Chapter 39: Bait (II)

The Fire Fiend was infamous in the main world. As a powerful demon of the silver rank, it had committed numerous atrocities in past demonic plagues, slaughtering entire human towns. Its name was often used by adults to scare children—just hearing it could make infants stop crying. Compared to the relatively smaller Fire Fiend, the ferociously looking Dog Demons seemed harmless, like pet dogs.

This cunning demon sneered as soon as it appeared: “Hehe! Human, you’re just a lowly black-iron mage, yet you dare talk big. Better hand over your soul to me, and maybe I’ll leave you intact!”

Of course, such words from a Fire Fiend that loved playing political games couldn’t be trusted—otherwise, death would be extremely miserable. Two black-iron mages and a necromancer who could summon silver demons would surely be killed beyond recovery for ordinary black-iron mages. But Donald wasn’t afraid at all. On the contrary, he said confidently, “If you have allies, don’t I have any?”

Instantly, four summoned creatures appeared before Donald: two dungeon demons and two elf tree spirits.

Donald had realized that spider-like monsters had a significant advantage against demons, especially those focused on physical evolution. So he had planned to summon the highly effective web monsters to deal with the necromancer’s henchmen.

However, the Fire Fiend, engulfed in flames, was clearly beyond the web monsters’ capabilities. Thus, those two bronze Dog Demons were assigned to take care of it. As for the two tree spirit girls, they were meant for the two mages. Watching delicate deer-like creatures slaughter mages would surely be a satisfying sight.

In the blink of an eye, as Donald summoned his allies, the three demons there grew impatient. The two Dog Demons roared and charged forward. At their master’s command, the two dungeon demons also launched silk attacks at the demons. Meanwhile, black light gathered in the Fire Fiend’s eyes and shot straight at Donald.

The tree spirits, too, swung their poisoned wooden spears before the enemy mages could cast spells.

Donald knew that although the Fire Fiends seemed to rely on magic in combat, they were actually skilled in close combat. Aside from their magical flames, their only offensive spell ability was fear magic. They usually used mental spells to instill fear and weaken their enemies’ will to fight, then dealt double damage with flame-formed swords.

But this time, Fireburn Demon’s plan was clearly a mistake. The opponent hadn’t put up any mental defenses, only using a low-level mage shield. Yet his Fear Spell, aimed directly at the target, had no effect whatsoever, as if it vanished into thin air.

It didn’t know that Donald possessed a high-tier artifact dwelling within his soul—attacking his soul was equivalent to attacking the artifact itself. Even though the Book of Truth was a damaged high-tier artifact, mental spells below the legendary level had little to no effect on him.

Unaware of this, Fireburn Demon tried to deal with Donald using conventional tactics, but due to its miscalculation, it was doomed to fail.

As Fireburn Demon cast its spell, Donald summoned two more creatures. They were level 2 units from the orc and elf races: the Smite Priest and the Magic Destroyer.

Seeing that these newly summoned creatures only had black-iron strength, Fireburn Demon sneered in contempt. “Just these two trashlings to deal with me?” It swung its crimson sword wreathed in demonic flames, sending several streams of scorching fire toward Donald and the others.

Fireburn Demon’s flames were extremely troublesome—once touched, they were hard to extinguish. It was said that most of the dark mage’s flame abilities originated from Fireburn Demon, so Donald certainly didn’t want to experience being burned by those flames. Fortunately, the flames’ range was limited, giving Donald and his summoned creatures time to retreat safely.

After dodging Fireburn Demon’s first attack, the elf warrior Magic Destroyer immediately used its signature skill, Demon Control. Meanwhile, the support unit, the Smite Priest, cast its Bloodthirst spell, enhancing the two dungeon demons’ attack power and frequency.

Demon Control allowed the user to control one enemy summoned unit, with the amount of magic consumed depending on the target’s health. Although Fireburn Demon had appeared in the main material world in its true form, it was still an entity from a lower dimension, repelled by the rules of this world. It still counted as a summoned creature, so Magic Destroyer’s skill remained effective and yielded remarkable results.

Seeing the elf warrior’s skill in action, Fireburn Demon was trapped by an invisible force, unable to move or attack. However, the gap in strength between the black-iron-level Magic Destroyer and Fireburn Demon was too large, so this skill likely wouldn’t hold it back for long.

He had already considered this. Along with the Magic Destroyer, Donald also cast a spell—this time, it was the Hunter’s first innate spell, Spellburn. Spellburn had a short effective range and couldn’t be cast from too far away. Donald stepped forward and emitted an energy beam resembling a fiber optic cable from his hand. “Roar… foolish humans, reptiles…” The Fire Fiend roared in frustration due to the energy being drained from it and the accompanying burning sensation. Controlled by Donald’s strange spell, it couldn’t break free and could only curse its enemy in vile Abyssal tongues. Donald’s spell could quickly burn away the magic of enemy magical units while inflicting damage equal to the lost magic power. “Thank you for being my experiment subject—this experiment was a great success!” In response to the demon’s curses, Donald merely smiled mockingly. All of this was part of Donald’s pre-planned battle strategy, inspired by the coordination of units in Warcraft battles. Now that it was put into practice, the results were even better than expected. Since his strength was inferior, he had to find other ways to compensate. Due to the demons’ resistance to magical power, Spellburn couldn’t deal as much damage as it would to ordinary spellcasters. Yet the amount of magic power that needed to be burned wasn’t reduced at all. Under the combined effects of the Elf Warrior’s and Donald’s spells, the Fire Fiend felt its strength draining rapidly, and that mysterious force’s control over it grew stronger, forcing it to roar loudly. “Damn you, Gohman! Come help me! I’m under their control and can’t move!” Although they had signed a contract, demons didn’t treat their contract partners in the main world kindly. On the contrary, as evil and chaotic creatures, many demons harbored ill intentions toward their callers, unless they faced a contract partner far stronger than themselves, in which case they would show humility. But now, faced with crisis and driven by fear of death, the Fire Fiend had to abandon its so-called demonic pride and vile curses, desperately begging its employer for help.