- Demon Slayer and Dragon Knight

As the rain of cuts from Zex's improved [Thousand Cuts] destroyed barrier after barrier and pushed Arissef further and further back, he realized the danger awaiting him from behind.

"Nice of you to come over here yourself." Zex whispered in Arissef's ear from behind as he drove his hand through Arissef's heart despite a few last-second barriers being successfully put up.

Suddenly, Zex felt great danger approaching as a giant sword was dropping on him. He managed to move his head but…

*Slice!* *Boom!*

Drago struck with his greatsword and cut off Zex's arm just below the elbow. The strike continued downward and hit the ground violently causing an explosion blowing Zex away and creating a huge dust cloud.

When the dust settled, the two parties were separated from each other once again.

Despite the pain he went through during his transformation to a demon, having his arm cut off still gave him an unpleasant feeling that translated automatically to his facial expression.

He used some experience to regenerate his lost arm. After all, he had loads of experience before the battle started and gained a lot more after killing 5,000 soldiers and 2 heroes.

Yes. 2! Because surprisingly, even to him, the archmage Arissef was not yet dead.

*Cough* *Cough*. Arissef was on the ground, coughing blood, but was still alive.

"Careless!' Drago reprimanded the archmage as he assumed a battle-ready position facing Zex who was now quite a distance away.

Surprisingly, Arissef smiled and replied: "I just felt nostalgia, that's all." He then stood up and the hole in his chest was no longer there. A few meters away from him, lies the hand of Zex that was cut, sizzling as if being cooked, slowly disintegrating.

What made Arissef hard to deal with was because he had so many life-saving spells. This time, he used up one of his trump cards: [Mana Life]. In exchange for a huge amount of mana, he would ignore one lethal attack. It did not matter if he was beheaded or blown to bits. As long as he was able to activate the spell seconds before a fatal blow, the Mana he expended would restore his body to its condition before the spell was activated like he was Zilean. [1] The downside to this was that it had an extremely long cooldown and no matter how small the injury, the mana cost would still be the same which was astronomical.

Zex was not able to see any of this due to Drago covering it all up with his great shield but he knew the Archmage was alive since there was no prompt from the system. This confused him for a moment but he decided to ignore it for now and act as if he was successful.

Drago and Arissef, on the other hand, thought Zex believed the battle was now 1 on 1.

Drago's shield was just below his eye level while he was in a combat stance. Still, with his towering height and a bulky build, Arissef, who was a head shorter than Drago, was entirely covered by the gigantic shield. During this time, Arissef's figure became less and less tangible. No, he did not use a 'Cloak of Invisibility' like in Harry Potter. [2] This was a spell called [Cloak of Shadows] that would seem like a Dark element spell but was actually of the Light element, refracting light to mask his appearance and using a dimensional spell called [Isolation] where his presence and existence would be hidden via a pocket dimension. In addition, he cast an illusion spell called [Faux Body] that showed his body lying flat on the floor emulating his death.

'This is troublesome.' Zex complained in his heart as he noticed that he could no longer sense Arissef's presence aside from the [Faux Body] that was just created. If even his tracking skills which he improved upon the ones he learned from Edge could not catch anything, he was afraid nobody on the field could. He believed Arissef must have retreated to an area that would allow him to safely cast spells. While he could deduce which areas would most likely fit the criteria, he would not be able to confirm which one with his limited amount of skills. There was only one thing that he hoped could help him deal with the hiding Satan Yordle problem, and it wasn't a Sweeping Lens nor a Pink Ward.[3][4][5]

The great shield Drago wielded was made of a type of metal rarely found in the kingdom called Direblood. Legends say that the metal was created from the acidic blood of Direbeasts coming into contact with Arling, a metal commonly found in mountains and caves that emit a dazzling glow when exposed to sunlight. Usually, this happens when the Direbeasts were giving birth. When the Direblood was exposed to sunlight, however, it would emit a reddish shimmer that is said to be a light that wards against hostile magic. This is also the reason why some Direbeasts prefer caves with Arling so their offspring would be protected from harmful elements. However, once the offspring grew to the point when they could eat food, they devour Direblood as nourishment. Hence, the difficulty of gathering the metal as Direbeasts grow up too fast. The window was too small for most people to grasp, not to mention they had to either fend off the beasts while gathering or slay them. Sneaking in and out was not an option.

The design on the face of the shield is that of a dragon whose eyes were crafted using hybrid dragonstone since pure dragonstone could not be shaped while its fangs were made from lesser dragon fangs, all materials with high magical resistance. In short, it was a shield that protected its bearer against magic to a very high degree.

This shield was called Etherguard.

Etherguard was a family heirloom that had been passed down to Drago after his father died from a war a few decades ago.

The greatsword on Drago's other hand was a different case. It was crafted by a dwarven blacksmith allied to the Kingdom of Grimley. This was created in honor of the name of Drago's father whose own sword was destroyed during the same war that claimed his life. This greatsword was made from true dragon bone, melted using a high-level earth flame, and quenched using elven spring water, in a repeated process during its forging.

