The village itself was nothing special. About fifteen homes made from wood and clay stood in a circle surrounding what must have been the village church.
Dah could only deduce that it was a church because he could feel an inherent disdain for that building the moment his eyes laid upon it. Resolving himself to burn that building to the ground for sure he took an interest in the search parties being formed.
Watching the search parties head off Dah realized there wasn't much organization. Most ran off in groups of 3 to 4 individuals. Uncaring what weapons they possessed.
'A smart village would have tried to pair those with a bow up with someone wielding a sword'
Instead while most groups only had bows and a torch a few groups had two or even three swordsmen in them.
'They pretty much deserve to die' Dah thought unremorseful to his plans.
There were five search parties that had moved into the forest five different directions. Four groups of four and one group of three. The rest of the villagers stayed within the village itself. Albeit on alert.
'It would be easier to take out the search parties one by one'
Even though Dah was strong he was still new to this body and it's powers and didn't want to fight the whole village on alert simultaneously.
Dah pondered briefly about simply walking into the middle of the village as a human and then killing those that remained within. Likely mostly women and children remained but ultimately decided against it. Their screams would be sure to alert the others and then he would have to deal with the search parties returning. Besides that he wanted to make sure no one was able to escape from his bloodlust.
Dah wanted all of their souls. He wasn't greedy, but he was a demon after all. Ordering Nucleus to stay where it was so Dah could in a stealthier fashion he began his hunt.
…
Dah was silently tracking the first group. It was comprised of three men holding bows, and one man holding a torch.
Dah quickly thought of a course of action. [Silence] a rank one spell was only effective against one individual at a time with his level of training. Knowing this, he wanted to strike hard and fast before they knew what was happening and before they could alert the others.
When one of the search members, a tracker perhaps, stopped to examine the ground Dah made his move. Sneaking up from behind he grabbed the head of a bowman and twisted violently.
CRACK
The bowman's neck breaking was much louder then he had anticipated. Although without breaking stride he leapt forward concentrating his mana into his fist he punched a hole in the chest of the second bowman and then crushed the throat of the third. The tracker by this time had pulled a dagger from within his clothes and was lunging at Dah with a wordless cry.
Dah sidestepped while tracking the motion of the dagger with his eyes. Reaching out he grabbed the trackers wrist and broke it with one squeeze making the dagger hit the ground. Still holding the wrist Dah's other hand leapt forward and crushed the trackers throat before he had a chance to shout.
'So slow. Too slow.' Dah lamented.
It wasn't necessarily a bad thing that he was able to collect souls this easily but he wouldn't have complained if they had put up a little more resistance.
Moving on he approached and killed two more four person groups without a problem. Both groups held only bows.
Coming upon the final four person group he realized this group was composed of three swordsman and one bowman.
Seeing this Dah decided to use one of his rank two spells [Darkness] the spell originally was designed to envelop whole areas with darkness impenetrable to the light however Dah had a different use for it.
Very precisely he cast the spell and had darkness envelop only the heads of those in the group.
Using it in this precise of a manner allowed him to expend less mana while keeping the spell effective.
The moment he cast his spell he leapt forward while channeling mana into his fist he struck the throat of the first swordsman.
Hearing the swordsman's body hit the ground and with the darkness enveloping their eyes the other two swordsmen begin blindly swinging their swords.
Squelch
The first swordsman after swinging his sword blindly had hit the bowman's throat killing him.
Dah in a fit of rage cast [Silence] on him then leapt forward and killed the other swordsman with one blow.
Now with only the swordsman that had accidentally killed his comrade left Dah reached out and disarmed him of his sword. Unable to speak and still blind Dah picked him up off the ground then threw him against a nearby tree with no heed to the noise it would cause. The swordsman's back broke upon impact.
'He stole one of my souls. It was only right that he suffered.'
Dah reached down and picked up the sword that had been taken from him.
"To avenge the loss of that one soul I will use this sword to bring about the death of the rest of your village." Dah said in a voice that was slightly more calm.
'I hope it brings you unrest in the afterlife' Dah thought rather indulgently
…