Liam started walking toward the demon, his hands still in his pocket. The reason was simple, he didn't want the demon to see the hand signs. The majority of magic and skills require one of three things to be cast, verbal, somatic, or material component. Alice's hand sign was pointing her index finger with the other fingers closed and the wrist slightly twisted at a specific angle.
With Liam being Asura in the past, he was more used to having six arms, so now he has to do the hand signs one after another and hide them so his opponent doesn't interrupt him.
"What could a human like you do? But, I guess you're fast, to be able to move her away that fast." The devil lifted his arm.
"A hell bug like you, fragile like snow, weak to the bones. Dare speak down to humans in their land?" Liam said with a giggle, staring at the devil's face. He had mixed the chant of a spell into his words, and the devil failed to notice, only taking it as an insult.
[Disaster Infusion] At its lowest level, it's a skill that can only target one thing and debuff it. Fragility was the debuff Liam cast, and it lowered the target's defense, making their skill easier to cut. It also made the target a bit slower and weaker, not in a big way, but enough to throw their moves off balance.
Liam looked at his stats, quickly coming out with a fighting plan based on his countless previous fights. He was level 19, and this devil could be well over level 60, no he could reach level 70. Usually, such a fight would be unwinnable, but he's the villain who wiped the floor with the hero, all of her generals, and his own men at once while at death's door.
****
Name: Liam Leonard.
Race: Human.
Soul Record: Black.
Level: 19
Strength: 31
Speed: 32
Mana: 25
Special ability: [Hakai: Level 16]
[Dodge: Level 18]
[Sharpening: Level 21]
[Halberd Arts: Level 19]
[Scimitar Arts: Level 17]
[Horse Training: Level 9]
[Sneak: Level 12]
[Dagger Arts: Level 15]
[Spear Arts: Level 16]
[Fire Magic: Level 9]
[Wind Magic: Level 9]
[Disaster Infusion: Level 7]
[Martial Arts: Level 16]
[Self-Regeneration: 18]
****
I'll need an observation skill to be able to see enemies' stats, but sadly it's hard to fight one on this side of the world. But, that won't be a problem; I can guess if a fight is winnable or not just by experience.
The devil swung his fist down at Liam's head; he was much taller than him, standing at almost ten feet tall.
Liam pulled his halberd and blocked the devil's arm, deflecting it to the side to kill its crushing force. [Halberd Arts]
He then used that momentum to swing his scimitar and stabbed the devil several times across the torso. He targeted the heart, the second heart, the liver, the stomach, the lungs, and the kidneys. [Scimitar Arts]
The devil gasped, swinging his second arm at Liam with a panicking face. What's happening, why is he so fast? I couldn't react in time, is that feeling I felt from him earlier real? He's kind of a threat? The devil didn't know what was happening, and he had no way of figuring that [Disaster Infusion] had been cast on him.
Liam dodged the swing and jumped over the devil's arm as he sheathed his halberd on his back and pulled a dagger. As he sat on the devil's shoulder, he used the knife to slice his throat and head in a single move then jumped down.
The devil's head dangled down by a small part of his skin as green blood splashed everywhere, except where Liam stood. He did make sure he was standing where the blood wouldn't reach him, Alice was the one washing his and her clothes, but since she was injured and he didn't want to wash them, he's better not make them dirty.
The devil grabbed his head and put it back in place as his wounds healed. He stared at Liam with a smile and laughed, "Useless, useless, useless, useless! This won't be enough to kill us devils from DIO{Second layer of hell}!"
"The core isn't in your major organs or your brain. That only means it moves around your body." Liam said and the devil went silent.
"You said what?" The devil gasped.
Liam smiled back at him with an evil grin.
"You bastard!" The devil started panicking and lunged at Liam, bones extending from his wrist like a blade.
Liam waved his palm, casting the magic he prepared earlier in his pocket. One hand was doing [Disaster Infusion] and the other did [Wind Magic]
A massive blade of compressed wind flew forth and cut the devil across the chest. It didn't split him in half, but left a massive wound and sent him flying to the wall with a blast.
The moment the devil hit the wall, his wounds instantly healed and he roared at Liam. "You aren't human, are you?!" He lunged forward, swimming in the ground before his head expanded ten times the size and he tried to bite Liam.
Liam jumped back, doing several backflips as he dodged the bits. He's a devil from DIO, the second layer from hell. Judging by how his body is shifting in shape; I say he has a higher-ranked skill, not just disguise but something better.
[Wind Magic] He once again blasted the devil with a wind blade, and followed that with a halberd strike as he recoiled.
