"Ohh, don't you have so pretty decent instincts, cute little boy?", the demon whispered.
And honestly, while I half expected this to happen, it creeped the hell out of !
It was like he could see through my disguise, which makes sense as it was an S rank demon inhabiting that body after all, but the way he looked at was much more disturbing.
'This damn pedophile!', I shivered slightly as I complied with my body's first instinct – running away.
Transitioning from a throw to a jump, I stretched my body to reach the acceleration circles not far away.
I failed.
A demon palm held my wrist just as my sword was about to touch the circle, twisted it, followed by a stomp on my foot before-
-Bam!
-Bam!
-Bam!
-three solid punches landed on my face.
"Hmm? It feels strange punching you. Do you have a special physique?", he said as he lifted up with a single arm.
"Well, I am Iron man.", I spat out along with so blood, before a blinding burst of holy energy erupted from my armor.
Using the holy burst, which was a demon's bane, I kicked him in the chest with both legs, getting away.
Landing, not far away, I quickly readied my stance as I stared at the demon. The vile creature had the sa anatomy as a human, but he stood at 2.5 ters tall. His black skin was burnt, sizzling, as he withstood the blast, but that was all.
It was far from enough to actually damage him, he knew it, I knew it. Even then, I rushed forward, using [Acceleration] to reach him in an instant.
Of course, such a speed didn't startle him, his stats were much higher than mine, even after all those enhancents. In fact, the only reason my skull didn't burst open with his punches was because Callis Ren III was a very tough armor.
Sweeping my speedy thrust to the side, the demon used his hand like a blade that was aid straight at my eyes. Though unstable, I ducked my head down and did a tricky footwork, which allowed parry the hand and roll backwards, just in ti to avoid an erupting pillar of darkness.
Engaging again, a bunch of fla arrows appeared around , each carrying a torrent of light elent as they shot at the demon.
Before they could reach him though, I felt his ntal avatar overpowering mine as it tried to seize control of the spell, so quickly detonating the arrows, I dove under the explosion's cover, executing a upward slash followed by a sideways swing on the demon's legs and thigh, that finally drew his blood.
Just then, after the first blood, a fist hit squarely on my back, causing to collapse on all fours, and cough up blood. Thanks to an artefact that enhanced my focus and another that lessened my pain, I didn't stay there and quickly rolled dodging another stomp.
Then, using a [Sharp edge] a wind spell along with my swords enchantnts I launched myself with [Acceleration], slashing the demon's upper waist and dodging another fist that ca at from above with the sa move.
That turned out to be a trap.
As soon as the demon's fist touched the ground, a pillar of earth rose, hitting who was midair, from below. It knocked the air out of my lungs while launching further in the air, and the demon not missing this chance jumped after .
I willed another [Acceleration] circle into existence behind my back to get back, but for so reason, it exploded. Sending flying at the demon, who was staring at with his ominous purple pupils shining bright.
'Fuck! He has spell disrupt too.', I cursed as I channeled my Armor's holy energy towards my sword.
The demon made his move first, a flash of purple illuminating his whole body as he let out a devastating energy attack similar to a breath.
"Argh!!", grunting, I increased the power held in my sword to the limit and swung.
-Schwing…!
The purple flash was slashed along with the demon, leaving floating in air, who didn't believe it for a second.
'He's behind , isn't he?', I thought, turning around ready for another onslaught. Except he wasn't there.
"You shouldn't leave your front unguarded so easily.", ca a voice from below.
'Damn his stealth!', thinking that, I barely turned around again, only for a heavy punch laced with dark purple aura to fuck up from the side.
-Boom!
The aura exploded as soon as the punch landed, making the impact equivalent to taking 3-4 spells at point range.
It hit so hard that all the spells I kept at ready were disrupted as I crashed into a tree, breaking through it as I proceeded to crash into another.
As if not happy with that, the demon ca swooping down like a hawk, it was only then I saw, the demon had wings now.
'What the-!', I though incredulously as I barely kept his sharp talons away with my sword. 'He only hid his wings or is it sothing else?!'
"Pretty tough, aren't you?", he said, as both of us kept preparing spells during the physical stalemate, pressed into the ground, while he stomped on from above.
"Pretty sadistic, aren't you?!", I barely squeezed out.
Just as balls of purple and dark started forming around him, giving a great sense of danger, I summoned a talisman and dipped into the ground, escaping from the area.
He fired his spells anyways, creating a huge crater that evaporated the ground, thankfully I had escaped.
Of course, I knew this wasn't going to be like it happened with Fostoria, but I needed so ti to heal. After all, it wasn't only that I was pretty tough, the holy elent circulating through my armor was also continuously healing damage I took.
And two holy vials of three were already depleted. I had a lot of refills of course, but I didn't have a chance to do so! I couldn't do it underground; I was ethereal to earth elent but the things I summoned were not.
I needed backup.
Speaking of backup, where is Fostoria anyway!?
I complained only to realize that it's only been a minute since I engaged the demon. It felt so long for partially because of [Split Second], that got accustod to activating and deactivating again and again, and partially because how excruciating it was… stopping my thoughts there.
