The Author's POV

In a large and wide corridor, footsteps echoed.

"Do you think it was the right idea to just let him go like that?"

Kevin asked, while he turned to face Amanda who was running next to him. Before she could answer, he raised his sword and slashed toward his right.

SHIIIING!

"Huek!"

The body of a demon split in half.

"Yes."

Amanda nodded. Taking out her bow, she brought the string back as three arrows formed on the bow.

Clang—!

Letting go of the string, the arrows shot toward the distance and impaled three nearby demons.

"Since he's recovered his mana, he should have no trouble protecting himself, and…"

Lowering the bow in her hand, Amanda proceeded to head deeper into the corridor.

"…he's not exactly alone."

***

Ba…Thump! Ba…Thump!

Feeling the demon's hollow gaze pause on me, my heartbeat started to rapidly increase and my breathing also became more difficult.

My back began to sweat when the demon once again began to raise his hand.

'Well, shit…'

I thought to myself as the Duke ranked demon slowly brought his hand down.

But…

A figure materialized behind the demon as his hand was halfway down and attacked him from behind.

Spurt—!

The demon began spraying black blood on the ground, and I noticed an enchanting figure standing behind him.

Her hand was currently reaching out for the demon's orb that was now visible to the naked eye, through a gaping hole in his chest area.

"Took you long enough."

I muttered with a smile and supported my body up.

'Thank god our plan worked.'

It was clear from the moment I decided to save Liam that I would not be able to defeat a Duke ranked demon with my current capabilities. Even if it was weakened and I had Liam's help. I still saw no way to defeat it.

Thus.

decided to have Angelica turn into a ring like usual, and dropped her toward

demon toward the pillar where Angelica sat so that we could sneak

and things should've ended there,

Bang—!

other side of the room, before crashing into

moment later,

Drip—! Drip—!

my head, all I saw was black blood spilling from the demon's chest as he held onto his core

pushed it into his body, and his injuries started

'…how is this possible?'

I thought in shock.

having his core exposed like that, he was able to move his body and force

between Liam and Angelica. They were currently both still alive, but I knew that it was only a matter of

true for Liam who was bleeding profusely and a small pool

I had to act

the best condition at the moment.

longer the time passed, the weaker his attacks became. I

had clearly been fighting using the last shreds of

just waited, ten minutes? …or maybe less, then he would without a doubt

erupted from my body as I placed my hand on the sheath of

"Now!"

as I turned to glance at my shadow

servant pressed his hand against the hilt of a black sword, and the mana inside of my

Click—

servant's figure disappeared from the spot and

third movement of the [Keiki style] : Void

Bang—!

the shadow servant stabbed his sword right where the demon's core was. Unfortunately, in spite of the extreme speed at which he appeared and attacked, the demon didn't seem to be the

kicked the shadow servant right in the abdomen area, completely severing the servant into

"Ugh."

pressed my sword's hilt with my thumb and carefully took

'Good enough.'

toward the demon, the goal was to stop it from healing and buy me enough

last and most powerful

the [Keiki style]

Cr..crack…crack…

as the space around the Duke ranked demon started to

fissures formed next to the demon, and lights began to shoot out from them, heading

"Huek!"

impaled the demon's body, and even

helpless screams echoed out. Had the demon been in the right state of mind, and not as injured, he may have been able to easily avoid my attacks, but he wasn't, and it wasn't long before his figure started looking like a porcupine as a myriad of long white

Drip—! Drip—!

body, a black pool of blood formed, before the white lights impairing

moment, I rapidly appeared before the demon

Crack—!

I felt the core in my hand, I rapidly shattered it into pieces, and the demon's body stopped

"Haaaa…."

butt, I leaned back and

was burning, and I

was a lot harder than I

in order to handle the Duke-ranked demon, it took everything I had to kill him. It also had to be noted that I had the assistance of both Liam and Angelica along the

'That was really close…'

to myself. Quickly turning my body, I turned to gaze in

"Ugh."