The Heroes froze, staring at the purple figure with a mixture of hatred and pure disbelief. The Tiger grit his teeth so hard that blood flowed from his gums.
"So it's you... You are this Demon King?" he rasped, his voice trembling with accumulated rage.
Before she could answer, however, the sky above them flared with a blue glow. From above, with inhuman grace, another figure descended - the White Demon.
Lysandra landed soundlessly, and where her feet touched the ground, it was immediately covered in frost. The Lion, the Leopard, and the Bear brothers recoiled instinctively, feeling the chill radiating from her. They already knew who had treated them to an icy hell a few minutes earlier.
Lysandra straightened up and looked down at the cornered Heroes with superiority, then turned to Lilith with an entirely serious expression.
"You're getting better at these 'Demon King entrances,' but you still need to work on the script," she stated coldly.
Lilith flinched, her red eyes opening wide in surprise. "What?! What was wrong with it? I've been putting it together in my head for the last day! I thought it came out quite epic!"
Lysandra slowly shook her head, then turned back to the Heroes. Her voice became unnaturally low, saturated with dark power that made the air vibrate:
"Mortals, your blood shall become the foundation of a frozen eternity, and your names shall be blown away by the winds of oblivion. Welcome the end in the silence of ice."
She then looked at Lilith. "See? Something like that sounds more powerful and majestic."
Lilith gave a crooked smile, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Alright, maybe you're right, but..."
She wanted to add something when suddenly a furious roar tore through the air.
"ENOUGH OF THIS MOCKERY!"
The Tiger was not going to wait any longer. He lunged forward, and his massive axe, burning with a red aura, sliced the air in a murderous arc, aiming straight for Lilith's neck.
Lilith didn't even flinch. Instead of dodging, she simply raised her left forearm.
At the point of impact, smooth, marble-purple skin met the blade. From the wrist down, her fingers were covered in shimmering, amaranthine scales that ground against the metal.
Clang!
The axe stopped on her arm without leaving even a scratch. Lilith looked the Tiger straight in the eyes, her gaze icy.
"Didn't anyone teach you not to interrupt ladies while they're talking? It's extremely rude."
The Tiger's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. He didn't understand what this woman's body was made of. His strongest attack had been blocked with a bare hand.
Lilith, giving him no time to breathe, delivered a spinning back kick. The Tiger reacted instantly - raising his leg to block the strike - but the force of the momentum was so enormous that it threw him five paces back, gouging deep furrows in the mud.
Lilith raised her eyebrows slightly, surprised. "Ohhh... You're quite strong. Most in your place would have lost a leg."
The Tiger spat blood, his arrogance evaporated and replaced by icy professionalism. He looked at the Lion, the Leopard, and the Bears.
"We fight together!" he growled. "Forget honor. This Demon is stronger than we thought. We must finish it immediately!"
He wanted to rush to the aid of his men, who were still being massacred by the red silhouette of Kala, but he knew that if he turned away from Lilith for even a second, he would die. He only hoped that the remaining Level 1 Heroes could hold back that red fury long enough for them to deal with the Queen.
Lilith had no intention of waiting for the Heroes to form a line. She wanted to see how her new power tasted in the true heat of battle.
She vanished from sight, moving at a speed the human eye could not register.
The Hero of the Lion kin, a powerfully built man with a thick mane, raised his sword, trying to sense the direction of the attack. He was too slow. Before he could blink, Lilith materialized right behind his back.
Her whisper reached his ear like a sentence: "Too slow."
The amaranthine talons of Lilith's left hand sank into his back with terrifying ease, passing through the Lion's great muscles like a hot knife through butter. With a loud squelch, they pierced clean through his chest, tearing the warrior's heart.
The Lion arched and froze, thick blood flowing from his mouth.
The two Bear brothers, seeing their companion's death, roared in fury. They lunged at Lilith from behind, wanting to shatter her skull with their claws and hammer.
Lilith, still holding the Lion's hoisted body on her left arm, raised her right limb. This hand was different - from the elbow down, it was covered in thick, rough, matte-purple scales overlapping each other like the armored plating of a mythical dragon.
Clang!
The first bear's claws struck the scaled forearm, producing only a shower of sparks. The second bear didn't even manage to deliver a blow with his hammer - a massive ice wall shot out of the ground, separating him from Lilith with the crash of shattering glass.
The Tiger leader, seeing his commanders struggling, threw himself at Lysandra. His axe hissed through the air, but the ice succubus leaped away with inhuman grace, instantly creating a barrier that absorbed the momentum of the blow.
Dozens of spears shot out of the ice, aiming straight for his chest. The Tiger roared, cutting one in flight and blocking the other with the shaft of his axe.
"Behind you, kitty," he suddenly heard Lilith's sweet voice.
