A/N: I was going to split the chapter, but I thought that if I had one in stock for tomorrow, I'd get lazy :D here's a slightly longer chapter.
***
As I subtly glanced at the person who approached, I couldn't even hide my surprise.
It was Isabelle.
She was tired and bruised all over.
Yet she still came here to help.
I was honestly flattered.
"I take it these guys aren't with you?" she said absentmindedly.
Rolling my eyes, I replied, "Obviously not. I only sensed one of them earlier. Had I known there were four more, I wouldn't have tossed you over here."
She just stared at me for a moment.
I couldn't read her expression.
Normally, I could. Not this time though.
But even if I couldn't tell what she was thinking, the fact that she was right here beside me meant that she was willing to help.
A faint smile appeared on my face.
Then, I leaned in to her ear, slightly startling her.
But when I began to whisper, her expression stiffened immediately.
"All of them are demon barons. I can handle them, but I'll need support. I really need you to coat the entire ground in frost so it's harder for them to move. Can you do that?"
I didn't expect much since she was already on the last of her energy.
But despite my expectations, she nodded and took a few steps back.
Then, without even waiting for a signal, she stomped the ground.
Ice covered the grass and the trees in a few hundred meter radius nearly instantly.
Yet as flashy and quick as the ability was, the toll it took was also severe.
Blood began to gush out of her nose as she staggered back.
Before she could fall to her knees, I caught her with Telekinesis and floated over a single healing potion.
"Drink up."
Although hesitant, she gulped the potion down, and seeing that it wasn't enough, I took out two more.
She drank both of them, and finally, she walked over to the ground and covered all of them in a frost barrier.
This was it.
From here on, I wouldn't get any help.
But...
As I floated a few inches off the ground and the demons thawed the ice, I knew that I had to act fast.
And so I did.
Spreading out a pulse of Telekinesis at the demons, I located each of their cores in the blink of an eye.
Two of them kept their cores in their right eyeballs.
One kept a core in its wrist.
And the last one... in its family jewels.
Sensing what I had just done, the demons stopped playing around instantly.
Darkness descended like before.
This time, it was far more severe, as I couldn't see even a meter around me.
I knew what was coming.
Demons could synchronize their Gifts.
But they couldn't synchronize their attacks.
I stepped back, avoiding an attack from the front. Then, an attack from the back, the left, and lastly, the right.
Each demon had to occupy a single direction, and they could only switch between those directions.
There couldn't be multiple in the same direction.
And since everything else remained the same, I kept dodging.
Still, it seemed like despite all my progress, this was a little too much.
My elbow was clawed.
My wrist was nearly torn off.
A scorching pain shot through my chest as a single hand stuck clean through it.
The demon missed my heart.
But the damage was serious.
Way too serious.
However, this was the exact moment I was waiting for.
With the demon's arm still in my body, I suddenly grabbed on.
In the next instant, I teleported to the front, holding onto the demon's hand and watching the place where I had just stood from within the dark fog.
"Huh?" The demon's eyes widened in shock, and it switched again.
But it couldn't escape me.
I held on firmly with Telekinesis, and after another teleport, the demon's energy was nearly exhausted.
I took the chance and instantly crushed its core, which was in its family jewels.
[Current progress: 1 → 2/5 Demon Barons killed]
The domain dissipated, revealing the three demons staring at me in shock.
But that shock lasted less than two seconds, as all three of them suddenly dashed toward me.
As the last of the demon's hand turned to ash, I plopped five healing potions straight into my mouth, trying to close the hole in my chest.
Sadly for me, the potions were too weak.
They only managed to stop the blood from pouring out.
Still, I took what I could get, and then, right as the demons arrived in front of my face, I shot straight into the sky with my Telekinesis.
One of the demons followed faster than the others, and that was the demon I locked onto.
I grabbed the demon tightly with my Telekinesis and tossed it further into the sky, away from the others.
I blasted off right after it, piercing through the clouds.
As the golden rays of the sun shone down on me and my broken body, I felt strangely at peace.
Was it because I was on the verge of death?
Haha...
How stupid.
The demon baron's human form dissipated under the sunlight, revealing a grotesque skinny dark form with two tiny wings sticking out of its back.
It stared at me with a hateful glare.
"You have killed two of us now. Do you know who you're making an enemy out of?"
"Ask me if I care." I chuckled, coughing out a mouthful of blood.
Speaking was definitely a no-go.
Feeling the other demons approach from below, I got straight to it.
Making the first move, I pulled the demon toward me.
Then, right as it tried using that momentum to pierce me, I abruptly jerked the demon back, making it lose its breath for a moment.
And in that short span of a millisecond, I grabbed its core with my Telekinesis and immediately crushed it.
The demon flashed a surprised look on its grotesque face before turning to ash.
[Current progress: 2 → 3/5 Demon Barons killed]
That little move I did was a cheat code in a way.
The demons' power source was stable, but when they focus all that power on a certain move, and that move gets canceled, they are vulnerable for a split second.
Soon enough though, the remaining two demons shot through the clouds, their true forms being revealed by the sun.
When they saw the ashes flying through the sky, their expressions turned even more hateful.
Their eyes lit up for a moment as they tried to activate their Gifts to surround me again.
However...
"Good luck using Shadow Manipulation when you're literally right below the sun."
Coming to that realization, the two demons exchanged a quick glance.
Then, to my surprise, one of the demons shot downward while the other stayed to fight me.
Getting an ominous feeling, I knew for a fact that the other demon wasn't going down to retreat.
