The Laughing Swordsman

Chapter 18 - You Think You Can Kill Me?

The two-horned demon under Apollo's foot was quite large, perhaps about three meters tall. Its skin was black and its fingernails were sharp and white. As for its eyes, they were dull and lifeless, contrasting their bright yellow color.

Next to the two-horned demon was a saber, presumably what it used. However, the most prominent thing about the demon was the large hole in its chest.

The hole at the front was quite small, but nearly the entirety of its back was gone.

Blood was splattered across the snow around it.

A similar sight could be seen every step forward in this massacre.

Within the bodies were many one-horned demons. They were about the size of a kid and daggers laid by their side.

Of all the bodies, two were three-horned demons. A large mace laid next to them and if they were standing, they would tower over the rest.

Apollo tilted his head to the side.

He wondered if he could eat the corpses.

He bent down and took a whiff of their blood, but immediately choked after.

It smelled like rot and acid, so Apollo gave up on using them for food.

Apollo was not bothered by the field of corpses, walking right through them. In fact, his biggest concern was that Willow's scent might be masked because of them.

The corpses gradually thinned and Apollo came across a strange clearing.

There was a large patch of ground that was stone and devoid of any snow. In the middle, there was a cracked pedestal.

Apollo curiously walked up towards the pedestal.

He tried poking it, but nothing happened.

Apollo giggled, then raised his foot to take a step forward. But, his step stopped in midair.

There were faint high-pitched roars that came from all directions.

One after another, one-horned demons revealed themselves, quickly becoming a horde.

Their size was not too different from a kid, so individually they were not intimidating. However, there were hundreds of them at the minimum.

They held onto their daggers tightly and gathered at the perimeter of the stone patch.

Once they had gathered to a certain amount, they charged towards Apollo. They held their knives high above their heads.

Apollo laughed.

"What are these cute little creatures?"

An enthusiastic demon was first to reach Apollo. It ran forward with confidence that it could take down some random child with a wooden sword.

Yet, to the demon's surprise its chest caved in and it did not even know why.

The demon fell onto its back unwillingly and died.

A nearby demon stumbled, slowing down its pace. Once three other demons caught up, it regained its confidence and charged with a roar.

Apollo attempted a feint, but the demon did not even react to the initial swing. Nonetheless, it still got hit by the next one, dying where it stood.

In the meantime, the other three demons tried to jab at Apollo.

Apollo dodged one of them. As he did that, his hand traced the blade of his bokken. Once the bokken snapped out, the two demons trying to hit him were split into two.

The remaining demon panicked, wanting to run back to the crowd.

Apollo laughed and chased after the demon. He easily outran the one-horned demon, sending his bokken to pierce the demon's chest.

After Apollo struck, five demons that were now in front of him attempted to stab him.

Apollo took a step back, avoiding them. His hand traced against the blade of his bokken once again. Two heads flew in the air shortly after.

Unfortunately, Apollo was now surrounded on all ends. There was hardly anywhere to dodge and more demons were waiting from behind.

Apollo's bokken flashed. Three of the demons had their hands cut off, taking their knives with them.

Apollo was able to dodge three of the stabs but was punctured by another five.

Apollo's smile grew larger as did his laughs.

He gave up on trying any fancy technique and wildly slashed his sword.

The five demons that stabbed him all split into multiple pieces.

As for Apollo, he now had five knives implanted into his body.

The disarmed demons opened their jaws wide while other demons quickly closed in.

Apollo's bokken whipped out once again, splitting the surrounding demons into chunks.

Yet, like an unending sea, more demons would step over the corpses of their brethren and continue their assault.

Apollo's eyes widened as he cackled.

"I will kill each and every one of you... just watch."

Blood was seeping out past the knives in his body. If that wasn't bad enough, he was already feeling hungry.

Soon, he would be running off fumes.

Apollo's bokken let out a flurry of slashes and the red tassel wildly danced about.

Sometimes heads would fly, sometimes demons would be bisected in two, and sometimes they would be split into pieces.

Apollo was slowly walking forward.

His breathing was getting heavy, while the swarms of demons were still going on strong.

Sometimes a demon would slip by, implanting a new dagger into his body.

As time passed, his breathing became heavier and his body was filled with more daggers.

He was beginning to look like a porcupine.

In such a perilous situation, Apollo smiled as widely as he could and laughed.

He was laughing at the demon's attempts. The thought that they could actually kill him.

"Do you know what I've been through?"

Apollo's grip on his bokken tightened as he yelled.

"Because it's been far worse than this!"

Apollo continued laughing as his slashes sped up.

"Far worse! Far worse! Nothing you do could possibly compare!"

Apollo's eyes were bloodshot. He continued deliberately taking steps forward.

The demons were unable to stop him and a trail of bodies was left in his wake.

The skin on Apollo's lip began to tear. He was smiling harder than his lips could handle.

"Really?"

Apollo cackled as he split four demons into pieces.

"Are you guys all idiots?"

Apollo was a bloody mess, covered in both his own blood as well as the blood of his adversaries. He looked like a warrior fighting in the pits of hell itself.

Apollo's pupils shook.

"You think you can kill me?"