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."

by Ren caused Suriol's

at that point, Suriol maintained

we step

Ren's ear from the back as Ren felt the presence of someone standing right behind him. To his

such a rapid pace that he left behind discernible

as five rings materialized directly behind him, forming a stack

Crack!

of the five rings shattering completely. The final ring also shattered, but by the

looked at Ren with a surprised

also

consistent the entire time, but

of him, the space in front of him shattered, and his hand disappeared, only to reappear in a flash right next to Ren as the void next to him shattered like broken

"Khh.."

the blow in time,

wasn't bad enough, Duke Soriol continued to attack Ren, resulting

covered in cuts, and blood had started to leak

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

over 150 years ago that I was promoted to the Duke rank.

Duke Suriol's rank was roughly

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

wasn't bad enough, Ren's level of experience paled in comparison to that of Duke Suriol, who had lived for over 500

was initially surprised by Ren's appearance, the 'surprise' was where it

to torture you a bit more for everything you've done over the past few

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

see Ren's lonesome figure floating above them

Duke Soriol

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

conflict on the battlefield below took a new direction as the demons' attacks started to become more fierce while those on the orc side started to

hopeless about the outcome of

***

"Huakk!!"

the ground, sending it

that another arrow formed with a flick of Amanda's bowstring. This arrow was perfectly aimed at the exposed core of the demon, and when

large explosion resounded throughout the

Booom!

"Another few down..."

many does

demons she had killed at this point. The only thing she could feel was her dwindling mana

"It's bleeding."

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

she wouldn't 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

move and twist her body in a way that granted her the ability to lock sight with the demons that were attacking

skill [Target Lock [S]] activated, as its functions were rather close to an aim bot. She didn't even really need to aim properly to kill a demon with such

downside was the large amount of mana that

Thud!

leap into the air and twist. Her bow let loose three arrows that flew at horrifying speeds. One after the other,

"Haaa...haaa..."