C17: Sweet Fear

Yes! This is it! Anika rejoiced. As the Demonic Exorcist wasn't looking toward the incoming sword.

They were about to be saved from this hellhole!

The Demonic Exorcist leaned back. Without glancing at Kon's attack a strand of his hair was still cut by the blade. Though the sneak attack got executed close to perfection. The difference in speed was too high.

Despite almost getting his throat sliced, the Demonic Exorcist had a smirk on his face. "I see. The control aspect of your ability works by controlling yourself. Making composure and certain aspects gained by experience a null. As a side effect, you can't be controlled by another ability."

Exorcists were rare beings. It wasn't a profession many would want, as the fate of an exorcist is usually worse than death. Demons might torture and heal them repeatedly, and cosmic insanities and many other horrific things happened on the job. The life expectancy of an exorcist was twenty.

Amongst them all, Expert Exorcists and above ranks were rare. That's why they were exempt from the law.

So if you're a strong exorcist, even if you were a bit crazy, authorities would try and cover your bad deeds so they could keep you in their country.

Demonic Exorcist, an ex-Elite Exorcist… the person who manipulated the country's emperor and started a war. If there was a place opened in the 22 Special Exorcists at the time. He might have gotten a spot.

Calling him dangerous was an understatement.

Kon continued throwing some needles at the man. Each of the projectiles were coated in a thin membrane that Anika deduced was likely poison.

Through all that, the Demonic Exorcist dodged and continued talking as if nothing was happening. "Despite everyone calling me Demonic Exorcist, that isn't my real name. Back when I was your age, I was just another Beast Master with 81% affinity. Though after the first month in the academy, I had already learned what there was to learn from the academy. After that people always tried to stop me from getting more power."

As Anika was concentrating and listening to the Demonic Exorcist's story. She felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Professor Rana, she was breathing heavily. Her big frog familiar was missing a chunk of its belly and bleeding by the side. It was likely going to die soon.

"Anika, get back. Don't stay so close to those two," Rana brought her back. Where the other surviving students had gathered. The beasts weren't attacking any longer. Some were still feasting on their deceased classmates' corpses.

Some cried, and some wept. But no one was stupid enough to try and intervene.

For some reason, the demons weren't attacking anyone, and no one wanted to break that status quo. Through all this, Anika wasn't concentrated on her dying classmates. But in the fight (if you could even call it that) between the Demonic Exorcist and Kon.

Just as he was playing around with Kon, the Demonic Exorcist's face brightened. "Your way of creating this kind of self-controlling ability is nothing short of a creative genius. It's also a complete counter to my abilities."

The Demonic Exorcist's face turned cold. "Actually your ability is a direct counter to my own. If our difference in power wasn't so big. You would have been a troublesome opponent."

Anika's heart shook at those words. She now knew that those words had sealed Kon's fate. After all, no one would want someone to exist who was a complete counter to their abilities.

Human control didn't work against Kon, and adding numbers seemed to be useless too. As his body moves in a strange way that he wasn't injured despite fighting against many enemies at once.

But what happened next made Anika's face pale. A bulge grew apparent on the Demonic Exorcist's robe. He shook and crazily smiled from ear to ear. A human mouth shouldn't be able to extend so far. It almost looked like it split his face in half.

"I will let you live today~" his voice was weird, almost like a moan. he seemed excited, and a chill ran down Anika's spine. What a pervert!

"Having someone who is a direct weakness to me is an amazing thing! This is the pressure I need on my life to grow stronger!" His mad rambling continued until he disappeared.

Where did he go?! Anika was looking straight at him, and she hadn't blinked. Yet the Demonic Exorcist was nowhere!

Anika felt a shadow appear next to her. Looking up, she met dark gray eyes. It was the Demonic Exorcist!

Her mind couldn't comprehend what had happened yet. The sound of a slap rang out. Someone's head fell to the ground. It was a woman's head with green hair and she had wide eyes filled with terror and her mouth was agape.

