Zemin recognized the first one instantly—Adia. She was alive, fighting side-to-side with another Esquire, whose face was hidden by blood flowing down the gash on his forehead.
Several demon corpses were lying on the ground, but a good dozen of them still surrounded the pair. They looked like large, black dogs with mangled fur, ominously glowing yellow eyes, and many more teeth than any dog was supposed to have.
A dog demon leaped at Adia, who was looking in the other direction. When she noticed the beast, it was already too close to her.
A shot—and Zemin's bullet blasted through the attacking dog's head. The black ooze that demons used instead of brains splattered on the ground.
The dog demon fell to the ground, but the twitching showed that it was still alive. Its legs twitched, trying to lift the owner up.
"Reinforcements?!" Adia's partner shouted. "Thank God!"
"Zemin?! It's you—Careful!"
Adia's warning was unnecessary—Zemin already saw the pair of dog demons that chose him as his new target. They growled and leaped at him in unison.
Zemin grabbed several units of Psi-energy from his stores and thrust his sword at the left one with enhanced speed, impaling it through the throat. With his other hand, Zemin shot twice at the right demon, blowing out its eyes.
He pulled his sword free, letting the demon's body fall next to that of the other one, and used more energy to freeze them solid and kill them for good.
In the distance, Adia sighed with relief.
"Esquire, you just disobeyed a direct order," Jagger gritted out, appearing behind Zemin.
Not waiting for the answer, he raised his rifle and shot another dog demon that tried to get to Adia's partner.
With their numbers severely cut down in mere seconds, the other demons became less aggressive with their attacks, showing caution—but didn't flee.
Something didn't add up. Zemin glanced around. These demons could've been dangerous in large numbers, but they were still weak—he didn't need the Void System to tell him that.
They also didn't have hands.
"Adia, where's the leader of the demons?! Did you kill him?" Zemin shouted.
The woman's eyes widened with fear. She gathered her composure a moment later.
"I don't know. Our sergeant…" she raised her eyes to the man hanging down the nearest tree. "He didn't tell us anything!"
"No panicking. Deal with the demons you see, Esquire!" Jagger shouted to Adia before shooting down two more dog demons in quick succession. His bullets exploded the creatures into bits and pieces.
The air was filled with a thick stench of demonic miasma and human blood.
Zemin raised his gun at one of the few last remaining dog demons—when suddenly, it let out a whine and dashed under the cover of a nearby shrub. Other demons did the same, as if they heard an inaudible command.
"Ha! Retreating like the dogs you are!" Adia's partner shook his gun in the air, then tried to snipe one demon, but missed. "Fuck! You don't think you will just escape after what you did?!"
"Is that so? I wonder how much grief you would feel if your vengeance stayed unfilled, pup. Would that drive you mad?"
The voice belonged to a demon who stepped from his hiding place in the shade of a tree. He looked unusual for a demon—not like a terrifying monster, but merely a man whose features were completely hidden under a black robe with gray fur edging.
Now that he wasn't hiding his presence, Zemin wondered how could the Psionics here not notice a demon of that power. The miasma in the air must've clouded their senses.
'Yes, do that, System.'
Jagger's rifle was already aimed at the demon's head.
"And here's their leader. Were you waiting for the most dramatic moment to step out on the stage, bastard?"
At the same time as he spoke, Jagger discreetly glanced at Zemin and made a slight gesture with his chin towards Adia and her partner.
Zemin understood—he had to get these two closer to Jagger and safety before the fight began again. He caught Adia's eye and made a gesture which in the army's sign language meant "get closer".
She nodded and, together with her partner, slowly moved to Jagger, trying to attract minimum attention from the newly appeared demon.
"No—otherwise, I'd appear when you thought that you finally won, only to steal another life," the demon said. His voice, previously ordinarily male, now sounded like that of an old man. "But I'd rather save my dogs—they are so loyal. An admirable quality—no wonder angels like you humans so much."
The hooded demon didn't attack—he tilted his head as if studying the humans, but didn't make a move to stop them from grouping together.
"We must take him down. He's still alive!" Adia whispered in Zemin's ear and pointed with her gaze at the man on the tree.
Zemin nodded. This was easy to do—some telekinesis… But the hooded demon was a problem.
"Anyway, I didn't come to chat. I came to inflict despair, you see. Me and my dogs." This time, the demon sounded like a young man again. When he pulled his hood down, the face underneath it was also that—a face of an ordinary young man. "Have you missed me, Loann?"
Jagger gasped and stumbled back from the demon.
"N-no way… Here, now?! Angor, you fucking—no. No, you won't catch me with this again. I will kill you, no matter how will you look like!"
"You know this demon, sergeant?! Is he dangerous?" Zemin asked, glancing between the two in confusion. Adia and her partner mirrored his expression. "Sergeant Jagger… You can't feel fear now!"
He nodded darkly.
"No fear, no anger… Only determination to bring justice to the dead, and living to justice. Angor, I won't let you wipe out another team."
The demon tilted his head and smiled.
"How valiant. But even the rock breaks!"