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 become

Suriol maintained a relatively

we step it up

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

he moved at such a rapid pace

rings materialized directly behind him, forming a stack

Crack!

attack was slowed down as a result 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

looked

you've also dodged

consistent the entire time, but

hand disappeared, only to reappear in a flash right next

"Khh.."

the blow in time,

Soriol continued to attack Ren, resulting in

amount of time, Ren's body had already become covered in cuts, and blood had

took in Ren's predicament

you can fight on equal grounds with me. It was 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

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

there was still a significant gap in their abilities, and this was what he was attempting to convey to Ren, who was struggling

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

continued to attack, Duke Soriol experienced a sudden outburst of rage as his attacks grew increasingly vicious.

to see Ren's lonesome figure floating above

Duke

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

started to become more fierce while

beginning to feel hopeless about the outcome of the

***

"Huakk!!"

toppled to the ground, sending it crashing down

arrow was perfectly aimed at the exposed core

wasn't enough, with another flick of her finger, the arrow exploded, and a large explosion resounded throughout the air, completely disintegrating the demons that

Booom!

"Another few down..."

many does

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

"It's bleeding."

were bleeding.

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 appeared from all

demon appeared, 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

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

was the large amount

Thud! Thud!

bow let loose

"Haaa...haaa..."