Argus continued to relentlessly wail on Lilia with his war hammer. Each blow had enough power behind it to level even the sturdiest of buildings. Yet even as the earth shattered and the air shook, Lilia remained firm.
Every attack that came her way she would deflect with expert movements, block with her gauntlets, or when either of these two options proved impossible, take the hit where her armor was the thickest.
Blood soaked her body and there was heavy bruising all over her, but she continued to defend against Argus' assault with unwavering determination in her eyes.
"Why won't you break?!" Argus roared in frustration as he failed to bring Lilia down.
He was level eighty-four while she was only level seventy-one. Surely after using the ultimate power he had been granted by the Bule Primeval Demon, he should have been strong enough to beat a young girl of barely sixteen years of age that was thirteen levels lower than him.
However, as time went by, he felt his mind slipping and his body straining. Soon he would lose himself if he continued to use strength far beyond him.
In his hurry to defeat Lilia his attacks became more focused on power and any semblance of strategy was pushed to the back of his mind.
Soon Lilia took advantage of his lapse in judgment and slightly bent her body back to avoid the war hammer swinging towards her.
Then while Argus was slightly off balance, she pushed off the ground and slammed her right knee into her opponent's unguarded chin.
A resounding crack rang out as her strike connected and Argus' head bent back from the impact. He had been so focused on offense and Lilia had been only blocking and dodging that her sudden counterattack had caught him off guard.
Still, in his current state even taking such a heavy blow to a sensitive area did little damage to him. He was only stunned for a single instant before instinctively attacking back.
With his eyes bloodshot and savage looking, he threw his knocked back head forward and attempted to gore Lilia with the horns sprouting out of his head.
Lilia quickly crossed her arms together in front of her face to absorb the unexpected attack.
The sharp horns scraped down her amethros gauntlets and carved small scratches through them despite how tough the metal they were made of was.
Thankfully the weapons Marcus had created for her protected her from having her head pierced and sliced to ribbons.
Unfortunately, at the same time Argus had swung his war hammer and connected a heavy blow directly into her stomach. Causing Lilia's armor to buckle slightly and the wind to be knocked out of her.
She flew several kilometers away from the force behind the blow and only stopped when Argus caught up to her and smashed her into the ground with another attack.
Over and over again he attacked her with a flurry of blows fiercer than before. However, the more vicious his assault became the less sanity that remined in his eyes. The power of a Primeval Demon was quickly overwhelming his mind.
'I need to finish this soon.' Argus thought, panic setting in.
Now she was confident that she was prepared to approach Argus and finish him off. Even if he did have some sort of last resort, she was ready to deal with it.
Staying vigilant, she walked up to Argus. She did not want to take any risks with long-range magic and decided to use the martial skills she had developed to make sure that she killed him.
Except when she was around twenty meters from him, she detected a large incoming mass falling from the sky.
Leaping back, she avoided being struck by a gigantic iron sword that had just stabbed into the ground in front of her.
Lilia was confused for a single second since she recognized the spell as one Marcus used often. The tier six iron magic spell Cataclysmic Iron Sword.
At first maybe she thought he had come to assist her but confirmed that this was impossible since she could still sense him fighting in the distance.
In a hurry she rushed around the huge weapon that was blocking her view of Argus and saw a man with royal blue hair picking him up.
"Force Cannon."
Immediately Lilia sent an attack spell towards the man and Argus.
Unfortunately, her hastily conjured spell was easily blocked by a powerful mana barrier.
"I'm afraid that I will have to interrupt your match. While he may have failed spectacularly in his mission, I still have need of him."
With Argus held over his shoulder, Vaughn opened up a portal behind him and moved to step through it.
"You think I'll let you get away."
Naturally Lilia recognized Vaugh. She could still vividly remember him from the time he unleashed demons in Borealia during Marcus' and Mrazivý's engagement party. He was at the very top of the kingdom's most wanted list and a dangerous enemy that needed to be stopped.
"No, I don't. which is why I have arranged for some playmates to keep you busy." Vaughn said in response to Lilia.
From out of his shadow, two demons jumped out and intercepted Lilia.
Neither of them was particularly powerful, but they gave him enough time to slip through the rift in space next to him and escape with Argus.
After she had defeated the two demons, Lilia was left with a frustrated look on her face. She may have won but two high priority targets had gotten away from her. This had been her chance to eliminate them, and she had failed. There was no telling what trouble Argus would cause in the future because she was unable to stop them here.
"This is not the time to be worrying about it. Everyone else is still fighting. I need to help out where I can before anything else."
Lilia slapped her face with both of her hands to get her thoughts under control.
Once she had pushed her regrets to the back of her mind, she carefully analyzed what was going on and rushed to where she felt she was most needed.