He instinctively spun in place, slashing his axe behind him, but there was only emptiness. Lilith was already on his right side, ready to slice his flesh with her talons, when suddenly a strange, thick green barrier grew before her hand.
Her eyes widened at this unexpected defensive skill. The Tiger used this second to launch a counterattack, but had to abort his swing because Lysandra's ice spear nearly pierced his throat.
Furious, he wanted to shout at the Bears to finally help him, but when he turned his head, his heart stopped.
Both powerful brothers lay dead, riddled with dozens of ice spikes that Lysandra had fired in the split second while the Tiger was busy with Lilith.
He didn't even have time to process the sight when he felt a massive shock. Lilith's elbow struck him right in the jaw. The Tiger spat blood and several teeth, feeling the world spin. Before he could regain his balance, another volley of ice spears flew toward him.
He made a desperate dodge, rolling through the mud, but Lilith was already waiting for him.
She delivered a powerful spinning kick. The Tiger desperately took the kick on his guard, shielding himself with his axe and forearms. The momentum of the strike was so immense that he was thrown ten paces away, carving deep ruts into the earth.
He struggled to his feet, leaning on his axe. He looked at these two demonic silhouettes - one purple, dripping with blood, and the second white, emanating a deadly chill.
"It's impossible..." he rasped, trembling with terror and exhaustion. "How can you be so strong? This isn't Level 2 strength... these are pure monsters!"
Lilith smiled crookedly, and the scales on her right hand glistened in the light of the fires.
"It's not that we are too strong," she stated, slowly moving toward him. "It's just that you overestimated your right to live in my forest."
The Tiger distorted his face into a macabre smile as he spat out another tooth while rising from the ground. He saw the smirk on Lilith's face, and it burned his hatred to a white heat.
Laugh, you monstrosity... he thought, tightening his hand on the axe shaft.
He knew that this ice demon had to be nearing exhaustion. That gigantic attack at the beginning, all those ice spears... no mana is infinite. Lilith was fighting physically, which showed she had no magic attacks left up her sleeve.
Lilith and Lysandra, seeing the Tiger rising, moved to attack in perfect synchronization.
Lysandra moved with the grace of an icy specter. She raised her hand, and dozens of razor-sharp ice shards materialized around her. She didn't aim for the Tiger's heart or throat; instead, she sent a series of projectiles in a wide arc, forcing a desperate reaction from him.
The Hero, wanting to avoid being shredded, had to violently twist his torso, which exposed his left flank for a fraction of a second.
In that same moment, almost as if she were reading the succubus's mind, Lilith lunged forward. The shadow of her draconic hand cut through the air faster than any projectile. Her talons, shimmering with an amaranthine glow, bit into the Tiger's side, tearing the skin and muscles over his ribs with a terrifying squelch.
The Tiger howled in pain and rage. He tried to swing back with his heavy axe, planning to split Lilith's skull in a suicidal counterattack, but Lysandra didn't give him the chance.
She struck the mud at her feet with an open palm, and a wave of frost shot across the ground like lightning. Before the axe blade could complete its swing, the ground beneath the hero's feet turned into smooth, treacherous glass.
His heavy leg slipped, and his powerful silhouette faltered, losing his balance completely.
Lilith didn't waste a millisecond of this chaos. She pushed off from one leg, driving her knee with the force of a battering ram straight into the Tiger's exposed solar plexus. The air left his lungs with a roar, and he bent double.
At that same moment, just centimeters from Lilith's foot, a massive ice spike summoned by Lysandra shot out of the frozen earth. With inhuman precision, it pierced the Hero's thigh clean through.
Finally, Lilith decided it was time for the finale. She leaped high, and her amaranthine scales shone with an unnatural luster. She delivered a massive punch straight into the Tiger's chest.
The thud of the impact sounded like rock cracking. The hero's sternum gave way, and a fountain of blood erupted from his mouth, splattering Lilith's cheek.
The Tiger fell to his knees, gasping for breath, as a puddle of his blood formed around him. Lilith stood over him, brushing her hand off with contempt. She looked down at him, her red eyes gleaming with cold triumph.
"Your determination is pitiable," Lilith began, striking a proud pose. "Did you think your persistence would change anything in the face of - "
Suddenly, the Tiger interrupted her with a sudden, hoarse laugh. His shoulders trembled, and something appeared in his eyes that Lilith didn't expect - pure, mad possession.
Lilith narrowed her eyes, feeling a rising unease. "What are you laughing at, mortal? Your death will be…"
"Shut up!" the Tiger screamed, cutting her off mid-sentence.
His aura suddenly changed color from red to a blinding white, and the ground around him began to crack. "You think it's over?! This is only the beginning of your nightmare!"
He tightened his grip on the axe so hard that the capillaries in his fingers burst. He raised his head to the sky and roared at the top of his lungs, his voice sounding like the roar of a thousand beasts:
"RAGE OF THE WAR TIGER: ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION!!!"