Dance With the Nightingale - Chapter 30

-KWANGGG!!!

-CLASH!!!

-BOOM!!!

Clash after clash.

Strike after strike.

And spell after spell.

It hasn’t been long, just a minute or two, but in this short period we exchanged hundreds of blows, and as expected, I was the one getting pushed back.

Our Magical might was almost the same, but even after boosting my body, I was physically inferior.

And considering that I literally had no constrains on my physical growth, I felt annoyed.

It was like someone saying, that I was suffering because I didn’t work hard enough.

-Swoosh

I tilted my body to the side, avoiding the claw that was aimed to grab me, but the grab swiftly changed into a backhanding motion as soon as I passed it.

I avoided that too, casting a wind elemental spell to jump above the backhand like a hurdle, and continued that movement by going low, slashing my sword that was tilted at an angle to deflect the sneaky tail coming at me, before propelling myself to get even closer to him.

But unfortunately, he wasn’t an immobile fortress that I could reach after avoiding some attacks, rather the bastard was too agile for his size, but at least I could match him there, or else…

I didn’t think farther than that, as my foe took a step back while pivoting himself.

But I wasn’t outdone, I quickly casted an water elemental spell to create a thin sheet of ice above the ground, that, along with my Armor’s enchantments helped me change my direction without losing any momentum, which I followed by an Acceleration spell that gave me another burst of explosive speed, together with my active wind elemental one.

With that burst of speed, I reached the demon’s left, and slashed with my burning white-hot sword.

-Sizzzllleee

The sword dug into his skin, sizzling his flesh as I made the slash curve upwards, targeting his ribs and chest.

Or I planned to do so.

Before I could actually dig deeper I had to curve my sword upwards, as I sensed a huge mana fluctuation from above…

‘As expected!’

I thought as I saw the demon charging up his signature ball of demonic Mana.

And I just had the thing to deal with this…

‘Not yet.’

But I decided to wait, and just pumped more power on my swing, making the blade glow brighter, while I imbued some additional spells on it.

–BOOM!!

Another explosion ensued right on the demon’s face, as I got the hell out of there with another Acceleration, but just the initial force of explosion, cracked my bones and shook my organs.

Even then I rejoiced as I got away, for the demon definitely had it worse.

With a marginally better mood, I took the chance to shotgun another Mana and Health potion.

This fight was short, but extremely fast paced, there wasn’t a moment where I could relax or deactivate my skills.

And keeping them activated took Mana, a lot of it, and that was natural considering the rank of my skills.

With difficulty, I drank the potions, as I felt myself approaching the limit.

After all, it wasn’t like I could drink potions indefinitely.

There was a limit to this too, a limit that had been reduced to its lowest, due to them being highest grade potions.

But then, how many potions had I drank in this short 4~5 minutes duration?

Six of them.

(A/N: Just assume he drank 3 in between.)

More than a potion per minute…

Obviously, I hit the limit.

Actually, I wasn’t actually spending so much Mana, rather, there were times when I drank the potion at 80% of my reserves just cause I had the chance to, pumping all the overflowing Mana in my Armor.

But now, I don’t think I could do even that, my Spirit body will probably be damaged if I try to.

So, it was… ‘Time for the finale…’.

I thought, as I jumped back, avoiding the demon that stomped on my previous location.

And countered by throwing some spells his way, despite him using those strange green eyes of his.

Yes, those green eyes didn’t make things harder for me now, not after I grasped their trick.

The trick was simple, he disrupts your thought process, so just make sure the thought process disrupted isn’t the one that is processing magic.

So, in my mind, I just created some ‘dummy’ non-magic related thought processes, and made them the circle around the magical ones, protecting my inner thoughts.

As much as this sounds like nonsense, this was the only way to control or adjust skills.

And on the innermost part of these thought processes, stayed a single process, that had been going on for a lot longer.

Even longer than the fight, in fact as soon as I was told to fight, told to ‘clean up my mess’, I started forming this spell.

What was this?

My finale.

But for it work, I needed a solid hit, I needed to force him to use more of his power, I needed him exhausted, even if it was just for a moment.

‘But this bastard…’

He was smart.

Even with a half-blown face, that had its muscles twitching as it regenerated, this bastard was calm.

So calm, so composed, that unless I throw something that could truly be fatal for him, he won’t exert himself more than necessary.

I could do that, I had something in my arsenal that could do that.

But if I really tried that, then it would truly be a one-shot thing, I would really be down for the go, regardless of my success.

‘So, should I risk this?’

I thought, as I jumped back again to get away from another Mana blast coming my way.

I didn’t think for long, though.

For my answer was already fixed…

‘I’m gonna kill this bastard!!’

I decided, as I lowered my posture, and started my first step.

Completely disregarding my condition, I stacked 8 Acceleration magic circles, as I launched myself through them.

Moving so fast that a massive shockwave, that even shattered the debris around me, was generated.

Of course, I was too focused to notice that.

Channeling, an amount of Mana so phenomenal that even the air around me cracked, I moved.

Getting closer to the vessel, who had yet to register me even moving, and sent him flying upwards by delivering a heavy punch filled with lightning elements straight in his guts.

At this moment, I wanted to cry-out, ‘PAYBACK!!’.

But with the number of broken bones, I had right now, I just couldn’t, it hurt so much that I couldn’t speak, much less shout.

Despite the pain though, I did one thing, one thing that I absolutely couldn’t not do, I dug my sword in the ground and invoked my magic.

Thankfully, the lightning coursing through his body gave me the time to do so.

Like a surging tide my Mana filled the air, rushing towards the electrified demon, that just registered himself being hit, and surrounded him.

Forming an humongous amount of runes that veritably caged him, blocking him from all sides.

But this was just the start.

The runes hummed, glowed, and moved.