"My food is trying to eat me? How funny, don't you know your place?" Flame gushed from Liam's spear and seeped into the devil's flesh, inflating it before exploding as a crimson rose of inferno. [Fire Magic]
The devil shifted back to his normal form, coughing black smoke as his upper left shoulder burned to a crisp. "Most defensive stats reside in the skin and bones; it's easy to damage you once I've got a wound." Liam pointed the scimitar at the devil's head, "Surrender your core to me, and you shall live for eternity within me."
"Surrender my core?" The devil growled, "You indeed aren't human, seeking to eat the core of a devil, what kind of mad mortal are you?"
"Mad? The world is mad, those who leave power untapped while presented to them on a silver plate. Those are the mad, especially when they live in a world where power is the difference between robbing and getting robbed of everything you hold dear." Liam started walking toward the devil with a passive face.
"I've got a minion to care for. So I'll end this quickly," He lunged at him with a swing, and the devil dodged, lifting his foot up to hit Liam with a drop, but such an obvious attack was easily evaded. The devil smiled, this was his plan. Humans have poor senses. By kicking so much dust into the air, visibility becomes limited, only he who can sense magic could detect…
The devil gasped, looking around with a confused face. "Where did he go?"
Liam walked silently in the dust using [Sneak] while lowering his magic output to the minimum by casting [Disaster infusion] on himself, effectively blending into the dust as an inanimate object. He approached the devil from the back, staring at him closely. He could notice a pattern of his magic. Usually, the mana flows through the core of creatures before getting cast as a spell, and this devil is trying to cast a detection spell to find Liam.
The devil would cast the spell in three seconds, and Liam had to make a decision. Attack now with all of his force in a single sneak attack, gambling on the core's location, or wait and keep observing in the hope of getting a second opening.
A smile crossed Liam's face as he lifted his hands slowly, [Wind Magic][Fire Magic] He unleashed all the spells at once from behind the devil, surprising him.
The devil immediately turned around and covered his body with a bone plate similar to an exoskeleton. "How in the hell?! No, you're out of mana after such an attack. Your soul shall be mine."
Liam's wind empowered his flame, burning into a blue haze of infernal heat as the devil's exoskeleton cracked.
"Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless!" The devil laughed, "A devil's regeneration is the best of the world!" His exoskeleton started regenerating. In a direct fight of firepower, Liam seemed to be the one losing, and quickly. No matter how talented he is, or how he combined his magic, the level difference causes such a massive gap in their magic output that it's impossible to surpass.
[Hakai]
The ability of pure destruction, at base effect, uses the three types of damage, slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage to hit. Leveling the ability extends its range, the number of attacks, their speed, and also their nature. Adding to that, Liam could switch those properties at will in a give-and-take trade. If he wanted to extend the abilities range, he'd make it weaker, and if he wanted to make it stronger, he could shorten the range and eliminate slashing and bludgeoning damage to produce a super enchanted piercing attack.
In the blink of an eye, Liam canceled his magic and unleashed [Hakai] Limiting everything the skill has and only leaving the piercing attack, which penetrated the devil's cracking exoskeleton. He then shifted the limitation and only left the bludgeoning damage, shattering the exoskeleton, then shifted once again, using the slashing attacks to cut the devil's torso open.
Before the devil could figure out what hit him, Liam plunged his hand into the open wound and plucked the core out. As green blood splashed everywhere, Liam sighed. "Now I have to wash my and her clothes, what a bother." He lifted the nut-sized core and swallowed it whole.
[Shapshifting] This ability allows you to change your appearance and fake your stats. He got the ability he wanted.
As the devil started dying now that he lost his core, he stared at Liam, "That ability…the one of him who terrorized heaven and hell alike. The abomination of destruction."
"Calling me an abomination…I guess I can't fault the truth." Using the shapeshifting ability, Liam grew two extra pairs of arms.
"Ha…" The devil sighed, "Only if you'd told me from the start, I wouldn't have minded…serving you alongside that human…" He disintegrated to ash.
Liam shifted back to his normal self and tried to shake the blood off his body. He's soaked from head to toe. He sighed and started walking toward Alice. "Sorry, but you'll have to deal with this." He carried her and walked toward the collapsed entrance. He had come from a hole in the ceiling that linked the two paths of the dungeon, but now he wanted to get out, taking the easy path made more sense.
[Hakai] He destroyed the rubble and walked out, finding that the demons of the whole dungeon had gathered there, and they already killed all the adventurers who awaited there.
The devils saw Liam walk with Alice in his hands, and they charged at him simultaneously. But the moment they got close, they were cut down by an invisible blade. Liam had restrained the skill's range to five feet, which made its slashing equal to him swinging a blade. It was convenient when needing his arms to carry Alice.
After a while, the devils understood that they couldn't even get close to him, and so they began hiding in the shadows, waiting for him to pass like he was a natural disaster.
Upon walking outside, Liam pretended to collapse. The only survivors of the demonic shrine dungeon were Liam, Alice, and the guild's butcher.