I channeled light elent along with my armor to heal myself as I headed back towards the cave. The demon activated stealth soon after I dived underground, since [Mana Reading] couldn't pick him up, it was better to go to the cave.
During this whole ti, I was moving around to not be spotted, as soon as I was healed up though, I sped up to towards the cave.
It only took a mont to get there and it was so frustrating that I couldn't just dive into it.
The demon had used his ti well after all. He had placed an array that blocked anybody's access and also contained the light elent oozing out of the tree into the cave, there were so other functions to the array but these were the only things I could tell at first glance.
Of course, I had the mana-disrupting talismans that could stop the array for a mont or two, but once again I couldn't summon them, nor activate them in this state.
It was pathetic, but whatever I had to do could only happen above ground.
'Okay… ti for round two, 3, 2, 1… Go!', I cheered myself as I launched myself off the ground.
As soon as I appeared, a beam of purple light fired at , expecting this, a barrier appeared around instantly, normally the barrier would fall apart as the enemy was whole ranks above .
But I could use it more flexibly, thanks to my attribute, I condensed the barrier around my sword and deflected the beam.
'Urgh.', the pressure was imnse, but I managed, my body which got stronger with each beating was used to it. More importantly, I used the beam to trace back its source, and as soon as the beam vanished, I opened my armor's hatch, took out the half-filled holy vial and threw it towards the beams source.
-Flash!!!
A strong holy force erupted from the vial, painting the hell that the demon created into holy colors. Not minding that, I summoned four holy vials, quickly proceeded to fill the hatch. One, two… before I could place the third vial, "Not so stealthy in presence of holy elent, are you?", I smirked as I threw another vial towards the creepy shadow only visible due to the tri-colored petals blooming in my eyes. After all, he wasn't a S rank right now, he couldn't use his [Authority], so when surrounded by his bane, he couldn't be as stealthy as before.
Another flash, twice as strong as the one before erupted before the previous one settled. It swallowed the demon, the forest, half of the pillar of darkness even, cleansing the aura of death and replaced it with a holy aura.
anwhile, I drank three potions that restored my health, mana and ntal power before pressing on the offensive. I had finally caught his stealthy ass off guard no way I was going to let this chance go.
It was ti to use the only cheat I had – Money.
And now I was literally going to burn through it.
With a wave of my hand, strange artefacts started appeared around . One by one, they kept appearing until there were ten of them floating around on each side of .
[Lumina Shards]
They were elongated crystalline shards shaped like tears, each shard being about a foot long. Semitransparent with runic patterns and a glowing core, they looked cool, and the way they worked was even cooler.
Being the advanced devices they were, I simply had to point at the demon and say, "Go!" for them to get to work.
At once, ten of the twenty artefacts went chasing after the demon, their pointed edge litting up with dense blue mana that extended over their length, not finished with that the crystals started rotating like crazy transforming themselves into high speed drills as they dung into and tore of huge chunks of demon's flesh, who was already suffering from the avalanche of holy elent.
As for ten who remained, their tips opened into small holes where energy gathered rapidly before, they shot lasers at the demon.
A smile appeared on my face I saw the demon getting pushed around by the [Lumina Shards], which were each self-powered B ranked artefacts, and there were twenty of them.
Of course, not a mont did I think it would be enough to finish off the demon. But all I wanted was to buy so ti.
Turning around, I went straight for the cave with a mana-disrupting talisman in my hand. I was less than ten ters away, when the old guy Agnil, who crawled into the cave soti during our battle shouted, "Watch out!!"
And watch out I did, but there was nothing to see, even with [Mana Reading] there wasn't slightest fluctuation of mana.
That was until a thick tail suddenly wrapped around my neck, and along with ca voice much more sinister from before, "Take you junk with you, cocky brat!"
The world turned slow, as I saw the demon again, with one of the Lumina Shard clutched in both of his hands as he pushed it towards , the shard glowing with a piercing blue glow, but what caught my attention wasn't the shard, but the demon himself, or rather his new form.
His size remained the sa, towering at 2.5 ters, but now, two sets of wings erupted from his back, both covered in demonic runes on the inside. He still had that sleek yet powerful physique, but instead of sharp tallic fingers, tallic protrusions were now attached to his fists, functioning like Wolverine's claws.
That was not all. His skin appeared to be covered in an organic tallic liquid that flowed over his body. Whenever the liquid thinned, glowing purple runes beca visible on his skin.
Two sets of horns appeared on his head, one smaller curving forward, while the other longer pair extended back, curving down along the sides of his head. These obsidian horns were etched with glowing runes too that flickered with power along with the tallic black hair that seed to glow purple from ti to ti.
If he seed like an ordinary demon before, now he finally looked like Varkain I designed, with a presence deep like the abyss.
Of course, I didn't have ti to admire his appearance if a demon's appearance was admirable by any chance.
I quickly condensed the barrier on my sword again, though his tail coiling around my neck didn't exactly make it easy.
So, while I prepared for another beatdown, the top of a dead tree that still stood tall flashed and before I blinked, an arrow pierced into the shard, causing it to explode on the demon's face.
'About damn ti!', I sighed, using that opening to get away.
Okay, the real round two starts now.
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