Chapter 5: Slaying Demons (3)
“Ilot, hurry up! Join those skeletons and kill the ogres. If we don’t act now, we’re doomed!” A series of echoing roars from afar made Komer’s already buzzing mind turn pale. What it meant was obvious—Komer truly regretted acting so rashly. If more ogres joined the fight, their lives would likely end here. The only option now was to kill them as quickly as possible and flee.
The magic staff returned to Komer’s hands. Without time to prepare other powerful spells, he fired nine consecutive fireballs—the simplest spells available. Though basic, these ball of fire the size of a human head struck the unprepared ogres repeatedly. Flames quickly surrounded them, but this simple fire magic caused limited damage, at most scarring their fur and muscles and slowing their attacks, without inflicting serious harm.
At this moment, Ilot could no longer afford to ponder the many questions in his mind. With a sigh, he drew his giant sword, which once again gleamed brightly. Using a shield-skeleton to distract one ogre, he plunged his sword deep into its waist. The ogre, enraged by the blow, tried to strike back with its hands. As its arm was severed, Ilot was flung several meters away along with his sword by the final, desperate strike from the ogre. Meanwhile, the skeleton archers, who had been waiting for an opportunity, finally seized their chance. Before being crushed by another ogre, they shot a deadly arrow that pierced through the already severely wounded ogre’s throat, spraying blood in a beautiful arc.
Seeing his three companions fall one after another, the largest male ogre went completely insane. Its egg-sized eyes emitted terrifying light that made people want to back away. The foul poisonous gas from its mouth and armpits filled the battlefield. Despite its bulky frame, it moved swiftly and nimbly across the field, like a agile monkey leaping through the trees. It was hard to believe it was a massive creature weighing over 300 kilograms. Komer felt utterly helpless.
Watching helplessly as the orc endured a spear thrust from a skeleton soldier, it suddenly leaned forward and pulled the skeleton archer into its arms. With a series of crisp cracking sounds, the skeleton archer instantly turned into shattered bone fragments that scattered everywhere. Another skeleton sword and shield soldier, after the orc dodged its attack, easily broke the skeleton’s arm holding the sword, then knocked it along with its shield two dozen feet away. Fortunately, Komer’s solidification spell worked well—although it tumbled on the ground, the skeleton soldier quickly launched another attack. Its thick iron shield smashed hard against the orc’s testicles, causing intense pain that made the male orc curl up in agony. It roared furiously and torn the treacherous skeleton soldier to pieces.
Ilot, who had struggled to get up, suddenly noticed another figure standing alongside another skeleton soldier, fighting against the orc. Compared to the clumsy movements of the skeleton soldiers, that figure moved with incredible speed and agility, circling the orc while its strange spear emitted sparks of light, leaving deep marks on its body.
The poor skeleton sword and shield soldier had to take on the task of blocking head-on. Despite having a large shield for protection and being reinforced by Komer’s enhancements, the orc’s fierce attacks easily broke through its defenses. After dodging the skeleton soldier’s futile sword strikes, the orc’s neck was struck again by that moving figure. Blue blood flowed down its back, but it managed to grab the skeleton soldier’s skull, which showed no fear. With a powerful slap from both hands, the skull turned into bone fragments that scattered through its fingers, and the soldier collapsed. The last of Komer’s carefully crafted defensive items also met its end.
The emotionless golden-faced figure resembled an assassin wearing a mask. Yet, Ilot had never seen such a lifelike mask on the continent. After calling out to it without receiving a response, Ilot still joined the battle. This male orc clearly learned from the death of its companion; although its attacks remained fierce, it was careful to protect its vital areas under its arms. As for its throat and lower body, its agile movements allowed it to evade the attacks of the two opponents.
At this point, Komer could finally calm down and catch his breath. This ogre was indeed a tough opponent—ordinary fire magic clearly couldn’t deal significant damage to it, and conventional physical attacks were barely effective against it. Advanced fire magic might be able to harm it, but Komer was worried that the ogre’s agile body could dodge or counter his spells, making it not worth the effort. Summoning zombie assassins had already cost Komer a considerable amount of magic power. In his current state, he estimated he could cast another advanced spell at most; if that failed, he would be helpless. Now was the perfect time to hone his dark attack magic. All that remained was to try the yet-unrefined Dark Devourment spell. After all, all his secrets were exposed to Ilot. Though Komer didn’t want Ilot to know everything so soon, with things as they stood, he had little to worry about.
