I don't know what I expected.
With Fostoria joining the battle, it should have been much easier, no?
She was a mage about to break through C rank, and while I was a D rank myself, I could give any C rank a run for their money. Not to forget, I was fighting the demon by myself monts ago, not winning, but not losing either.
So, logically, the scales should be tipping in our favor, right? That's what should happen, right?
Then what the hell was going on now?!
-Bam
-Bam
-Bam
"How is it? Feel better now, boy? ~", the demon said to who was in the middle of crater now.
-Cough
-Cough
Coughing up blood, I could barely speak, as my ribs punctured into my lungs. Of course, the demon didn't care about that.
-Bam
-Bam
-Bam
Towering over , he kept punching, hard enough that the ground beneath caved in with each of his hits. I curled into a fetal position to protect my vitals, while using my barrier artefact but it simply wasn't enough.
The barrier broke and with each of his punches I could feel my bones cracking, my armor was doing everything it could to protect , to heal , but once again, it wasn't enough.
With a distinctive crack, my arms broke, plopping down on my face as they hung limply.
"Argh!", I stifled a scream at the imnse pain. My screams were the last thing I wanted to give this sadistic demon.
It didn't change that it was painful though, even if I stifled my screams my body reacted involuntarily.
My eyes clouded over, and my lungs which were punctured started breathing up like crazy, worsening their condition as my body went into shock.
But I wasn't given ti to be in shock either.
The next mont ca another punch, straight on my elbows, followed by another and another before my hurus finally gave in.
'Aarrrgh!! My hands! My fucking hands!!', I cursed as the pain increased to another level, making it harder to concentrate on my spells.
Nonetheless, I launched several of them, but before they could reach the demon, his ntal avatar overpowered mine in an instant, dismantling the spells and devouring them.
Gritting my teeth, I continued working on spells using [Parallel Mind] to fight his spell disrupt, but I knew it was a useless endeavor. Unlike the Ellsworth estate, I didn't have a finale here.
With my vision that had turned red, I looked past the demon, a dark red barrier was erected behind his back where a rain of green flashes constantly exploded on it.
But to the barrier, the arrows were just that, simple rain that it shrugged off without much effort.
And then, even that stopped, as the demon continued pumling . Nothing of my body was spared as my legs, ribs, hips and even my skull was dented.
One of my eyeballs had burst open, while my spine had snapped at three points. At that point, moving even a little was a pain so I was wondering why the demon hadn't killed yet.
Maybe he knew that killing would be a tall task unless he gains the power of a Archmage? Or maybe he deciphered the exact purpose of the artefacts that protected my life?
Either was possible.
While I was thinking, the constant influx in pain suddenly stopped.
Finally, as if he had enough, the demon stopped.
Flicking my blood off his hands, the demon's rage lted into a cruel, almost regal smile. His entire deanor shifted, exuding an eerie, twisted nobility.
"Look what you made do, boy," he hissed, bending down until his face was inches from mine. He grabbed my chin, forcing to look at him as his eyes road over my face. "Such a waste... of a beautiful face."
He poked and prodded at my skin, his fingers cold and unfeeling, before brushing my hair back with a chilling intimacy. "Had you stayed quiet, I might have spared you. But what did you do? You grew cocky just because I was adjusting to that damn tree's influence.", he whispered.
"Not good, not good at all," he murmured, prying open the lid of my ruined eye. His smile widened as he admired the damage. "You had to be punished."
anwhile, all I could do was stay still, maybe I could have delivered a solid punch or two, but that wouldn't have changed anything.
After all, I had to do to kill him was to let him kill .
As if he could read my thoughts, the demon released my damaged eye, his smile growing wider. "Don't worry, I won't kill you," he whispered, leaning closer. "At least, not yet."
Suddenly, he glanced over his shoulder, sensing sothing unseen. Turning back to , his gaze lingered as if savoring the mont. "Ray Niger," he mused, his voice almost affectionate, "it was good eting you. A sha I never knew your true na or face; my instincts tell our encounter would have been truly exquisite then."
Without a mont's hesitation, he grabbed my arm and yanked upright. His tongue slithered out, catching a drop of my blood as it trailed down my cheek. Turning to face , he flashed a smile—a grotesque parody of gentlemanly charm that only a demon could manage.
"Now," he said, his voice dripping with mockery, "stay still."
His words were a command that I couldn't resist, not tamorphically but literally as a ghostly green tattoo of thorned vines erged on skin, taking over my body starting from my cheek.
From there, I couldn't move.
"Farewell," he whispered, and with a casual wave, the barrier around dissolved. I couldn't see behind my back, but I could feel it, the numbingly powerful attack hurtling toward us. Unhurriedly, the demon raised up, looking at my face in a sadistic glee as he imagined my impending doom.
'So, that's what he planned? To kill using Fostoria's arrow? Or should I say to offset the artefacts effect using Fostoria's arrow?', I, who held by my arm, hanging without any strength thought calmly, unlike what appearances would suggest.
