"Omniscient being, grant me the power to know my enemy," Crimson chanted as his body started to emanate his usual white glow, but this time, he radiated more intensely.
It was a slight difference, one that he himself couldn't notice, mostly since he was in the heat of battle.
"My brother was right. You're faced with death, and all you can do is produce this level of mana? This isn't enough to even be a protective measure. Humans don't cease to amaze me. Oh, how pathetic they are," the demon rumbled, his voice and facial expression oozing disgust on the last sentence.
Without wasting time, he launched an attack, slashing clean through the tree Crimson hid behind.
He managed to dodge by leaping out just in time, as even if he'd delayed a second, he would have lost his head from the pinpoint attack the demon threw.
"Not that shabby, for a human," the demon said as he walked towards Crimson.
He stood up, pulling out his sword and assuming a battle posture as he decided to take the enemy head-on.
The moment he took this seriously, he noticed the difference in mana. It was as if his mana pool had grown overnight.
Mana, in this world, was a basic magical constitution. It allowed people to cast magic.
Magic was considered in the sense of casting spells and asking for power from the gods, spirits, and other beings. These beings fed off mana, and humans gave it to them in exchange for something.
A person's level of mana determined what they could ask for and from whom, and also, a person required mana to sustain an activated skill or blessing. Simply put, the more mana a person had, the more powerful they were.
"Hey, human, this isn't the time nor place to do a checkup," the demon said as he swung his sword. Even though Crimson wasn't all that focused on his enemy during that time, he managed to dodge the attack. He then shook off the weird feeling and decided to focus on the battle.
"I've been thinking of a new skill, and I guess this is the right opportunity to use it."
His power had granted him general information about the demons; hence, he knew its strengths and weaknesses. With that, he closed the distance between them in a flash step, seemingly aiming to slice the demon's head off.
But he made his attack so predictable at first by using a well-known posture for such attacks. Hence, the demon saw it coming a mile away, positioning his sword to counter it.
But within a split second, Crimson shifted his angle in midair, moving his entire body above the demon's chest-length counter by redirecting his attack onto himself. Before reaching the demon's sword, he used his own to slash its legs, as his body reacted to the pain, allowing him to conjure up a split-second reflex that moved his body above the attack.
With that, he avoided the counter, also not going through with his attack since that wasn't his intention from the start. After activating his power, he knew the demon's weakness was its head, and hence, he aimed for that.
With his incredible speed, he placed his sword back in its scabbard, stretching out his hand and grabbing the demon's head as he pushed it down.
He instantly tightened his grip, trying to crush the demon's skull with brute strength.
"Damn human," the demon cursed in agony as he suffered the pain of Crimson's raw strength. Knowing he'd die if he didn't do something, he used his tail to pierce through Crimson's stomach. He initially aimed for his heart but couldn't get full accuracy since he was literally dying.
"You really are more than that girl. How can you have such skills without using any blessings?"
He inquired after throwing Crimson away with his piercing attack as he stood to his feet, holding his bleeding head.
"That was harsh," Crimson muttered after crashing into a nearby tree and falling to the ground as he looked at the test-tube-sized hole in his stomach, blood oozing out of him and gradually staining his already pitiful clothes.
"You guys just don't know the one rule, do you? Never stain my clothes," he said, wiping the trail of blood from his mouth as he stood straight, taking the moment the demon used to recuperate from his attack to do some recuperation of his own.
He closed his eyes and started to take in deep breaths, absorbing the mana around him as his aura began to fluctuate, corresponding with his breathing.
"The battlefield isn't the place to rest, pretty boy," the demon said with a devilish tone, an evil grin on his face as he moved in a flash, pulling his sword from behind to gain enough momentum to blow Crimson into tiny bits.
"Ah, shit, I'm a goner!" he thought as he opened his eyes, seeing no way he could dodge or pull out his sword to counter.
"I guess there's no other choice then," he muttered as he lifted his arm, preparing to take the full force of the attack on it. Since his mana pool had temporarily increased due to exercise, he decided to cast his first spell.
"Mana Absorption!" he said with a cool and confident tone, his expressionless face intact.
"What the?" the demon muttered, as he thought Crimson was bluffing in his attempt to absorb his mana. Even so, he didn't cancel his attack, infusing more mana into it as he planned on overloading Crimson, whom he thought was a normal human, with mana.
Boom.
The attack landed in Crimson's hand, and a strong wind blew through the forest behind him. Once he got into contact with the demon's blade, he inhaled all he could, absorbing as much as he could in that instant and releasing it as he exhaled. His aura intensified in that split second, giving him enough to serve as a protective coat, preventing him from getting blown away by the attack.
"How...?"
The demon didn't complete his statement as Crimson retried his previous attack, moving in close to the demon and grabbing its head, inhaling deeply and absorbing its mana, exhaling to release it at once, gaining incredible burst strength that allowed him to crush its skull in the blink of an eye.
The demon died in that instant as Crimson looked at it with a devilish stare, his crimson eyes making him look like a demon among men as he later shifted his attention to Mia's battle as she was also almost done killing the other one.