Kai remained completely still, going over the situation in his mind. The demon had trapped him, and it was also much stronger than he had expected.
It also didn't help that Cecilia had gotten trapped with him, so he had to make sure that no harm came to her.
However, something strange was happening.
The demon... wasn't attacking them.
Instead, it was simply looking around, its horrifying black eyes scanning over Kai, making him resist the urge to shudder.
He then heard the faint sound of snow crunching behind him, courtesy of Cecilia having taken a step backwards.
The next moment, the demon screeched and launched itself forward, much faster than it should have been able to considering it was a Strength based creature.
Internally cursing, Kai activated Soul Flame and put all of the additional stats into Dexterity. With his newfound speed, he threw himself at Cecilia and carefully tackled her to the ground, just in time, as the demon ended up soaring over them, it's long and sharp claws cutting off a few strands of her hair.
Reacting quickly, Kai stood up just in time to see the demon hit the black body of its dome, only instead of seeing it feel pain like he had, Kai watched as it stuck to the dome like a spider before throwing itself at them once more.
After that, a variety of things happened.
Kai's body grew in height as he activated his fusion with Umbra, a Ruby blade appeared in his right hand, the blue flames surrounding him changed to a mixture of red, blue and violet. His Strength doubled with the help of Indomitable, before it was boosted even further using Ignition. This time, Kai chose to boost his Strength, Dexterity and Stamina all by 1.5× so that he should be able to dodge the demon's attacks semi successfully.
Reaching out, Kai thrust the tip of Esurient at the demon's head, but he could only watch in horror as he heard a loud crack, the beasts neck bending at an unnatural angle as it avoided the attack and got even closer to him.
Its claws slammed into Kai's chest, managing to pierce his armour and cut into him, making him cry out in pain as he was flung backwards.
The main was much worse than a standard slash should have been, meaning there must have been something else to the demon's power. Looking down, Kai-
Cursed.
His armour, which was normally a lustrous silver colour, was slowly being turned a pale blue. Kai felt the coldness infiltrate his chest, the icy feeling edging closer to his lungs, threatening to freeze them whole.
Quickly, he took a health potion out of the satchel and downed it, only to his horror, it didn't make much of a difference, it only slowed the speed the frost was spreading at by a little.
The familiar sensation of his body freezing over was one that Kai had not wanted to experience again after escaping from his cell beneath the castle, but it seemed that he wouldn't be so lucky.
Panicking slightly, Kai used Minor Restoration on himself, hoping that the power of an Epic rarity skill would be able to stop the frost from spreading.
And it did.
... To some degree.
Instead of actually healing the wound and actually getting rid of the frost, it had only temporarily stopped it from spreading. As soon as Kai stopped using Minor Restoration on it, the frost would begin taking over his body once more.
Which meant that he was on even more of a timer than before due to the fact that the skill would be constantly draining his Mana.
Gritting his fangs, Kai roared out at the flames surrounding him intensified even more. A pair of two menacing eyes appeared in the flames behind him, looking down on everything they saw.
The demon, which had been just about to attack Cecilia, stumbled at the sudden loss of Strength. Meanwhile Cecilia, due to the other effect of the skill, felt her energy return and her body brim with newfound spirit.
Using that momentary confusion, Kai dashed towards the demon, aiming to slash it in half using Esurient
In response to that, the demon simply swung its arm and swatted the blade to the side, rendering it useless.
Kai cursed.
He caught his footing just in time to turn around and deflect an attack that was aimed at his arm. His body trembled from the power of the blow, Kai felt his bones creak, but luckily, his armour held this time.
At least he hadn't had to make use of the 50% damage reduction just yet, but he was near certain that he would have to by the end of this fight.
Deciding to change tactics, Kai coated Esurient in his flames and let the blade attack the demon however it wanted. The Ruby sword flew out of his hand, like a missile that just been launched.
The Demon snarled, its eyes tracking the blade that was coming right for it.
That moment was all Kai needed, Esurient had bought them enough time.
Esurient's attack ended up missing, but that was fine, it was all part of the plan.
So, after taking a deep breath, Kai...
Stood completely still.
Esurient flew as high as it could into the sky, out of the demon's reach. It remained up there, acting like a star in contrast to the deep darkness that was surrounding it.
After it had realised it couldn't attack that target, the demon howled, parting its strange lips and revealing rows and rows of menacing fangs.
And Kai wasn't imagining it, it really was rows. There were like five rows of teeth inside the demon's mouth.
It was a horrible sight.
Looking back to where its second target had just been, the demon suddenly grew agitated, its horrifying black eyes scanning over where Kai was standing.
But he still did not move.
For he had figured out the demon's weakness.
Back at the start of the fight, the demon had not attacked them right away. It had some sort of defensive skill that was able to trap anyone that attacked it, so it knew that someone was there, only they couldn't actually see their attackers.
And that was for one simple reason.
The demon had no nose, so they couldn't sniff anything out. They had no ears, so they couldn't hear anything, and they also didn't have any sort of skill that allowed them to use the snow to sense where people were, nor did they posses the ability to feel vibrations in the ground or anything like that.
All they had were their eyes.
And unlike normal eyes, the demon's eyes had one glaring weakness, one that Kai was now certain of.
The demon could only see movement.
That was why it didn't attack right away when it had trapped Kai and Cecilia, it couldn't see them, it only attacked after Cecilia took a step backwards, meaning the demon could see it.
And now that Kai was standing still, the demon once more could not see it.
Only, instead of that being good news, Kai's test ended up having an unintended result.
Since it couldn't attack Esurient, and it couldn't see Kai, the demon looked at the third target, the one they could actually see considering that they were slowly backing away.
And unlike Kai, Cecilia had no idea that the demon could only see movement.
The demon's body shot forward, its claws extended so that it would be able to rip its prey to shreds.
Kai mentally cursed. Quickly, he manipulated Soul Flame so that majority of the extra stats went into his Dexterity, giving him a boost of speed so he might be able to reach Cecilia first.
Sadly, it was all for naught, the demon was going to reach the ex-Queen first and tear her to pieces.
On the other hand, it was lucky that Kai was not alone in this endeavor.
Just before the demon reached Cecilia, Esurient crashed into its side, piercing it and drawing some blood. The red liquid coated the blade, making its shine even glossier as it managed to knock the demon off target.
Rolling along the snow, the demon grabbed Esurient by the hilt and pulled it out. Its eyes traced over the blade, and it lifted its other hand to shatter it, but Kai simply returned the sentient sword to his soul and resummoned it.
Now that it was back by itself though, the demon was free to attack Cecilia again though, so its eyes turned back to her as it made one final lunge towards her.
Throughout those few seconds that the demon had been stunned, Kai pushed his body in an effort to reach Cecilia first. His legs burned with newfound power, courtesy of Mana Surge. He was like a ball that had been launched from a cannon.
And because of that, Kai managed to tackle Cecilia out of the way just before the demon would have torn her to pieces.
Holding onto her tightly, Kai held Cecilia close as he rolled along the ground, careful to not injure her in the process.
Once they stopped rolling, Esurient vanished, then reappeared in the air a few moments later.
Then, Kai pressed Cecilia into the ground and said:
"It can only see movement, so keep still."
Panting, Cecilia moved her eyes up and down, choosing completely still rather than just nodding.
A wise choice.
So, with a pained growl, Kai rose to his feet and turned back towards the demon, ready to get right into round two.