It was going down to kill my group members.
Knowing that, I tried to pull the demon in front of me a bit closer.
But it seemed like its goal switched from trying to kill me to buying time.
It resisted the pull with the energy from its core.
I tried again, and the same happened.
In this case, I didn't really have much of a choice.
But just then, I remembered something I had stashed inside my dimensional ring.
A sword.
It was a shabby steel sword, but anything was better than fighting barehanded against a demon.
So I took it out and held it firmly.
Then, without an ounce of hesitation, I shot ahead and slammed the sword down onto the demon.
It caught the blade with its claws.
The blade began to crack, but clearly, it underestimated me more than I underestimated them.
Letting go of the sword, I propelled myself onto the demon's shoulders, mounting on top.
Before the demon could begin to tear my flesh, I stuck my finger straight into its right eye, not only crushing it, but also grabbing a marble that was deep inside its eye.
"GAAAAAAAAAH!"
The demon finally lashed out, knocking me away.
Its claws slashed across my abdomen, nearly ripping my guts open.
Still, as I held its ominous dark core in my hands, I could only give it a look of pity.
"Too bad you low ranked demons are a bunch of idiots."
With those words, I crushed the core in my grasp.
[Current progress: 3 → 4/5 Demon Barons killed]
My exhaustion was starting to catch up to me.
All this fighting... and especially the amount of energy I wasted against the first demon.
Blood started dripping from my nose and even from the wound in my chest.
I had healing potions, but they couldn't fix me.
But there was only one more demon left.
If I could kill it and then absorb its core, I could get a massive boost in regeneration.
I needed to go down.
Now.
Letting go of my Telekinesis, I hurtled through the clouds, which washed away the blood off my face but also worsened my injuries.
After a few seconds of free falling, I stopped myself mere inches from the ground.
I saw two of my group members lying unconscious, with the ice that protected them shattered all over the place.
But most importantly was the demon who held Isabelle by the back of her neck.
With its free arm, the demon aimed its claw right at her neck.
She was wide awake but way too exhausted to do anything.
All she could do was look at me with a blank gaze.
This scenario probably reminded her of the past.
The past where she was in a situation where she needed saving.
Her brothers, her parents, and even people who tried to court her.
They never let her do anything by herself.
So even when her life was only a few seconds away from being snuffed out, she'd rather have that than go through all that again.
But I knew I didn't have the power to stop the demon before it could kill her.
So I went with another option.
I would help her, but not directly.
I stared straight into Isabelle's eyes until finally, it really felt like she looked back at me.
She frowned when she noticed my injuries, but that didn't matter for now.
Unknowingly to the demon, I subtly glanced at my left wrist.
At first, Isabelle didn't get it.
But finally, after the third or so attempt, her eyes slightly widened.
She finally understood what I was trying to tell her.
I finally stopped with all the hidden gestures.
Instead, I clicked my tongue and met the demon's gaze.
"So what now?"
"Now? Now you tell me who you are," the demon replied impatiently.
Was that really it?
Sure?
"Amon Everness. Orphan. Future cadet."
"Amon Evernes...?" The demon tilted its head slightly. "That name does ring a bell..."
It fell into thought for a few seconds, and that was when its eyes widened.
It slightly eased up on its grasp.
"Amon Everness... Amon Everness... Aren't you the—!"
Before the demon could even finish its words, a miniature ice spear shot out from the back of Isabelle's neck.
It pierced the demon's hand and kept going until it hit its head.
But most importantly, the miniature ice spear managed to pierce the demon's wrist.
And what else was inside the demon's wrist than its core.
"Wha—! Wait!"
The demon let go of Isabelle, and despite a tiny ice spear sticking out of its head, it ran toward me, its hand extended.
But...
"You..."
"You need to go to the..."
It couldn't finish its words in time.
But it did seem like it had something to tell me.
Maybe relay something to me?
The rest of its body soon disintegrated into ash.
[Current progress: 4 → 5/5 Demon Barons killed]
[Quest complete!]
[Rewards have been issued into your Dimensional Ring!]
With the chill of Isabelle's tiny spear, the ash particles spread all throughout, and finally, the entire forest fell silent.
Melissa and Brian were out cold.
Isabelle was in terrible shape.
She could barely even keep her eyes open.
But from her expression, it seemed like she thought that if she were to pass out now, I would bleed out to death.
She dragged her tired body over to me, scrambling some of her own potions from her Dimensional Ring and tossing them onto the ground.
For the first time since seeing her, I saw a trace of panic on her face.
Was she that desperate to pass with a perfect score that she couldn't have me die?
Hehe...
That would be silly, but it would also definitely be in character, at least for the current Isabelle.
As she uncorked potion after potion in haste, I merely crouched down to her eye level and placed a hand on her shoulder.
She stopped for a moment, meeting my gaze.
I had plenty I wanted to say to her, but I guess...
"Good job."
This would be enough.
But sadly for her...
I didn't want her seeing me eat the Demon Baron's Ability Core.
THWACK!
I whacked her across the back of her neck, knocking her out.
As she was about to plop down headfirst onto the cold ground, I caught her, pulled out a bit of wolf fur, and placed it down beneath her.
After that, I made sure to cover Melissa and Brian's eyes with a blindfold.
And only then did I invest all 25 of my free stats straight into Vitality.
I was a bit more energized than before, but...
[Demon Baron's Ability Core]
[Description: Consume to obtain a random ability that had belonged to a Demon Baron.]
This is what will really keep me alive.