Demon Slayer : LEveLing uP

[Inside The Forest]

After searching the surface level of the forest for some time, the trio found no trace of demons at all, except for drag marks at the entrance of the forest. Beyond that, they managed to find nothing, at least on the surface area. This was something Ishida could predict because he couldn't sense any demons or anything nearby other than the two teammates he had for this mission—Kazuki and Karin.

By the time they had finished searching the forest, both Kazuki and Karin were tired and hungry. Although Karin didn't express it, anyone could tell she was tired and hungry, while Kazuki was, as always, very direct about his needs. So, although Ishida didn't think it necessary, he had to leave the forest because of them and planned to return later to continue.

[Next Evening]

All three of them came back to the forest again, and this time, their target was the mountain forest, which they hadn't explored yet.

"We will apply the same strategy as yesterday," Karin started as she stood in front of the mountain forest, which was very dense, and the trees were very different from the ones at the ground level. Kazuki was feeling a bit anxious just by looking at the forest and its appearance, though he couldn't find a reason for this feeling, even to himself.

Karin acted as the unofficial leader of the trio, a role neither Ishida nor Kazuki agreed with, but they tolerated it for now.

"You..." Karin pointed towards Ishida, who slightly looked at her with a bit of annoyance on his face, which he quickly fixed, "take the left, from that way around," she pointed out the path, and then she turned to Kazuki, "You take the middle... and I will take the right," she said. "Is that okay?"

"Fine...!" Ishida said, walking ahead, not wanting to waste more time listening to her.

The mountain was unlike most mountains; it was a mountain with a dense forest, which inclined towards the other side, making the side they were going up a slanting forest path rather than a mountain that needed to be climbed.

Ishida walked ahead, and just as he took a turn to the left, as instructed by their unofficial leader, he started sensing a presence for the first time since arriving at the forest. He picked up his speed and walked towards the place where he sensed it...

[Meanwhile, at an Unknown Place]

"Who is this new demon slayer member?" A person bowed down in front of the authoritative figure asking the question.

"Ishida... Ishida Hitotsuki."

The authoritative figure gestured for him to continue without responding verbally.

"He is the kid you ordered her to kill... But it seems she didn't complete her work properly, and he has been alive until now, even becoming a demon slayer," he explained.

"I see..." The person replied without much reaction.

"He killed her after just 40 days of training and 10 days of being a slayer. Should I personally go and kill him now? He might possibly pose a threat to—"

Before he could finish, his voice trembled, and he swallowed his words out of fear of what might happen if he finished his statement.

"Do it... But don't kill him outright. Bring him to me; he has the potential to become…" He trailed off, laughing out loud.

[At Present, Inside the Forest]

Ishida, who had just sensed some movements and the presence of a demon nearby, started increasing his speed in the direction of the presence and movements. But after some time, when he reached the location, he had already walked up to halfway up the mountain. As he looked around, there was nothing. Again, just like before, he stopped sensing the presence he had been sensing earlier. He looked around for a moment, but to no avail. "What the hell just happened?" was all he could think at the moment, because he had never been tricked by his senses or made any mistakes before. How was it that he sensed something and then found it was nothing?

As he proceeded to take a few steps forward to continue his search, he immediately realized something was wrong. But even with his quick realization, he was too late. Suddenly, a green vine popped out of the ground, wrapped around his legs, and turned him upside down, lifting him high above the ground. In a moment, he was already more than 30 feet in the air. He saw another wave of the same vines wrapping around his legs, coming toward him, this time targeting his hands.

Quickly gathering his thoughts, he brought out his sword from his inventory, which was the sword given by the system at the very start and which he always kept with the other sword given to him by the demon slayer corps. As he drew the sword, he first cut through the vines coming towards his hands, causing them to fall to the ground. Then he went for the vines wrapping around his legs. As he cut through them, he started to fall to the ground. He steadied himself, but just then he realized there was someone waiting for him below, directly beneath him. He couldn't process what it was, and he was approaching it quicker than he would have liked at that moment.

He didn't know what to do at the moment, so he quickly, instead of sending his body ahead, put out his sword in front, as his plan was to use the sword as bait and keep himself away from the thing, whatever it was. Without knowing what it was or anything else, that was the best he could think of in the few milliseconds he had. To his surprise, it seemed to work at first as a claw wrapped around his sword, stopping him in the air. Now, he could just jump out of the way and fight with his second sword even if he couldn't retrieve the first one. However, before any of this could happen, the creature, whatever it was, wrapped its claw-like green hands around the sword and used its strength to throw both the sword and Ishida, the person holding it, into the distance.

Blown away by the sheer strength of the creature, Ishida had no control over where he was going. He came to a stop after a few seconds, hitting a tree with a huge thud, creating a dent in the tree. As he fell to the ground, his sword slipped out of his hand, and at least one rib in his back broke from the impact of crashing into the tree. He heard the noise of it approaching him as he managed to grab his sword. With the help of his hands, he mustered enough strength to stand on his feet. A smile appeared on his face as he stood up from the ground and sensed the attack coming toward him. This time, he was ready as he brought his sword in front of him and, with precision, blocked the attack. It was now him who used his strength to push back the creature in front of him.

The creature skidded backward several feets from where it had stood while attacking Ishida.

As he took a good look at it, Ishida finally saw its strange appearance. It stood at a considerable height, but unlike the demons he had faced earlier, which closely resembled humans, this one was more akin to a snake but with hands. It seemed to move with its tail, which skidded along the ground like a snake. It had the same color as the vines that had initially wrapped around his legs.

"What are you!?" Ishida questioned as he looked into its eyes. They were the same type of eyes he had seen before, similar to most of the demons he had fought. But demons usually looked like humans, as they had become demons from humans, Ishida thought to himself.

The snake-like figure in front of him hissed, "Why do you filthy humans have to come here and disturb us from living a normal life!? Why can't you just leave us alone!?" It asked with anger evident in its loud and deep voice, which had a layered tone.

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