45 Book 3 Chapter 41

"Weak, weak! Too weak!" A demon deep in the horde grew intoxicated. For his claws to cut through bones so easily left him in ecstasy, so he swung with wild abandon as he lost himself in this feeling. Nothing could stop him.

When he was at the end of an attack and the beginning of another, he felt a chill. A curtain of blood and flesh covered his vision to his left. It was there the tip of a spear pierced through, coming straight for his throat. The sense of danger this spear gave him was shocking, so his instincts took over. In that thousandth of a second, his upper body twisted impossibly, just enough to dodge the attack.

Just as a feeling of security washed over him, the spear disappeared, as if it were never there. His eyes widened as he saw that same spear come through his neck from behind. Growling in anger, the demon used his tail to pierce backward, only to fall short. The spear was longer than his tail.

"Oh, you're still alive?" Shenlong spoke as he raised his arm before slamming the demon into the ground. In the moment of its disorientation, he pulled his spear out and spun around. Using the added momentum, he directly severed the demon's head. Or at least he tried to. Shenlong made sure to hold nothing back, yet he could only cut through two-thirds of the demon's neck. Only after another attack did he accomplish his goal.

All around Shenlong was fighting. It was pure chaos. Suddenly, his head snapped to the right. There, he watched as a demon covered in bones charged at an ascender, one of his students. The monster ignored the surrounding attacks as he directly impaled the man.

By leaning back, the demon was able to feel the warm blood drip down from the impaled ascender onto his body. He spent so much time savoring the moment the three ascenders surrounding him unleashed several blows. To their dismay, their skills were only able to leave gashes no deeper than an inch. Worse, the wounds their full-power attacks left were recovering quickly.

However, none of them cared about that. They watched in horror as their companion became a dried husk, even as one used healing skills. The demon had sucked his lifeforce dry in a mere moment.

As the dead body became dust in the wind, the bone demon turned to them while licking its lips. Much to its disappointment, the ascenders before it had looks of resolve. They held no fear, only rage.

However, this demon had six runes, making it one of the strongest on the battlefield. It reacted as soon as Shenlong arrived. As the demon's claws thrust towards Shenlong's heart, it froze upon being bound by its shadow. In the moment it took to break free, Shenlong's spear cut across its neck. At the same time, Olivia appeared behind the demon, her two daggers digging into its back.

Unfortunately, the full out attacks were unable to break through the demon's muscles. The demon was ashamed to be wounded by creatures with so few runesf. Following its shame was rage. Unexpectedly, the bones protruding from its body shot out, becoming deadly projectiles. In one move, the demon put Olivia and Shenlong into a life or death situation.

Shenlong retreated backward as his spear flicked out, deflecting the bones to the side. His reaction was perfect, but he underestimated the force propelling the bones. Though the bones deviated from their original path, they still pierced through his arms and shoulders.

On the other side, Olivia jumped back as her body twisted like her bones were jelly. The perfect dodge gave her a point in agility, though she had no time to view the notification.

Seeing both opponents get away mostly unscathed, the demon narrowed its eyes as red jewel-like bones extended from its palms. For the first time, he took them seriously. Their techniques more than made up for their lack of runes.

After a brief pause, the air cracked as the demon charged forward. He reached Shenlong instantly, the strongest bones he could produce slamming down on the spear relentlessly. The demon forced Shenlong to retreat to disperse the force behind each attack. All the while, Olivia struck from behind, but it was futile. None of her attacks could break through the demon's defense, so she was ignored.

The demon only focused on Shenlong. Each time Shenlong blocked with his spear, the ground shattered underneath his feet. His arms trembled from the force, but he didn't dare let go. The demon swung several times a second, and in no time at all, they exchanged thousands of blows.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, Shenlong was unable to counterattack. His spear bore all the pressure until, eventually, it cracked.

"It's over!" The demon smirked as he prepared the next blow.

"ANDY!" Shenlong screamed, his voice reaching the entire battlefield.

Blood sprayed through the air. The demon watched, stunned, as it realized the blood was its own. Looking down, he found he was missing a hand.

Across from him was Shenlong, holding a magnificent silver spear. It was entirely seven feet long, with the carving of a dragon across its body. A deep and powerful aura emanated from the fearsome weapon, and if you stared, a dragon's roar would resound in your mind.

At the same time the spear appeared, the monster horde showed their real appearance. Andy couldn't spare any imagination when creating the weapon. Compared to the time he made divine grade weapons when fighting nobles, this one was far beyond them. To compare further, the equipment then could barely be considered divine grade. However, after improving Andy's imagination stat, the spear now was a real divine grade.

The bone demon glanced around at the undead creatures. Upon realizing something, he glared at Shenlong. "You are targeting us?!"

"Bingo," Shenlong teleported as he flicked his wrist. The demon's head toppled to the ground; its eyes filled with disbelief. The spear elevated Shenlong's power to quasi-tier six, but it still wasn't enough to behead the demon so easily. It was only due to Olivia's well-timed Shadow Grasp.

One of the nearby ascenders quickly healed Shenlong's wounds. In that moment of respite, Shenlong took the chance to inspect the state of the battle. What he saw filled him with grief.

The bulk of the hundred-odd demons were tier four. Three to four ascenders could match them by working together, but the few tier five demons wreaked havoc across the battlefield. If not for Amara, Carly, Dubaku, Ebba, Roy, and Jason holding back most of them, the battle would be lost. Although they were holding them back, they were all on the defensive.

Thankfully, Shenlong didn't see another tier six demon. He wasn't sure how long his weapon would last, so he made his way over to help out.

The battle quickly turned one-sided. After killing the tier five demons, Amara and the others swept across the battlefield, freeing up more ascenders. It was over shortly after that.

Although brief, the battle was catastrophic.

The demons annihilated over eighty percent of Ebba's horde. Worse, of the three hundred ascenders in the raid, seventy-two no longer lived. This was the worst loss the alliance had ever experienced.