“Shit!” Michael leaped backwards, as the snake pounced towards his relatively exposed left calf. He muttered, “Maybe I should’ve asked for jeans instead of shorts?”

However, he didn’t have much time to have regrets, because unlike a normal snake from Earth, Demons were often much more aggressive. Realizing that her Tamer was in danger, Alice jumped off his shoulder and landed on the ground behind the baby brown rattlesnake. Without even waiting for a command, she instinctively jumped on the other reptile’s back and used ‘Nibble’ on its tail.

“Fuck!” Without worrying about his own safety, Michael stopped running away and dashed forward. Before the snake had the chance to turn around and bite Alice, the toe of a white sneaker stomped down onto its head. There was a muffled crunching noise as the body of the snake started to lash around uncontrollably.

Alice just ‘nibbled’ on the rattling tail until she managed to bite it off and swallow down the bloody meat. Michael sighed and twisted his ankle a few times, but didn’t pull his foot off the snake’s head, just in case it was still alive. It was only after Alice started eating the squirming body of the tiny snake that he remembered that it was a ‘Contracted’ Yokai, so theoretically, she wouldn’t die even if she was envenomed by the Dark Rattle.

Even so, “Oh well… This ain’t a game or a cartoon. This is reality. Not gonna take any stupid chances. Poor little snakey…” He took his shoe off its mangled head for a moment, then screamed: “Ah! Fuck it’s still alive!” And stomped down a few times with his heel instead of his toe. After that, it finally stopped moving.

Alice continued to chomp down on the bloody broken carcass until she swallowed down most of the snake, which was almost as big as her own body. Michael couldn’t help but get a little concerned as he saw the bloated lizard lay down and fall asleep on the cold black dirt. Just to make sure she wasn’t sick, he took out his Akuma phone and scanned her from a few feet away.

[#3: Blue Iguana. Name: Alice. Age: Baby. Sex: Female. Condition: Healthy, Overfed, Asleep. Level: 1. Passive: Amphibious. Element: Water. Primary Stat: Agility.]

[Statistics. Experience: 3/10. HP: 5. Vitality: 1. Strength: 1. Intelligence: 1. Endurance: 1. Wisdom: 1. Agility: 2.]

“Huh, interesting. Ummm, Alice, return?” After saying that, the blue iguana turned into a stream of Water Mana and entered into Michael’s left ring. He murmured, “Did she get experience for winning a battle or eating it? Also, if my demons need to take a nap after every battle… I’m gonna need a lot more demons. Maybe it’s ‘cause they’re babies?”

Since Alice was unavailable, Michael had to summon his only other Yokai: “Jasmine, come out.” When nothing happened, he sighed and said: “Jasmine Jade, come out?”

This time there was a stream of tan sand that sprayed out of the ring and condensed into the adorable little kitten on his right shoulder. She looked up at his face with her bright green eyes and meowed happily, licking the ‘fur’ on his cheek. He snickered and then used his phone to scan her information.

[#2: Sand Cat. Name: Jasmine Jade. Age: Baby. Sex: Female. Condition: Healthy. Level: 1. Passive: Desert Stalker. Element: Earth. Primary Stat: Agility.]

[Statistics. Experience: 0/10. HP: 5. Vitality: 1. Strength: 1. Intelligence: 1. Endurance: 1. Wisdom: 1. Agility: 2.]

[Desert Stalker: Agility doubles in Desert Terrain.]

[Skills: 2/3. Nibble: Physical, Arcane, 0 Damage. Kitty Scratch: Physical, Arcane, 0 Damage.]

[Kitty Scratch: Base damage is so low that it’s entirely dependant on the Demon’s Strength to do anything. Most kittens don’t even have claws, so this is a fairly rare skill.]

