Dance With the Nightingale - Chapter 29

There was a reason why the Demon Contractors were seen as a taboo, a reason why they were so annoying to fight and a reason why they were feared.

A simple reason.

They were like cockroaches.

Tenacious bastards, that clinged to their life, while spreading death in their wake.

They were urgent threats, that couldn’t be left unattended and had to be killed as soon as found.

But was killing them, the end?

Apparently not.

Rather, killing them was equivalent to just gifting another body to a demon.

And that was what, it was happening now.

An inevitable process that couldn’t be stopped or interrupted, not without overwhelming power.

Well, not like I had any intentions to stop that…

Pulling out my sword from the Vessel’s chest, I jumped back as far as I could and quickly downed three potions, a Healing Potion, a Mana Potion and a Mental Power recovery potion, all of them of the highest grade.

Though my spell looked flashy, and was powerful, it was very resource consuming.

Just casting a total of 715 Accelerations costed me, around 17,000 of my Mana, this along with maintaining all my supporting skills, made my resources drop dangerously low towards the critical zone.

‘I wouldn’t have been able to keep up if the bastard lasted for another ten stabs…’

‘Thankfully, I had a highest-grade potions with me.’

I thought, as I felt myself being filled with Mana with just a single potion.

Of course, I was vary of my battered adversary, all this while.

At first, like a doll with broken strings, he was slumped on the ground.

With black blood flowing out through several holes on his body, as he looked at me with eyes filled with anger.

But then, even that emotion was robbed off him, his eyes turned emotionless, as his blank grey pupils continued to gaze at me.

For a moment everything went still, as if the world suddenly decided to be quiet.

But only for a moment, as an eerie greyish-black flame lit up on his body the next instant, dyeing his skin into a mixture of grey and black that had strange symbols carved on it.

The flames changed his features, turning him from a normal human into something more, something demonic.

The transformation continued for a while, as I watched with bated breath, the infamous process of – Possession.

Demonic scales appeared on his body that was now bulging with muscles, as his hands turned into sharp steel-like claws. His ears elongated ending in pointed tips, mouth widened showing his now sharp teeth, his hair lit up in an eerie grey flame, while nose disappeared, leaving only two holes in its place.

As if being pulled by a mysterious force, his slumped but now three-meter-tall transformed body, flew up and floated upright, a few centimeters above from the ground, as all its previous injuries disappeared as if they were never there.

Then his form suddenly hunched forward, and started trembling, as if in extreme pain.

While on his back three grotesque slumps formed under his skin that kept twisting and moving, trying to break free from his flesh, and then,

-Phatttt

In an explosion of flesh and blood, the slumps burst out as wings, a pair of two demonic bat-like wings, followed by a thick scaly tail emerged from his upper and lower back, tearing their way out from his flesh.

With that his transformation was completed, and as soon as it was, the whole atmosphere surrounding the demon changed.

His emotionless empty eyes suddenly started moving, analyzing the situation, while shinning in a cunning light, before again, they settled on me.

-Chill

I felt a chill going down my spine, as I felt the malice and cunning those eyes held.

Instinctively, my body shivered, as I stared back at the demon’s ghostly grey eyes.

As if sensing my fear the demon opened his maw,

“tHanks FoR THE giFT kiD, You dID YoUR PArT woNdErfUlly.”

“Whistle~~, A HigH-End BaRriER And HaLf a DOZeN aRchMAGes, yOU suRE Are QUite A YoUnG MasTer, AReN’T YoU?”

“hMM, I’m DeaD aNyWaYs, But loOks LIkE thESe guyS hERE wanT me tO PlAY WiTH yOU.”

“So, hoW AbOUt WE play?”

He said, smiling, showing all his sharp teeth, as he made the first move.

Dense black smoke erupted from his body, forming a sphere of darkness that blocked both my vision and path, as I wasn’t too keen on using my own body to test the smoke’s effects.

But something had to be done, or I will only be able to defend passively-

-BANG

-Ackkk

Before I could even complete my thoughts, a completely unexpected fist, hit my stomach from the side, emptying all the air in my lungs, as for a moment I was too shocked to respond.

Unlike previous sword strikes or magic, this punch was so silent and so stealthy that I could respond.

‘He is clearly supposed to be a power type demon, then how was he so stealthy!!??’

I thought, as I desperately tried to move my body, which was dangling on his fist midair.

Unlike the previous exchanges, I wasn’t sent flying, rather, the punch hit me so skillfully that its power was completely contained in my body, as it ravaged it thoroughly.

So thoroughly, that I was immobilized for an instant, while literally gasping for air.

And the vessel didn’t miss that instant.

With me still dangling on his fist, he made a twisting motion as he slammed his fist on the ground.

-Ackkk

Unknowingly a groan of pain leaked out from my throat, as the ground underneath me was destroyed.

