"Kill? As if I would let you do so!"
Ophelia appeared strong-willed and yet nervous at the same time.
"As long as I'm here, I won't let you lay a finger on him!"
"..."
Zantar remained unfazed by her statement.
"Tch..." she clicked her tongue.
Then, she charged at him.
"..."
In the world of Lorw, only a few encounters with demons were recorded.
Still, those few encounters were enough to measure their threat level.
According to the records, demons had a ranking system among them, too.
However, their ranking could not be put on the same level as humans. A C-rank demon was not as strong as a C-rank human. It took more than that to stand on equal grounds with demons.
Humans once encountered an A-rank demon and it supposedly took at least a few S-rank humans to defeat it.
So how would it be, when a B-rank demon appeared? How many A or S-rank humans would be necessary?
"What...?"
Ophelia was dumbfounded when she launched her attack.
With a relic, she should have been far stronger and more dangerous than an average S rank, and yet...
"Is that all?" Zantar asked bored.
Casually and without breaking a sweat, he caught her fist with one hand.
"!"
Holding onto her fist, he pulled her towards him, let go of the fist and proceeded to grab her neck slamming her brutally to the ground.
"Hrngh...!" Ophelia groaned as she grabbed his arm tightly.
In the records about demons, few other things were noted, like the differences between demons and humans.
First, their appearance.
Every demon the humans met so far, shared the same characteristic.
They all had completely black hair, eyes and bat-like wings, which they could hide.
"Resistance is futile, you know?" Zantar commented still bored as he held her down.
The second point would be their physical strength.
Their strength exceeded that of humans by far.
One serious punch could be enough to almost knock out an S-rank human.
"Hm?"
He heard something crackling.
"Haaa!" Ophelia yelled vigorously as she fried him with her lightning magic.
"Argh!"
Without much thought, Zantar leaped away from her.
His indifferent facial expression was exchanged with an annoyed glance after he took damage from her counter.
"You little bitch..." he cursed with his body still partly electrified.
As she coughed heavily and gasped for air, Ophelia got onto her feet again.
"What's wrong...? I thought you demons wouldn't take so much damage from simple magic attacks..." she remarked cocky while out of breath.
Another notable trait for demons would be their magic resistance, or rather their ability to use dark matter.
Usually, demons can manipulate dark matter and for example, strengthen their magic resistance or their attack potency.
The way dark matter can be used is however still not fully researched due to its potential being boundless.
But regardless of rank, it was pointed out that some demons could handle dark matter better or worse than others.
"Be quiet." Zantar said sternly with a hint of wrath.
He walked slowly towards her.
"I neither need to use dark matter nor do I need my demonic gift. Brute force should suffice against you." he stated with his lifted chin and his eyes looking downwards.
Aside from their ability to control darkness, demons possess an additional ability.
The demonic gift refers to the individual ability they were born with.
Every demon had a different ability and furthermore, those demonic gifts resembled the relics in the way that both possess unique traits.
"..."
Ophelia took a deep breath before she charged at him again.
This time, she was infused with her magic multiplying her attack potency and speed.
She went again for a straight punch.
Zantar noticed that he could not block her attack with one hand this time and he could not evade it now, therefore he put up his arms to guard himself.
"!"
With a loud bang sound, he took the punch that sent him flying into the woods.
"Shit..." Zantar grumbled.
He did not fly away that far.
Even though his back slammed against a tree, he did not feel much pain.
"Do you still think that brute force will be enough?" Ophelia mocked him nervously while Zantar entered her field of vision again.
"..."
Besides all the differences between demons and humans, there was something else bothering everyone.
It was the greatest question.
"The transfer took more power from me than I initially thought..." he muttered annoyed.
What was their origin?
Why are they here?
What are their goals?
"Hehe..." Ophelia giggled slightly under pressure.
"?"
Suddenly, Zantar felt a weird sensation around the spot, where he was hit.
"Hrngh!"
Taken by surprise, he was pushed backwards again, as the effect of Encore, Ophelia's relic, activated.
"What was that...? Was that the power of her relic?" he wondered after he flew into a bush.
He jumped out of the bush and without hesitation, he rushed to her.
He retracted his right arm and aimed a punch at her face.
"!"
She quickly dodged it, but she still felt the enormous shock wave generated by the punch that hit the air.
Having failed the first attempt, Zantar turned to the right and tried to hit her with his backhand.
However, Encore activated again.
"Tch."
He was thrown off balance and slid on the ground.
"What a pain in the ass... It doesn't hurt that much but it still is annoying..." Zantar grumbled with a frown.
"But I see... Now I can guess what your ability is." he declared with a faint grin.
The ground under him started to get enveloped in darkness.
"I may not be able to use dark matter yet, but luckily I can use my demonic gift." he whispered.
Then, he spread his arms.
"You know what? I take my statement back! Consider yourself honored as I use my demonic gift!"
Truth be told, he was too annoyed to deal with her relic's ability with only his physical strength.
"Well, let's start with three for now." he said.
At that moment, from the in darkness enveloped grounds, hairy arms started to crawl up.
The arms were long and thin and after a while, a face resembling an ape emerged.
"You are kidding me..." Ophelia was taken aback.
With widened eyes, she took in the nightmarish sight.
From beneath, three monsters crawled their way up to the surface.
The three monsters looked exactly the same.
Not just among themselves, but also like the monsters they faced before.
The creatures that Zantar summoned were all of the same type.
They were all ape-like monsters.
"So you were the one, who summoned all those apes in this jungle...?" she asked tensed.
Zantar only grinned.
"That's correct." he responded casually.
The apes started to run at her creepily with their arms sluggishly hanging down.
"Oh, it's time for that, right?" Zantar said to himself as he put some force onto his feet.
It was time for Encore, however, Zantar embraced himself for the impact already, and thus, he did not fly away.
He only had to take a few steps back.
"Now let's finish her off quickly." he said as he prepared to leap to her.
Ophelia took her stance as she was not only about to face Zantar but also three high-ranking monsters.
Zantar had a sinister smirk on his face.
However, in a blink of a second, his smirk faded away.
Shock was now all over his face.
"!"
From the side, Mika appeared holding Excalibur up.
If he did not move, then Mika would definitely behead him.
And as he swung down his sword, Zantar twisted his body as much as possible.
In the next moment, blood sparkles were distributed in the air.
"AAAHHHH! DAMNIT!!!"
Zantar's anguished scream echoed in the jungle making even the ape-like monsters flinch and look back intimidatingly.
Rolling on the ground with tears in his eyes like a newborn was the proud Zantar.
Blood colored the earth around him red as he held the spot that was missing something.
"Haa... Haa..." Mika gasped for air.
[A shame that you could not cut his neck.]
"At least I took something else from him.
"You... How dare you!"
Zantar's eyes were bloodshot as he got up.
"How dare you cut off my arm!"
Mika ignored his screaming as he took his stance.
[Only one minute left.]
"It took longer than I've thought to kill that ape, huh...?"
His clothes hid it, but beneath that were a few bruises from the previous fight.
Whereas the enemies' focus was on Mika, Ophelia quickly glanced at the monster Mika was fighting a while ago.
"..."
Agape, she looked at the dead monster, whose four arms and head were cut off.
[You have successfully cleared the quest.]
"You bastard!!!" Zantar screamed.
Simultaneously, two additional monsters appeared behind Zantar.
"I underestimated you! I should have taken you on seriously from the beginning! Now prepare yourselves! I will make sure to give you the most painful and gruesome death!" he declared ticked off.
[The reward will be distributed shortly.]