4-31 Adversary

The insect-like Demoid before her was different from the Demoids she fought before, Erin felt it in her bones. The strangest thing of all, she wasn’t able to grasp the Demoid’s intent like the others. She appraised the Demoid and saw its level was only fifty. From what she had seen, all the Demoids were level fifty at the very least as if this level was the requirement for becoming a Demoid or one’s level would be raised to the bare minimum of fifty upon becoming a Demoid.

Regardless of the truth, Erin’s focus was on this Demoid’s hidden insidious prowess. She could hear the noises behind her, the sound of Aera’s battle with the Covenant’s henchmen disguised as the city patrol guards. She wanted to help but she didn’t dare to turn her attention away from the Demoid in front of her. It had two pairs of arms with a total of six limbs. These two pairs of arms transformed into sickle-like claws as it strutted towards Erin in stride.

Erin cast Mystic Blade on her sword and lunged with a wind-up slash and lightning lacing her body. She streaked in front of the Demoid, leaving behind fading sparks in her trail. She swung but the Demoid bent its body in a way that no human could and cleanly avoided its certain death. It spun in such a queer position and countered with an uppercut of its sickle claw.

Erin retreated a step and the sickle claw caught a few short strands of her palish silver hair. She clicked her tongue, adjusted her grip with her sword, and she lunged again with a thrust. The Demoid spun out of the way and drew back in with a roundhouse slash. She slanted her body, barely dodging the claw that threatened to mar her pretty face. She riposted but the Demoid moved like a breeze, gently moving itself out of harm’s way before retaliating in the fiercest yet gentlest manner possible. Erin brought her sword around in a wide arc, slicing off the Demoid’s claw.

The Demoid shrugged indifferently in response to its fresh stump.

“Irritating,” Erin muttered under her breath. She dispelled Mystic Blade for now as she deemed it detrimental to keep it materialised without any assurance of proper usage. Moreover, the Demoid’s carapace wasn’t as hard as she expected. Even without Arcane Edge or any spell enhancement, she doubted the carapace could block even a normal steel blade. A glass cannon, she remembered Aedan’s telling about such a combatant. An individual who devotes everything to the offence without any care to their defence. This Demoid certainly fits the bill.

The Demoid lunged right after it saw Erin dispelling Mystic Blade. Its fresh stump left a trail of dark red blood as it moved. It unleashed a flurry of attacks upon Erin. She met its onslaught with parries just as incessant as the Demoid’s attacks. The sickle claws were only tough on the outer half of the arms. If Demoid clashed with Erin’s swing with the inner half of its arms, she could carve through it like a cake. However, it was easier said than done.

“Fucking hell… This bastard is good,” Erin begrudgingly admitted so in her heart. If the circumstances were different, she would be thrilled about this duel but time was of the essence. There was no telling if the Covenant wouldn’t send reinforcements as time passed. Activating Lust could easily tip the scale in her favour but... she didn't want to rely on her divine gift every time she met an impasse. She would be no different than those she mocked and when she regained her status as the Sword Saint, it would not be truly of her merit and efforts.

Time was against her but she wasn't in a dire strait like the time in the alley. And she wasn't alone. "I can do this," she told herself.

She switched her usual passive defensive stance into an aggressive offensive stance. She clad her whole body, including her sword, with lightning. Her speed tripled and her swings became a blur.

The Demoid spared the same look of indifference and calmly deflected the attacks while dodging those it couldn’t parry. Erin’s offence was not getting through.

“What in the name…?” Erin began to feel something was wrong. At first, she had thought she was just bitter about meeting a swordsman better than her but as the fight went on, she realised the stalemate wasn’t because the Demoid was the better swordsman. It was something else. Something magic, she surmised. However, she saw no skills or spells in the Appraisal result of the Demoid that could explain its prowess.

No matter what kind of feint Erin threw, the Demoid anticipated it and responded to it accordingly. It responded almost too well to her offence. It was as if it knew Erin’s swordsmanship like the back of its hand, not that it had hands. She glimpsed over to Aera’s sight and was at least consoled by the fact that Aera was fairing way better than she was. She even felt a bit of sympathy towards the fake guards who had Aera as their opponent.

Erin would have loved to watch but her own foe was not giving her a moment to breathe. Erin countered with a wild cut that took out an appendage sprouting on top of the Demoid’s head. It went staggering for a few feet but found its bearings not too far away. A small spurt of blood gushed out but the Demoid showed no sign of agony or any expression of pain. Instead, it pressed on with its assault as if all was normal.

“Detached from pain. A tailored fighter?” Erin mused in wonder over the Demoid’s secret behind its abilities.

The Demoid strode towards Erin with composed haste. It shook its shoulders, perhaps to loosen its joints that were numbed by the ceaseless heavy movements.

Erin matched the Demoid’s fervour with a different stance. She flipped over the Demoid and lashed out her blade with elegant brutality. The Demoid repelled her blows without a change in its cold and unyielding gaze. Whenever she used Mystic Blade, the Demoid would retract its arms and resort to evasion instead of crossing arms. Erin continued to hop and flip around as she struck from every direction possible but the Demoid’s guard was impervious to her attacks.

“Fuck,” she uttered when the Demoid stuck out a foot and nearly tripped her. She avoided the trip but her evasion left her open for retaliation.

The Demoid happily obliged this opportunity.

“Fucking bollocks… I’m losing with swords of all things…” Erin grumbled inwardly as she was kept being pushed back by the Demoid’s relentless assault.

