33 Desperation

A man's voice cried out in surprise, while Lilith stared at the ground with vigilance in her eyes, holding her daggers firmly.

From the place where Lilith once stood, a man with a black mask similar to the ones that the fiends wore pulled himself up to his feet through the hole that was created due to the explosion. Like Lilith, he was unharmed, as his murderous eyes were filled with amusement.

Lilith recognized him. 'A fiend.'

It was her first time confronting a fiend. However, even then, she didn't feel an ounce of nervousness or fear when facing someone who was similar to herself. Someone who had sacrificed their humanity, even though hers was forced.

There wasn't just one of them. Lilith's eyes quickly swept through her surroundings. Deep beneath the surface of the ground, she could sense dozens of presences burrowing through the ground.

Their presence was faint and would normally go unnoticed, but it wasn't faint enough to stop someone who was intent on finding them from doing so. Nor did they consider the possibility of confronting a demon, an existence that was sensitive to eldritch energy.

Lilith returned her attention back to the man's. 'Assassins? No, not all of them are. Among them, there are mages as well.'

Although the ground was solid and shouldn't be easy to move through, especially when going unnoticed for the most part, they moved unhindered with ease. It was to the extent that she was sure without a doubt that there were Earth mages assisting the assassins.

With a new spear resting on the man's shoulder, he stared at Lilith. "You aren't as weak as I thought. That said, the outcome of this fight will remain the same. You'll die today."

The spearman wasn't being overconfident when he said this. If he were alone, with their ranks being similar, it wouldn't be too difficult to fight him and win, but with there being dozens of them, the difficulty increased significantly. Even so, it wasn't impossible.

"Not the social type, huh? Shall I make my first move then? And end this. It wouldn't be fun if the others killed more than us because we're slacking." He snorted, feeling motivated as he reached his decision.

Since she was the boring type and wouldn't talk much, he would just kill her and move on to find more intriguing prey. The moment he had made this decision in his mind, the spearman kicked off the ground.

At first, he was relaxed with the spear in his hand, taking everything lightly. However, as he shot forward, he turned serious, holding his spear firmly in both hands and thrusting it forward with quick movement.

Lilith watched as the spear approached her in a flash, aiming for her head. Instead of panicking or hesitating, she calmly and skillfully twisted her body to get out of the way of the spear's trajectory and quickly moved to counterattack with her dagger.

When her dagger swung right under the spearman's chin, Lilith contemplated.

'I can kill him, but…'

Boom~

Before her dagger could reach its mark, earth spikes shot up from the ground beneath her, forcing her to evade and defend.

'… as expected, I won't come out unharmed.'

Strictly speaking, from their first confrontation, the spearman's strength didn't come from himself; it came from the coordination and fluidity he had with the assassins and mages. The weaknesses as well as the blind spots that he couldn't cover himself were protected by their coordination, allowing him to fight freely to his heart's content without worrying about protecting himself.

After Lilith managed to evade the attack aimed at her life, she wasn't given the time to idle around as the spearman attacked again. The opponent wasn't someone she could compete with for long, strenuous amounts of time. No matter the differences in strength, stamina, or agility, or even if she was a demon or not, the fact that she was one person with limited strength remained unchanged.

It was only natural that she couldn't compete with them in terms of tenacity when it was a dozen against one. After all, their method of fighting consisted of draining the stamina and strength of their opponent while preserving their own.

Lilith considered, 'I won't last long if this keeps up. I'll need to change my tactic…'

The first thought that came to mind was that focusing on this man wouldn't bring her any closer to winning. He was the center piece of the formation, while the others were supporting pieces, aiding him in his fight. Since fighting the man would lead nowhere, there was only one thing she could do: kill the supporting pieces.

Using her logic, she was able to come to this conclusion. However, she didn't forget that they must've taken this into consideration as well and had countermeasures set in place in order to prevent this. Even so, she was not content with retreating.

So, what if their combined tenacity was greater than hers? She had other abilities that she hadn't used yet.

Boom~

The attacks on Lilith grew even more intense. With the attacks from the mages who controlled the earth under her feet and around her. The assassins used their stealth, along with swift and agile movements. And the spearman, the main aggressor, kept her main focus on him. If she attacked, the mages or the assassins would attack, and if they failed their attack, the spearman would still be able to make his next move.

The spearman thrust his spear forward once more. Lilith immediately evaded with her figure flickering, appearing behind the spearman as she aimed for another fatal attack, something the spearman had become accustomed to by now.

But as she unleashed her attack, Lilith wasn't able to land it as she had hoped. The moment before her attack hit, an assassin sprung into action.

With soft nimbleness, Lilith lowered her body, evading the assassin's sword and failing in her attack. However, a faint snicker escaped Lilith's mouth as she lowered her body, which neither the spearmen nor the assassin failed to miss.

'What's so funny...?' The spearmen suddenly thought.

"Argh!" A scream so loud and painful that it broke the source's vocal cords suddenly fell into his ears.

The scream was very close—so close that his eardrums ruptured. He heard ringing in his ears, and a warm liquid dripped down from his ear as he felt nauseous, with his vision blurring in and out as he was on the verge of unconsciousness. Even so, something kept him awake—a terrible sensation in his left arm.

'Is it... Pain?'

The moment his heavy eyes fell onto his arm, the pain became more real.

'My arm.'

His arm had been severed; the cut was so clean that he hadn't realized it until now. Blood flowed out, soaking the ground beneath him and his clothes, while the sensation of his missing arm dawned upon him. But he wasn't the only one wounded. The assassin, who had been alive seconds ago, lay near his feet, lifeless.

A wound ran through the assassin's chest, and the pain in his eyes made it clear that he didn't die painlessly.

Though none of this mattered to him, not when his mind was in a state of confusion, he couldn't understand what had just happened.

Victory was in sight; no one was wounded with the battle formation protecting them. It was just a small matter of time before their prey ran out of stamina and the strength to fight. She evaded, so how was she able to attack? Hadn't she fallen into the formation and felt desperation after realizing that her resistance was pointless with no way to win? Desperation that all weak humans felt when facing true strength?

The weak were the prey of the strong. He knew that very well. After all, he was weak when he was human and was desperate for strength he didn't have. That's why he gave up his humanity for strength and became a fiend because he was weak. So were the mages and the assassins that supported him.

That was why none of this made sense. Their prey, this woman, was a weak human just like they were once, but she didn't become desperate when facing them and had killed one of them and also wounded him.

'So why? Why is she so different? What makes her able to face the strong without despairing in the process like we did?'

He wanted to ask, but he couldn't. It was because the woman was nowhere to be seen.

[Nestor, Half Demon (Lv. 17)—Defeated!]

[+85 exp]

[835/1400 EXP]

'It seems that not everyone was afflicted with sensory deception. They blocked my attack, which stopped me from killing the spearmen, ending with him only losing his arm. That means their numbers are greater than what the curse can currently afflict at once.' Lilith thought to herself.

'Now, it's different. I can't sense any glares or the sense of killing intent towards me anymore. Was killing one enough for the curse to affect them all?'

Lilith was standing not too far away from the spearman, watching him fall into despair. She didn't feel sympathy or any kind of emotion at this sight.

'It's a relief, but it doesn't matter. I'll finish this fight. It's dragged on long enough.'