes wide with disbelief. Some of the women covered their heads and sobbed. Even the men bore expressions of despair.
"What was that…?" someone whispered.
"Was it really… a Demon?"
What kind of creature could leap ten meters in a single bound?
Kimura staggered forward, one hand pressed to his forehead. He paced restlessly before finally slamming his fists together and unleashing a furious roar. His voice trembled—not just with rage, but with helplessness. Was he cursing the Demon Slayer Corps for pitting them against such monsters in a mere assessment? Or himself, for being powerless to stop it?
Beside him, Eimi crossed her arms, shivering. Her lips quivered as she whispered, "It took her… just like the last one…"
The outer defenders didn't yet understand, but they saw the terror on the faces of those inside the circle.
Another disappearance. Another comrade stolen before their eyes.
The team was unraveling. They had barely survived the earlier wave, nearly half their members dead or maimed. And now this—an enemy that could invade their "iron barrel" defense at will, plucking victims as easily as vegetables from a garden.
How could they fight something like this?
How could they even defend against it?
Kimura clenched his fists. He had no answer.
Before the silence could settle, a deep roar ripped through the woods.
Every head snapped toward the sound. It was no ordinary cry—it rolled like thunder, low and guttural, the kind of roar that sent prey scattering before lions or tigers. But there were no lions or tigers here.
Only… Demons.
The effect was immediate. The lesser demons lurking at the treeline shrieked in alarm and scattered, vanishing into the shadows.
"C-crack—!"
The sharp splintering of wood followed. At first it sounded like a branch breaking, but the next snap was deeper—thicker. Trees. Something was breaking trees.
How much strength was required to snap trunks as wide as a man's waist?
The noise grew closer. The ground trembled with each thudding step. Fear spread like a contagion through the formation.
The swordsmen on the outer ring raised their blades, hands shaking uncontrollably. The inner ring abandoned even their meager food, staring toward the forest as though awaiting the arrival of a nightmare.
And then it came.
A spider-like form skittered out first, low to the ground, darting toward the circle with unnatural speed.
Behind it came the roar again, louder than before.
Two massive trees groaned, split apart, and toppled sideways as something vast forced its way through.
Under the pale moonlight, a mountain of flesh squeezed into the clearing.
The ground quaked with its steps.
The thing was a horror that defied reason. Three or four meters tall, with legs like hashiras supporting a grotesque torso. Its upper body looked less like a man and more like three obese corpses fused back-to-back, their severed legs melted together. Six arms jutted from the conical mass, uneven but powerful.
Two bloated heads protruded from its shoulders, but the front bore only a face—embedded in the chest where no head should be. Its mouths gaped, drooling, while its six eyes rolled in different directions.
The swordsmen gawked, frozen in terror. Not one remembered to lift their blade.
All eyes fixed on the towering abomination. None noticed the smaller spider-thing that had already slipped inside their circle.
It slithered between them with ease, its thin limbs bending at grotesque angles, its grin stretched from ear to ear.
At last, it stopped before another young woman.
She felt it before she saw it—the cold, damp breath on her ankles. Then the rank, fishy odor
Slowly, stiffly, she turned.
And met its smile.
The rows of needle-like teeth gleamed in the moonlight.
No… no… is it my turn now? Her thoughts shattered in panic. This thing is so hideous—!
The Demon's clawed fingers gripped her neck. A sharp crack split the air.
Her vision spun, her head twisted backwards. Darkness swallowed her as a single tear slid down her cheek.
The Spider Demon grinned wider, clutching the limp body as though it had won a prize.
A scream burst from nearby. One of the men, driven mad by terror, swung his Nichirin Blade in a desperate arc.
The steel missed the Demon—but cleaved the dead woman's face in half.
The Spider Demon's grin widened.