If she hadn’t protected herself with Arcane Armour and Arcane Aegis, she would have suffered deep cuts and lost two of her limbs. Whenever she used Mystic Blade, the Demoid was quick to shift its tactics into a form of continuous evasion. Even with her speed enhanced by Lightning Clad and Lightning Rush, the Demoid dodged her Mystic Blade offences with near-perfection.

The moment Erin exhausted her chain of offence, the Demoid retaliated with ruthless and bottomless vigour. Erin was a tad thankful for the Demoid’s average value of Might or else she would have already met her end with its relentless strong blows and vicious swings. Her tails also contributed a lot to her survival. When she felt her grip gradually going numb from the one-sided assault, her tails became her swords. With the level she was right now, controlling her tails was easier than before but still not as well as she could move her limbs, but still better than the average people’s match.

With Steel Tails, her tails were able to parry and block the Demoid’s strikes and blows. Surprisingly, her tails blocked better than a sword in her hands. Her tails didn’t go numb from the blows. If the Demoid wasn’t so sly in his attacks, Erin wagered she could keep her on going with her tails for defence. Erin tried using Mesmerise but the Demoid wasn’t even the least bit affected and that was something Erin expected but it didn’t hurt to try. At a certain point, the Demoid knocked her sword out of her hands. It opened itself wide and pounced at her with all of its sickle-claws thrust towards her.

Erin smirked and rushed forward to meet the Demoid’s offence. Before the sickle claws could gouge through her skin and into her flesh, her spell sword reappeared in her hand in a blink of an eye but not just one sword. With two swords suddenly in hand, she swung with great ferocity and speed while fortifying the blades with Mystic Blade. In that one single swing, she cut the Demoid’s arms off.

[Experience gained +10% - Level Progression: 65%]

[Finesse +2 - Finesse: 44]

[Sword Art: Level 8 increased to Level 9]

[Arcane Edge: Level 6 increased to Level 7]

Erin raised an eyebrow at the increment of her Sword Art and Arcane Edge’s level, which had not increased in level for a long time now. It was truly difficult to raise an Arcane Art’s level after five without using points directly. In addition, she received experience points and two ability points for Finesse, both of which she was thrilled about. It also served as a testament to the prowess of this Demoid. She felt a tad sorrowful that this duel was drawing to a close.

The Demoid did not scream or cry despite the conditions of its arms. It stared blankly at its chopped-off limbs without any change in its nonchalant expression. If anything, it looked confused over its next course of action like an obedient pet at a loss over the lack of orders from its master. Perhaps that analogy wasn’t too far off for this Demoid’s circumstance, Erin thought.

“Still going to fight?” Erin asked.

The Demoid cocked its head, seemingly confused over Erin’s question.

“Well then, it’s been a good duel, but I’m afraid this is the end.” Erin charged forward with her sword swinging but before she could cut off the Demoid’s head, she stopped in her tracks and dodged low, avoiding a stake that would pierce through her head.

The Demoid lunged at that moment, baring its razor-sharp teeth that it had been concealing with its impassive expression all this while.

“Fuck off!” Aera appeared from behind with a roar, burying her fist into the Demoid’s face. The Demoid went flying across the street and tumbling along the paved roads. Its blood smeared the surprisingly clean pavements.

Erin cast Storm Shell around her as another stake shot towards her. The stake shattered against the lightning barrier and a thunderbolt was shot back to the sniper. As the projectile was lightning, it disappeared into the distance within seconds. After a few seconds, Erin received a message in her head.

[Experience gained +20% - Level Progression: 85%]

Erin scoffed with a chuckle. “Well, that was easy.” She turned her attention away from the deceased far-off sniper and back to the Demoid that was getting to its feet from Aera’s punch. “Now, let’s end this poor bastard’s—”

Aera was steps ahead of Erin as she had already pounced on top of the Demoid, suppressing it on the ground with Might that far surpassed the Demoid’s own.

“Aera, stand back,” Erin said. “Let me—”

Aera had already started raining down punches onto the Demoid before Erin could finish her words. The Demoid wasn’t unresponsive to the barrage of fists it was receiving but it could neither do anything in response. It had no arms and its razor-sharp teeth were displaced and knocked out of its jaws by the uninhibited punches from Aera.

“Aera, stop it!” Erin shouted, dispelling her spell swords.

“Don’t stop me!” Aera yelled back, not turning her gaze away from the Demoid she was bludgeoning with her fists.

“Enough, Aera!” Erin yanked Aera off of the Demoid by her shoulders. She quickly stepped in front of Aera, staring her down away from the incapacitated Demoid.

“Let me turn that fucking abomination into a complete pulp!”

“No,” Erin replied sharply. Instead of a kiss, she cast Lust in combination with Mesmerise on Aera.

The unbridled fury in Aera’s gaze faded and she slumped to her knees in an instant like a golem puppet drained of its fuel. The rage in Aera’s eyes was replaced with a listless desire for the Fox-kin in front of her. She wanted to act on this desire of hers but she could barely even turn her head, let alone move her entire body.

“Well… that worked too well,” Erin remarked. She patted glazed-eye Aera on the head with a faint smile before turning her attention to the half-dead Demoid sprawling on the ground. Its fingers were moving but barely. It would twitch but that was all it could do as its gaze followed Erin’s movements.

The Demoid opened its toothless mouth. It coughed out blood instead of words.

“Poor bastard,” Erin muttered and decapitated the Demoid without dragging out the mood a second more.

[Experience gained +25% - Level Progression: 110%]

[Erynthea: Level 42 increased to Level 43]

[Skill Points gained +2 | 2]

[Ability Points gained +2 | 2]