Chapter 96 Exchanging Blows



"Hmph," Ahat scoffed at Benimaru's remarks and pushed him away.

In that span of time, everyone had already fled the scene, leaving behind only him and Benimaru.

Ahat decided to forget about chasing them and focus on the man before him, whom he had zero clue about. "Who are you? I have never seen demons disguise themselves. Demons are known to be proud and arrogant of their traits."

"Well, I will tell you about ourselves, but first, can you tell me how you found out I was a demon? I didn't even mention it, nor can you see us fully." Benimaru asked, tilting his head.

Ahat thought for a bit before answering. "You were defending demons, so it wasn't hard to guess."

"Huh!?" Benimaru was dumbfounded, which he showcased despite hiding his face. "That's it? Buddy, you make assumptions very quickly. What if I deny being a demon now?"

"No, that is impossible." Ahat shook his head. "The reason those two humans were trying to defend those demons was because they had meddled with them. But you do not know them, and you just save them because they are demons. You said it yourself earlier."

Only silence came as a reply from Benimaru before he started chuckling. "Hahahahaha… I will hand it to you on this one. But do not underestimate emotions. It doesn't have any boundaries, so it can create many miracles. Well, forget all about this, let me introduce myself."

Benimaru rested his right hand on his chest and grabbed his cape with his left hand. Benimaru said, bowing down and moving his left foot backward. "I am Slayer, the leader of Masked Fools. We are an organization that wants to save innocent demons and bring justice to them."

"Ha…hahahahahah….." Ahat let out a chuckle before laughing hysterically. "Save innocent demons? Bring justice to them? You are joking, right? How can you put innocent and demon together? You are mental!"

Benimaru stood silent, letting Ahat laugh to his heart's content.

After laughing for a bit, Ahat saw Benimaru looking at him silently. He grimaced and asked. "What? Do you think I'm crazy thinking that?"

A grin appeared on Benimaru's face, which Ahat wasn't able to see. "Of course. It baffles me how a short-sighted person like you can be Paladin Captain."

Ahat's eyes widened in surprise. "How do you know I am a paladin captain?"

Ahat became surprised because the leader of the Masked Fool was someone as strong as him; there was no way he could have proper knowledge of the world as no one in the city knew about his title.

Ahat wasn't wrong; there was no way for Benimaru to know who and what he was. Fortunately for him, he has a system that lets him know other people's information. Ahat was an influential figure in Benimaru's book, as he wasn't that strong enough to ignore a person like him. 

And Benimaru couldn't see this type of influential figure's status because the system wouldn't show it. But Benimaru finally found a way to make it show up. He had to go into physical conflict with them, as he did with Ahat earlier. It let him know more about Ahat, which he studied while he was laughing.

[ Ahat(9th Stage Fleshcrafting Realm): One of the many Paladin Captains of the Goddess of Nature. He is assigned here to guard the church to his last breath. However, killing any demons also comes under the church's order. So, he had to kill Bianka and Belal while also fulfilling his personal issue. ]

This let Benimaru know one more thing: that these divine beings, or these churches and temples, hated demons to the bone. But there was something Benimaru thought otherwise about. 'Maybe, they want to have a good public view by eliminating demons. I have seen it happen many times on earth.'

Benimaru looked at Ahat and said, "Hey, Mr. Ahat. Do not judge us by our strengths."

Ahat's face turned stern as a killing aura radiated out of him. "Then I will destroy you before you grow."

Benimaru just smiled and prepared himself for battle. 'Man, this will be a hard one.'

[ Host Name: Max (Benimaru)

Demon Ranking: Tier 3 Demon Knight

Magic Realm: 3rd Stage Novice Realm

Vitality Realm: 4th Stage Fleshcrafting Realm

Age: 17/243 

Race: Abyssal Lord (25%)

Ability 1: Mastery of Dark Magic

Talent: Top 

Magical Techniques:  Purple Sun Technique

Vitality Technique: Body Sharpening Technique

Skills: Enhanced Senses, Illusion Bind, Dark Flash, Short Burst, Chaos Dome, Wall of Devastation. 