Although it could not match up to his father's sword, it held a deeper meaning to him. Just like his father, this great sword carries the name, Avegar.

Only Drago, who infused his blood in the process of forging this weapon, could wield its true power.

Moreover, only a high-level enchanter like Arissef could maximize Drago's use of the two weapons.

[Dual Enchant Max - Aetherium - Holy]! Arissef sneakily cast a 4th tier enchantment spell on Drago's weapons. Maximizing their potential and imbuing them subtly with the holy element.

'I might have bitten off more than I could chew.' Zex was flabbergasted at the sight despite not showing it on his face. The aura surrounding Drago was enormous and dense. He finally understood why Edge warned him back then.

'Guess I have no choice.'

Drago charged towards Zex and brandished both his shield and sword as if he was dual-wielding. His attacks had close to zero flaws in them as expected of someone who has experienced countless wars and battles.

Despite this, Zex was able to avoid every attack and even had the chance to throw in some counterattacks despite not landing a clean one at all. [Dance with Death] was actively giving him a 44% increase in both his Evasion rate and Counterattack success rate.

How this works is that aside from his operations, a thick film of death aura was enveloping him, feeding his mind information as to where the attack will come from and the most vulnerable areas of the opponent of which to throw a counterattack. However, due to Drago's combat style, paired with his oversized weapons which covered a lot of his weak spots without slowing his movements, his counterattacks could not properly push through. Drago was a genuine meat shield with a huge butcher's knife to boot. He dreaded the thought of an alternate reality where Falna survived his initial gambit.

Another problem was that [Dance with Death] had the same downtime as its uptime. This meant that half of the battle, he was not able to avoid some of Drago's attacks. Not to mention that during the battle, Drago was able to find a few holes in Zex's combat style thanks to his inexperience, forcing Zex to be on the defensive and expending experience to regenerate lost body parts or cover holes and gashes his body suffered.

After a while, both warriors were in a heated battle and Zex was fairing better and better in battle as he was getting used to combat.

Suddenly magic circles appeared above and below the area that Zex was about to evade towards.

'Shit!' Zex was too preoccupied with Drago and got complacent that he forgot to guard against Arissef for a second even after making a mental note of him beforehand.

The multiple spells hit Zex as Drago swung Avegar with full force at him.

*Thud!* *BOOM!*

Surprisingly, instead of being cut in half, Zex was catapulted to the ground.

Drago was completely surprised when he felt his sword hand get numb as if he struck a highly solid object.

"Ughhhh. That hurt!" Zex groaned as he walked out from the dust cloud. His clothes were tattered and there was blood all over his body but it was clear that he wasn't heavily injured. Throughout the time he was facing Drago, he hoped that the traps he set in place would be triggered by Arissef just like how they were effective against Edge when he forced him into the forest. However, they were proven to be useless. After all, Arissef already fell victim to one of Edge's skills in the hands of Zex. He was already on guard against any trap that was placed on the field which disappointed Zex greatly.

The next second, Drago was already swinging Avegar vertically at him while a gigantic magic circle appeared above and below him.

Just as Drago's blow would strike him, violent electrical sparks snaked around the area coming from each circle as they converged at the center of the formation leading to a gigantic explosion.

*CRACKLE!* *ZAP!* *FLASH!* *BOOM!*

The explosion caused strong wind and blew tiny rocks as shrapnel while a flash of light blinded onlookers, followed by a loud sound of thunder.

[1] Zilean, The Chronokeeper, is a champion from League of Legends who has the abilities of time-manipulation. His ultimate ability enables the target ally or himself to be teleported back in time if they get killed. Not literal in a sense as the target just gets resurrected on the spot with health based on his ability power.

[2] The Cloak of Invisibility is a literal cloak that allows the user to be... well... invisible. Dumbledore gave it to Harry as a gift which he then used a couple of times throughout the series.

[3] Teemo, The Swift Scout, is a champion from League of Legends who is widely known by the community as Satan for being plain old annoying, an annoying voice with annoying voice lines, with a kit that is annoying, played mostly by annoying people just for the sake of annoying others. His passive gives him invisibility if he stands still for a short while. His first skill blinds a target which allows a lot of physical attacks and abilities to miss. His second gives him movement speed which makes him sometimes annoying to chase. His third applies very potent poison to his first skill and normal attacks. Finally, his ultimate... allows him to plant toxic poop (mushrooms) all over the map that could get him pentakills without him being anywhere near the battle. In layman's terms, he can wipe out an entire team with annoyingly but properly placed mushrooms even if he never even showed up to a team fight. There are literal videos on the internet where a player drew "Mushroom Art" in a game and still rack up kills. While you think I hate him, I love him... if and only if I am the one playing him.

[4] Sweeping Lens is a trinket in League of Legends that could be used as a short distance radar that would reveal invisible targets which is essential against Satan.

[5] Pink Wards or the actual name, Control Wards, is a consumable in League of Legends that can be placed on the map granting vision and true sight which reveals invisible and camouflaged objects and champions.