Rise of Demon King

Volume 2: Chapter 6- Helped By Enemy?

"Well, well, well, don't I have a burden on my back?" Ren said with a sigh as he was walking forward with unconscious Sirinke leaning on his back. Ren was not particularly strong, so it was rather burdensome to carry the large lizard demon.

"Sorry Sirinke, I need to catch my breath!" Ren put Sirinke down on the ground, while sitting down panting.

"We sure have gotten ourselves into a pinch, have we not buddy?" Sirinke was still unconscious, but he was breathing. "Well, at least we are ok, uhm, sort of?"

Ren tried to humor himself intending to fool himself into a false bravado, while he clearly was trying to stop himself from trembling all over. The fear he felt through his entire being was overwhelming. 'I am separated from my clan, out here alone with an injured lizard demon, if anyone finds me, I am as good as dead!' he couldn't help but freak out a little. The gravity of the situation was not a pleasant feeling.

"Well, I am not completely alone, technically....Whaaat the heck?" Ren exclaimed as he saw Sirinke's body glow, the scales of the lizard demon were glowing with yellowish green light covering him from head to tail.

Then, the light disappeared, along with the lizard demon, leaving only his clothing in his place.

"Sirinke! Sirinke!" Ren ruffled through the clothing of the lizard demon, trying to find the trace of him there, to no avail. "Don't tell me he just passed away!"

Ren looked at all of the places in the clothing, desperately trying to find the any trace of his ally. Then, his eye caught a strange bump under the lower portion of the clothing. When he looked underneath the clothing, Ren discovered something surprising.

It was Sirinke all right, but not the way Ren remembered him. A large lizard demon towering at a height about a head taller than Ren, which was the way Ren remembered him. But now, in front of him, the same lizard demon was about the size of his palm, a tiny creature that looked more like a gecko than a lizard demon.

"What in the world?" Ren tried to poke the tiny lizard with his finger, gently, fearing he might hurt him.

The tiny lizard slowly opened its eyes.

"Oh, Master Ren. How do you do? Wow, you have gotten really big!" Sirinke said with awe.

"I have not! It is you who has gotten bite sized! What the heck happened to you?"

Sirinke looked at his body, at his clothes that now were too gigantic for him, and looked back at Ren.

"I see. So I have shrunk then. Don't worry Master, it is only temporary." Sirinke said with a smile.

"Explain why you are like that right now?" Ren said with a questioning look.

"Well, my tribe has a special spell" Sirinke turned with his back showing to Ren, there was a tattoo on it with a serpent biting its own tail. "Each lizard demon of my tribe is given a Ouroboros spell when they become recognized as adults. When our bodies take extensive damage, our body reverts back to the way it was when we were young, allowing us to conserve energy and regenerate our mana. In a sense it's a way for us to cheat death, but it's not without its flaws...."

"You can turn back time on your own body? That sounds awfully convenient! I wish I could do that!" Ren said with a smile.

"Master, the spell does not activate on command, it only activates when one is injured, and furthermore, the user is stuck in a weak little body until the mana is restored."

"So how long will it take for you to grow back?"

"About a couple of days." Sirinke replied.

"Wow, that's a relief, having to relieve your entire childhood would be rather disastrous."