“Hmm, both attacks are kinda useless, but I guess it’s better than nothing.” Michael snickered as the kitten nuzzled against his cheek. He ignored the gorey smashed snake head and continued deeper into the creepy little village. Honestly, even back when it was called Aurora Town, it was always closer to a cul-de-sac. Only twenty people lived there in its heyday, and it was a mystery how many years it had been since the whole neighborhood was leveled.

Jasmine was shivering as her eyes darted around warily. She constantly let out soft ‘mews’, as if she was asking Michael to go back to Dusty’s house… For that matter, Michael was also starting to regret leaving so quickly. He kept seeing shadowy figures appearing in his peripheral vision, but whenever he tried to focus on them, they would vanish.

Eventually, he didn’t look at them directly and instead, used his phone to ‘scan’ them. Even with such a great distance and terrible lighting, somehow the information was still captured and displayed to him. Along with a picture of the creature.

[#30. Silhouette: A very simple Darkness Element Yokai. Originally a human soul that had their body stolen from them. After the body was destroyed or purified, the spirit remained behind in a place that they remember most clearly from their life. These Undead are fairly weak, but have a lot of potential Metamorphosis Paths.]

[#30: Silhouette. Name: Unknown. Age: Baby. Sex: Female. Condition: Weak, Starving. Level: 2. Passive: Shadowy Presence. Element: Darkness. Primary Stat: Intelligence.]

[Shadowy Presence: All Physical Damage taken is reduced by 50%. Takes damage from direct sunlight. Very difficult to see at Night or in Dark environments.]

Even though it was considered a ‘Baby’, the Silhouette vaguely resembled a young woman, perhaps in her late teens or early twenties. Of course, she was two-dimensional and if she wasn’t facing side-ways, it wouldn’t be that easy to see any defining features. The woman had fairly large breasts and buttocks, though she was only five feet tall. More importantly, she had what seemed like a long ponytail. As for her facial features, they were almost impossible to make out. She had a small nose and jaw, that was it.

“Doesn’t really look like anyone I remember but, well, who knows how long it’s been since then? Dusty could be hundreds of years old for all I know. Or he could be a high-level Undead…” Michael muttered to himself as he continued moving forward. After all, without a ring, it wasn’t really possible to capture an incorporeal ghost-like Demon. He could still somewhat see it following him from a distance, but it never tried to attack.

On the other hand, he only made it a few meters before the dirt road under his feet started to collapse and a skeletal arm burst out from the ground. As he screamed, “Holy fuckballs!” Michael jumped backwards and had time to scan the opponent as it was clawing its way out of the ground.

[#51. Skele-tan: A very weak Darkness Element Undead Demon. Generally, the reanimated skeleton of a small human child or toddler. Has a wide variety of Metamorphosis Paths.]

[#51: Skele-tan. Name: Unknown. Age: Baby. Sex: Male. Condition: Weak, Starving. Level: 1. Passive: Brittle. Element: Darkness. Primary Stat: Endurance.]

[Brittle: Takes 50% more Physical Damage.]

“This is super fucked up now that I really think about it.” Michael snickered and shook his head, thinking about how the creators of Cachimon gave the reanimated child skeletons such a ‘cute’ name. Still, he didn’t have too much time to think about it, since the little toddler-sized monster shambled up out of the dirt and charged towards him. Without thinking too much, he kicked it in the chest and there was a horrible ‘crunching’ noise as the sternum, ribs and even the spine were all shattered effortlessly.

“Ugh, I felt kinda bad about the snake, but there’s just something… Wrong about this. Right? Cachimon Battles are supposed to be, well, fun and cute. But this is just really fucked up.” He sighed and then watched the little kitten hop down from his shoulder, before ‘viciously’ scratching at the Skele-tan’s fragile skull. Even though Kitty Scratch was a Physical Attack that did literally 0 damage, it still had an effect due to the Arcane mana innately channeled through the ability. Thus, the wretched creature was finally put out of its misery and its Soul was released to be reincarnated or whatever.

The important thing was that Jasmine got credit for the victory and gained +3 experience.