After the roof of the house was destroyed, Ryan and the mage stepped out and saw a massive demon in front of them. It was fighting a girl dressed in black, with a hood covering her head, hiding her hair and part of her face.
"If they're fighting, she must be human, right?" the blue-haired young mage asked.
The demon swung its massive weapon to attack her.
The girl seemed to defend herself well, managing to dodge the demon's attacks, but her injuries caused her to lose her balance. She was exhausted; it was only a matter of time before she lost that fight.
"That thing... a boomerang? It's huge!" Ryan commented.
"Hey! Don't just stand there, save her!" the young mage exclaimed.
When Ryan turned his gaze toward the mage girl to remind her that she could fight too, she had already reverted to her child form.
"You were normal a moment ago, how did you run out of mana?!" he scolded, but without wasting any more time, Ryan ran toward the demon. He leaped into the air and activated his skill mid-flight.
"Fire Aura!"
His gauntlets burst into flames. When the demon noticed his presence, it turned its gaze toward Ryan. But he was already so close to its massive face that it simply couldn't react in time and took the full impact, the blow knocking it to the ground.
The injured girl leaned against the wall of one of the destroyed houses. She fixed her eyes on Ryan, her gaze weak and confused.
"Who are you..." was the last thing she said before losing consciousness.
The air whipped with a sharp whistle.
Ryan turned toward the demon he had struck; it was already back on its feet, directing its powerful boomerang attack straight at Ryan's face.
'It's so slow. I don't need to use Inspect to know it's a Principality; the intensity of its aura is quite clear, but...'
When the boomerang was centimeters away, Ryan stopped it with both hands.
"What the fuck?!" the demon blurted out in surprise. It tried to pull the weapon back, but Ryan gripped it even tighter.
"After watching you fight... it was clear to me you were strong, but this is absurd for a priest..." the mage commented.
Ryan smiled and looked straight at the demon. "You're hideous."
"You bastard!"
Before the demon could say anything else, Ryan redirected the boomerang toward the ground.
He took two steps onto the boomerang and launched himself forward.
Bang!
A heavy strike to the demon's neck ended its life; the intense fire from his gauntlets scorched the demon's neck and face as it fell to the ground.
[Bonus acquired: +62,000 EXP]
The mage approached him, keeping her distance.
Ryan ducked down and picked up the boomerang.
'This thing... I'm smaller than this boomerang,' he thought to himself with a smile.
"I'll keep it," he stated.
"I don't understand why demons from Demon King Rigal's faction are here..." the blue-haired young mage said.
"Rigal?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah... He's the demon king of the beast race," the girl explained.
"Is that why they're so big...?" Ryan muttered to himself. But then he turned toward the injured woman.
"Well, now I'm going to heal that girl."
Ryan began walking, but out of nowhere, a fire attack erupted.
Ryan grabbed the blue-haired girl by the waist and leaped to dodge the attack.
"Ah! Be careful!" the blue-haired girl yelled, feeling like mere luggage.
"Don't complain, I just saved you!" Ryan turned his gaze toward the direction of the attack. There were two demons.
Giants as well.
"Damn you! How dare you kill my brother!" one of them shouted.
Finishing its words, it charged at Ryan. The sound of its footsteps was heavy. Ryan raised the boomerang as if it were a giant baseball bat.
With his back foot, he pushed off and faced the approaching demon.
He swung the boomerang with great force as if batting.
He sliced the demon in half.
[Bonus acquired: +62,000 EXP]
The other demon remained motionless, mouth agape, but suddenly its expression shifted, becoming serious.
Ryan threw the boomerang with immense force, spinning at top speed until it reached the demon.
Bang!
A loud crash echoed. The demon stopped the boomerang with its hands.
"I expected that!" Ryan shouted.
"You bastard!" The demon dropped the boomerang, and before it hit the ground, Ryan activated his other skill.
"Wall of Fire." He activated it behind the demon.
The demon turned its face briefly to see that intense fire behind it, and when it looked back forward, Ryan's flaming fist was already planted in its face.
The heavy impact slammed the demon's face into the wall of fire. And with Ryan's fist pressed against its face, it began to burn.
Ryan kept pushing until the demon died.
[Bonus acquired: +62,000 EXP]
[Luck bonus: +62,000 EXP]
Level: 71 → 72
[Level bonus: +20 points]
[Attributes increased: +10 to all stats]
Ryan returned to where the young mage was standing.
"I think we're done."
"Hey, you never cease to amaze me," she exclaimed, looking at Ryan with admiration.
"It's no big deal. We fought Principalities before... These ones were bigger, but also more careless."
"Yeah, beast giants aren't very sharp, but don't let your guard down because of that, you know?"
"I get it, but now let's go heal that girl before she dies," Ryan said.
Ryan and she walked together, but the dragging sound on the ground distracted the young mage for a moment.
"Hey, I know that weapon is strong, but are you planning on dragging that thing around the entire time?" she asked with a frown.
"You're right, but I have a place to store it," Ryan said, pulling out the item given to him by the elves from his pocket.
'This will be the first time I use this thing, ah... I wonder how those elves are doing.'
Ryan opened the magical inventory.
When he activated it, it easily stored the massive boomerang.
"See? It's better this way," he said with a faint smile.
"That inventory is very rare, and quality ones like that are hard to come by. How do you have it?" the young girl asked.
Ryan commented as he walked forward:
"Well, I was given it for completing a quest recently."
The young girl observed him with curiosity as Ryan put the box away again.
"I have a magical inventory too, but a lower-level one. I keep my magic staff in there; without it, I'm very weak. If I hadn't brought my Twin Fire earlier, we would have had a hard time..." She paused briefly.
"Though I doubt it; after all, you're pretty strong," she corrected herself, looking at Ryan with a smile.
Ryan looked at her in disbelief.
'She's not weak at all.'
When Ryan finally approached the unconscious woman to heal her, he pulled back her hood.
He stopped.
"She's a demon too, you must kill her," the mage exclaimed.
Two horns protruded from her forehead.
But Ryan hesitated for a moment. The girl, despite being a demon, was very pretty; but it wasn't just that—killing someone while they were unconscious was something he didn't want to do.
Inspection revealed that she was a Principality. And based on her stats, he deduced she was an assassin.
Ryan refused to kill her, even though the mage insisted.
He told her that if they wanted to get out of that place quickly, the best thing would be to interrogate her, because if she was being chased by demons, then something must be happening and she would likely help them out of gratitude.
"I won't be responsible for what might happen if you heal her," the young mage complained.
"Don't worry, you already know I'm very strong, right?"
She nodded.
'Besides, this time I'll use the debt skill to prevent her from attacking us, and I'll make her believe I can use it whenever I want...'
Ryan sighed in front of the demon girl.
"Recovery."