Toying Around

Yater used his copy ability.

He turned into a man, who only wore black pants. His eyes were sharp and looked tired. The hair was messy and stood up.

"No way..."

It was a familiar appearance, which shocked Mika.

"Hm? Have you met him before?" Yater wondered as he pointed at himself.

Even the voice was the same. Deep and croaky.

"Zantar..." Mika muttered cautiously.

"I see..."

His mouth formed a straight line.

"Knowing him, he wouldn't let a non-demon leave alive after meeting him."

The shadow under him began to spread.

Then from said shadow, creatures started to crawl out. There were five monsters from the following types: two apes, one panther, one wolf and one scavenger.

The last two were no problem, but the other three monsters could be bothersome.

"Tch..."

The summoned monsters started to run wildly at Mika.

If he would have been in Autopilot-mode, then dealing with them with the Holy Spear would be a walk to the park. However in his current state, he could not enlarge it like previously in the Great Forest as it would consume too much energy.

"Enlarge!"

Mika aimed at one of the apes.

The spear increased its length and pierced the ape right through the chest.

"!"

Despite being stabbed, the ape grabbed the spear with its four arms tightly.

Mika noticed that the spear was stuck when tried to pull it out a little. Due to the differences in physical strength, Mika would most likely get pulled to the ape if he commanded the spear to shrink.

Then, the other ape wrapped its arms around the spear supporting the ape, who was on the brink of death.

The other three monsters used this opportunity to assault Mika.

"Damn it..."

Mika let go of the spear turning it into white particles and changed back to Excalibur, which appeared in his hand again.

He heard one ape falling down while he was focusing on the upcoming three monsters.

First, he eliminated the screeching scavenger with a heavy vertical slash from above. Following that, he ran towards the wolf and cut trough it horizontally.

Now, three from five monsters were down.

Mika shifted his gaze to the panther, who was about to kick him with his massive hind leg. 

He managed to dodge just in time and countered with another horizontal slash, but the panther also evaded it by jumping up and while it was in the air, it launched a kick to the side of Mika's head.

"Ugh!"

The kick connected and Mika flew to the side.

But before he could land on his feet, the ape-like monster waited from behind and swatted Mika to the ground like a fly. It followed up with a barrage of punches.

And as the ground was vibrating from the impact of its punches, Yater, in the form of Zantar, watched the battle unfold unfazed.

"Did he really defeat Zantar...?"

He narrowed his eyes.

Normally, they had to instantly report any news about Excalibur in order to prepare the next step. But looking at the current scene, Yater concluded that even he alone could handle this matter.

"Are they out of their mind...? How could they entrust Excalibur to such a person?"

Yater was still confused.

The angels knew that one of the demons' objective was to get their hands on Excalibur. So why would they leave it into the hands of someone so weak?

"?"

It was the death scream of the ape, which snapped him back to the reality.

The Holy Spear came from above and impaled the ape, like a meat skewer. Its body was split in two and fell to the sides.

Mika, who was battered up and covered in blood, grabbed the spear, which was drowned in the ape's blood.

He flexed his arm and when he turned on his own heel, he threw the spear at the panther. This time, the panther could not rely on its agility and was also impaled through the chest dying on the spot.

The spear flew back to Mika as if it was attracted to him magnetically.

Mika swung the spear to get off the blood and pointed it to Yater.

"Heh, just look at yourself. You're already beat up just from fighting against those things and now you dare to challenge me?" Yater mocked him.

"..."

Mika remained stern.

"Fine..." Yater sighed.

He undid his ability and changed back to his original appearance.

"Let's see how much you can kill my boredom."

Yater gestured with his finger that Mika should come to him.

Mika charged himself up with his lightning magic and flew to Yater.

Midair, he switched back to Excalibur and put all his strength into a horizontal slash.

But as a high-ranking demon, he saw the attack coming and evaded it with ease.

Mika kind of predicted this outcome, thus he launched multiple slashes from different angles. And yet, Yater dodged every single one of them.

He tried to pierce him, but Yater jumped to the side.

Then, Excalibur disappeared and the Holy Spear returned. Mika rotated on the spot and used the spinning momentum to throw the spear at Yater, who jumped to the side a moment ago.

"!"

He could not dodge, however the attack still did not hit.

"Heh, it takes more than that to beat me."

Yater managed to catch the spear with one hand before its spearhead could touch his chest.

"Enlarge!"

"!"

Mika quickly backed off as this time only its width increased to a roughly 7 feet diameter.

But at the same time, Yater also reacted.

"Shrink."

The spear returned to its original size and was now in Mika's hands again.

"Now you've done it..."

Blood constantly dropped to the ground.

Yater's smile faded and his eyes turned sharp as he threateningly gazed at Mika.

Even though, he was able to react in time, he could not escape unscathed.

Now, his right hand and a part of his forearm was missing, leaking a great amount of blood out.

"Maybe I should take this seriously now..." Yater muttered.

Again, darkness gathered around Yater. He was about to transform for the second time against Mika.

Meanwhile, Mika decided to equip himself with Excalibur.

However, Mika began to feel the pressure and nervousness even more. After all, he had only less than a minute left.

After that, it would be set in stone that he would die.

"Did you know? Actually, I can only copy those, who are weaker than me. However, it isn't completely impossible to copy those, who are stronger. The amount of time I can copy them may shorten and also just a part of their powers can be copied."

The darkness slowly engulfed his entire body.

Of course, Mika could not allow himself and sit back watching him transform. He was about to leap to him, but his body did not listen to him.

Not only his legs but also his hands began to tremble.

"What's going on with me...?"

Mika was confused as he could not understand this himself.

He stabbed Excalibur in the ground and used it as a support for his body.

"My liege, please forgive this foolish servant of yours! But please allow me to demonstrate a percentage of my liege's power!" Yater begged submissively as he faced the sky.

As the darkness reached his head, he started to bleed from the nose.

And when he was fully covered in black, the whole air around them changed.

The emitted pressure was felt across the entire space within and around the Desolated Fortress. The damaged walls started to finally crumble. Monsters, which were still in the vicinity, ran away. A strong wind blasted the dust away from the center. The sky darkened even more.

"Hng..."

Mika was on all fours while he tried to fight against the pressure.

His heart raced. His breathing got ragged. More and more sweat accumulated on his body and the trembling all over his body did not stop. Mika could not clench his teeth as they were constantly clacking against each other like a nutcracker.

Mika did not even dare to lift his head up to see how the person, Yater copied, looked like.

But it was in that moment, when he realized what this sensation was.

Utter fear.

"My liege! Let this lowly servant offer you the deepest apologies for showing such a poor display of my liege's power!"

"As much as I want to kneel down to show my sincerity, I sadly have to refrain from it as I'm currently impersonating a part of my liege!"

Struggling to look up, Mika finally got a rough overview of the person.

"What...?"

Unlike his previous copies, Yater was still completely engulfed in darkness. Only the silhouette changed to that of a normal looking man.

"However, let me compensate this by serving you the head of

Excalibur's new wielder on a silver plate!"

The in darkness drowned Yater moved in the direction of the cowering Mika.

Still, Mika could not muster up any strength to at least get up.

"That's right! Cower in fear in front of the power belonging to our supreme leader, the Demon King!"