In the planet of Mystiflor, there exist many races: humans, dragons, phoenixes, vampires, dwarves, demons, and others.
Demons, in particular, were a special kind of race.
That is because there are four types of demons.
There are the incubi and succubi who are masters in charm and mind laws, the shadow demons who are unmatched in shadow laws, the curse demons who specialize in curse laws, and the Vorgrath, otherwise known for their unparalleled talent in devouring laws.
What makes demons stand out from the rest is that every demon is capable of using any of those five laws.
That means if they so wanted, they could learn charm, mind, shadow, devouring, and curse laws.
That's why even though Freya was a succubus, she could still use curse laws, and Velrith, despite being a shadow demon, can use devouring laws.
This is why demons are the most troublesome to deal with at the mortal phase of cultivation.
They are too versatile for their own good.
Unfortunately, Velkrith isn't as skilled in devouring laws as the Velkrith, and his progress with it was still lagging behind his other laws; otherwise, how could Jarek's lightning have overpowered his devouring laws?
Jarek might have praised him for his close combat skills, but when it came to long-range attacks, Velkrith would be rendered helpless.
Jarek fired more lightning bolts towards Velkrith, who was forced to endure with devouring laws.
Jarek then closed the distance between them only for Velkrith to quickly recover and dodge his attack at the last second and counterattack.
'That physique...' His eyes narrowed as he thought about how ridiculous Velkrith's physique was. 'It is accelerating the speed at which his body recovers.'
But he didn't stop employing the same tactic. 'Let's see how long you last.'
Velkrith, who was on the receiving end, began to panic inwardly.
'At this rate, I'm going to lose.'
He could see what Jarek was trying to do.
He wasn't trying to end the battle decisively, but wanted to wear him down slowly.
Velkrith was accumulating more damage the more the battle continued, with his lack of defenses.
'I can't let this go on.' He was now thinking of a way to turn the situation around.
Now that Jarek had adopted a long-range attacking tactic, his superior close combat methods advantage has been completely negated.
Unexpectedly, Velkrith straightforwardly charged at Jarek. 'Let's take a gamble.'
Jarek, figuring out his intentions, retreated as he fired lightning at the approaching shadow demon.
Shockingly, instead of summoning the eerie large mouth to defend, he took the attack head-on, with his body.
He had reinforced his body with unattributed qi, knowing that he would be able to endure.
But despite his best efforts designed to mitigate the damage, he still received significant injuries.
He suffered significant internal injuries, almost spitting blood.
Enduring the pain, he channeled energy from the depths of his core, and a familiar energy manifested.
|Malevolent Hand|
A hand composed of curse energy manifested and moved towards Jarek.
Faced with the incoming giant hand, Jarek responded with a new move.
|Lightning Art: Lightning Ward|
A wall of lightning formed in front of him, which the cursed hand collided with.
By the time the lightning was destroyed, he had already moved to dodge the hand as he watched it pass by his original position.
It was then that Velkrith appeared now within arms' reach, having predicted Jarek's response and moving to where he would dodge.
He gripped his dagger, ready to slash at Jarek, who couldn't react in time.
'Sigh, it seems I have to reveal a hidden card.'
In the middle of his slashing motion, Velkrith, all of a sudden, found that he couldn't move his body.
'What in the...'
His mind couldn't instantly process what had just happened.
This feeling only lasted for a moment, and he felt he could move his body again.
But that was not the only thing he could feel.
He could also feel Jarek's cold blade softly resting on his neck.
'I have lost.'
"Winner, Jarek Jensson!"
Velkrith stood on the arena, staring blankly for a moment, before moving to the exit with a dejected look. 'I can't believe I lost to an attack from the law I specialize in.'
As a shadow demon, this loss brought him great shame.
But he could hardly be blamed for it.
Jarek always keeps his cards close to his chest.
And he had only uncovered one layer of his calculated concealment.
"It is just as I had thought. Defeating Jarek won't be easy." Brynhild muttered with a sigh, her suspicions proven right.
Jarek wasn't just concealing his strength, but also his abilities.
No one knows how much he is hiding.
In battles, information is almost always the key to victory.
With Jarek concealing his skills, it made the notion of defeating him sounded ridiculous.
Or at least that was what Brynhild thought.
'It's a good thing he doesn't reveal his abilities easily. Maybe I can use that to my advantage.' She knew that Jarek wouldn't reveal what he is capable of lightly.
If that were the case, then victory was still plausible.
"When did he learn shadow laws? I don't remember Jarek being a part of the shadow class." Astrid asked after a minute of contemplation.
She, of course, had done some investigation on Jarek, and she couldn't figure out how he learned shadow laws.
Brynhild closed her eyes, and after two minutes, she said, holding out two fingers for Astrid to see. "I have two possibilities in mind."
"The first one is that he might have gotten a law diagram from one of the students in the academy, one who attends a shadow class. This possibility is quite slim, as he risks his methods being known if the academy does its investigations by asking around.
The second possibility is that he might have gotten it from an independent cultivator outside the academy. Arvenca town has a diverse group of cultivators, from almost every race. He could have made a deal with a shadow cultivator."
As Astrid listened, she found herself gravitating towards the second possibility for some reason.
A reason Brynhild was about to point out.
"The latter is more likely to be true, considering how he always leaves the academy every day. Maybe he has connections outside the academy."
With insufficient information, this was indeed the most likely possibility.
Too bad her information is incomplete; otherwise, she would have ruled out both possibilities.
Brynhild's face turned serious, "If that is the case, we don't know how many cards he has up his sleeve. As far as we might know, this might just be one of them."
Astrid was about to say something when Brynhild spoke first, "Besides, we don't know the exact capabilities of a supreme-grade talent. If he is anything like the Supreme Dao Empress, then his destiny might even be greater than hers."
Astrid also adopted a thoughtful expression as she pondered Jarek's future and its potential impact on the world.
The world had already had enough of one Supreme Dao Empress. Adding another one was just adding even more chaos to the mix.
'If I play my cards right, I might just get a powerful ally.' Brynhild thought as she looked at Astrid.
Astrid, who was deep in thought, was unaware of the thoughts running through Brynhild's head.
She had already made plans for what she would do.