Reborn as an Yandere : Yandere X Yandere

Bone Dragon

"Let's get a bit more closer," Esdeath says, the sound of their battle already echoing across the crystal forest. She was trying to oversee the situation more clearly. Who knows, their fight might attract some monsters or beasts, and she wanted to be prepared for any eventuality.Maruti nods, following her behind. Esdeath wasn't focused on keeping stealth since the fight had already started. They would be too busy to distract themselves by keeping an eye on their surroundings.

But as she walks past another crystal spike, a figure suddenly came in front of her, appearing as if from nowhere.

Out of pure shock, both she and the figure stumbled back. The sudden encounter was unexpected, breaking their concentration.

"Aack! Ghost!" the figure cursed out loud in fear, drawing his bow with an arrow, directly aiming at Esdeath. His movements were quick, born of instinct and training.

His fear was clearly justified. He had just accidentally seen a ghostly pale face with red, eerie eyes that seemed to glow all of a sudden, causing him to lose his cool. The sight was terrifying, especially in the dim light of the snowstorm.

As his gaze went from Esdeath to Maruti, he quickly realized the situation and tightened his grip on his arrow even more. 

"You... Who are you two?" the demon asked, his voice trembling slightly but trying to sound authoritative.

Esdeath looks at Maruti in the eyes and then looks back at the demon. Her presence of mind was always flawless, even in unexpected situations like this.

She puts a finger on her lips, "Shh... Idiot, I'm with you," she says, pointing at a bit away where the fight was happening. Her voice was calm, reassuring.

"Look, the fight has started already," she added, gesturing toward the battle with her head.

Out of pure instinct, the demon turns back, believing Esdeath's words for a second. After all, for him, she was a vampire and Maruti was a bull demon. Why would they help humans? The logic seemed sound in his panicked state.

But a moment of weakness was all she needed to silence him without making any sound.

The ZK-20 turned into a silenced pistol in her hand, and then—BANG!

The mana bullet directly pierced through his head, barely making any sound. Because of the snowstorm, the sound came out even less, muffled by the howling wind.

The archer demon's body fell to the ground with a low thud, barely audible in the chaos of the battle nearby.

Esdeath looks at his unmoving corpse without any expression on her face. Neither she nor Maruti said anything. They just started to observe the fight, as if nothing had happened.

****

After a few minutes, the fight died down. Only one demon remained, with some wounds, alongside three terrified slaves. The battlefield was littered with bodies, the sand stained dark with blood.

If there would have been no casualties, he would have taken them as prisoners to extract information later on, but right now, all his companions were dead. He was consumed by rage, unable to think anything rational.

He chased the three slaves one by one to kill them. His movements were fueled by fury, each step heavy with purpose.

Even though he was wounded, these slaves still had no means to even hope to defeat that remaining demon. 

He sliced one apart with his sword, the sound of metal cutting through flesh sickening in the quiet aftermath of the battle. Then he beheaded the other one with a swift, brutal motion.

The third one, with dark skin and a slim body, tried to run inside the carriage, but his legs stumbled and he fell directly in front of it's wooden wheel. His hands scrabbled at the sand, trying to crawl away.

"No, please spare me! Please. I got a wife and three kids waiting for me. They don't even know I'm here," he begged, his voice cracking with terror. But it was of no use.

The demon raised his sword to slice him in two. All that the remaining slave could do was lean against the wooden wheel of the carriage and close his eyes to wait for his death. Tears streamed down his face, freezing on his cheeks in the cold air.

So he did, bracing himself for the end.

But a few seconds went by, and nothing happened. The silence was deafening, broken only by the howling wind.

The slave slowly opens his eyes, and his eyes widen the moment he sees a graceful, tall, muscular young woman standing behind that demon.

Her hand had pierced his chest, taking out his heart in one go. The organ was still beating in her grip for a moment before going still.

Of course, it was Maruti.

She casually pulled her hand back and threw the heart aside, as if discarding something worthless. Blood dripped from her fingers onto the sand.

The demon looked back with wide eyes, his mouth hanging open in shock and pain. But it was too late. His body fell and turned lifeless the next moment, collapsing in a heap on the ground.

At the same time, Esdeath joined her as well.

Both of them looked down at the miserable slave like predators, their gazes intense and unnerving.

"Give some answers, will ya?" Maruti exclaims, her voice devoid of sympathy.

