CH 285

Episode 285 – Ignoring Orders

Author’s Note: This chapter is from Ahmed’s POV.

“So that means you’re the boss this time, huh? I’ll kill you.” (Ahmed)

“No, no. The main offender isn’t me. This time, it’s only Baalius, whom you’ve just defeated. Ah… well if you look at it closely, I’m the one who gave the orders, so that would probably make me the boss, huh?” (Kronak)

“Hell if I know. Don’t respond back with questions.” (Ahmed)

“I guess that makes sense. I sincerely apologize.” (Kronak)

Regardless of the fact that I was on the verge of attacking, the demon Kronak deeply bowed his head. It wasn’t even anything to apologize for, much less something for which an Executive would need to apologize to me, an enemy. I couldn’t make sense of this demon who had gone into a fit of rage and had turned the corpse of the demon I’d just killed into a bloody mess.

“Well then, to properly answer your other question, you won’t be able to kill me. You were able to kill Baalius, and you may possess the physical ability alone to kill me, but… you aren’t at your full strength, you have a number of injuries that are limiting you, and your weapon is damaged. Unless you were in perfect condition, you wouldn’t be able to beat me. If I had judged you as even slightly dangerous, you wouldn’t even be standing before me right now,” the demon declared in a confident manner as he offered up a cluttered list of reasons.

That demon from earlier had been irritating enough as it was, but this guy was even more annoying.

“I see. So you only showed yourself because you knew that I wasn’t in perfect shape. You’re a lame bastard right to the core.” (Ahmed)

“Stepping into a fight where you don’t have a 100% chance of winning… Only a fool would do something like that.” (Kronak)

“Do you really think you have a 100% chance of beating me?.” (Ahmed)

“Hahahaha, you really think you can win against me in that shape? If you really think that, your intelligence is even lower than a goblin’s.” (Kronak)

“Laugh all you want. In no time at all, I’ll tear that easygoing look off your face.” (Ahmed)

“That won’t be possible. After all, you can’t even fight me yet,” the demon declared in a mocking manner. Then, he began to talk to the serpent behind him, who had yet to move an inch. I had completely forgotten due to the impact the demon had caused, but there was also a black serpent waiting in the back.

Meanwhile, on my side, there was only the somewhat smart Dion and the incompetent Smash, who could do nothing but detect enemies. If those two were to fight against the serpent, they would be killed in less than a minute, even if they were working together.

In other words, that meant I had to defeat the serpent and then deal with the demon behind it right after. I had avoided a fight with the serpent, thinking there was a chance I might get killed, but I was now in an even worse situation.

…However, as I swallowed my saliva and watched the serpent’s movements closely, it didn’t seem to be moving, no matter how much the demon spoke to it. Because their language sounded like screeching metal, I couldn’t understand what the demon was saying to the serpent, but his words were gradually getting louder and louder. The expression on the demon’s face was becoming even angrier, which indicated that the serpent was ignoring his instructions.

“Every single last one of you guys, all of you are useless pieces of trash. Don’t piss me off too much, you hear?” (Kronak)

“Hahaha! What’s wrong? You were acting all cool with the ‘you can’t even fight me yet’, but it looks like we can fight right now after all!” (Ahmed)

While the demon was muttering to himself in a fit of rage, I tried to provoke it even more. If I could avoid the fight with the serpent and fight this other demon, victory or defeat was still up in the air.

“…..Fine. That’s enough. I’ll personally deal with you myself. Tch… before that, Yuharaham. This is the end for you.” (Kronak)

After turning his glare from me to the serpent, the demon deftly slashed with its tail, easily slicing the serpent’s head off.

Even though the serpent wasn’t moving at all, Kronak had still slaughtered that serpent, which had been giving off an aura even stronger than the demon, in a single blow.

Perhaps its bold statement that it was 100% certain of beating me was based on his real strength. Judging by the speed and power of that one blow, I would say that he was considerably stronger than me even in my perfect state.

―However, this was exactly why battles were interesting. A battle that could be won with certainty could never get me fired up. I was also concerned about that black serpent behind it that had died for doing nothing except disobeying its orders, but if I didn’t focus on this monster in front of me, I would lose right away.

For the third time today, I submerged my consciousness into a profound place within my mind.

The mental and physical backlash from doing so was tremendous, and this was the first time that I had ever done this three times in one day, but I couldn’t afford to be stingy with giving my all here.

The Executive of the Demon King’s Army, Kronak, was far above the demon that I had beat to death. I will put everything on the line and make sure to kill this guy.

“I don’t have anything against you, but what I’m about to do to you will be a little personal stress relief for myself. It may be a bit cruel, but since you were the one who talked me into it, I hope you’ll be able to last a bit longer.” (Kronak)

Kronak walked right towards me, whirling and smashing its whip-like tail against the ground. I could tell just from the way that he was walking that there were no wasted movements. He looked defenseless, but in a contradictory manner, there were no gaps to exploit, which made my honed senses go haywire.

While I was trying to gauge the timing of my attack, Kronak easily penetrated the gap.

“If you charged in there, I could have killed you instantly, but… unlike what you say and do, you seem to be quite cautious. I’m relieved that you seem to be enjoying yourself a little.” (Kronak)

At the same time, a stab from his tail came flying in without any preliminary movements. Faced with this maximum speed attack out of nowhere, I could only dodge it with pure reflex, but I couldn’t see it at all.

I could predict the attacks by not only looking at the more obvious precursory and swinging movements, but also from the small movements of his muscles. However, I couldn’t read anything when it came to its tail.

First things first, I had to find out more about his habits somehow, or else I wouldn’t be able to fight against it.

Placing this single thought in mind, I concentrated everything on dodging while receiving Kronak’s attacks with my sixth sense alone.