Chapter 87 - Grin

Third Person’s POV (12 yrs. and 8 months old)

Everyone who looked at the ordeal right now felt all kinds of emotions, some had felt that they are losing hope -monsters- as they see their leaders getting thrashed, some felt stupid looking at the human clad in armor -mixture of friends and foe-, and annoyed -the demon vanguard-

The battle fell at a standstill, the force of the magic power from earlier halting everyone, to stare and wonder at the dreadful pressure Ken exuded. Without wasting any second Ken lunged forward with incredible force, his figure a blur as his scythe collided with the demon’s blade.

With a swing from the bottom to the top with his scythe, Ken flung the demon upwards to a tree, destroying its top part, Ken smirked but it was covered by his black helmet, he jumped again to slash at the demon but the demon intercepted him mid-air.

A force blasted out from the collision of their blades pushing them backwards. The demon who, for a brief moment had wondered how this creature was able to become strong, when minutes ago he was weak than him, now it felt like they’re of the same strength.

‘Frozen World’ was to be blamed, it not only froze everything over, it also disorients the victim to think that after being released from the frozen state makes them think that their stasis state was only brief.

Besides that the demon vanguard still thinks that no one can equal against him, so he set aside the threat of this creature before him, and must execute it (Ken) on the spot.

“You, get out of my sight before I send you to oblivion.” The demon said pointing his sword at Ken.

“Is that really something you should be saying to someone who plunged you to the ground?” remarked Ken, leaned to the side with his arm resting on his hip for a brief moment and lunged forward aiming his scythe downwards.

The demon blocked the strike but it made the ground beneath him crack, as he sunk down, up to his knees. Ken back-flipped did a twist -as if he performed a dance move- which looked to be mesmerizing despite the armor,

But then he again lunged forward to stab the demon with the butt of his scythe on the chest sending the demon flying backwards five meters away, destroying even ground the demon was stuck in.

‘What the! What was that?!’ thought the demon as he recalled that he got stunned for a brief moment.

“Light Moon Magic: Cut of the Crescent Moon.” Ken swing his blade vertically and horizontally creating two silver arcs with black outlines colliding with the demon, but it did not stop there, for a magic circle the color of silver appeared below the demon’s frame.

It conjured mini arcs that bombarded the twelve foot frame of the demon, some directly struck under the demon, other arcs that did not hit the demon or those that were conjured at the edges turned around to seek and hit the demon.

His scream filled the air as if he was being tortured right from hell, as the spell went on to bombard him some more without giving him a chance to escape everyone started to wonder how this was possible, the demon slaves feared as to what would happen to their vanguard seeing as he’s unable to do anything on the situation.

But the one suffering the brunt of the spell couldn’t do anything as different types of emotions bombarded him, left and right, he felt himself succumbing to his internal turmoil at the assault of these measly silver arcs,

But it was his fault for not dodging at the last moment thinking that this silver magic could not harm him. While he was still screaming, suddenly, dark red energies flew into his form, those monsters that the wolves and lions were fighting suddenly turned to dust as their life force in the form of a dark red misty black orb was pulled into the screaming demon vanguard.

Almost half of the army even those at the back were killed on sight as their life force flew to the demon vanguard, three battalions are left, those that were stationed at the back.

The demon slaves weren’t spared as well, as ten of them died on the spot leaving only those essential for keeping the demon gate active, the dark energies created a semi sphere like dome of about a 10 meter radius.

Ken withdrew the magic circle to assess the situation.

‘Interesting, what could he be doing, the method is similar to those of using sacrifices to boost ones strength if the situation deems necessary so.’ Ken thought. ‘Not only that, monsters are still pouring out of the demon gate, and I cannot go and take care of it now, I’ll have to leave it to my friends for the meantime.’

“You shall pay for your insolence!” said the demon vanguard and emerged from the densely packed area of dark energies by bursting the sphere it had created. His body had more scales like armor, with horns protruding at his shoulders, and even more prominent claws.

“Oh I’m sure you’re the one who will be paying anything around here.” rebutted Ken, making the demon even more annoyed, but before he could attack, Ken was onto him as he blinked at the demon’s side, and struck.

Everyone stared in shock as they all had felt the increased power of the demon through all those sacrifice, but what left everyone even more shocked and in disbelief was Ken did not stop there, he struck another four times with the last one sending the demon flying on the opposite direction again with his face as the last part of his body being struck.

This guy plays dirty, everyone thought. His friends who had already understood what Ken’s actions meant can’t help but sigh in distress, Glen and Wilbert whom were asked to help out Ken, felt out of place as the two watched as Ken had personally dealt with the matter.

But this was only the initial phase, for as Ken had explained they had to get as much information as they can on the enemy before calling out an all in.

The demon who had enough of the beating back-flipped to gather his bearings and dashed forward thrusting his sword towards Ken, Ken received the attack with his scythe to defend himself.