****

Esdeath and Maruti sat in front of him, completely unbothered by the chaos that had just happened. Their calm demeanor made the poor guy tremble even more, his fear of them almost as great as his fear of the dead demon.

The slave looks at the two of them in confusion,"A demon killing another demon? Why?, Internal strife?, Or for essence stones?, Well they are demons, Human logic doesn't apply on them" He thought to himself and then finally says.

"I... am... No, my name is—" he was about to say but Esdeath cut him off, her patience clearly worn thin.

"Nobody cares. Speak about your situation. You all were collecting essence stones, right? The carriage doesn't have much. Did they hide it somewhere? If we manage to find it, I'll spare your life in return," Esdeath says coldly, her voice like ice.

"R-really?" The slave's eyes widen in hope, a flicker of something other than fear appearing in them for the first time.

He continued, "We were about two hundred slaves and about ten Awakened, but we luckily ended up finding a Rank A time path essence stone."

"Rank A time path essence stone?" Esdeath's red eyes gleamed, she didn't want to smile, yet a subtle smile appeared on her lips forcefully. The possibility of such a treasure was too exciting to hide completely.

The slave shuddered and continued, "But we never thought that it will bring our doom. Actually, we never thought that we'll find one, so there were no method to seal its vast aura. Us slaves were already having a hard time just breathing. But then its aura attracted a terrifying monster," he added, remembering the horror moment of his life. His body trembled at the memory.

"It was something like a dragon, fully made of bones. It attacked us. Most died because of it. We had no choice but to throw almost all the essence stones towards that thing and run away. We barely managed to survive," he added, his voice barely above a whisper.

"That is... that is why we were in such a hurry to collect any essence stones as fast as possible to make up for the losses," he explained, looking down at the ground, unable to meet their eyes.

The subtle smile on Esdeath's face disappeared immediately, her lips curling downwards in a bit of disappointment. The news of the dragon tempered her excitement.

"A bone dragon, huh..." she mutters to herself, her mind already working through the implications.

A bone dragon would easily be an S rank, Even more powerful than average S rank monsters.

With a deep breath, she asked, "Do you know the location of that bone dragon?"

The slave nodded immediately, pointing in the east direction in front of him. "Of course, in the east. There's a big cave or lair. Anyone can immediately realize that it's the nest of a dragon," he added, his hand trembling as he pointed.

"Hmm... So we need to fight that dragon, right?" Maruti questions, a hint of excitement in her voice at the prospect of a challenging fight.

"Not necessarily, just enough to steal that Rank A essence stone. It would be good if we can kill it though. Consuming its core might be the same as consuming a dragon heart," Esdeath answered casually, as if discussing a routine shopping trip rather than fighting a legendary creature.

They both stood up and looked in the direction of the east. Of course, all they could see was ash-like sand and crystal spikes like cactuses, stretching endlessly into the distance.

"Come with us. You better not be lying, or else..." Esdeath didn't complete her sentence, but it was enough to make his bones feel chilling cold. The unspoken threat hung in the air between them.

"Y-you can rest assured, but if only I could eat a little—"

He was continuing his words, but all of a sudden, a mighty death aura spread through the area like a raging storm. The air grew thick with malice, the temperature dropping even further.

His whole body turns into meat paste without any warning. Even Esdeath and Maruti were subjected to intense killing intent, making them instinctively tense up.

However, that death aura wasn't coming from Esdeath. It was way more powerful and intense, coming out of some dreadful creature.

As Esdeath and Maruti turn around, a huge shadow looms over them, blocking out what little light there was.

Its body was fully made of bones, flapping its bone wings silently. The dragon's eye sockets were empty, only a purple fire burning in their place. The huge mana core instead of a heart rested at its chest, pulsing with an eerie light.

"What is the probability of a bone dragon coming back to hunt its prey which isn't even worth their time?" Esdeath says to herself, her mind racing to understand the situation.

If what that slave said was true, then the Bone dragon only chased them because of that Rank A essence stone. It already got it and even got to eat hundreds of humans. So there was no point in chasing all the way here for these remaining ones. It simply wasn't worth the effort.

"How unlucky..." Esdeath sighs but then a realization hit her.

"Unlucky?" she repeats, the word echoing in her mind.

She had used her secret power that she got on these humans, but in the end, she saved one slave to ask questions without realizing that that slave's luck was below bottom right now.

It wasn't that Esdeath and Maruti got unlucky. It was that this slave was so unlucky that it attracted the bone dragon.