Chapter 83 Regaining Strength

Evan's reply to Pride's question was interrupted by the shout of an adventurer who had just returned from a long-distance quest.

He saw the cloud of smoke from afar and had rushed in with his party of three to assess the situation. Upon seeing Evan and Pride who were standing still in the middle of all this chaos, he called out to them.

**BOOOMMM!!!

Evan dropped the last potion bottle he had on the floor and was about to answer the man when a sudden explosion from the direction of the merchant's store where Xakon crashed in caught his attention.

He activated his mystic eyes and read the flow of magic power, instantly understanding that the explosion, was a diversion.

"Oh Shit!"

Turning around, his eyes barely caught the sight of the bleeding Xakon creating a sword of black ice and dashing towards the group with bloodshot eyes.

He pushed Pride out of the way and grabbed the unforged, raising it in the air to block the black ice blade that threatened to lop off his head.

**CLANGG!!!

Unlike an ice blade, the sound of metal colliding with metal rang out, as Evan didn't need to be a genius to realise that the 'ice sword' was actually Xakon's weapon coated in ice.

The two began to exchange sword strikes, Evan activating his paladin skill for strength boost and launching the occasional aura slash in Xakon's direction.

**CRACKLEE!!!

Tendrils of lightning snaked across Evan's blade as he tilted his head to dodge the ice imbued sword slash and retaliating with his own.

**SWISH!!!

Xakon slashed down at Evan once more, his superior strength overpowering Evan and causing his grip on his weapon to loosen a bit.

Taking advantage of this, Xakon pulled back his sword and thrusted it forwards, intending on impaling Evan's heart.

**PANG!!!

He would have succeeded, if a certain high demon wielding a black blade didn't suddenly interfere and raised her sword diagonally to block his thrust.

"HAP!"

Pride sent a kick towards Xakon, causing him to back step a bit. She then covered her blade in black flames, spinning around and slashing in Xakon's direction.

Fire began to swell from the ground below, dyeing the surroundings in a deep shade of black.

*SNAP!

Snapping her fingers, the ground beneath Xakon's feet cracked open and a geyser of flames instantly erupted into the air.

However, by the time the flames erupted, Xakon was no longer on ground level.

Pride gazed up to see Xakon who had used his wings to propel himself into the air, spinning around as dozens of ice blue two ringed magic circles appeared in the air beside him.

With bright flashes of light, each magic circle produced at least three ice lances that were launched as projectiles towards Pride.

**BOOOMM!!! BOOOMMM!!! BOOOMMM!!!

Perhaps due to being rigged with his detonation skill, each icicle lance exploded upon contact with the ground, forcing Pride to coat her body in demonic energy to avoid being damaged by the explosions.

Her pupils darted around as she quickly analysed the falling icicles and chose to block only those that targeted her vitals or would fall a bit too close to her body.

Meanwhile, Xakon dropped to the ground after launching the magic attack, his eyes zeroing in on the adventurer party of three who had been trying to ask Evan questions earlier.

They were stunned by the events that just occurred before them, and couldn't help but gaze at the battle with slacked jaws.

Xakon's gaze on them, snapped them out of their shock as they instantly deduced who was hostile and readied themselves to fight.

"Aura Slash."

Before Xakon could take action towards them, however, Evan suddenly blinked beside him and launched an aura slash in his direction, forcing him to jump in the air to dodge the blade of aura that was released from the young hero's sword.

However, Evan wasn't done yet as flames engulfed the unforged in his hands. He then went on to swing it in Xakon's direction, making the latter raise his own blade to parry the boy's slash.

Evan's slashed again while maintaining the flames on his sword but Xakon tilted his ice coated weapon in response, causing Evan's sword to slide off his black blade.

His weapon being parried made him temporarily lose his footing but he kept himself up with pure physical strength.

Xakon, however, would not let him regain his bearings completely. The ice on his blade melted off as flames engulfed the blade he raised high and slashed towards Evan's head.

"Blink."

