DEMON SUMMONER: DESCENDANT OF THE CELESTIAL SOVEREIGN

Chapter 7: The Law of the Jungle

Rain began to fall, soaking the ruined toll road asphalt. The water droplets mixed with volcanic ash were a murky gray. The sound of the rain blended with the hiss of hot steam rising from the burning car wrecks around Eka. The rainwater slowly washed away the puddle of thick black blood beneath his boots.

Eka stood with his shoulders rising and falling. The cold air pierced his bones, but the burning heat from the wounds on his stomach and right arm was far more dominant.

Dozens of Forest Hound Demons surrounded him. They stalked forward with hunched postures. Their dirty black fur clung to the skin wrapped tight around their ribs. Thick saliva dripped from between their yellow, rotting fangs. The glowing red eyes of the E-Plus Rank predator pack were locked tightly onto Eka's body.

A hoarse and heavy laugh echoed inside Eka's skull.

"Just die right here, trash vessel." The Hellhound's voice sounded incredibly arrogant and full of mockery. "Your body isn't even strong enough to take one more bite. Let those scavengers tear out your throat."

Eka spat fresh blood from his mouth. He did not respond to the hell dog's mockery. His focus was fixed on the distance, the enemy's positions, and his surroundings. As an E-Rank Hunter, Eka could not use Qi to reinforce his muscles. He relied purely on his remaining human stamina, which was already on the verge of breaking.

"What a humiliating sight," Kuro-Oni chimed in inside his head. The samurai demon's tone was full of disgust. "An owner of a divine bloodline, finished off by the lowest caste of wild dogs. Do not expect us to help you, kid. If you die today, just consider it the mortal fate you deserve."

"Shut your mouths," Eka hissed quietly.

Eka tore off the remaining sleeve of his ruined shirt using his teeth. He wrapped the dirty cloth around his torn right palm, then tied it tightly to the hilt of the God-Slaying Sword. Without this binding, the overly heavy sword would slip from his blood-slicked grip.

"Do you think I will die at the hands of low-level trash like this?" Eka whispered coldly. His eyes glared sharply at the leader of the demon pack in front of him. "If I die, Sabeni's seal will drag both of you down to hell with me. You are free to watch, but don't cry when your lives are cut short too."

Kuro-Oni snorted loudly in his mind, but the demon did not answer back.

One Forest Hound Demon on the left lost its patience. The creature lunged forward with a hoarse roar, its jaws open wide aiming for Eka's neck.

Eka did not retreat. He lowered his stance, using the sheer weight of the God-Slaying Sword as a pivot point. Instead of swinging the sword, which would consume too much energy, Eka angled the blade upward.

The demon leaped right onto the edge of the blade. The ancient red steel cleaved through the demon's lower jaw, piercing straight into its skull with a sickening crunch of breaking bones. Hot blood and black brain matter sprayed onto Eka's face.

Eka kicked the carcass off his sword. Simultaneously, a very small black crystal shot out of the corpse and phased right into Eka's chest.

A warm sensation flowed gently around his lungs. The stinging pain from his previously burst blood vessels lessened slightly. It was a Spirit Rune from an E-Rank Demon. Its energy was miniscule, almost imperceptible to an entity like Sabeni, but for Eka's broken body, that energy was a drop of water in the middle of a desert.

"What a disgusting taste," Sabeni growled faintly from inside the sword, reacting to the extremely low-quality energy.

"Then be patient," Eka muttered. He pulled back his sword, taking short, measured breaths. "This is just the appetizer."

Seeing one of their comrades die, the dozens of other Forest Hound Demons howled in anger. They began to attack in a pack. Three of them charged from the front, while two others tried to flank him from the blind spots behind Eka.

Eka twisted his body. He sprinted toward a fuel tanker truck that was overturned and burning fiercely on the left side of the toll road. His legs dragged through the pain, but his survival instinct refused to give up.

Two demons leaped to catch him. Eka dropped his body to the asphalt, sliding right under the belly of one of the airborne demons. He swung his sword horizontally, slicing clean through the demon's hind legs. The creature crashed onto the asphalt, howling in agony with ruined leg bones.

The other demon managed to land on top of Eka. Its filthy claws dug into Eka's left shoulder, tearing through his skin and flesh.

Eka let out a loud groan. The sharp pain made his vision flash white for a second. He let go of his sword with his left hand, then grabbed the demon's throat. With a final burst of adrenaline-fueled savage strength, Eka rolled to the side, kicked the demon's stomach hard, and threw it right into the raging flames of the leaking tanker truck.

The creature was burned alive. It screamed hysterically as the fire consumed its fur and thin skin. The foul stench of roasting flesh instantly filled the air.

