Heroic Chronicle of the Reincarnated Demon General

Chapter 6

‘Oh shit!’

Luke cursed internally as the realisation dawned, and he momentarily considered letting go of the tongs so he wasn’t lifted into the sky. However, he hesitated since doing so would mean letting go of the only weapon he had against it.

In that moment of hesitation, something suddenly smashed into one of the creature’s feet, and the sudden impact caused it to lose its balance and collapse onto its side.

Luke, who'd been clinging to its head, fell onto his back as the enormous creature crashed down beside him, and although the impact hurt, he immediately recognised the opportunity he'd been given.

Without wasting even a second, he grabbed the tongs and pulled them out of the monster's injured eye before raising the bloody piece of metal toward its head once more.

He stabbed the weapon into the creature's other eye, forcing it deeper with all his strength until the heated metal pierced through the eye and into the monster's brain, finally ending its life.

[Level Up]

The creature's body immediately went limp before collapsing completely, leaving Luke breathing heavily beneath its head and neck.

He pushed the monster's long neck and head away from his body before turning his attention toward its feet, where he noticed a broken slab of concrete lying nearby, clearly a piece of debris from their damaged house.

Luke then turned toward Judith, who was breathing heavily as she sat nearby, and noticed some drag marks on the ground in front of her.

Clearly, she’d dragged that piece of concrete towards her and had thrown it at the monster’s leg before it could take off, knocking it off balance and creating the opportunity for Luke to finish it off.

He shook his head lightly, then rushed towards Judith and grabbed the beam that had fallen over her leg, pushing it away with all his strength, before removing the remaining pieces of concrete scattered around it, eventually managing to free her trapped foot.

Crouching, Luke visually examined her leg to determine the extent of her wounds. There was a cut in her flesh that appeared fairly deep, judging by the amount of blood flowing from it, and her ankle had also begun swelling slightly.

Clearly, she’d twisted it when the debris fell on her leg.

‘For now, let’s deal with the bleeding.’

With that thought, Luke grabbed his shirt and tore off a piece of the cloth.

"H-HUH!? Luke??" Judith called out.

Ignoring the confused girl, Luke used the torn cloth to wipe away some of the blood so he could properly examine the extent of the cut. He then tore another piece from his shirt and carefully wrapped it around the wound, tying the fabric in place like a bandage to help stop the bleeding.

While he did that, loud voices echoed from somewhere in the distance, and it was followed by the sounds of heavy footsteps.

“Over here! Over here!" someone yelled.

The sounds of hurried footsteps and clanging metal rang out as several villagers rushed over with flaming torches in their hands, eventually reaching the broken section of the house and finding the corpse of the monster Luke had killed lying amid the scattered debris.

The group consisted of several adult men carrying old swords and cutlasses, some of whom were already wounded, with bloodstains visible on several of their weapons.

However, the moment they arrived and caught sight of the dead monster, they froze in shock, as if they were struggling to understand what they were seeing.

Their attention soon shifted toward Luke, who was still busy tying the torn fabric of his shirt around Judith's injured leg, before one of the men at the forefront stepped forward with his sword and torch in hand.

"What the... who killed it?" the man asked, eyes flicking between the corpse and the two teenagers nearby.

"I did. Is there a problem?" Luke replied, narrowing his eyes slightly as he turned toward the man.

Something about Luke's current demeanour, especially since he was still in battle mode after fighting the monster, caused the older man, who was nearly twice his size, to flinch and instinctively take a step backwards.

More villagers rushed over at that moment, and when they saw the monster's corpse, they were equally shocked, staring at it as if they couldn't believe it was already dead.

"Can you stop staring at that corpse and come help us already?" Luke snapped, his annoyance at the gawking villagers clearly evident in his tone.

Just then, another voice suddenly called out from behind the crowd, shouting, "Luke! Judith!"

A woman pushed her way past the weapon wielders, only to stop in her tracks when she caught sight of the dead monster's corpse.

She was slightly plump, with a few strands of grey hair mixed into her head of hair, and her brown eyes, which had initially been drawn to the monster's corpse, quickly moved towards the two teenagers next to it.

The moment she noticed Judith's bloodied leg, her eyes widened in alarm, and she immediately rushed toward the girl.

“Oh my goddess! Judith!”

The woman momentarily raised an eyebrow when she noticed the pieces of cloth tied around Judith’s wound, but she put that emotion aside in a second and raised her palm in front of Judith’s injured leg, rousing her magic power to use an ability granted by her skill.

“Light Cure.”

A faint glow emanated from her palm and fell on Judith’s injured leg, and gradually, the cut in her flesh began closing up.

The woman cast the ability two more times before the wound finally healed. She then looked at Judith’s ankle, instantly analysing the extent of the injury.

Turning around to the men nearby, she shouted, “What are you all standing around for?! One of you should come over here and carry her!"

Her loud, authoritative voice finally snapped the men out of their shock, prompting several of them to drop their weapons and hurry forward to help.

The woman then turned her attention away from Judith and toward Luke, reaching out toward his head as she examined him more closely.

"And you, you're bleeding!"

"Huh?"

Luke made a confused sound at her words before raising his hand to touch his head, where he felt something wet against his fingers.

He then lowered his hand and looked at his palm, seeing it covered in blood.

"Oh, I am bleeding," he muttered.

The adrenaline rush had prevented him from noticing that some of the debris that fell from the wall when the monster burst through it had hit him in the head, and he’d been bleeding throughout the entire battle.

While he came to this realisation, the old woman activated her skill on Luke, using Light Cure to close his wounds before turning toward the men and issuing another order.

"One of you should come over here and carry him too. He might've broken something."

"No need for that," Luke replied immediately, raising his hand in protest as he pushed himself up to his feet.

"I'm fine. I can walk," he insisted, before turning toward Judith, who was being lifted into the arms of one of the men nearby.

Noticing that the man’s hand was a bit too close to her ankle, he frowned and warned, “Watch your hands. Don't hit her ankle by accident.”

Hearing his warning, the old woman immediately turned toward the man carrying Judith and shouted, "Hey, watch it! Carry her carefully and follow me quickly.”

Turning to the others, she continued giving orders.

“The rest of you, get that thing's corpse out of here for now. It’s late, so clean up the rest of this mess tomorrow morning."

After issuing her instructions, she turned toward Luke and added, "Both of you are staying with me tonight.”

At her words, Luke glanced toward the broken wall of the house, a dry laugh escaping his lips as he replied.

“Well, it's not like we have another option."

Shrugging, he followed the apothecary and the man carrying Judith toward her house/workshop, leaving the remaining villagers behind to haul the monster's corpse out of the house he and Judith had shared.

As they made their way toward the apothecary's home, Judith suddenly reached out and grabbed Luke's hand, holding it tightly as they continued walking.

He could feel her hand trembling slightly against his own, and after noticing her unease, he gently tightened his grip as if reassuring her that he was still there beside her.

After a few moments, her trembling gradually stopped, and she softly muttered, "Thank you."

Hearing those words, Luke stared at her in silence for a moment, taking some time to think before reaching out with his other hand and running his fingers through her messy hair.

“Anything for you,” he finally responded, patting her head lightly.