-----

In that moment, Joan wished the dirt below him could bend, and it did. He suddenly felt as if a hole in the ground was formed by the dirt bending to his will lightly, as the giant foot hit the ground, he was saved by finding himself underground.

TRUUUUMMM…!

"Ah… It worked…!" Muttered Joan, a moment later, he pointed out the spear into the Demon Giant's foot and pierced through its skin, flesh, and bone while making the spear spin!

CRAAAAASH!

"Nggh…! GRUUUOHHHH…!"

The Demon Giant immediately felt the agonizing pain on his foot as it moved it away. Joan immediately jumped out of the hole, surprising the Imps climbing over the giant. A second after, he didn't wasted any minute, using his spear to slash through the giant's foot once more, slicing through and slashing the demon's toes!

SLAAAASH!

The demon giant once more cried in agony, stepping aside while blood gushed out in immense quantities from his wounded foot. Joan gasped for air as he didn't believed he made it alive out of it. And just after that, a telepathic message from the Earth Mouse reached him. Apparently, the preparations were ready! Joan had to merely lure it there…

And well, it wasn't going to be hard.

"GRAAAARRRR!!!"

The Demon Giant immediately set Joan as his most hated target, running straight towards him with everything it had, the demon tried to quickly step over him, but Joan managed to evade the enormous foot of the titan. Jumping away from its range and then reaching the designated area where the Earth Mouse had used [One with the Earth]!

"Come here you bastard!" Joan laughed, as the demon furiously jumped towards Joan with all of his might!

CLAAAASH!

Joan bended the dirt below him, putting himself underground and completely evading the giant's body, which fell straight over a large quantity of clean dirt that was way too suspicious looking!

TRUUUM…!

"Gruah?!"

A second after, Joan activated the trap, as the Giant felt the dirt opening into an enormous hole and falling right inside of it! The hole was roughly twenty meters deep, enough to keep the monster trapped for a few minutes. But it wasn't as if Joan was going to allow the giant to live! He recklessly jumped inside the hole without thinking it twice, pointing the spear into the giant's head and piercing through its skull!

Joan imbued his last bits of mana into his entire body through the techniques his son had taught to him, piercing through the demons' skull as several cracks emerged over it, and then…!

CRAAAASH!

An explosion of brains and blood splattered over the entire hole, as Joan once more found himself diving into guts. Only for his strange spear's specter to clean him from them and greedily devour everything. He had yet to even figure out this magical item at all, but at the very least, it was strong enough to allow him to live this long in the middle of the battlefield.

Joan found himself over the giant's corpse, as dozens of Imps began to crawl towards him, pointing weapons and angrily roaring. He had been exhausted after overusing his Mana, and was gasping for air. His head felt like it would burst in any moment, and the approaching giant in the background wasn't helping at all.

Joan slowly stood up, defending himself from the giants. Lukas and the rest wanted to go down but the fall was way too big. If they were to jump from there, they would surely end up breaking their legs. Joan desperately fought with no mana and barely any strength or stamina in his body, his breathing was getting heavier as he was growing more exhausted with each passing second. The imps viciously provoked him and hit him in the back, kicking him around to make him lose his balance.

"RAAAH!"

Joan roared, his eyes bloodied. His spear pierced through the skull of another Imp, only for two to attack him from the back, pushing him down into the ground, as his weakened body rolled pitifully.

"U-Uggh… S-So this is it…" Joan muttered, looking at the eight Imps left walking towards him, he had no strength to fight anymore, and his potions were also all exhausted.

FLASH!

? However, a black shadow suddenly covered the sky from the sun above, as Joan noticed several of such black shadows jumping from outside the hole. The shadows moved swiftly, as they attacked the Imps, crushing their necks with their sharp fangs, or slashing them with their piercing claws.

"Gryyah!"

"Grah…!"

"Woof!"

Joan's eyes opened wide open as he saw a group of four black wolves as big as two meters massacring the Imps mercilessly… just from where did they come?

"I've finally found you." One of them said with a voice that Joan couldn't help but easily recognize, it was the voice of his son, Blake.

"B-Blake?! No… how?!" Joan asked in disbelief, dropping in exhaustion over the floor as he looked at the fierce wolves.

"I can explain it to you later, father. You're in the verge of death." Sighed Blake's voice, as Joan suddenly noticed strange walking mushrooms sitting over the wolves, spraying some spores over the Imps, and quickly paralyzing them on the spot, making it easier for the wolves to take them down.

Lukas and Gradus watched as they saw Joan being carried to the surface by a group of wolves, they quickly offered him potions to recover a bit of his stamina and health, while the wolves looked into the distance, noticing the monstrous demon giant approaching… And from faraway, within the demon's settlement, a sound of a loud explosion resonated.

BOOOOOMMM!!!

Everyone, even the demons, directed their gazes towards the explosion's direction, as they saw a cloud of red smoke forming into the skies… Blake immediately heard Eleanora's words within his Spirit Orb, as she had appeared inside the moment her spiritual body was destroyed by the explosion generated when she decimated the artificial demon gate.

"My lord, there's a Demon General in the settlement…! I am not sure if it still alive after the explosion, but there is a high possibility that it is!"

"A Demon General you say?"

-----