Chapter 175 (2/2)
This time, the demon wouldn’t fall for the same trick again. With one stroke, the demon would cut off her head!
Eleanor was too late in triggering the second Flame Blast, but she still didn’t hide or dodge away from the demon. Firstly, because she still had a defensive shield around her, and secondly, because she knew that Link was right beside her.
The demon didn’t take any notice of the young man beside Eleanor at all. What could such a small fry do to a demon anyway? The demon quickly closed in on Eleanor and was now only about thirty feet away from her. At that point, he let out a roar and leaped up into the air.
In its expectation, its violent strike would surely crush through the woman’s magic shield, which would then leave her completely vulnerable to his arm blade attack. The woman’s head would be off her shoulder soon enough, then no one would ever know the secret between it and the holy maiden.
As for the young Magician who was with her, he would just have to take the hit of maybe one or two of the boy’s spells. But that wouldn’t matter at all, because his skin was highly resistant to magic, so at most, the spells would just leave him some scratches.
Oh, how wrong the demon had been!
Just at the moment when he leaped up, a giant hand with rings of red-hot fire grabbed him and held him mid-air, rendering him completely unable to move.
It was a spell Link had cast with his Glyph of Soul—the Vulcan’s Hand.
“Ahhhhh!!!” The demon was completely caught off guard. It then unleashed an explosive amount of energy in its attempt to escape the fiery hand’s clutch. The explosive energy came out as a powerful burst of black aura which was so mighty that it managed to scatter the fire elements of the Vulcan’s Hand!
Demons naturally had very strong battle force and their reaction was incredibly speedy. That was why Link didn’t use the high-temperature version of the Vulcan’s Hand.
Not bad, thought Link. This demon could withstand the power of a Level-5 spell, and the dark energy inside it is quite strong as well! A demon’s dark energy was almost bottomless and could never be depleted like a Magician’s Mana. This was the reason why demons were the most formidable foe a Magician could ever face!
Although the Vulcan’s Hand had now scattered, the demon didn’t rush forward even though he’d escaped from the giant hand’s grasp. Once its feet reached the ground the demon swiftly dodged sideways to avoid Eleanor’s second Flame Blast.
The scorching flames licked the demon’s skin, but it seemed to have made no harm to it at all. This was thanks to the demon’s excellent instinct, as it quickly unleashed a burst of dark energy right before the Flame Blast hit it, otherwise its skin would surely have been crisp.
The fact that it was able to escape unscathed from Link and Eleanor’s joint attacks meant that this demon would be one of the most powerful and formidable fighters in Firuman.
“Ha! This trick again? Pathetic!” Then, demon once again lunged towards Eleanor.
Then it was like a replay of the previous scene, as just when he moved forward another giant fiery hand caught it and held it in the air just as before. The demon’s limbs grappled the air as it struggled to get away, it now looked just like a kitten that was held in a hand.
“I’ll make you scatter again, stupid hand!” After getting attacked twice by the same method the demon erupted in anger. It bellowed as it unleashed another explosion of dark energy, this time its scream seemed to ring through the whole forest. Once again it managed to disperse the Vulcan’s Hand, but this time he could sense the moment his feet reached the ground that something was shooting towards it from behind. It was a Whistle. Not the normal Whistle though, but a Sacred Silver Whistle!
“So, you’re finally trying a new trick, huh?” jeered the demon.
The demon immediately felt the threat coming from behind and blocked the Whistle just in time with its arm blades.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Because of its strong combat instincts, the demon blocked all of Link’s Whistles with frightening precision and speed. But that wasn’t all the Whistles could do.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Whistles exploded and sent fragments of Sacred Silver flying through the air. The flames from the explosions seemed to have swallowed up the demon’s whole body.
But Whistle was ultimately just a Level-1 spell, so even though the metal fragments were quite deadly to humans and Dark Elves who had very low defenses, they were really no threat to the demons who had very strong and hardy skin.