Blooming with power, as they synchronized with each other and activated, forming my spell.

Following their example, my sword that I dug in the ground, lit up, and similarly got covered in multicolored runes, before it started crackling crazily with Mana.

Mana so powerful that, even its physical body that hadn’t been damaged no matter what happened, started deforming….

A necessary sacrifice, when you think about it…

Actually, there weren’t many ways to destroy a vessel.

Just two of them.

First, cut off the magical connection between the vessel and the original Demon that possessed him, and then exhaust the limited Magical Power the vessel has, due the loss of connection, when there is no Magical Power left the vessel dies automatically…

And my spell did just that.

A multi-elemental array that continuously attacked him with a shower of destructive elements that were enhanced by each other.

Freezing, electrifying, burning, cutting, pressurizing,…etc., etc.

It had all sorts of effects.

And right now, it was using all of them, as multicolored rings made up of different runes continuously spun, pouring out elemental energies on a smaller sphere of light, that completely covered the whole demon, trapping him in place.

Attacking him using different lethal elemental combinations, each attack having the same power as the spell I used on my sword.

Approaching the roof of D+ rank with each attack.

But that wasn’t the most important thing, rather the fact that it blocked the magical connection between the original demon and the vessel, was more noteworthy.

This meant that as long as the vessel spent enough time in the sphere of light, he would die.

-thump

I flopped down on the ground with my hands holding on my sword that was still crackling with Mana, as I took another set of potions, healing myself and recovering my Mental Power and Mana.

‘Last potions of the day’, I thought as I concentrated on the innermost thought process, that was still going on my mind.

And smiled a bit, as I felt it finally completing.

Finally, my finale was ready…

As soon as I thought that, my mind inwardly relaxed, as my body shivered with anticipation.

But then, I had to be calm, I had to stay cool. So, I decided to do something productive, I observed the array I constructed.

This array I constructed, wasn’t actually powered by me.

Yes, I used my Mana to construct it, but powering it?

Powering something that could throw D+ rank spells ten times a second?

Nope, I couldn’t do that, not just me even a C ranker couldn’t do that, at least not for long.

But this array was doing exactly that.

How?

Because just like an electrical appliance, it was powered by not me but the whole Ellsworth Estate.

Yes, the whole Ellsworth Estate.

I directly connected the array I made, to the Estate’s Mana supply. Using my sword as a medium, I hacked into, no more like, I opened an already present backdoor, in the whole Mana supply system of the estate with my already registered high priority Mana signature, and added a temporary magical method that I constructed during the battle to it, making it power my array.

And yes, for me to do all that, I had to take the permission of the so-called Master of the system.

The Master being none other than the all-knowing God of the Estate, my high and mighty Father, the Magus Reynold Von Ellsworth.

-Haaaahhh

Taking in a deep breath, stood up again.

-Arghhh

And groaned the next moment.

Though the healing potion worked, my body’s condition was still bad.

This wasn’t a game after all.

My body needed time to recover, time that I didn’t have.

Thinking of time…

‘It should be about time.’

Proving my thoughts, the entertaining show of the demon incarnate getting beat up while being trapped in a sphere of light ended, as the demon suddenly burst out in an overwhelming surge of demonic Mana that engulfed the whole sphere.

Like a wildfire, the black flames painted the whole area black. Burning the array, I painfully constructed, while granting the demon freedom.

Seeing the scene, I laughed a little…

‘Ahh, these bastards are really like cockroaches…’

But even then he had no chance to win.

As soon as my spell was completed, this fight was over.

The dark tide parted, and the black flames subsided, revealing my opponent.

With the array burned, the vessel’s connection with his original body had been restored.

Providing the demon incarnate with a tremendous amount of demonic Mana, resulting in his current form.

Unlike the previous bareback form that was buck naked, now he had equipment.

Equipped from the head to toe he was covered in a demonic spiky armor, made up of pure energy.

That, along with the menacing looking greatsword in his hand, and the overwhelmingly demonic presence that ranked to the C+ grade…

‘He got quite an power-up~’

I thought with a faint smile.

Unfortunately for him, that didn’t change anything.

Noticing my attitude, the demon spoke.

“aRE YOU GIvIng Up KiD, fINALLy sCAreD, eh?”

“At LeASt You aren’T-”

Is it really necessary to chat after a villain gets an power-up?

“Shut up!”

I don’t think so.

So, I cut him off, and just provoked him.

“And just come at me.”

As I made a come here gesture.

“As i EXPeCTed, You Are A MaD DoG AfTer aLl…”

“lEt’S SEE WhO REaChES yoU FirSt, thOSE ARChMAgeS or my AtTacK!!”

Really, I just don’t get it.

Why do they have to talk this much!?

Are demons lonely?

I almost laughed at that thought, as I eyed the ball of blackish Mana, that the vessel made in front of him…

From a small sized ball to an humongous sphere, it just a few moments.

‘He pumped quite a bit of Mana there. Hmm, this much should be enough.’

I thought as I watched the demon, who was about to launch this ball at me.

Taking out, an talisman written with golden ink, I threw it at the ball of Mana swirling in front of him.

A talisman made by a Magus, my final piece before my move.

It’s target, the demonic energy.

Made such that, it will cancel any and all techniques using demonic Mana, by simply making the Demonic energy implode on itself.

And that meant-

-BOOOMMMM!!!!!!

The demon’s demise.

The ball of Mana exploded right in front of the demon, creating an explosion so powerful that I had crouch down to just not topple.

The shockwaves, the heat, the power, all of them were so strong, that a normal person in my place would have long been dead.

As for the demon’s condition, I didn’t even need to check to say.

He will be fine.

He will be alive.

And to change that…

“Initiate…”

I said slowly, as I finally started my finale, my final magic for today.