Evan called out as he disappeared from his position, causing Xakon's eyes to widen as his blade sliced through the empty air and slammed on the ground.

**BAMM!!!

His blade dug into the ground and the flames on his sword were smothered by the sand, making him switch elements back to ice.

"Elemental Vortex."

Magic power condensed behind him as he heard a voice call out a familiar word, although it had a prefix this time.

"HUP!"

Xakon gritted his teeth and spun around, dragging is blade through he sand and kicking up a cloud off dust and dirt.

'It's a thrusting attack, if I can redirect his blade, then it can be averted!'

***BOOOMMM!!!!

An explosion rang out as Evan and Xakon were sent flying by the shockwaves, the duo regaining their bearings and landing on the ground, before simultaneously dashing towards each other with vigour.

"Blink."

Evan gave out orders to Kayla who he had stand by as he blinked once more and appeared at Xakon's left side before sending out and aura slash in his direction.

Xakon tried to retaliate but the spears of black flames that came from his right side screamed of more danger so he decided to let Evan's attack hit in favour of defending against the black flames and their conjurer who came dashing through them.

**CLANGG!!!

His nameless blade clashed with Pride's vanitas, sparks flying around as the two metal blades screeched against each other.

"GAH!"

He suddenly let out a mouthful of blood as he felt Evan's aura blade hit his armour, however, that was not the reason for his injury.

'Kayla Now!'

[Yes Master!]

Kayla who had de materialized herself and flown in to Xakon's armour through the gaps, manifested her physical body once more with a burst of lightning as she called out her skill's name.

[Electroflame!!]

Xakon felt like his body was on fire as lightning and flames rampaged across his unprotected back, with the flames burning his skin and the lightning's electric discharge, destroying his nerves and paralysing him.

This left him vulnerable enough for Pride's sword thrust to slam into his torso and send him flying once more.

Evan rolled out of the way to avoid getting hit by Xakon's body, standing up immediately as he dashed towards the airborne demon.

**PHEW!!! BOOOOMMM!!!!

A flaming arrow fired by one of the adventurers in the party standing nearby hit the defenceless Xakon and caused another explosion that in conjunction with the flames from Kayla's Electroflame skill, created enough heat to melt parts of his armour.

'So even if it's magic resistant, it doesn't mean that it the heat from magic cant damage it, huh?'

Evan thought to himself as he saw a giant icicle appear above Xakon and slam into his torso, sending him crashing down onto the ground.

**BAMMM!!!

A deep crater was formed about five meters wide was formed with Xakon's body at the centre.

'Kayla, have you withdrawn?'

[Yes]

After receiving confirmation that Kayla was no longer in Xakon's armour, Evan dropped his sword and jumped up in the air above Xakon, stretching out his two hands as he activated the first skill he ever mimicked.

"Energy Blast!"

With his shout, magic power condensed on his open palms and was launched out as a beam shooting through the air, down towards Xakon on the ground.

***BOOOOMMM!!!!

Evan flipped and landed on the ground, his hand stretching towards his blade as the unforged rose up from the ground and flew back into his hands.

"Huh? I can do that?!"

Evan didn't have time to be surprised at the effect of his weapon control skill as fist sized balls of flames descended from the skies down on the ground.

"Fire Magic: Hail of Flames! Overload!"

Xakon's enraged shout rang out, activating another spell that doubled the effects of any spell casted before hand.

"Tsk...how the fuck are you not dead?!"

Evan appraised Xakon and the result he saw caused his eyes to widen in surprise.

"Shit! Pride, He's regaining his strength!"

Xakon's level that was at 125 due to whatever had weakened him, had increased to 132, increasing his total health and magic power.

'Is that the reason he was still able to stand back up with ease after receiving the earlier combo of attacks?'

Evan checked his magic power and saw that he was down to half his total, however, the spirits poured their magic power into his body, reinvigorating him as he activated blink once more.

He re-appeared about two metres above Xakon's head with his sword raised high.

"Aura Slash!!"