Chapter 42 - Demonic Transformation

"Fireball!"

"Damn you! Twerp!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

It's all about repetition to teach idiots a lesson.

There was a way to increase your strength to heights unimaginable even if you were untalented, as fast as possible. It was to make a deal with demons and start sacrificing people. It was the fastest way to get stronger, though this only works until someone hits Expert tier, which the person in front of him has.

Theo thought that Grin was just lucky and sacrificed a ton of people just to get to the level he was right now.

As much as he sucked at fighting, Grin was still physically an expert tier assasin.

His stats were overall higher than Theo's

Shick!*

Clean hit!

Theo, finally after multiple exchanges lands a clean cut on Grin's left wrist, making it bleed profusely.

"Kuh! You! Stop smiling!"

Whoosh!*

Bang!

Grin widely swung leg, making Theo back off a few steps, but this only gave Theo time to recast his fireballs.

"Fireball!"

"You Bra-!"

Shing!*

Hoh.

"Hahaha, I'm getting used to it b*stard!"

"I see, then how about this?"

Theo

Dawn

Theo's sword flashed white and molded into a spear.

Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh

Theo spun it around a couple of times and took a stance, pointing the tip of his spear at Grin, who was baffled in place.

"Hap!"

Theo thrust his Spear with rapid succession, making Grin uncomfortable with sudden change of fighting style.

Ting!*

Grin recklessly three one of his daggers, but sadly for him, Theo dodged blocked with ease

"Gah!"

Hit!

Theo managed to pierce Grin's right thigh.

"Kekeke, you're not that good at spears, aren't you!"

Grin was starting to read Theo's movements more easily, deflecting, blocking and even counterattacking Theo's spear slowly but steadily with ease.

  Theo

Dawn

Theo was able to change Dawn's forms whenever he wished. He even increased his proficiency quite easily with other kinds of weapons, believing that it might be useful in the future.

Though the techniques on other weapons than swords were only around intermediate and adept tier, but using them with a person who was unfamiliar with wielding weapons it was only obvious that they'd struggle to deal with something they never fought that much before, when they usually just brute force everything. 

Whooosh!

Theo shot five consecutive mana arrows with Dawn, four traversing towards each limb and on directly flying towards Grin's chest.

Ting!* Ting!* Ting!* Ting!*

Grin did his best and blocked four out of five arrows with his daggers.

Chuck!*

"Gah!"

 He blocked every single one except for one that managed to pierce his right shoulder.

"YOU B*STARD!" Grin shouted, almost popping a vein on his forehead.

With Grin enraged and charging at him with incomprehensible fury.

"Body Reinforcement!!!!"

Ominous dark green aura started to emit out of Grin's body. His muscles started to bulge, revealing his veins, indicating the rapid pace of blood pumping around his body. 

Theo believed that Grin was finally taking things seriously, seeing Theo as an actual opponent instead of a toy he could play with.

Body reinforcement, a versatile skill that most warrior class use, even theo could use it, but opted for Sacrifice because it was just the better version, though with higher risk on defense, unlike Body reinforcement where it boosts your strength and defense. 

"Lets see if your going to keep smiling now!"

WHOOOOSH!

BANG!

Sh*t!

Grin sprang forward with almost an unseen speed and tried to slam his dagger overhead.

Theo predicted this and dodged the attack by an inch, but the floor where he was standing cracked because of the sheer force behind Grin's attack.

"Third round kiddo" Grin said with a smile akin to a maniac.

Ting!* Whoosh!* Whoosh!* Ting!* Ting!* Ting!*

Another onslaught of blades barraged Theo and this time, denying him of any option to counter attack because of the sheer speed and strength Grin was throwing at him. 

Skill wasn't the issue here, it was just the difference in strength that was too apparent for him to bridge the gap between him and Grin.

Then I just have to be extremely petty. 

*****

WHOOSH!

Theo intentionally darted backwards with much force as he could muster

WHOOOOSH!

Grin gave chase, pursuing Theo's sudden retreat.

"Where are you g-!"

BOOM!

That's one of them.

Theo grinned gingerly at the trap that he laid out a minute ago. Theo mentioned earlier that he was experimenting and practicing his magical capabilities during his training, this was one of the spells Theo practiced especially because of its effectiveness.

"What happened!?"

