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.

turn into a ring like usual, and dropped her toward one

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

and

Bang—!

the other side of the room, before crashing into one of the pillars as a loud banging sound echoed

later,

Drip—! Drip—!

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

his body,

'…how is this possible?'

I thought in shock.

to move his body and force

Liam and Angelica. They were currently both still alive, but I knew that it was

was bleeding profusely and a small pool

that I had to

at the moment. He was currently in

that the longer the time passed, the weaker

the last shreds of life energy inside

he would

Angelica and Liam's condition, mana erupted from my body

"Now!"

shouted as I turned to glance

pressed his hand against the hilt of a black sword, and the

Click—

the spot and reappeared right in

third movement of the [Keiki style] : Void

Bang—!

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 a

his leg and kicked the shadow servant right in the abdomen area, completely severing the servant into two. He soon

"Ugh."

sword's hilt with my thumb

'Good enough.'

mind when I sent the shadow servant toward the demon, the goal was to stop it

last and most powerful movement to

the

Cr..crack…crack…

the surroundings as the space around the Duke ranked

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

"Huek!"

the demon's body, and even more black blood started

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

Drip—! Drip—!

body, a black pool of blood formed, before the white lights impairing him scattered and he collapsed on

before the demon and reached out

Crack—!

wanting to make the same mistake as Angelica, the moment I felt the core in my hand, I rapidly shattered it into pieces, and the demon's body stopped moving and scattered

"Haaaa…."

butt, I leaned back and heavily gulped for

and I was currently feeling

a lot harder than I

I had to kill him. It also

'That was really close…'

I turned to

"Ugh."