Generals: 3/3 (Ravenna, Ragnar, Fiain) [You will unlock another slot after you break through a major realm in magic realm.] ]

Benimaru has broken through to the 3rd Stage Novice Realm and the 4th Stage Fleshcrafting Realm. He felt mana cultivation was relatively easier for him than vital cultivation. In mana cultivation, he progressed through two stages, while on vital, just one.

Benimaru knew the limit of his strength fully, and after clashing with Ahat, it became more clear.

The two silently stood apart from each other, not making a single move. They were waiting for their opponent to make the first move.

However, their patience wasn't that long, as they both rushed toward each other simultaneously.

Ting Ting

Their swords clashed with each other multiple times as they tested their opponents strength. But that fight didn't stay in one place; they danced throughout the forest, zigzagging through the trees. 

Thrud Thrud

However, as time went on, they didn't even bother to care about the trees. To them, they were in an open field and wanted to clash with their opponent with everything they had. 

Suddenly, Benimaru distanced himself a little and used his skill. " [ Short Burst ] "

In a matter of seconds, Benimaru arrived before Ahat and swung his sword, filled with purple thunder.

"[ Earth's Protection ] " Ahat held his sword forward like a shield and spoke softly. A brown vital energy emanated from his body and coursed through his sword, forming a round shield that covered his entire body. 

Bang!

An explosion occurred that blasted Ahat's body away, but it didn't do anything to him as he quickly got his footing on the ground. He looked forward and saw Benimaru also landing on the ground.

Ahat quickly inserted his sword into the ground and then swung his sword upwards. Influencing the earth's mana with his vital energy, he made the earth burst out with nine rocky spikes that galloped toward Benimaru.

" [ Wall of Devastation ] " Benimaru swiped his left hand from left to right. A rectangle-shaped wall made of purple fire was conjured before him.

Boom

Another explosion occurred that destroyed the trees nearby. The dust covered their sights, not letting them see where their opponent was right now. However, they had mana senses, which helped them know where the other person was.

Ahat looked to his right suddenly and went into his battle stance. But his eyes widened in shock when Benimaru's silhouette in his senses turned entirely black and was approaching him at a rapid speed. This made him decide to use his strongest move to tackle it, as he had underestimated Benimaru's speed.

Ahat pulled his sword back to give a big swing but halted in the middle because Benimaru was no longer in the radius of his senses. It was as if he had completely vanished in midair. 

'What happened? He was just right there. Am I hallucinating? But the destruction of our battle is still there.' Ahat contemplated deeply, trying to think of what might have happened. 'It all feels like a dream….dream…wait! I hallucinated, or he made me. That guy…he used that to escape.'

'Tch, Failure. People will take me as a joke.' Ahat looked to his right and thought. 'Let's kill a powerful demon knight and cover it with something else. It might be enough for the public.'

Afterwards, Ahat vanished from his spot as he rushed toward the nearest Tier-3 Demon Knight to get its head.

…

Benimaru's base.

"Who goes there?" Ragnar stood outside the entrance of their base, which had giant wooden doors, with his soldiers.

From Ragnar's perspective, multiple people came out of the bushes that they used to hide their base from plain sight. Ragnar's face was stern as he was ready to fight.

Then, when the people came out, his eyes shot open as he prepared to give the soldiers the order to kill them, as the people before him were humans and two were unknown.

"Wait, Ragnar. It is us, Ravenna, and Fiain." Ravenna signaled them to stop while removing her mask, and Fiain followed along.

"Miss Ravenna and Fiain? What are you doing here? Why are you bringing humans along with you?" Ragnar was still on full alert as Benimaru warned him to do so. Human activity has increased these past few days, which has given Ragnar too much headache, he even had to wipe out some teams that saw their base.

Ravenna spoke with a serious face and a grave tone. "Now is not the time to explain, Ragnar. These are the Lord's friends, and someone is in need of emergency medical care. Move aside; you will know about everything when the Lord arrives."

After thinking for a while, Ragnar decided to do so. As Ravenna and Fiain were Benimaru's loyal friends—Ragnar being one too—and his most trusted general, they could never betray him. "Alright, come in."