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.

like usual,

to get Liam to push the demon

was our plan, and

Bang—!

body being swung to the other side of the room, before crashing into one of the pillars

later, my

Drip—! Drip—!

my head, all I saw was black blood spilling from the demon's chest

body, and his injuries started to

'…how is this possible?'

I thought in shock.

able to move his body and force

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

bleeding profusely and a small pool of blood formed

that I had

I also noticed that the demon wasn't in the best condition at the moment. He

also able to notice that the longer the time passed, the weaker his attacks became. I understood

last shreds of life energy inside of

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

luxury. Taking note of Angelica and Liam's condition, mana erupted from my body as I placed my

"Now!"

shouted as I turned to glance

against the hilt of a black sword, and the mana inside of

Click—

shadow servant's figure disappeared from the

movement of the [Keiki style] :

Bang—!

servant stabbed his sword right where the demon's core was. Unfortunately, in spite of the extreme speed at

severing the servant into two. He soon disappeared into thin air and the mana

"Ugh."

groan, I pressed my sword's hilt with my thumb and carefully took

'Good enough.'

really have anything in mind when I sent the shadow servant toward the demon, the goal was to stop it from healing and buy me enough time to accumulate enough mana to finally use

and most powerful

fifth movement of the [Keiki style] :

Cr..crack…crack…

light suddenly enveloped the surroundings as the space around the Duke ranked demon started to crack

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

"Huek!"

demon's body, and even more black blood

mind, and not as injured, he may have been able to easily avoid my attacks, but he

Drip—! Drip—!

formed, before the white lights impairing him scattered

before the

Crack—!

make the same mistake as Angelica, the moment I felt the core in my hand, I rapidly shattered it into pieces, and

"Haaaa…."

my butt, I leaned back and heavily gulped for

burning, and I

a lot

the Duke-ranked demon, it took everything I had to kill him. It also had to

'That was really close…'

turned to gaze in Liam's direction and forced my

"Ugh."