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 one of the

Liam to push the demon toward the pillar where Angelica sat so that we could

and things should've ended

Bang—!

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

later, my

Drip—! Drip—!

black blood spilling from the demon's chest as he held onto his core with

then pushed it into his body, and his injuries started to

'…how is this possible?'

I thought in shock.

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

both

was bleeding profusely and a small pool of blood

I had

also noticed that the demon wasn't in the best condition at the moment. He was currently in a weakened state as he

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

had clearly been fighting using the last shreds of life energy inside of

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

condition, mana erupted from my body as I placed my hand on the sheath

"Now!"

I turned to glance at my shadow

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

Click—

servant's figure disappeared from the spot and reappeared right in front of the

movement of the [Keiki

Bang—!

the demon, 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 slightest bit startled as he just move

abdomen area, completely severing the

"Ugh."

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

'Good enough.'

demon, the goal was to stop it from healing

most powerful movement to

fifth movement of the [Keiki style] :

Cr..crack…crack…

light suddenly enveloped the surroundings as the space around the Duke

this happened within the span of half a second, and it wasn't long before fissures formed next to the demon, and lights began to shoot out from them, heading toward the Duke ranked demon

"Huek!"

the demon's body, and even more black blood

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

Drip—! Drip—!

the white lights

advantage of this moment, I rapidly appeared before the demon and reached out for his

Crack—!

hand, I rapidly shattered it into pieces, and the demon's body stopped moving and scattered in the air in the form of fine

"Haaaa…."

my butt, I leaned

chest was burning, and I was

a lot harder than I

I had made in order to handle the Duke-ranked demon, it took everything I had to kill him.

'That was really close…'

thought to myself. Quickly turning my body, I turned to gaze in Liam's

"Ugh."