To prove oneself

"...GAH…!"

The second later, the Demon-crowned Wolf Lord's eyelids opened as if nothing had ever happened, causing the monstrous beast to let out a triumphant cheer, only to sense a hand on the side of its throat.

"Sleep."

"...!?"

The human chanted, and a sudden wave of drowsiness crushed against the monster, causing the creature to stumble back and drop down on its unsteady legs and arms.

"More tricks! I… don't fall for a sleep… spell! I'm… too strong…!"

The beast growled angrily, shaking its head to chase away the drowsiness of the spell.

"I know. But it takes time for something to pass from the throat to the stomach, and I don't want my weapon to simply extend out of your mouth. It at least has to have a chance to change its position."

"...Grrrrrr… grr...wh... what…?"

The human nodded with a serious expression, and it took a second for the wolf lord to realize that he didn't have his tricky shapeshifting weapon anymore…

"It has been more than seven seconds, hasn't it? Change."

The green-haired human pointed out taking his hand out of the the monster's immediate range and declaring.

"HURRGGH-GUH...!"

The next moment, the golden weapon swallowed by the Wolf Lord transformed from a dagger into a spear, and it cut its way out of the beast's intestines, with its edged end piercing through the side, not only tearing through several internal organs but also breaking a few ribs.

"~!"

"GAWGHOOOOOGH!"

The human showed his teeth in a triumphant grin, throwing himself at the monster and rolling through its back, getting nastily grazed by the fangs alongside its spine before getting a hold of the weapon and pulling it out with a nasty squelching sound.

Using the additional force of the spin, the human then stabbed the tip of the spear right through the wolf lord's throat, only to grab it firmly, change it back into a dagger, and finish the job by cutting the creature's throat open completely with the blade.

"Gh…!"

The Wolf Lord let out a short growl and spasmed with its fur bristling again and again in an unpleasant wavy motion as teeth-like growths began growing out of injuries as if in an attempt to close them up.

"...!"

Ace Adonis stepped back, stumbling on his feet and ending up falling on his butt right by the dying monster.

"..."

He looked at it for a moment, firmly gripping the dagger in silence.

"Creatures who are corrupted by demonic energy can use magic. Be it armored boars, Kii Harpies, or wolves like you. Why haven't you used any spells? Healing for example."

Finally, he asked while the monster's claws kept digging into the ground as it was literally holding to its life by its claws.

"Not… ghh… not my power… I wanted to… win… with my own… strength… not… something others… forced me into…"

"..."

The Wolf Lord wheezed, staring at Ace with its jet-black eye with crimson pupil as the blood was slowly draining out of its wounds despite the fang-like growths turning them into gruesome imitations of jaws.

"If this will make you feel any better, I lied to you."

"...?!"

After a moment of hesitation, Ace spoke up, raising his golden dagger to show it to the Wolf Lord, who flinched and stared at him fiercely.

"This weapon wasn't given to me by my father. It is an artifact I found as a child. By myself. I accidentally fell into the undiscovered, at the time, tunnel in the ruins of the ancient Draconids' city and found this weapon on an altar in the room at the end of it. Since I took it, I have been training with it every day. I said that it was given to me because I wanted to make you think that it is something I am not used to handling or something that I secretly despise, while the truth is the exact opposite. Besides that, everything else I said was the truth."

"..."

Ace confessed, and the fierceness completely disappeared from the Wolf Lord's eye.

"...then… you killed me with… something only yours…?"

The wolf lord asked in a weakening voice.

"Yes."

Ace admitted with a solemn nod.

"...I… do… like… tha… t…"

"..."

The wolf lord let out its final growl and died.

The experience from defeating it pushed the silent Ace into level 41, which was confirmed by the characteristic ringing sound of the level -up.

Not only that, the urge to slay a strong monster - a Demon-crowned Wolf Lord - disappeared with it…

"...?!"

…only to be replaced by another one, an urge to visit a specific location...!

Which caused Ace's eyes to widen in disbelief.

Mostly because this time there was no question about it, he knew where he should go.

"There… there is more to it…?"

The green-haired youngster gasped to himself, cleaning the golden dagger against the least dirty part of his clothes before even trying to do anything about his wounds.

Suddenly, a pale-blue light flashed next to him, and the next seocnd a tall blue-haired young man was standing by his side.

"It was a good fight."

Lazurii pointed out with a serious expression as he looked between his friend and the dead Demon-crowned Wolf Lord.

"Of course it was! This King gave his all, after all."

"So not using any of your status-effect-inflicting spells besides casting sleep once counts as giving your all? You gave it your all without starting with hemorrhage, poison, and concussion effects on your weapon? While restricting yourself to just two basic forms of said weapon?"

Ace leaned back and boasted, shrugging his shoulders with the face of a man pleased with his achievement, but his friend wasn't going to leave it at that.

"Haaa… Of course, you were watching it all… Laz, let's just say that both me and Wolf Lord had something to prove to ourselves and leave it at that, okay?"

"Sure, if you say so~"

The green-haired youth breathed out heavily and scowled grumpily at his friend, who snickered back at him and chuckled.

"Let's heal you now."

"Now? How? Is there even a monster in a ten-mile radius for us to start a…?"

Lazurii nodded his head with satisfaction and declared, which made Ace furrow his brows and started pointing out…

*thump*

"...fight with…"

Only for his tone to change into a tired one at the sight of a twitching armored boar beaten into unconsciousness appearing in a flash of pale blue light right in front of him.

"Since we are not in a party and there is little to no sense in creating it at this point, a light kick or poke is fine."

"...pffft…!"

Lazurii explained and smiled when Ace could barely stop himself from bursting into laughter at the situation.