Chapter 11: The Rabbit Knight (1)
Facing the rabbit knight, I can't help but tremble against the creature. Not out of fear but out of excitement, not just because of the temptation of a demonic core but because of something else.
Rango, Crimson, and Blood Cranes—they certainly are threatening to Beelzebub, but he only considers them to be testing dummies for his current strength and mind.
After absorbing the curse of his family, he received an empowerment in both strength and mana capacity, and now, with his vessel stabilized a little, he could unleash even more dark spells and mana techniques than before and the duration of his using Imaginary Art is extended to two minutes!
Through those few tests, he has a hold of where his strength is. While it isn't anything impressive, he believed that it was enough to slaughter this demonic creature right in front of him.
He then poured all of his demonic killing intent right at the rabbit, triggering it to turn all of its attention on Beelzebub.
"Kehkehkeh. Let us—"
BANG
Seemingly accepting his challenge, the rabbit stomped at me with full force, only to be deflected and turned upside down by the mana dome that I set up. By creating a sign with my hands, I created a mana dome. But by controlling that dome and causing it to spin so that it could effectively block the attack.
As the barrier broke down from the impact, I undid my sign and punched straight to its abdomen. Even though this looks like old armor, the durability is far higher than Gollum's. But the punch is strong enough to send the rabbit a few steps away.
Landing on its feet, the rabbit stands up and looks at me, though I couldn't know what face it is making due to the helm.
Maybe its expression is out of surprise, or maybe out of fury, or maybe it doesn't feel anything at all, like a hunter who is hunting down his prey.
"Kehkeh, you look more like a knight than a—"
DIG
"What?"
It blended into the ground and dug out right in front of me, unleashing a barrage of blows. I can't dodge all of it, but I can divert it. I raised my hand, opened up my palm, spread my leg, and went into a stance. With each of its strikes, I will swat it to the side with little force, deflecting its strike.
But the difference in strength was simply too big; some of the hits managed to land on me, dealing quite a bit of damage to my fragile body, but I'm still preserved. If my bones were to break, then I would just need to use mana heal to continue fighting. I just need to stall out for a few moments to grasp this thing's weakness!
I am their creator after all, so I know about their behavior and their weakness. In the case of this rabbit in front of me, it is curiosity. They possess the curiosity to study and improve themselves.
By showing some tricks and being amazed, it will try to study Beelzebub rather than killing him, so it won't use any powerful attack for now.
This keeps going on for a while. Even when the sweat covered my eyes, I still stared intensely at the rabbit, unbothered by the accumulated injuries on my body or the increase in intensity of the attack.
Under the helm, I can see two glowing red eyes that keep looking at me, studying me. The rabbit is another experiment of mine between Y-to's Ironclad and Xiran's Beast Men. But this one is an oddball.
"Exterminate. For the God of Invention."
"….."
It shouldn't be able to speak; is it because of the spear behind its back? Either way, I must wait for my moment. This bastard must have deemed me weak but extremely skilled, so he is studying my movement and finding solutions for later use, or maybe right now.
Before I could deflect the move, the fist suddenly stopped for a moment, catching me off guard as I swung my palm into nothing.
Only then did the fist resume moving as it crashed down right at my face, knocking me unconscious. But just before my mind faded away, I smirked as the opportunity had come.
Seeing the prey had been subdued, it finally lowered its guard and began to deal the finishing blow, but just when it was about to strike down, the amulet inside Beelzebub's pocket shone and shared my current state of mind with it for a moment, making it sleepy.
Before it has time to pull its arm out, I wake up and grab its wrist with both of my arms, squeeze its arm with my legs, and immediately turn my body around, placing my leg, which has become that of a grasshopper, right above its elbow.
Then, with all my strength, I applied force to its elbow and then pulled its arm to me.
SNAPPED
A snapping sound rang out the instant I broke the rabbit's right arm and jumped away with full force, using its helmet as a foothold with both of my legs and in the process leaving a huge dent in the helmet, pushing it away.
"KRKRKRRKKR"
It seems to be in pain; I can't tell, but one thing is for sure: my plan works. By casting dizziness, I faked myself getting unconscious, and even when unconscious, I was still able to at least transfer my dizziness to it.
"Ah, my mind is still as tricky as ever."
