Rey and Ajay stepped up beside Kassandra, who was raining down arrow after arrow at the demon. Any one of them should've been able to take the thing down in theory, but the demon was too strong to go down with a single arrow. Its body was covered with half a dozen arrows, but the thing was still moving about like they were nothing but toothpicks.

  Filomena was chasing the thing around, as if it had tried to break her favorite toy. Rey thought that was a close enough analogy, because if they hadn't gotten their in time, Ajay would only have two legs—one to walk and one for Filomena to play with. Though Ajay's disposition after losing his leg changed, in essence, Kiogne did break her favorite toy.

  Rey quickly used Identify on the demon, even though he knew its rank, but it didn't hurt to get confirmation, considering Fate might change it up, now that he had changed Ajay's canon event, or so Rey hoped.

  [Kiogne (Exiled) – E+8]

  "Oh boy, that is one strong demon," Rey commented. For you all.

  He was on the verge of Rank 7, so unlike last time, he could've taken the thing on by himself. If he could take on the Aearbon, then he could do this. The leader of the Tigermen was much stronger than this, shadow demon.

  "It's the strongest one we've fought so far," Ajay said.

  "Correction, it's the strongest one you've fought so far," Rey replied.

  Both Kassandra and Ajay turned to look at him.

  "What do you think I've been doing while I've been away? Jacking off in the bushes. I could down this thing in a minute if I wanted to, but why take away your fun?"

  "Yeah, right," Kassandra replied.

  "I really could, Kassi, but with Filomena chasing it like a caffeinated squirrel with a personal vendetta, I can't show my true powers. So, let's just kill this thing. But still, I would say you keep your distance, Ajay, since it's already had a taste for your blood, and these things make it a point to never leave a meal unfinished."

  "So, you want me to throw fire at it from here?"

  "Verily, Fire Lord, and also light the whole place up," Rey replied. "This thing hates fire. Actually, make a ring of fire around it. Pen the creature in, so we can throw away the shadows and see what's inside."

  Rey knew what the thing looked like, but they didn't, and it was a good introduction for them to see a Kiogne in the flesh. He mostly just wanted to see their reactions… again.

  Kassi was giving him one of the looks she reserved for a puzzle she tried to solve. Knowing her, she wondered how he could know all these things. She must be wondering how a 'Seer' could know all these things about a specific demon.

  "What?" Rey asked, pretending to be the fool. "Are you charmed by my handsome looks?"

  "No, more like, how is it that you have the answer to every problem?" She replied.

  "That's because I've got everything you need…and at least half the things you shouldn't want." He winked at her.

  Ajay gave him a weird look. "What are you doing?"

  He left a red-cheeked Kassandra and sidled up to Ajay, and whispered in his ear. "I'm trying to woo, Kassi. I would say, take some pointers, but since you've already conquered Rome, maybe you should give me some pointers."

  Ajay coughed, glanced at Kassandra, and then back at Rey. He whispered. "But you used to run away from her, and what was it you said last time, that you didn't think of her in that way?"

  "I've had a change of heart." Then whispered a little louder to ensure that Kassandra would hear. "Dude, she's hot as fuck."

  Kassandra failed to stop herself from smiling, but resumed firing her arrows to cover it up. "If you two are done gossiping over there, we need some help. Filomena can run on rage alone for only so long."

  She wasn't wrong. Miss Lightning Storm of Sicily was fizzling out. Kiogne had stopped running and was facing her, when it wasn't dodging Kassandra's hail of arrows.

  "Ajay, now!" Rey exclaimed.

  He didn't waste any time and rained a fireball on the demon, and it was back to running while it shrieked an ear-piercing scream. It was a very humanlike scream. One could almost confuse it for a woman's scream.

  "Why?" Kiogne screamed, giving everyone save Rey pause. It had a feminine voice.

  Yes, these things could talk. Like Unokir, it was one of those demons that were intelligent and could speak. They also used that voice of theirs to trick people into coming into their cave and then have a feast of flesh and soul.

  Rey decided to humor it. "A—because you're a demon, B—you're the boss of this dungeon, and C—we cannot leave this place without killing you."

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "I didn't ask to be the boss," she cried. "I was content living in my cave until this thing opened up beside my home and designated me as the boss."

  Rey yawned. "Such a sad story."

  "If I could, I would let you all go and live in peace."

  "I'm sure that is why you were trying to eat my friend's leg, after you yanked him inside your beautiful, dark, horrid palace," Rey countered.

  Kiogne paused, not sure of how to answer this. The others looked ready to attack. Thankfully, they hadn't fallen for the demon's trick to make it look like I was meek and a victim of the dungeon.

  "Well, I have to eat, so it might as well be you."

  Kiogne lunged for Filomena and took the electric pepperoni pizza by surprise. Its speed was so fast that it nearly gulped Filomena in one bite, or would've if she hadn't shot her with a lightning bolt, and Ajay launched a column of flames that was equivalent to Charizard's Flamethrower.

  The demon smashed against the wall. It screamed and thrashed under the combined assault. For most demons, that would've been it, but these Rank 8 demons were too strong to go down that easily. It quickly reared and slithered off to hide behind a wall.

  Ajay didn't need to be told what to do. He lit that whole area with flames, making the demon shriek, as it must've slithered to hide behind any corner of shadows that it could find.

