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."

Ren caused Suriol's expression to

point, Suriol maintained a relatively

we step it

sentence echoed inside Ren's ear from the back as Ren felt the presence of someone standing right behind him.

rapid pace that he left behind discernible afterimages of

time as five rings materialized directly behind him, forming

Crack!

of four out of the five rings shattering completely. The final ring also shattered, but by the time it did, Ren had already moved a considerable distance away from where he

surprised Duke Suriol who looked at Ren

also

consistent the entire time,

and his hand disappeared, only to reappear in a flash right

"Khh.."

Suriol caught Ren off guard as he was unable to deflect the blow in time, and as a consequence, he sustained an injury on the back of his neck from which blood began to

Duke Soriol continued to

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

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

over 150 years ago that I was promoted to the Duke rank. Even if you had managed to stabilize the mana within your body, you would not have been able to fight me as our

other races, Duke Suriol's rank was roughly equivalent to

significant gap in their abilities, and this was what he was attempting to

experience paled in comparison to that of Duke Suriol, who had lived for over 500

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

you've done over the past few months. All of my

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

ground was able to see Ren's lonesome figure floating above them

gap between Duke Soriol and

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

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

all beginning to feel hopeless about

***

"Huakk!!"

it crashing down hard against a pack of other demons that were fighting beneath

Amanda's bowstring. This arrow was perfectly aimed at the exposed core of the demon, and when it was suddenly

with another flick of her finger, the arrow exploded, and a large

Booom!

"Another few down..."

does

how many demons she had killed at this point. The only

"It's bleeding."

that her fingers were bleeding. Evidently, all that shooting had injured her

to heal her wounds...unfortunately, the situation didn't allow

she looked, a new demon appeared, and thus she was forced to swiftly move and twist her body in a

were rather close to an aim bot. She didn't even really need to aim properly to kill a

was the large amount of mana that the skill

Thud! Thud!

let loose three arrows that flew at horrifying speeds. One after the other,

"Haaa...haaa..."