"Don't you think so, rabbit? Knight? Ironclad? Whatever you are—"
The rabbit, enraged, pulled its spear out, and a wave of demonic energy spread to the surrounding area.
The spear has been bothering me; it reeks of holy energy, but at the same time, it leaks out demonic energy. But none of it is my concern.
Seeing the surge of demonic energy, I licked my lip.
"Yes, that will be sufficient."
The battered mechanical beast looked at Beelzebub for a while, then, with its left arm holding the spear, hellfire engulfed the tip of the spear. The rabbit took a stance, then stabbed. From the spear, a scarlet flame flew toward me.
I ducked down.
BOOM
The fire blast glided above me, hitting and burning the trees from behind. Not stopping, I jumped up.
From the earth, a fiery spear spurted out, stabbing where my heart was. The rabbit looks around confused, then looks into the sky only to be stomped in the face. Its head was knocked down to the ground.
While falling down, I folded both of my knees to strike my face. But the knees crashed to the earth instead. I stand back up and dash away. From my spot, the soil heated up before a fire pillar erupted, revealing the rabbit.
Without wasting time, it pointed the spear at me, and then the hellfire on the spear began to grow much stronger, strong enough to melt a boulder.
FWOOSH
Fire spewed out, burning everything in sight. Beelzebub, looking amused, charged directly at the fire.
"?"
Gollum, who had just woken up and hid behind a tree, was surprised by such action.
"?"
Even the rabbit's anger was replaced with surprise.
Emerged from the flame, a heated steel humanoid with demon wings on his right hand dealt a haymaker at the already deformed helm. Causing it to crack, revealing part of the rabbit's face
It's just a normal rabbit face, except for the glowing red eye. Its face distorted in anger.
"KRKRKRKRKRK"
It hides in the ground again, but this time, I will make sure it regrets it.
The torture spell is not really complex. By placing your mana on the opponent for 3 seconds. I can add "pain" to all of its nerves, making a good torture move. Here is the thing: I can do it as long as I touch the opponent with anything, like the ground. Sure. It won't work even if you lie on the ground because of the distance, but burying yourself with it is a different matter. Mana travels much more effectively on solid matter after all.
Taking my shoe off, I emit a large amount of mana while going into a stance.
This fools the rabbit completely; it's still hiding. Doesn't try to make a move. I channeled my mana to my feet, spread mana across the earth, and activated torture.
BOOM
A small quake can be heard beneath the ground. A few more seconds passed, and the rabbit finally came out with its eyes bulging and flopped around like it was having a seizure.
Seizing this moment of weakness, I approach it with eagerness, only for it to jump up high in the sky. Up in the sky, it stayed up there, showing animosity, and pierced itself with the spear.
The golden spear color begins to turn crimson and begins to crack, revealing flesh. And eye? What's more, instead of blood spurting out, the spear is replacing the missing flesh and fusing with the rabbit, forming a black sphere station in the sky.
Realize what is happening, I shouted at Gollum.
"FIRE NOW GOLLUM"
Gollum was startled for this is the first time he saw Beelzebub this worried, but he still followed the command and aimed at the rabbit before shouted.
"FIRE"
BOOM
The red energy travels to the black sphere, but the black sphere explodes, revealing a dark crimson figurine. The figure looked at the red energy and just casually slapped it away to the ground.
The figure tracks the energy, then turns to me, showing the desire to torture me to death.
The moment it descends, I can take a proper look at it. From the dust, a slender and incredibly tall, dark crimson knight in full armor with spikes poking out from the shoulders walks out. Now, no one could see this thing as a rabbit anymore. Its ear has become that of a demon's horn. Not only did it make a full recovery, but its helmet also changed.
The helm gap is currently spewing a dark red blaze, and at the forehead are three mechanical eyes looking at random spots before all looking at me.
"Ah, fuck."
This is too much. All of my senses are telling me to run away or just accept death. It became even more suffocating to breathe, and sweat trickled down Beelzebub like a stream just from the heat that creature was emitting.
But even under this situation, Beelzebub still forced out a smile as his eyes locked on the dense demonic energy coming out of the rabbit knight like a dark pillar. Devouring it would mean completely curing these cursed eyes and even elevating his strength to the next rank.
"It—it is truly enticing."
Then the world turned dark.