Eka scrambled to his feet. He coughed, spitting out the remaining dirty blood from his lungs. His left shoulder was bleeding heavily, but two more Spirit Rune crystals flew into his chest. That warm energy slowly sealed the bleeding on his shoulder, preventing him from bleeding to death.

"You're using the environment like a cornered rat," the Hellhound sneered in his head.

"A breathing rat is much better than a dragon that dies a stupid death," Eka replied coldly. He raised his sword again, wiping the blood from his temple. His eyes locked onto the rest of the pack, which was now hesitating to approach.

Eka did not give them time to think. He took the initiative instead. He provoked them by stepping slowly closer to the roaring flames, creating a narrow chokepoint where the demons could not gang up on him all at once.

The battle turned into a painfully slow and agonizing hunting process. Eka relied on absolute efficiency. He did not waste energy trying to chop through hard body parts. He aimed for the joints, severed knee tendons, blinded their eyes, and let his enemies die slowly from blood loss or burning alive. Every time his sword swing claimed a life, a small crystal healed his ruined internal organs bit by bit.

Hours passed. The volcanic ash rain returned, replacing the water.

The fight took much longer than Kuro-Oni and the Hellhound had anticipated. More E-Plus Rank Demons kept arriving, attracted by the smell of pooled blood. However, the young man in front of them refused to fall.

On the first day, Eka fought half-blind from exhaustion. His body was covered in fresh cuts. He rested inside the frame of a crushed car, chewing on the raw, non-poisonous meat of monster remains just to force his jaw to work, swallowing anything to keep his heart beating.

The Hellhound snorted in his mind. "You are literally eating carcasses, human. Your pride is lower than mud."

"Pride cannot heal broken ribs," Eka answered briefly between his tough chews.

By the second day, the numbers of the Forest Hound Demon pack began to thin out. Eka started to memorize their attack patterns. Eka's mortal body slowly adapted to the pressure and the pain. Every new scratch on his skin closed up faster thanks to the dozens of low-level Spirit Runes continuously piling up in his Qi channels. His previously torn muscles began to harden, forming new fibers that were denser and far more resilient.

On the third day, the Jakarta sky was once again covered in dark gray clouds.

On top of the severed overpass, Eka stood completely still. The strong wind blew his hair, which was matted with dried blood. He pressed the tip of the God-Slaying Sword against the forehead of the last Forest Hound Demon crawling away in a desperate attempt to escape. The creature whimpered softly, looking up at Eka with pure terror, as if staring at an apex predator.

Eka showed no mercy. He pressed his sword down, splitting the creature's skull without a sound.

The final Spirit Rune crystal shot into his chest.

Eka pulled his sword from the carcass. He let out a long breath. A plume of white vapor escaped his mouth into the freezing air. The massive laceration on his stomach had now turned into thick scar tissue. The internal bleeding in his lungs had stopped completely. Even though he could not yet manipulate Qi like a C-Rank Hunter, his physical density and killing instinct had now far surpassed any D-Rank Hunter. His teenage mentality had been entirely eroded, replaced by the mindset of a survivor. Efficient, cold, and deadly.

Inside his head, the Hellhound and Kuro-Oni fell silent. They no longer threw insults. The two A-Rank Demon existences had to admit, the vessel they inhabited possessed the psychological endurance of a monster.

Eka sheathed his sword with a slow motion. He walked to the edge of the broken overpass, looking far to the south. His sharp eyes scanned the plains below.

About two kilometers from his position, a provincial highway stretched out, cutting through a burnt urban forest. Thick dust billowed on that road. Eka narrowed his eyes. He could see a long line consisting of hundreds of humans. Civilian refugees. They limped forward, guarded by a few hunters on the outer flanks.

However, it was not the procession that caught Eka's attention.

From the top of a steep cliff on the right side of the highway, dozens of large silhouettes moved nimbly down the rocks. They were demons resembling gray-scaled apes. Their threat level was very clear. It was a pack of D-Rank Demons. They were ambushing the refugee convoy from a blind spot.

At the front of the refugee line, two hunter figures dashed forward to block the first wave of attacks. Eka could see bright flashes of fire and sharp vortexes of wind freezing the air around them.

That was elemental Qi. The mark of B-Rank Hunters.

Eka recognized that fighting style. It was a highly arrogant hunter couple, trying to defend the refugee line with pure brute force. However, Eka could also see their formation was far too fragile. There were too many D-Rank Demons starting to slip into the back lines, targeting the defenseless civilians.

Eka's brown eyes stared blankly at the impending slaughter below. His right hand gripped the hilt of the God-Slaying Sword once again. He had no intention of going down there to play hero. His brain, which now operated like a killing machine, simply calculated the number of enemies and the potential energy he could absorb.

Eka's lips curled up slightly, forming a chillingly cold smile.

"Dinner for Sabeni."