All the demon felt when the metal fragments hit it was a slight prickly pain. It bent his head to examine its skin for a while and noticed that there were some shallow wounds, but that was nothing to get worried about. What was scary was how these cut wounds couldn’t close up and how the dark energy around its body was slightly hampered and impeded now.
Those were the effects of the Sacred Silver.
The demon was momentarily stunned. It had never been attacked by anything like this before.
Just at that moment, Link triggered the Glyph of Soul and the Vulcan’s Hand that had just dispersed re-emerged and once again clutched the demon’s body in its palm.
“Ellie,” shouted Link, “the Sacred Silver Whistle!”
Eleanor had mastered Whistle ever since Link had given her the scroll that contained its spell structure at the Magicians’ Fair a while ago.
Eleanor was no longer afraid of the demon when she saw it clambering helplessly in Link’s giant fiery hand. Her attitude and performance at the time were finally at the standard of a Level-6 Master Magician.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
One-by-one, the Whistles shot out of Eleanor’s wand at a speed on par with Link’s Whistles. She’d cast three Whistles in one second, and under her control they all headed towards the demon’s head.
Bang, bang, bang!
The Whistles exploded, bringing about more Sacred Silver fragments all around the demon.
The strange attack had just wounded the demon not too long ago, so when it was hit with the same attack again the demon got even more confused. It had never faced this kind of spell before and had no idea how to defend itself from it. All this time his instincts had helped him win every battle, but once he’s forced to face a novel attack the demon was stumped. With this dampened response it was then unable to disperse Link’s Vulcan’s Hand.
Which meant it was the perfect timing for Link to kill the demon!
A steady whistle rang out of the Vulcan’s hand. It tightened its grasp on the demon abruptly, while its palm suddenly burst out in an intense bluish-white light—it was the fire elements of the Vulcan’s Hand finally breaking out into its wild nature!
“Aaaaahhhhh!!!” the demon howled in pain. There was an explosion of the dark demonic energy around it again, protecting it from the screaming heat of the fiery hand. But by then, the Vulcan’s Hand had already fully exploded and released an immense implosive force that pushed inwards at the demon, canceling out the outward pushing forces the dark energy had exerted on the Vulcan’s Hand.
And so, the demon could no longer disperse the Vulcan’s Hand this time, it could only resist its force.
However, although the dark energy in its body was immense, it still had its limits. The demon had already used a significant amount of energy in scattering the Vulcan’s Hand twice and was now continuously exerting energy to protect himself from the Vulcan’s Hand’s force. It had already expended a great chunk of its energy reserve.
Finally, after ten seconds in the grasp of the Vulcan’s Hand, the demon had emptied its dark energy. The flame then began to burn his body directly, and clouds of blue smoke billowed out. The scream in its throat then began to change its pitch and became so inhuman that it would curdle the blood of anyone who heard it.
The burning continued for another three seconds while the demon continued to scream. Just then, Link halted the Vulcan’s Hand.
Thump!
A charred body covered with blue smoke slumped to the ground. The demon’s skin was completely burned, and its raw flesh and blood were exposed. Surprisingly, the demon could still move. It squirmed on the ground, still attempting to escape, and its speed was increasing gradually.
Even its injuries were recovering in front of Link and Eleanor’s eyes! What a tenacious will to live!
Unfortunately, though, its time had come.
Swish swish swish swish.
Link cast four Sacred Silver Whistles towards the demon and they quickly pierced through its hand and both its legs. Then the Whistles exploded simultaneously, nailing the demon to the ground.
The Sacred Silver in these four Whistles were refined from Mithril, so the effects on the demon were much stronger than the previous ones, enough to overpower the demon’s defenses and pierce deep into the demon’s body. Once the Sacred Silver made contact with the demon’s blood, it would then suppress the dark energy inside its body.
This time, the demon would have no choice but be honest and spill out everything he knew.