My body started moving again due to the shock, but before I could do anything another fist slammed on my chest.

I raised both my hands to defend but even that was in vain, as my guard broke with a single punch that was followed by another and another one.

Once again the ground cracked from the demon’s power, sending fragments of broken stone all over the place.

I tried to use magic to escape, but whenever I did, the abomination’s eyes shone with a strange green light that interrupted my mind, leaving me no way out.

The punches continued for a while as a small crater formed with me as a center, and just when I thought that I’m going to be buried in the ground, a scaly metallic tail wrapped around my leg, it pulled my broken body out from the crater and just like wet rag, slammed it on the ground again and again and again, for a good half a minute, before my world turned upside down.

“HMm, iNTerEStinG, VErY INTErESTinG…

A E+ rankED kiD SuRviVIng my pUNcHEs For tHiS loNg, VERy iNTerESTING InDeed~”

-Slap

-Slap

“Hey kId, dOn’t PLaY Dead, I KnoW you aRE sTIlL THeRE.

telL me, How aRE You sTilL ALIVE?

How iS yOur bOdy THiS sTRoNg?, oR IS iT jUst YOUr ARmOR?”

Of course, I remained silent.

“MaYbe, I WilL SPaRe You from THE bEaTING IF You TELL me, whAT do YoU SAY?”

Okay now, I was a bit tempted, but still…

“….your…..”

I didn’t agree.

“HmM…?”

“…fuck…your…mother…you…bas-cough-cough…”

Rather, with my chapped bleeding lips, I cursed him.

“HuUHu, huHuhuU, haHaHaahAha…”

And he laughed.

The bastard laughed, as his huge frame shook, before he abruptly stopped.

And looked at me.

“If thAt WAS YoUr Try to INFuriATe ME kID, thEn rEjoIcE, fOR your EffoRTS haVe NoT bEen wASteD.”

“yOU haVe indeED iNFUriAteD ME but, sAdlY, It IsN’T nearlY ENoUGh For Me tO Not NoTIcE THiS!!”

He said, as turned around to punch my sword, that was coming at him at an high speed.

Of course, it wasn’t a simple flying sword, rather it was imbued with the toned-down version of the same spell I used a month ago.

And he obviously noticed it’s power, as eerie green flames of demonic mana flared up from the strange symbols covering his whole body, before all of them concentrated on his fist, as both the sword and his fist clashed in the next instant.

-BOOM!!!

An multicolored explosion, probably the biggest one from the start our fight razed through the area.

As the demon had no choice but to expend more of his Mana, to cope up with my spell.

Using the chance when the vessel was in a deadlock with my sword, I quickly took out another bottle of mana potion to replenish and overflow my Mana reserves, as right now I was already half drained.

Of course, he noticed my efforts and tried to thaw them by smashing me on the ground again, but I somehow coped.

Twisting my body in a strange angle, I shotgunned the bottle, as the potion filled my spirit body with Mana overflowed till it overflowed.

And I knew just the right place to use that overflowing Mana.

Without hesitation, I overloaded my armor, using its Enchantments to do only one task, boost me physically.

And before the Enchantments even took effect, I pulled my fist back, and brought it down as soon as I felt a massive surge in my strength.

-CRACK!!

An audible crack resounded throughout the barrier as the scales of the tail gripping around my leg broke, causing it slacken. I kicked that python sized tail that coiled around my leg with the other, and finally pulled my leg out, as I fell towards the ground.

Using a bit of wind magic, I got in the position to block the pointed wing tip coming my way, and used the recoil from the clash to backflip, land my hands, and push myself out of the demon’s range.

I almost wobbled on the landing, as my leg that was held by his tail was completely mangled.

And not just my leg, my arms, my ribs and my neck all of them were broken or cracked, the only reason I could still stand would be my Attribute and my Armor.

The fusion with my equipment, as simple as it sounds, it wasn’t.

It let me do many things that broke common sense, and in the past month I did my utmost best to find what these were.

And I found some interesting things, things like what I did now with my sword.

And things where even with a mangled leg and broken body, I could stand, and not just stand, I could fight!

And that’s what I did, for I couldn’t maintain the overloaded state of my armor for long.

So as soon as I corrected my posture and breathing, I rushed back to my foe, who didn’t disappoint me.

As I expected, apart from some slight burns, he was fine, and those burns too were healing with incredible speed.

He must have underestimated the power my spell carried, for him to be injured, but even then he was able to send my sword flying backwards.

Remotely casting spells wasn’t a new technique after all, but such power from a technique that was casted by only an E+ ranked kid, that must be unexpected, even for him.

Or so I thought, as I extended my hand towards my sword, that responding to my gesture came back flying at me.

–Grab

I grabbed my magical sword, as I finally got ready to face the hulking figure in front of me.

And then…

…we clashed again.

-KWANGGG!!