CHAPTER 164: BATTLE! (2)

Because of their size — only around an arm length long and a few inches wide — it meant that not much water was needed for them to be executed.

But when they were created in succession, the same water content problem became obvious. So Zephyr was only able to create two ice spears.

’Shit! I need more options!’

He wanted to bombard the demon with fire arrows, but he knew that would very likely benefit the demon more than it would cause him harm like Zephyr wanted.

And in that moment, just as he thought about more options, his HUD status panel lit up, filling his view with spell suggestions.

PREEMPTIVE SPELL SUGGESTIONS

Primary Attack Path : Wind Based Attacks.

Multi-Layer Wind Pressure : Suppress enemy flames with constant, precise oxygen control.

Note:

Requires fine control.

Wind Gust + Sand : Use wind to whip sand on the enemy, dousing his flames with a constant stream of sand.

Secondary Attack Path : Water + Wind Based Attack.

Condensed Water + Wind : Use minimal ambient water moisture with enhanced efficiency to counter the enemy’s flames with a focused mist.

’Wind pressure? Oxygen?’ Zephyr frowned slightly as he sent the two ice spears flying at the flaming goat demon, along with repeated wind bursts to keep the mad demon at bay.

The demon was full-on frenzied, and yet also had a calm cold to his eyes. Like a creature with one singular purpose... which was to end Zephyr.

At this point, Zephyr had realized he was going to kill the demon without any single shred of hesitation.

In fact, the thought of letting the guy within his 10ft effective range and cooking his brain with his instant cast spells he had saved in memory had crossed his mind a few times... but he held himself back.

He didn’t want to start a habit of defaulting to that when fighting... unless he was in a very dire situation.

This was a tense situation... but not dire. So he was going to do this with his normal spells only.

Aegis fed a brief information about air content in regards to oxygen make up and the like directly to Zephyr’s brain, making him understand what the First path of attack from the preemptive spell suggestions was referring to.

’So one can even further separate the content of the air beyond just removing water molecules...?’

He had never tried that yet. How was he to even visualize oxygen alone? Or should he simply try removing all traces of air within the surroundings of the demon guy?

Just as Zephyr thought of this, Aegis immediately shut his idea down.

That would be an exceptionally difficult task, host. Removing all traces of oxygen around the enemy would in fact be more achievable than creating a total vacuum... Bear in mind that this is around a moving subject too.

Zephyr instantly discarded the idea after that.

It seemed he was going the wind + sand route. It had all been rapid in his thoughts, but Aegis had further explained that if Zephyr went with his vacuum idea, he’d have to be constantly pushing back against the natural atmospheric pressure of the planet itself, pressing from all angles.

Even with all his advanced processor designs and easy spell activation, Zephyr was nowhere near the power of interfering with planetary level natural forces.

The suggestion to try manipulating oxygen alone was already pushing it, so as Zephyr got the full run-down from Aegis, he immediately switched to the other spell suggestions.

All through the short second Zephyr was considering all this, he was still standing in one spot, subconsciously executing his wind blasts repeatedly to keep the demon at bay.

And at this point, the demon was more than mad. In his current state he was already driven by a madness so intense, there was no expression on his face... only his frenzied, dogged actions spoke of his mental state.

But after being repeatedly pushed back by Zephyr, anger had already started to color his face even in this state.

The elf variant girl was watching slack-jawed, having totally forgotten her previous fear for Zephyr’s life.

What she was seeing right now... What Zephyr was doing... had shocked her to the core.

Is this guy a champion like us...?

She thought with a chill running down her spine.

Even from where she stood, she could feel the shockwaves coming from the demon’s frenzied collisions with the wind bursts Zephyr kept sending his way.

Loud thumping sounds like small explosions resounded through the cold, silent desert at every hit. Sounds she was sure could be heard by every champion for tens of miles.

Even at the distance where she stood, she could feel vibrations travel through the sand and up her body at every hit.

...And yet, Zephyr, the one who was tanking the attacks, was doing so without a single sweat.

He even had the time to look like he was deliberating a few things in his mind.

In her daze, she fell back on her butt, making a slight scruffing sound as she sunk into the sand.

She was on an elevated position compared to Zephyr and the demon guy — on a dune — so her action caused a clump of sand to dislodge and trail further down, making even more sound.

And for some reason, probably due to his heightened, frenzied state, the demon picked up on this sound.

His head snapped to the right, where the sound came from, and up at the source.

His brightly glowing, red eyes met the elf girl’s despite the darkness of the night, and a trace of wiliness flickered in them before disappearing, like his senses had come back to him very briefly.

The girl froze in fear as their eyes met, like a predator had set its sights in her.

It was at this moment that Zephyr finished analyzing his options. He had just made to start up his wind + sand combination when he felt his wind burst travel into the distance without any resistance.

He quickly refocused, flitting his eyes around for the flaming light that was his opponent, and he spotted him already bounding up a dune just some distance away.

"The elf girl...?" Zephyr muttered with a raised brow. He knew she had been there the whole time, but he hadn’t thought the demon would think to attack her... at least not in his current state of madness.

"Should I help her...?" Zephyr thought, preparing to send a powerful gust of wind in the demon’s direction to stop his dash.

But just as he was about to, he suddenly stopped, picking up a small movement just beside the elf variant girl.

"Ho...?"