  If Rey were anyone but him, he would've given the demon the time to show itself, but Rey wasn't going to fall for that. He held out his hand and used Attraction on the wall. Cracks formed on the wall like spiderwebs, and then the wall crumbled. It fell, raising some dust, and when the dust settled, there was no Kiogne, cowering in the shadows. All that awaited them was a massive hole in the ground.

  "I didn't know it could do that," Rey stated, and again Kassandra stared at him. "What? I can't be expected to know everything."

  He wasn't lying about that either. This was the first time he was seeing one of these things do this. In his defense, he had only faced three of them, because who in their right mind would wander into their lair to be tentacled in the ass.

  "Where did it go?" Filomena asked.

  "Shh!" Rey put a finger to his lips and pointed to his ears. There was a sound coming from the floor, then the wall, and finally the ceiling. The shadow demon was moving around faster than Rey could track it. He just needed a solid position where the demon stopped for more than one second, and he could imprison it with his gravity.

  Then all the noise stopped.

  Rey looked to the others for confirmation, and they didn't hear anything either. No one moved, but then the demon shrieked so loud that it drove them to cover their ears with their hands. Rey did his best not to let that break his concentration, but he was only human. The moment he wasn't watching for the demon, it attacked.

  It materialized from the ceiling and jumped toward Ajay. He saw it coming and rolled away before the demon landed on his head and crushed all his bones to paste. The marble floor cracked where the heavy, walrus-like demon landed. It lashed out at Ajay right away with one of its hands, which extended way more than it had any right to be. It rolled around his foot, whose pant leg was missing, yanked him off his feet, and pulled him towards it.

  Rey dashed forward and jumped in the air at the last moment, and brought his scythe down on the demon's arm, cutting it off.

  The thing screamed as it leaked surprisingly scarlet blood over the floor. Most demons' blood was dark, almost black. He couldn't remember the blood of the last Kiogne he had killed. After all, it was dark as shit in there. Besides, it was like squishing a bug, and who really remembered the blood of a bug they had squished over three years ago?

  Ajay shirked the dead appendage off him and jumped to his feet, looking relieved and angry at the same time. "Thanks, Rey."

  "Man, you'd better cover that up, because it really wants that leg."

  Kiogne, the Blind, was howling in pain as it flailed its cut arm around, leaking blood everywhere. The arm Rey had cut off lost the shadow covering it and lay naked on the ground. Its skin was pale and mottled with pockmarks.

  The demon's flailing stopped, and it shrieked the same shriek that was aimed directly at annihilating their ears' will to live. Rey was done with this thing. Before it melded into the shadows once again, he activated Gravity's Domain under it. It crashed to the ground and stayed there. Though it struggled to get up, as most things did, but there was no beating gravity.

  He had activated gravity at fifty percent like he usually did, but it looked like it wasn't enough for the loveable shadow demon. It was almost on its feet, and Rey was genuinely surprised.

  "I didn't tell you to get up." He motioned down with his finger and doubled the gravity.

  Filomena ran to finish off the struggling demon, roaring at the top of her lungs. Lightning arced on her sword. A tear almost dripped from his eyes when he saw his old skill being used by someone else. This was his staple move in his last life. It made him so nostalgic that he almost wanted to go back to using lightning, but he couldn't. It would take too long, and gravity was better.

  "Stop!" He yelled. "Unless you want to sit on the ground with the kind of urgency Ajay desperately wants directed at his face."

  She skidded to a stop, just where his Gravity Domain circle started. She could feel the tug of the increased gravity as her sword and clothes were being attracted to it, as if there was an invisible magnet on the ground pulling on her.

  "What have you done?" she asked.

  "That's my new skill." Rey grinned. "I'll tell you all about it. Now, before this thing escapes into the shadows again, Ajay, light up this whole room with your flames, as a rave got possessed by a fire demon. Don't leave a single spot with any shadows."

  Ajay got to work right away and lit up the room with fireballs that hung all around the room, leaving no shadowy spot for the demon to escape to. Kiogne screamed and hollered as it hunkered down, trying to hide from all that light.

  "Okay, if you all want the experience, then shoot your strongest attack at it, right now!" Rey shouted.

  The others didn't disappoint as a massive fireball, a lightning bolt, and an arrow that shone with white light hit the demon almost at the same time.

  [+1 Magic Power]

  [+1 Magic Affinity]

  [You killed a Kiogne (Exiled) – E+8]

  [You have gained one rank. You are now at E Tier Rank 7.]

  [You gain 1 Talent Point, 1 Free Stat Point, and +1 to all Stats.]

  Cha-ching!

  Rey grinned. "Okay, scan the room for the treasures and then head for the exit that should be opening up any second now."

  "How?" Ajay asked. "It's still so dark…"

  The words died on his tongue as the darkness evaporated from the room and the entire palace. A vortex appeared on the far end of the room. Kiogne's true form appeared, and they all cringed because it was cringeworthy. The demon's whole form was pockmarked like its severed arm, but its body was riddled with burns thanks to the fire and lightning benders.

  Rey quickly checked, and they all had both progressed to Rank 6, which was great. They might still be low in stats, but he would remedy that fairly quickly.

  Rey was about to check every nook and cranny of the room, but Kassandra stopped him.

  "Rey," she called.

  He glanced at her. "Yeah?"

  "What did you mean when you said that this was Ajay's canon event?"