A Berserk demon.
Whenever a demon survived a near death situation 'against a human' specifically, it always went berserk.
However, this state wasn't born from the fear of death, but rather from the fear of almost dying in the hands of a mere human.
The berserk state often boosted a lot of things about them, from strength to speed, defense and a lot more, depending on the demon. And this took them way above their said rank.
As of now, the demon in front of Cedric, Rum, Kayra and Finn, was not a D-rank demon.
It was not a C either, since the power gap between D-ranks and C-ranks was vast. But it was nonetheless more terrifying than it should be, and that was real problem.
… …
Meanwhile...
Nolan stood at the center of twenty-one demon corpses, breathing heavily as the system screen flashed in front of him.
[Exp: 120/200]
He glared at the message and then looked up try to even his breath. "Why am I so tired already?"
He exhaled deeply and turned to leave the area. "I thought I heard someone shout for help. They must be helping whoever it is now."
After walking aimlessly for about two minutes and killing 14 low-grades along the way, Nolan finally heard a clanging sound from close by.
"Who's here?" he asked himself, walking closer to the source of the sound.
… …
SLASH!
Liana gritted her teeth as the D-rank demon dodged another one of her strikes.
It charged at her once she blocked its claws with her sword, placing her legs firmly on the ground as it pushed her back.
She knew she wasn't going to win in a battle of strength against it so she needed to do something quickly.
Spotting how free its torso was, Liana pushed its arms upward to get more space and she stomped its torso, pushing it back just slightly.
With that, she slashed its chest, then hands, legs—literally anywhere she could aim before it would recover.
She wasn't able to use all her strength in one strike, to kill it off because of her wrist.
Earlier when the demon vanished and appeared behind her, thanks to her flexibility, she managed a turn her body just by a fraction and moved her hand back, using her sword to parry the attack.
However, pushing that much weight on her hand at such an angle, affected her wrist. And she was right-handed, so she couldn't switch to left.
She continued to slash the demon randomly, not giving it any recovery space, but soon her wrist begged her to take a break and she spun around, giving it a powerful heel to the chest.
It fell back and in no time, it started to slowly get back up, ignoring the numerous cuts in its body because they were not that deep.
Liana raised her sword, waiting for it to come at her when—
"Take a break, would you?"
A certain someone landed on its shoulder, pinning its head with his legs and driving twin daggers into its eyes, repeatedly, until they both started to collapse, then he pushed off and landed gently.
"Nolan?" Liana dropped her sword, palming her face. "Where the hell did you come from?"
Nolan was oblivious to Liana's question as a satisfied smile played on his lips.
[+100 Exp Obtained!]
[You finally killed an actual threat.]
[Level Up!]
[Level: 3]
[Exp points: 90/400]
[+4 skill point rewarded!]
"No wonder you were giving me five for the low-grades. You didn't see them as threats. Stupid system," he mused.
[Awarded skill points will be withdrawn if you continue to insult the system. If you still persist, ability slots will be locked as well, one after the other.]
"Is that a threat?" he frowned.
[It is a warning. Good luck, Nolan]
Liana stared at him blankly. "Who's he talking to now with a smile? Or is he praising himself? He really is crazy. "
Nolan finally turned to Liana. "Oh, you said something?"
Liana shook her head. "Nevermind," she said, but then her eyes landed on his daggers. They were… made of ice? "How'd you get those?"
"Oh, these?" Nolan said, raising them up. "I uhhh, got them from Ace Cyndy," he lied.
Liana arched a brow. That didn't quite sit well with her, because she knew very well that Nolan and Cyndy didn't get along. "Hmm. You both don't even—"
A sharp, terrified voice interrupted Liana before she could question Nolan any further.
"Captain! Captain!"
Liana and Nolan turned to see Kayra running towards them.
"A D-rank demon… it's gone berserk," she said, breathing ragged.
Nolan and Liana exchanged a glance, though Nolan's expression was less concerned, compared to Liana's.
"Take us there," Liana commanded, her tone serious.
She and Nolan followed Kayra as they ran to the scene.
As they reached the scene, they saw Finn and Rum injured by the side, while Cedric still held his ground against the berserked D-rank.
Cedric had on a smile as he fought the demon. It was faster than earlier. If this were a week ago, he would have been injured badly, but Nolan's training helped him massively and now he was keeping up without losing too much energy.
Though it was starting to overpower him because its attacks came randomly without aim.
He managed to hit into a wall, catching his breath. The demon recovered quickly and lunged at him, but Liana quickly came in front of him and blocked the attack. "You okay, Cedric?" she asked.
"Never been better," he replied.
The two soon started fighting the demon together, now getting an upper hand.
Nolan went on to help Rum and Finn. Unlike Finn whose leg was scratched, Rum's arm was broken and his ankle was also hurt badly too, so he had to drink the potion instead.
Liana and Cedric soon managed to stab its chest and it fell to the ground.
Rum stood up to meet Liana and Cedric. "You guys were really good there."
"Thank you," said Liana.
Nolan looked from where he was rubbing the potion on Finn's leg. His eyes widened as he saw the demon's body. "It's not dead! If you don't decapitate a berserk demon, it'll get up again!" He yelled.
And as if on cue, it stood up again and drew its hand back. Liana was the closest to it.
She wanted to turn but a sharp pain hit her wrist, "Ack!" she gritted.
"LIANA!" Cedric yelled, trying to quickly take out his sword. Nolan picked Finn's sword and started running towards them.
But they both couldn't get there on time.
Liana started to hear her heart thumping wildly in her ears, when…
Suddenly, she felt herself get yanked forward.
Rum was now in front of Liana. Her eyes widened, "No! Don't—"
"It doesn't matter," Rum interrupted with a smile. "I'm tired of living anyway. I'm just a disappointment anywhere I go."
The last thing Liana heard was, "Just protect everyone here. They're all good people and… I enjoyed your speech."
Then—
Claws pierced through Rum's chest and he spat out blood.
Liana blinked, the world slowing to a crawl. The warmth of his blood on her skin making her feel numb. "No… D-don't…" she tried to scream, but the words were a strangled whisper in her throat.