Ken got pushed from the collision relatively away from his initial position and into some trees, but he flipped his body mid-air facing the trees and used his scythe as a hook on the trees to propel him back.

Upon flying back the demon met him halfway and the two clashed in mid-air propelling one another the opposite direction, again. The two landed on the ground and dashed simultaneously at one another to engage in a sword fight, or weapon fight, or a scythe versus sword fight, oh you get the point.

The demon who thought that he would have the advantage at someone who is using a long weapon against his averagely short one was greatly disappointed as Ken had not only followed on his sword art but also with his speed.

The demon could not fathom how an individual is able to keep up with his speed by just twirling the scythe, what’s even more audacious is the fact that he hasn’t land a single hit on this creature clad in dark armor, coupled with the fact that he had sustained some.

Whether it be through sudden downward strike, dragging motion, or graze of the blade, making the demon even more frustrated with himself, while in truth Ken had casted mind domination on the demon, although it may not have any effect, the stacking debuff of his passive was downright stupid,

Hence this seemingly one-sided fight. Out of frustration the demon resorted to outright unleashing all of his power turning his already scary aura into that of despair, his figure now exude a very clear black red aura rising from his body,

His blade had lengthened about a fourth of the blade’s original length, he unleashed a darkness wave striking everyone in an eighty meter radius sending them flying everywhere, Ken did not fare any better, but still isn’t fazed.

Ken rose from lying on his back, observed his surroundings, found that everyone was inflicted by the corroding effect of the dark red energy as traces of it could be seen on their bodies, even the monsters weren’t spared.

“Healing Magic: Cure.” ‘Manual Input: target corrosive properties of allies’ a pale wave of green and white color burst forth from Ken’s position and affected everyone erasing all trace of the corrosive dark red energy on everyone’s body -but he did not cure the ones on the monsters-.

He was able to create this new healing spell due to observing the effects of the corrosive effect of the dark red energies those demons are able to use, and this was all possible due to concept, the ‘concept of observation’

The demon stared in disbelief -again- at the seemingly endless spells this creature is able to use. Not only that, curing their corrosive properties was close to impossible, unless you’ve grown a certain affinity or immunity to it.

“You! How are you able to cure my power?!” said the demon.

“That’s a secret.” replied in a mocking tone with matching forefinger on his mouth, or in this case in front of his helmet, where his mouth should be.

“*ROAR!!!*” the demon dashed forward in blind rage not caring anymore of his purpose, as long as he could kill this arrogant creature before him, he’d be more than satisfied to do so.

Ken smirked as he took off his helmet, the demon caught on to the sight for a brief moment before it turned into a somewhat sweet smile, but he was too caught up in his rage to notice that something was wrong, that smile definitely indicated that something was wrong,

And when he noticed the glint on Ken’s eyes while smiling sweetly, he, for what felt like thousands of years, felt a shiver run down his spine.

“Dark Moon Magic: Labyrinth of the Black Moon.” casted Ken, two black magic circles with silver edges the radius of 20 meters appeared above and below the demon catching him in mid-air.

The spell summoned dark bindings that caught the demon on both circles then a dark like tentacle substances slithered through the bindings but did not assault or bind themselves on the demon,

Instead the tentacles summoned nightmares on the demons mind, sending him in through more turmoil than before, disorienting him, what felt like forever to the demon only happened in mere seconds, the bindings disappeared just as fast as they appeared.

The demon who felt that his head is splitting into two, was now in complete blind-rage as he summoned wave after wave of dark energies through every downward strike of his blade in front of him.

‘Shit, I think I made things worse.” Ken thought, lucky for him there wasn’t much allies on his side, but soon noticed that there where those scattered at the edges near the trajectory of the waves.

He blinked near them and teleported them away to safety, about 40 personnel. On the last one he had teleported away, the demon suddenly appeared in front of him, sword ready to strike, Ken dodged by the breath of his hair to the side.

He outstretched his hand touching the armored abdomen of the demon and summoned raw mana pushing the assailant away. He flipped to the side to regain his bearings and assessed for a split second then made the decision to circle the enemy.

The demon looked at him, roared in a feral voice, then dashed towards Ken, Ken abruptly stopped to parry the strike against’ him, but it sent him flying backwards, if he had not used death moon form, by now he would be a bloody mess with all the flying and stuff.

Ken flipped in mid-air, threw his scythe at the demon, to which the demon dodged effortlessly and closed in on Ken, he should tremble as he does now have any more means of protecting himself but he just smirked at the demon, infuriating the demon further.

The demon struck sideways hitting Ken square on the abdomen drawing blood, but what seemed to be reality, distorted to reveal that the creature he had slashed down finally was only an illusion, an almost identical illusion.

The demon found out that it wasn’t only an illusion but a copy of the creature, and when he looked around, he found behind him, Ken floating in mid-air about to land on the ground, but Ken shouted…

“Everyone, Now!” Ken shouted

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