"P -Professor Rana?" Anika's throat felt dry, and dread overwhelmed her senses. She couldn't move, shake, or cry.

The Demonic Exorcist was right next to her. Despite him having killed one of her favorite teachers. She didn't react in any way.

Her body, was overwhelmed by absolute terror. She started shaking like a kitten in the snow. Weak, powerless, and soon to be dead.

'I'm within arm's length! I'm within his arm's length! I'm within his arm's length! I'm within his arm's length! I'm within arm's length!'

She expected the sound of a slap to come and for her head to roll. Anika almost welcomed death. At least that way this fear would be gone forever. Death would be the solution to this everlasting terror. Each second felt like an eternity.

Anika felt the fear of a lion chasing her, but never eating her.

"Ah, I tried to make her head burst with a slap. But decapitation isn't bad either," Demonic Exorcist sighed with disappointment. He kicked Professor Rana's head and then shrugged and turned toward Kon. "You need some revenge and reason to hate me. Revenge always makes the strongest opponents, and this teacher looked the sweetest. She was even willing to risk her life for her students. Students usually like teachers like that, right?"

The Demonic Exorcist gave her a side-eyed glance. Anika's legs buckled. He only chuckled. "Him being the only survivor would give him some more encouragement. After all, I have to look out for my fellow Beast Master. Gotta make sure he has the drive to become strong-"

He was interrupted by the sound of another projectile cutting through the air. The Demonic Exorcist caught it, and it was a stone. "So you ran out of knives to throw?"

But as soon as he said those words, the Demonic Exorcist's eyes widened as a sizzling sound rang out.

Anika could have sworn there was a flash of panic in his eyes for a split second. She didn't have the time to think about that for too long as an explosion rang out.

She and everyone else got pushed away from the explosion. Even getting some minor injuries. What the explosion left behind was the Demonic Exorcist staring at his mangled hand. That same hand he had caught the stone with.

His fingers had charred, all the skin almost all the way to the elbow was gone, and his pinky finger was missing.

"Damn. That almost killed me, you bastard." The Demonic Exorcist spoke calmly. Kon was upon him and swung his sword.

Clang!... The sound of metal meeting rang out. The sword stopped an inch before touching the Demonic Exorcist's neck. As if there was an invisible barrier around him.

"If I didn't have this barrier Magical Item, and activated it. I would have been a dead man…" the Demonic Exorcist stared at his enemy. But he frowned as soon as he met Kon's eyes. "Though this last slash of yours is sloppy compared to the ones before. Did the timer in your ability run out?".

"Yes. I was so damn close to killing you too. " Kon sighed and threw down his weapon. Knowing he stood no chance without his ability activated. "You're too careless, catching my attacks like that. Don't you know that Beast Masters aren't good in close combat?"

'He's giving feedback to the monster! Is he mad?! The Demonic Exorcist will kill him!' Someone narcissistic like him would never accept his mistakes. He might lash out.

"Bahahahahaha!!" The Demonic Exorcist laughed like a madman. Then his laughter died out and he stared at Kon with an ironic look. "I'm sure there are exceptions to every rule. You have a pretty nice ability, I bet you can control your body to an impressive degree. Can you even eliminate things like cancer by controlling your cells? Regeneration by having cells split? Also, what's your ability called?"

The Demonic Exorcist put his mangled arm around Kon's shoulder as if they were best friends.

Kon didn't avoid the closeness. Not like he could, even if he wanted to. "I didn't think about it before. What about Ultra Instinct?"magic

"Someone already has an ability called that," the Demonic Exorcist immediately rebuked him.

"Hmmm, then what about the name Perfect Me?"

"That's a suitable name. Because every move you made before was the perfect response to my attacks." The Demonic Exorcist nodded in approval. He even seemed pleased by the name. "Do you plan to also tame a demon in the future?"

'W -What's with this conversation? Why are they talking so casually? As if they weren't surrounded by corpses of both demons and exorcists.' Anika was baffled and wondered if this was all a hallucination of her dying mind.

Kon thought for a bit about the question before giving him his answer.

**

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