'He got overconfident.'
He saw through my disguise, he saw through my artefacts, that made him think he knows everything about , but that's his misconception.
[Blood Binding], the spell Varkain used to bind , did work, binding my flesh, but it couldn't do the sa with my equipnt.
'He shouldn't have dispelled the barrier this early.', I thought as the light behind my back brightened, just before it could reach though, I swung my body that I shouldn't have been able to move under any circumstances, according to the demon atleast, just at the right mont.
-Boom!!!
With the sound of intense winds clashing against tal, an extrely strong but concentrated blast hit the demon on the stomach, or was about to, before it could drill a hole in his guts, the demon blocked it with his other fist, creating a screeching sound to resound through the forest.
But even then, the demon refused to let go, persistently clutching my arm even as my bones broke.
Swiftly, the armor over my hand retracted over to my shoulder, before, 'This is going to hurt.', I hissed as my sword that ca spinning at from a distance slashed right through my arm.
-Spurt…!
Before I even a drop of blood landed on the ground, I started deploying [Acceleration], the only spell I was able to maintain through that torture. Just like other spells the circle fizzled out overpowered by the demon's ntal avatar.
But this ti the situation was different, I wasn't casting a single spell, I had a total of five hundred iterations of it already casted ready to deploy. Even the demon couldn't stop it.
Flying into the air at supersonic speed, even as my body was being torn apart, I summoned a single bottle in my only hand. It was [Second Life], the sa thing I traded with Claire, sothing equivalent to a combination of highest-level health potion, mana potion and ntal power potion and so more.
Taking off the lid with my mouth, I looked back, only to see the demon already chasing after . Thankfully, a rain of arrows quickly intercepted him as I sohow gulped the potion at supersonic speed.
As for what happened next, was just like it was in the video gas except it happened in real life. My arm grew back good as new, my bones were nded, my eyeball was fixed so was my skull and even with all the blood I shed, I was back to full power without even feeling anemic.
Landing on the ground outside the dark curtain, I quickly reloaded the holy vials as I looked at the situation.
The curtain of darkness now had so much dark elent that it almost looked like night inside it. Occasionally, in that darkness, flashes of light shined as she intercepted the demon, or atleast she tried.
The demon had switched targets as soon as I drank the potion, allowing to escape, but that sent Fostoria into a real peril. I rushed in to help her, but unlike before I was not his match in any aspect heck, I couldn't even take more than one blow from him before my bones cracked.
Cause unlike minutes ago, the demon was much stronger now. In fact, now that he was so strong that he finally seed worthy of being called a B rank. After all, no matter how good I was, a B rank should be able to crush like an ant, no, maybe a cockroach.
Cause I was too sturdy to be called an ant, and with this current beating my endurance had increased greatly, I could feel that atleast.
'Though it could only help taking another beating,', I smiled wryly, before sighing and adding, 'while he is getting stronger as a whole.', as a particularly plunging attack popped my hurus again.
Yes, the demon was getting stronger, his strength, his mana, his presence, everything was getting stronger with each minute and this increase in strength was not related to the transformation before.
That transformation was simply the second stage of vessel possession, that turned the vessel into a perfect projection of a demon. Thanks to the tree of light's influence the second stage possession was delayed, and he couldn't use his authority, that was stealth, and his spells were weakened by a huge, huge margin, thus the reason he was being so physical, but why was he getting stronger?
The only obvious reason was the pillar of darkness creating the curtain.
'Wait, he is getting stronger?', I thought as a ridiculous idea entered my head. The idea was as follows, 'If he is getting stronger… then shouldn't he be thrown out of the barrier too at so point? Then don't I have to just wait for him to get stronger?'
But I scrapped the idea simply because it was too ridiculous.
What if it didn't work?
And even if it worked, the demon had already figured out the life saver artefact that the Earl had given sohow. If he beca as powerful as an Archmage, then killing before being expelled should be a child's play for him.
Not to ntion, I was struggling to last even a second longer.
-Bang!!
Barely dodging the demon's punches with [Split Second] with [Acceleration], I had tried to move back when his tail sweep from an unexpected angle took by surprise.
I blocked it, or should I say I prevented it from doing the most damage cause it still sent flying, crashing through several trees before I stopped.
But I couldn't stop.
I would be dead at the next I was caught, so knowing that, Fostoria had stopped conserving her mana and rained arrows on the demon, each arrow carrying a devastating wind spell similar to a blue-colored ball of chakra.
Still, those arrows couldn't buy more than a second. Even when a veritable horde of them exploded on the demon, the arrows that created a crater on the ground, couldn't break his tallic skin, and he was still getting stronger.
If not for the tree of light, which weaken spells weaved out of demonic mana by more than 80%, we would be dead, but even that number was slowly decreasing.
In this desperate situation, I had only one choice left, disrupting the pillar of darkness… and I have a feeling it won't be easy either.
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