Blood demon leveling

Chapter 159: Meeting

Mike picked up the newly acquired shield and looked it over, it was in surprisingly good shape considering he had just hit it with the hammer, though it seemed to be regenerating slowly

"I think I'll keep you"

Mike put the knife back in its sheath before he picked up the shield and began walking back towards the city, however, he suddenly stopped and looked to the top of the walls where Groge stood and looked down upon him with a look of smouldering rage, the army Mike had just defeated was his achievement to be made, not Mike's, alas Groge weren't that stupid and had seen how Mike had eliminated seven level 8's with ease, so he kept his rage hidden (as best he could, which was pretty badly) and gave a huff before he turned away and gave the orders to give chase to his aside that would pass the order down the chain of command, Mike soon returned to the city and sat on the top of the southern walls and waited for Julie to return with the Wind spirit army as he hummed a song

Duke hit the wall in front of him with his fist

"Shit"

He was behaving unsightly, he knew that, but it was just too much to bear, the family that owned the city had proposed for him to marry into their family, to be precise to marry one of the daughters, that was 43 years old, Duke himself was 19 years old

'No way in hell I am going to marry an old hag like her..!'

He felt himself getting cornered if he didn't accept that offer he would likely be thrown out of the city and left to die in the wilderness

'I need to clear my head'

Duke walked out of his room and after declining the offer of an escort he walked out into the city to clear his head, this proved to be a stupid decision as he soon found himself running through backstreets running from a gang of robbers that wanted his expensive-looking clothes

'Shit'

As he turned a sharp corner he almost ran into another person and tripped, the person caught him before he fell onto the ground, however, when he opened his eyes again he was stunned to see that the person that had caught him was a woman that muttered

"Why hello there"

Duke felt a bolt of lightning go through him, he had never seen such a beautiful person before, she was perfect in every way, perhaps because of the events of the day he muttered

"...Please marry me"

"...Eh?"

The woman dropped Duke out of shock, Duke hit his head on the ground

"Ouch..!"

"Oh, sorry Are you okay?"

"Yeah Don't worry about it. But never mind that, please marry me!"

The woman blushed quickly before she covered her face with her hands, at that moment the pursuing thieves turned the corner

"There he is!"

Duke ignored the thieves and kept looking the beautiful woman in her eyes as he awaited an answer, but one of the thieves punched him in the face as he cursed

"How dare you run from us, damn noble!"

Duke quickly sat himself up again and continued looking the woman in the eyes showing his determination, at that moment the thieves seemed to realize the woman was there, one of them spoke with a lewd look on his face as he reached out to her

"What a pretty little thing"

Duke saw the thief reach out to the woman and yelled as he quickly got onto his feet

"Don't you dare touch her with your filthy hands!"

Duke punched the thief in the face sending him stumbling back, the thief, however, were a confident street fighter and quickly reimagined his balance before he punched on Duke with the rest of his gang

"Get him!"

As Duke was being beaten up by the five level 6 thieves the woman seemed dazed and lost in her thoughts only getting out her daze when the thieves had beat Duke half to death, suddenly the air seemed to freeze as the women suddenly circulated her mana quickly as a silver spear suddenly appeared in her hands as she spoke in a chilling voice

"Stop right this instance!"

The thieves froze before they turned to the woman that continued speaking

"You are behaving like some kind of dirty non-humans, where has your pride as humans gone!?"

The thieves quickly keeled down on the ground as they began begging the woman to spare their lives, Duke, however, seemed rather lost and sighed

"Now scam!"

The thieves got up and hurriedly ran away, leaving Duke and the woman alone in the ally, Duke sighed before he got up onto his feet and bowed to the woman

"I am sorry for my outburst, please forgive me, fair lady"

Duke was clear on one thing now, he was going to die after he refused the marriage proposal that the lord had offered him, as for marrying this woman, it was but a pipe dream

'Someone so powerful won't want someone as weak as me'

The woman looked at Duke before she asked in a surprisingly meek voice

"...So are you taking back your proposal?"

Duke nodded

"Yes, someone as powerful as you surely has lots of better suitors than a noble who's city has just been burned down by non-human demons"

The woman pouted before she spoke

"...I don't"

Duke didn't quite understand what she meant so he asked

"You don't what?"

"...I don't have any suitors"

Duke's mind was blown by that statement, as his mind blanked out he muttered

"...Then would you marry me?"

The woman seemed to turn rather shy before she spoke

"You are the first one to defend me since I came to this world Please take good care of me, my name is Jane"

Duke couldn't believe his ears, she had actually angered, he wasn't going to die after being thrown into the wilderness, he quickly lost confidence however as he asked once more

"I am Duke Kel Are you sure you are okay with me?"

Jane showed a smile and nodded rather shyly before Duke spoke again

"I have nothing I can give you other than my love, my home has been destroyed"

Jane quickly seemed to get angry as she yelled

"I don't care about that! You protected me"

Duke nodded before he blushed and spoke in a bright voice

"Then please take care of me Jane"

"Likewise Duke"

The two of them blushed as they shook hands before they laughed happily

From there time passed until 2 months later, the war had not escalated to a full-on race war as Mike had hoped but at this point, there was enough blood spilt on both sides that it wouldn't be stopping anytime soon

'Once the gears start turning they won't be stopping anytime soon'

The border cities had been turned into barracks that housed soldiers and supplies, the war was ramping up like a raging fire getting started, or a truck going 120 with a sleepy driver

'Anyway, it's starting to get good'

Mike was quite satisfied with the progress so far, especially on the blood sacrifices, they were about 60% done by now, this spoke volumes of how much blood had been spilt on both sides, another thing had also changed in the two months, it seemed that Julie was about to reach level 8, she was infinitely close it seemed, the WInd spirits had also been working hard back home to raise their levels, every few days they would receive reinforcements of about 10 new level 7 Wind spirits, this Mike did to create a false sense of their numbers, to make it look like they were scraping the bottom of their manpower

'Maybe Windpower is a better word?'

Mike sighed before he sat himself up on the bed and looked over at the sleeping Julie next to him and smiled as he touched her forehead, there was a triangle mark much like the one he used to have, this was the sign that she had been accepted by the elder demon and were in the process of being turned into one of her kin, elder blood was already flowing in her veins, though it were rather diluted at the moment

'Though that's going to change soon'

Mike had ordered the WInd spirits to collect monster crystals for Julie so she was quickly increasing the purity of her elder blood, these shipments were the main purpose for the reinforcements as they smuggled them in

'Though my instinct is telling me that something bad is happening soon Better trust my gut this time, we all know what happened last time, right kids?'

Mike poked Julie's cheek once, then twice before she caught his finger and spoke to him in a slightly annoyed voice

"I swear Mike if you woke me up in the middle of the night to play 'hide the zucchini' I am going to be mad"

"No My gut tells me we got to go"

Julie opened her eyes and sat herself up and looked at Mike

"...Now?"

Mike nodded

"Yeah, now"