The Author's POV

"Wait, Ren. I can still fight. I still haven't used my trump card."

"It doesn't matter. You already had your chance, and honestly..."

Ren didn't even bother to look at Liam before he shot him.

"Even if you were to successfully defeat him, the cost would be too great for you to bear. Please return to the castle and allow me to handle the current situation."

"Tsk."

After making a clicking sound with his tongue, Liam sheathed his sword, and the hue that had been swirling around his body began to fade.

When he looked into Ren's eyes, he found that he could not bring himself to disobey his orders. The things that he said weren't totally off base.

Even though there was a slim chance that he could triumph over the demon that stood in front of him, the price that he would have to pay to defeat that demon would be far too high for him to stomach. In spite of the fact that he often acted on impulse, he was not exactly wishing to die just yet.

There were a great number of other goals in his mind that he wanted to accomplish before dying. Dying to some unknown Duke ranked demon wasn't on the list.

'...Like fighting the Demon King.'

The one demon that was said to be unbeatable.

Now, dying against him would indeed be fun.

"Fine, but just this time. There won't be a next time."

His body then fell to the ground, and he disappeared immediately after.

In the sky, Ren and the Suriol stared at each other. Ren's eyes appeared rather icy, in contrast to Suriol's, which shone with a watchful intensity.

Opening his mouth, Suriol asked.

"Did you just breakthrough?"

"...I thought that was obvious enough."

Ren cast a casual glance in the direction of the castle, which was located behind him.

He didn't feel the need to lie about his most recent breakthrough. To him, it wasn't going to change the outcome of the fight regardless.

Additionally, the phenomenon that his breakthrough had brought into existence ought to have already been a dead giveaway at that point. Clearly, Suriol was just asking to waste time and get a better read on his strength.

"I see..."

Duke Suriol closed his eyes once.

His wings quickly grew larger, and a powerful force erupted from his body, heading in the direction of Ren like an unstoppable tsunami.

When confronted with such intense pressure, Ren simply extended his hand forward and swiped to his right, which allowed him to effortlessly slice through the assault as though it was made out of paper.

"...Not bad."

taken by Ren caused Suriol's expression to

Suriol maintained

step

Ren's ear from the back as Ren felt the presence of someone standing right behind

at such a rapid pace that he left behind discernible afterimages

was able to respond in time as five rings materialized directly behind him, forming a stack

Crack!

rings shattering completely. The final ring also shattered, but by the time it did, Ren had already moved a considerable distance away

who looked at Ren

also

consistent the entire time, but his smile

and his hand disappeared, only to reappear in a flash right next to Ren as the void next to

"Khh.."

to deflect the blow in time, and as a consequence, he sustained an injury on the back of his

Soriol continued to attack Ren,

very brief amount of time, Ren's body had already become covered in cuts, and blood had started to leak out

beamed with satisfaction as he took in Ren's predicament and then began

not mean you can fight on equal grounds with me. It was over 150 years ago that I was promoted to the Duke

rank was

to Ren, who had just broken through to rank, there was still a significant gap in their abilities, and this was what he

bad enough, Ren's level of experience paled in comparison to that of Duke Suriol, who had lived for over 500 years. In his head, there wasn't much of a

Ren's appearance, the 'surprise'

make sure to torture you a bit more for everything you've done over the past few months. All of my discarded

Soriol experienced a sudden outburst of rage as his attacks grew increasingly vicious. Ren, who could barely avoid his attacks,

on the ground was able to see Ren's lonesome figure floating above them as their hearts

between Duke Soriol

who was looking up from below could make out every detail perfectly. Instantaneously, the morale of the demons grew stronger, whereas the orcs' morale

started to become more fierce while those

were all beginning to feel hopeless about the outcome of

***

"Huakk!!"

the ground, sending it crashing down hard against a pack

the exposed core of the demon, and when

large explosion resounded throughout the air, completely disintegrating the demons that were beside the

Booom!

"Another few down..."

does that

lost count of how many demons she had killed at this point. The only thing she could feel was her dwindling mana and the

"It's bleeding."

mouth twitched when she noticed that her fingers were bleeding. Evidently, all that shooting

have a problem because she could simply take out a potion to heal her wounds...unfortunately, the situation didn't allow her to do so as her hand continued to flick her bow strings as demons

and thus she was forced to swiftly move and twist her body in a way that granted her the ability to lock sight with the demons that

that she had her skill [Target Lock [S]] activated, as its functions were rather close to an aim bot. She didn't even really need

was the large amount of mana that

Thud! Thud!

Her bow let loose three

"Haaa...haaa..."