System vs Rebirth

"What are we going to do now? That guy must be running away, leaving us here to fend for ourselves." Lezlev gritted his teeth, looking at Alfred. Even though he could cooperate with Noel and trust him a bit, this was already beyond his ability.

"Nothing we can do." Alfred shook his head. "Even if we run, this demon will hunt us down. We need to find an opportunity if we want to run…"

"An opportunity?"

"Yeah. If there's another battle around us, we can drag this demon there to get some help from others. But… let's wait for five to ten minutes first. If he doesn't come back, we'll do it." Alfred nodded in agreement. He also wanted to escape right now, but the situation didn't allow him to.

Seeing there was still a trace of trust in Alfred's eyes, Lezlev could only grit his teeth and endure this battle for another few minutes.

The battle continued as the demon continued to overwhelm them. Alfred had exhausted most of his stamina while Lezlev was covered with bruises. The hope became dim as these few minutes felt like a few hours.

The one they expected to come back never appeared.

But when the situation couldn't get any worse, they heard a shout from the side.

"Lezlev, Alfred! Run toward me!"

"!!!" Lezlev and Alfred turned their heads, finding Noel on the side with his shirt completely soaked with sweat.

It seemed Noel had been working hard on his own.

After exchanging a nod, Lezlev and Alfred hurriedly ran to Noel.

As Alfred said earlier, the demon chased them. Its speed was quicker than them, so the demon caught up to them soon.

was about to leap and pounce them, Noel leaped forward and grabbed Lezlev and Alfred's shoulder and

making the demon miss them and falling to the bushes

ground was painful, Noel still stood back

mid-air as if he was stuck in that position. And Noel thrust his sword

*Huft!*

*Huft!*

he dropped to the ground, smiling. "Finally.

Lezlev widened his eyes. There was

sharp spikes planted on the ground.

No,

sides, so I thought about using a surprise attack to impale him. This way, the fangs won't be fast enough to

"The demon tree?"

of its trunk. Hence, I chose the roots that had pointed tips. They were perfect to pierce our body, so I thought it was at

the reason why it took you so

came back here before planting

you think about using

only take down a demon tree earlier… The time limit and the difficulty don't match up. So, I thought this is a test to apply all the lessons we've learned so far. In other

they only want us to bring the crystal back. They want us to use their parts to kill them. Just like these roots, if we use those sharp fangs as

weapons other than a weapon made of metal. And one of

the time it takes us to create traps and strategy to kill the demon. And the other reason is…" Noel looked down, hesitating to say the other

that?"

be far easier to kill the demon with that number." Noel looked at Alfred. "It's just I don't think you're fond with this

the fact that he was taking advantage of other people. After all, they could simply leave after achieving

a difference between your words and Lezlev's previous plan. It's to have an equal cooperation. We can't go back until