CHAPTER 148: DUKING IT OUT

Immediately the demon disappeared, the hosting demons from the settlement on the other end went into full alert, yelling warily in their language.

"Dammit! He’s seen us. What do we do?!" Jamie whispered urgently.

"Nothing except make ourselves look very valuable now!" Jet gritted his teeth, standing up fully and starting up a few spells, totally giving up on hiding.

Jamie stood up also, gritting his teeth just like Jet was, ready to duke it out to the end.

The rest of the demons below noticed the movement, and a murmur of shock rippled through their ranks.

They stared at the tar-coated figures above in the distance, bracing themselves for impact, and their eyes widened in recognition.

Those were the two humans they had been searching for the whole time!

"Incoming!" Jet yelled and rolled to the side, along with Jamie, who reacted just as quickly, dodging a jagged, obsidian spear that whizzed by them with tremendous force, flying into the distance.

The spear’s thrower bounded down on them immediately, making use of the time they’d used to dodge to close the distance.

But Jet and Jamie were not slow either, they had launched their prepared spells randomly in the air to slow their attacker down even though they had been taken off guard.

It bought them enough time to land and stabilize themselves. They locked gazes with their attacker, who had been slowed, but had still tanked their attacks, charging towards them.

He was a lean-built grotesque demon, seven feet in height and very fast and fluid in his movements like an assassin.

Jet, who had the quicker casting time, fired off his quick-use fire arrows with more precision now that he was stable. But the demon still dodged each time, closing the distance further.

"Jamie!" Jet urged.

"He’s in it!" Jamie, whose hands were in the ground the whole time, yelled back, snarling at their attacker as he suddenly jerked to a stop.

The demon looked down at his feet, noticing that the ground beneath him had gotten mushy and tar-like, halting his movement.

A trap.

Jet made the most of the opportunity, blasting off fire spells with a roar in quick succession.

He charged towards the demon, moving his hands in precise gestures with his gaze locked in focus.

Immediately, a sword made from intense, burning hot flames materialized in his hand, growing to its full length as he reached the demon and slashed down with force.

Boom!!

The sound of a small explosion was heard as the sword made impact, obscuring the view of the demons watching in the distance below for a few seconds.

The commanding demon of the visiting party squinted his eyes slightly, muttering a few words of surprise in the demon language as he observed.

After a few seconds, the aftereffects of the impact cleared, and the demons could finally see what had happened clearly.

...Nothing at all.

The spell had been loud and flashy, but the assassin demon seemed to have received it well.

He had a shield up. One that had seemed to have materialized out of nowhere.

It gleamed with an obsidian sheen, reflecting the dull, red hue of the abyssal land like a mirror.

Jet went in for another strike, as his sword was still brimming with energy.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Jet struck three times in fluid movements, using the force of each swing to blend into the next, flowing like water.

The demon could only defend passively, twisting his sinking body to accommodate Jet’s fluid slashes.

Jamie, a short distance away, supported Jet by ensuring the demon stayed stuck in the sludge of tar he’d turned the ground to, while also creating solid paths for Jet to move on the tar.

His jaws were clenched tight as he pushed himself to the maximum his mana nodes could process.

The problem was that Jet was moving faster than he could rapidly change earth from liquid sludge to solid.

So instead of accommodating Jet’s every step, he was instead predicting where Jet was likely to step.

He was doing both of these while also making sure that the solid ground he made was not too close to the demon, such that he’d have a support to pull himself out of the sludge.

Jet was thankful for the assist, but knew Jamie would not be able to continue for too long. This sort of fast switching of elemental states was too taxing on the mind... even if their roles were reversed.

With how fast he was moving, Jamie had to consciously give his all to visualizing the transitions each time, which was equivalent to running at full performance for that duration.

The demon snarled in frustration at the current stalemate, ashamed that he’d been held up by these two puny humans.

His commander was watching, and he couldn’t afford to continue being passive. It would be a stain on his honor if it did.

With a roar, he activated his inherent bloodline magic, burning his blood for more strength.

Red inscriptions crawled over his skin like they were living things, and his body began to grow in size rapidly.

Just as Jet made to jump a few steps back to accommodate the increasing size of the demon, a large hand suddenly slammed the demon’s head to the ground, shattering Jet’s current foothold.

He fell into the sludge, making Jamie release the spell, scrambling to get Jet out.

It was the commanding demon of the visiting party.

He held his subordinate’s head with a single hand, squeezing his skull to the point where panic filled his blood-red eyes, jarring him out of the state of mad anger he was about to go into.

He snorted, muttering some words in demon language with his deep gravely voice.

Jet and Jamie couldn’t understand what was being said, but they could guess the meaning of the words from the deep scorn it carried.

Disgust.

The demon was utterly disgusted by his subordinate’s action.

He lifted the demon out of the hardening sludge with a hand and threw him a few steps away like trash, facing the two boys squarely.

He observed them with a tilt of his head, watching as they just stared at him with fierce gazes.

"Why—You Not—Attack Me...?" The demon asked in human tongue, shocking Jet and Jamie thoroughly.

They stared up at his towering, bulky figure warily. "It’s no use..." Jet whispered out. "You’re—You’re too strong..."

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A/N: This Chapter’s special thanks goes to Mlbarton1295, Mana Processor’s No.1 reader. Thanks for the Golden Tickets and Power Stones you keep sending my way. Hope you keep enjoying!

Cheers

Astrl