"Woosh!"
"Shingggg!"
Kaelgor brought up his blade, now curled and chipped on some edges, to deflect the surprise attack!
The motion was fluid and instinctive; a response honed by years of survival and combat.
A devil had sprung up a mere second or two after he had killed Malgrim, seizing the moment of his victory.
It was an instantaneous reaction, a calculated strike to take advantage of the fleeting vulnerability that followed a hunter getting their kill.
In that very instant, after someone has defeated or slain a foe, their guard is lowered to the maximum. Their focus scattered, their attention divided between the satisfaction of victory, the exhaustion of battle, and the desire to rest after the threat is gone.
The devil had tried to use this instant to fell Kaelgor.
Unfortunately for him, Kaelgor was not like most devils. Or more like, devils weren't like most creatures.
Lowering your guard, even after winning a fight, was something only the foolish would do.
With a devil's natural instincts, catching them off guard was a difficult thing to do, but not impossible…
Kaelgor, being surrounded, never thought of lowering his guard.
Even in the aftermath of Malgrim's death, his senses remained sharp, his body tense, his mind alert.
The devil jumped back from his failed attempt, his eyes widening with a mixture of surprise and grudging respect.
It was one thing to be ready, but to perfectly intercept his sudden and swift attack was something different altogether.
His gaze narrowed in excitement.
It was an excitement born of finding worthy prey, of finding a strong foe.
Kaelgor looked at him, his red eyes burning with fury.
But even as he focused on the devil before him, his body shifted slightly to the left, a subtle, almost imperceptible adjustment of his body that betrayed his focus onto the devil before him.
Instead of focusing completely on the devil who had struck, his focus was seemingly divided, his attention split between the visible opponent and the hidden danger that lurked in the shadows.
'Another?'
The devil before him squinted his eyes, his playful gaze gone as he finally noticed that there had been another devil, a third, who had also been sneaking up on Kaelgor.
"Tsk!"
A sharp, annoyed 'tsk' escaped from the shadows as a feminine devil with fin-like appendages on her cheeks revealed herself from within the still-turbulent dust and ash.
Her skin was a shimmering blue, like the surface of a deep, placid ocean, and her features were beautiful, almost ethereal in their perfection.
She had been trying to approach unseen, to add her own attack to the chaos, but Kaelgor's sharp senses, and her lack of an affinity that helped with stealth, had revealed her before she had desired.
But only to the more experienced Kaelgor, not the other devil!
But it wasn't just those two, as several other devils had moved closer, their forms barely visible through the settling dust and the swirling miasma. They had surrounded the collapsed ground where the three devils stood, their auras an ever-present, silent, menacing pressure; their intentions clear.
They were vultures, circling a wounded beast, waiting for the best moment to strike.
For a couple of seconds, tense silence filled the air.
The only sounds were the distant echoes of battle, the crackle of infernal flames, and the labored breathing of the combatants.
The devils watched each other, their eyes gleaming with greed and suspicion, each waiting for the others to make the first move.
"Raghhh!"
Surprisingly, what broke the silence was not a devil, but one of Kaelgor's berserker demons!
The massive warrior shot out of the dust like a black panther, his blade slashing towards the female devil with a ferocity that was almost, no, was suicidal!
Kaelgor's demons were loyal and unafraid, with their battle experience and instincts masterful.
They sought only to cut down their lord's foes, to buy him time, to serve him even at the cost of their own lives.
She snorted coldly in utter contempt, and waved her arm toward the demon.
Her motion was casual and light, but it carried the weight of a peak-tier lesser devil's power.
The demon's attack was deflected with ease, his blade skittering off a shimmering field of energy.
Then, with a capturing motion of her hand, she drew the demon's blood from its body, the dark crimson liquid flowing through the air like a ribbon of silk.
The demon gurgled in pain as it knelt down, its body rapidly desiccating, reduced to a husk trapped within its abyssal steel armor.
The falling halberd, having lost its momentum and weight, was slapped aside with a casual flick of her wrist.
The soul of the demon left the body with a howl.
It had taken her a single instant to kill the demon who had tried to attack her.
But before she could grab the demon's soul, Kaelgor was already before her.
His halberd descended like a black comet falling from the heavens, a blow of such immense force that the air itself seemed to scream, screech in protest!
The devil's eyes widened, and she brought up a small black shield-like object that radiated a shimmering mana shield before her.
"Boom!"
The impact was cataclysmic, a shockwave that sent ripples through the ground and sent her flying backward.
Even past the shield, the force of the blow shook her to her core, her body tumbling through the air before she regained her balance, landing in a crouch; scoring a deep and long scar on the ground as she slid back.
Her hands trembled from the impact, but her gaze remained steadily onto Kaelgor; ready for an onslaught should it come.
Kaelgor was quick to attack once he saw an opportunity, but unless he activated all of his abilities at once, it would be hard to instantly kill another peak-tier devil like the female before him.
Her small shield was an artifact plundered from another realm, a treasure that had saved her life.
All devils, with enough age and experience, were bound to get treasures, artifacts, or even techniques that improved their strength from mortal realms.
It was also unfortunate that the second she used his attack to launch herself backwards, the other devil had tried to attack him too.
Kaelgor was forced to defend, his halberd sweeping up to deflect a rain of blades that had materialized from the swirling dust and miasma.
He stared at the devil who was completely wrapped in leather strips, only his golden ram-like horns and his piercing blue eyes were revealed past the wraps.
His eyes were clear and sky blue, but there held a darkness to them that could make one's heart clench in fear.
This wrapped devil only seemed to attack when he had an opening, striking from the shadows with a speed and precision that was almost impossible to predict.
If it weren't for Kaelgor's insane battle instincts, one of those attacks would have already landed.
Leaving his back to this one seemed more dangerous than the female.
'Then switch up the approach!'
Kaelgor roared as he moved; his body appearing like a steel tank.
He decided to ignore the female devil, to focus his attention on the wrapped devil.
With a thunderous roar, he charged towards his new target, his halberd swinging in a wide, all encompassing arc.
The wrapped devil was forced to retreat, his blades deflecting off Kaelgor's weapon in a shower of sparks. His muscles strained and his demonic mana flustered.
Even in his rage, Kaelgor could still faintly sense the various other devils inching closer, their auras a constant, pressing weight on his consciousness.
In all of his years of battle, this was the most cornered, the most perilous situation he had found himself in.
He was surrounded, outnumbered, and his escape route blocked.