'So luck helps with that too?' Ryan thought, watching the demon bleed out on the ground.
The remaining demon turned around, visibly surprised.
"What...? How? You're supposed to be a support."
"I have that same question," the girl commented, looking at him with curiosity.
"Are you trying to chat in the middle of a fight?" Ryan questioned.
The demon hesitated, looking at his fallen comrade. Then at Ryan. Then at the girl. Then he took off running.
"Oh, he's trying to escape. He's fast." Ryan commented.
"Relax, he won't escape." The mage girl added. She reached into her pockets and pulled out two gems. Small, engraved with faintly glowing runes.
"What is that?" Ryan asked.
"A magical relic." The mage answered flatly and extended both hands forward.
"Twin Fire."
Two swords of fire emerged directly from the ground. They pierced the demon's body. He screamed in pain.
"D...damn you! I..."
Before he could finish the sentence. In seconds, nothing was left of him.
The girl laughed.
"See? I told you I'm the most powerful mage in Ehres Valley."
Ryan looked at her for a moment. Then he nodded slowly, thinking about the situation.
'She's strong, but I think she's crazy.'
"Yeah, whatever you say. So, why did you look like a little girl? Is this your real form or not?"
She stepped closer to him, looking at him with curiosity.
"Does that surprise you? It's because of my cursed title. When I run out of mana, I take on that appearance."
"I see..."
"Yeah, I told you I wasn't a little girl, remember? But the most surprising thing here is you. Aren't you supposed to be a priest? How do you have that kind of strength?"
Ryan opened his mouth to answer.
But a strange sensation stopped him and he turned sharply, on guard.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"I felt someone approaching."
"Stealth?" She murmured.
Ryan remembered his skill in that instant.
"Reveal Hidden"
About ten meters away, a figure appeared in the rain. Another demon. And the Inspect window confirmed it, he was a Principality. But from the way he watched them and his stats, he was clearly different from the last one.
"Well," the demon said calmly. "I didn't expect you to notice my presence."
He held out a hand, pointing directly at Ryan.
"Mana Burn."
When the demon finished his sentence, Ryan fell to one knee, bracing himself with a hand on the ground. He felt as if almost all his energy had vanished.
Ryan stayed planted on his knee while the rain continued to fall violently.
That technique had wiped out 80% of his mana. Meanwhile, the demon approached him with the confidence of having won the fight.
"The other idiots focused on the mage, when they should have killed the support first." The demon spat the words while holding a dagger ignited in a fiery aura in his right hand.
"Twins Fire!" The mage called out. The demon leaped forward, dodging the swords of fire, and used that momentum to lunge at Ryan.
"Wall of Fire." Ryan declared, and the wall rose up. The demon's dagger was stopped dead in its tracks.
"Tsk, I can't believe you still have mana left." The demon added. And in an instant, he used his stealth skill, disappearing from Ryan's sight.
"Twins Fire!" The mage shouted.
The swords appeared.
"Agh..."
The demon's silhouette reappeared. His right thigh was pinned by one of the fire swords from the mage's technique.
"Idiot. You used stealth, but you went straight for his blind spot. You're so predictable." The mage said in a mocking tone, a smile on her face.
"Damn you! I'll kill you first!" The Principality roared.
"Shit, I feel so exhausted, but... Fire Aura..." Ryan stood up.
The demon was still pinned to the sword.
He tried to turn around when he felt the pressure of bloodlust coming from behind him.
"Damn it, how can you move? You shouldn't have any mana!"
Before the demon could say anything else. Ryan's fire-ignited fist slammed into his face.
The demon fell a few meters away from him.
He tried to get up, but Ryan was already in front of him.
One, two, three consecutive strikes straight to the demon's chest made him spit blood.
"You should have used stealth to run away. I guess being arrogant is normal for a demon, right?"
"Damn you, shut...!"
Bang.
Ryan's fist pierced his chest and heart.
The demon's life was extinguished almost immediately.
[Bonus acquired: +62,000 XP]
[Level up]
[Level bonus: +20 points]
[Attributes increased: +10 to all stats]
"That was close." Ryan muttered and sat on the ground in front of the demon's corpse.
He panted.
Using more of his skills after being hit by the demon's technique that drained so much mana made his exhaustion very noticeable.
The girl walked over to him.
"Hey, you practically finished off all the demons by yourself. Are you an S-rank hiding your power?"
He panted.
"No, I'm a B-rank. But that doesn't matter right now, I feel so exhausted..."
"B-rank? Hmm, you resisted the mana burn well, and you could still fight. No B-rank has that much mana, that should have knocked you unconscious." The mage added.
'And I feel like I'm actually passing out.' Ryan thought. He tried to restore his mana with Recovery, but that skill only activates when his mana is above 40%.
So, being so exhausted from the lack of mana, he couldn't help but remember Irina, the forest elf.
"Can you walk?" The mage asked.
"Yes, let's move. It would be a problem if more demons showed up right now." He answered.
And so they started walking. Even though they had no idea where they really were or where they were going, they passed through a field filled with holes everywhere. An environment that made it clear a massive battle had been fought there.
For a moment, Ryan stopped to observe the area. In the distance, he managed to see some houses, nearly destroyed.
When he turned his gaze to the left.
The reflection of the sunlight hit his green eyes, but high up in the sky, he could see a silhouette.
"A dragon?" He muttered.
"Dragon? Where?" The girl looked around desperately, searching.
Her gaze landed on the silhouette Ryan was watching.
"It's... a scarlet dragon, it can't be..." The mage added.
"Scarl...?"
Ryan didn't finish his sentence as the girl pulled him into one of the holes in the field. She fell beneath Ryan, hugging him tightly with one arm, and covered his mouth with her other hand.
"Don't move... don't breathe... don't do anything..." She said.
'I couldn't see its level. Is that dragon really that powerful?' He thought, without moving.
A short while later, the dragon landed in the field.
"If that dragon is here, it must be with its master, Solaris. He's the demon king's son." She whispered.
'The demon king's son?' Ryan still had the girl's trembling hand over his mouth.
From what he had seen of this girl so far, she was very impulsive and boastful. The fact that she was trembling made him understand that this demon was not a weak being.
"I'm tired of flying so much, master. Let's go home." Said one of the entities outside the hole.
"Irnina, I didn't give you permission to undo your dragon form!" Solaris replied with an arrogant tone of voice.
"I'm sorry, dear master Solaris, but I'm very exhausted." She replied as her footsteps could be heard advancing.
The mage girl was motionless. Ryan watched her and she had no expression; she was completely paralyzed. It almost seemed like she wasn't breathing.