As the chanting grew louder, black mist began to emerge from the fingertips of his outstretched hands, swirling around them. His pale fingers were soaked in the dark aura, and a gloomy atmosphere filled the air. Even Ilot and the ogre, who were still fighting, sensed this, though the intensity of the battle left them no time to pay attention.
With this assassin-like figure, whose expression was blank and gaze dull, acting as a cover, Ilot felt much less pressure. The fearless assassin took on almost all of the ogre’s frontal attacks. To Ilot’s astonishment, this helper seemed to possess defense capabilities on par with the highest levels of combat energy. Despite the ogre’s repeated attacks—tearing and slaps—this helper always managed to stay unharmed, with only a few stumbles or torn clothes as the ogre’s only results. Ilot couldn’t tell whether this helper had achieved the legendary immortality or was wearing some kind of armor that could withstand even the ogre’s powerful physical attacks. At least Ilot had never heard of armor capable of resisting gravitational impacts.
Komer finally completed preparing his spell, which took several minutes—a time that was unimaginable on a real battlefield. A few minutes could be enough for a life to die countless times. But Komer believed this was simply due to his insufficient magic power and lack of mastery over the spell. With time, he was confident he could cast this spell, “Demonic Soul Devourment,” which could make any dark mage look in awe, in the shortest possible time.
As soon as Demon Soul Devourer was cast, the air around them turned drastically colder. For a high-level dark magic like this, not only was powerful dark magic energy required as a foundation, but the most difficult aspect to master was the exceptional mental strength needed to control it. Although Komer had gained immense magical power from the Dark Magic Crystal by means of King Canifer III, he couldn’t achieve the same level of mental prowess in such a short time. Thus, using such a high-level dark magic carried considerable risks.
A spiral of black smoke began to swirl around the rampaging ogre. Eilot could even clearly see tiny sparks jumping within the smoke. These sparks quickly merged together, emitting a series of faint explosions. The sound wasn’t loud, but it was as intense as a thunderclap. The black smoke enveloped the ogre’s head, causing it to let out a shrill scream as its entire body trembled violently. It even tried to roll away as if trying to escape something. Panicked, Eilot stepped back quickly to avoid any deadly attacks.
In this combined attack by the impassive assassin and the ogre, although the assassin took most of the impact, Eilot still suffered two attacks during the struggle. One hit his shoulder. Despite his armored protection, he could still feel intense pain as if his muscles were being torn apart. Fortunately, it was just the ogre’s elbow brushing against him. The other attack nearly cost Komer his life—his waist was scratched by the ogre’s fingernails, and his armor cracked under the ogre’s unbreakable claws. Luckily, the ogre’s claws only scratched his armor without touching his flesh. Otherwise, given the toxicity inherent in the ogre’s body, Eilot wasn’t sure if the potion Komer had given him earlier could withstand the poison from the ogre’s wounds.
But it seemed everything was coming to an end. The black smoke, mixed with bursts of scale-like lightning, continued to swirl around the ogre’s head, causing explosions with each flash. Each lightning strike triggered the ogre’s heart-wrenching roars. Just as the fearless assassin, after being thrown over ten meters away by the enraged ogre, struggled to get back up ready to continue fighting, Komer’s Demon Soul Devourer reached its peak. At that moment, Komer’s entire body trembled repeatedly, and the black mist between his fingers completely covered his wrist. Greenish aura kept forming patterned marks on his pale face.
By this point, Komer was trapped and unable to back down. He never imagined that his seemingly invincible technique, Heavenly Demon Soul Devourer, which he thought could consume all life, would encounter such a difficult opponent. The ogre’s mental resistance was extraordinarily strong. Although it had already expended much energy and strength physically, it continuously stimulated its magic core to boost its own mental resistance, thereby resisting Komer’s devouring power from the deepest depths of the dark world. This forced Komer to repeatedly use auxiliary enhancement spells to strengthen the power of Heavenly Demon Soul Devourer, but this immediately led to excessive mana consumption and backlash from the dark magic.
The power of the crystal in his arms could no longer offer much help. After drawing most of its energy, Komer’s soaring mana also rendered the crystal incapable of serving as his last line of defense. Now, Komer could only rely on his strong will and unyielding spirit to fight back against the relentless backlash of the dark magic, like a warrior in the arena who must kill the other side to survive.
It was as if he had fallen into an endless abyss. Just when Komer thought his mind was about to collapse, Eilot’s joyful cry came from ahead: “Kill!”