The left leg of Grin was scorched and the ground burnt black from the explosion that occurred.

"What did you do!?"

Mine spells, Grin.

Theo grinned in delight at the reaction Grin portrayed.

Theo wanted to let Grin find that out by himself, helping only applies to friends after all. He spent half of his mana spreading multiple mines the whole area as Grin chased him for who knows how long, so giving it away would be an extreme shame.

The mines get hidden below the ground by making a tiny hole on the ground with your mana and infusing it mana. The mana then detonates into a fiery surprise whenever someone physically touches the surface of where the mine is hidden, making it a difficult spell to emulate, but Theo could easily plant a mine spell in a single second. 

The three months of Mine spell training was actually worth it.

Detecting it is extremely difficult unless you had some kind of detection spell, which Grin didn't have.

Theo on the other hand is also susceptible to the explosions but he remembers all the mines locations, so there was nothing to worry about as long as he kept leading Grin to them and keeping distance from the mines.

Theo wanted to use it in another scenario, but being able to use it in this fight was something he welcomed with open arms.

Grin, ignoring his injured left leg, pounced at Theo who was close to the end of the isolated space.

Theo swerved abruptly to the right, Grin followed, but not before he stepped on another mine.

BOOM!

That's two

"You! YOU!" Grin yelled in frustration.

This time, his right leg fell victim to another mine, but Grin didn't care, his thought was just to charge at Theo with everything he had, wanting to rip apart the young boy to pieces.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two consecutive explosions occurred once more, damaging Grin on both his feet, revealing third degree burns on his skin

The smell of burnt flesh covered the entire isolated space, making Theo scrunch his face in disgust.

The more Grin stepped on a mine, the more inhuman he physically looked.

Slowly he became more and more unfazed at the explosions that were blasting him whenever he stepped on a mine.

Grin's rationality seemed to slowly degrade as time goes on.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Four in that one spot was the right call.

"Hah.... Hah...." 

Theo was starting to get tired from all the running, dodging and leading he had to do against Grin. He calculated that it had been thirty minutes since the start of their battle which was the longest real fight he'd had since he was reincarnated as Theo. His Sacrifice was also ticking fast, because of the high amount of mana he needed for the spells he used.

"AGh.... ash. Dae....." Grin said incomprehensibly.

Grin was in the worst and sad state possible, His body looked like it was mangled and beat up by a monster. The explosions literally burnt up his body, charring some parts of his body black. His jaw was loose and half of his face was completely burnt off revealing his bare teeth and big eyeball.

Theo approached him slowly with Dawn as a bow and breathed, bracing himself on whats to come.

"Time for the final round.."

Theo shot a mana arrow with great precision 

Chuck!*

The mana arrow pierced the head of Grin.

BOOOM!

The body of grin suddenly exploded with an unprecedented dark green aura, almost covering a fourth of the isolated space. An unexpected reaction when Grin's head was basically almost blown off.

Theo, not wanting to get caught by the explosion, expected this and already retreated far from the body of Grin.

His body slowly started to regenerate and it actually started to bulk up even more. Grin started to transform into something far from human.

His arms started to grow at an abnormal rate, mimicking the size of his legs which also extended as it bulked. Grin skin turned pale white to a greenish dark color, obviously an unnatural color for someone who was human. Two goat horns sprouted out from Grin's forehead with blood dripping from its roots.

"Count level Demon, Stoma, The Ravager, the real boss of the Academy examinations...."

The demon that massacred a fourth of the examinees. To only die by the hands of the headmaster, but the damage was done.

It became an irreversible memory that was etched into the minds of everyone who bore witness to the massacre.

An act which was the first instance and portrayal of how evil and vile demons could be, reinforcing the fact that demons are forces of pure malice.

A similar looking figure to a daunting green superhero, but with a face of a demonic monster. Long sharp fangs, four pitch black eyes, long red tongue and long ears which were the size of its face which was thrice the size of a human being.

"You pushed my contractor to this point huh? A puny insignificant youngling at that! HAHAHAHA! As a reward for your achievement on summoning me and killing my contractor, I'll grant you a swift and painless death"

Thud!*

Stoma slowly approached Theo who retreated fifty meters away knowing what was going to happen

Theo

Dawn

Theo braced himself, knowing that the opponent this time was far more skilled and powerful than the Grin he fought.