BOOOM!

Ferocious shockwaves appeared in the sky.

The residual mana that spread from the shockwaves enveloped the entire battlefield.

BANG!

This exchange had been going on for about a day now, and it had started to become progressively stronger. Both sides were still not going all out as they were gauging each other and buying time for those fighting below. Whenever the situation shifted for one side, the other would quickly interfere to return the balance.

"Why don't you guys open up the barrier? The situation looks tough for you guys."

The Marquis ranked demon pointed at the battle that was ensuing below as he coldly laughed.

"Will you guys be able to last without it?"

"You're really full of nonsense."

Waylan glared at the Marquis-ranked demon. His hand that held onto the large broadsword swung downward.

The large broadsword whirled around, releasing waves of pressuring wind sounds.

WIIIIIING!

Seeing Waylan's swift and ferocious attack, the Marquis ranked demon's face grew darker. Finally, he let out a cold laugh, and a ferocious aura suddenly sprang out from its body.

"You're truly one annoying human."

***

At the same time.

"Khh..."

Taking a couple of steps back, a light groan escaped from my mouth.

Standing opposite of me was a demon. Similar to the other demons that I had killed before, it was Baron ranked one. However, this time, the situation was different.

"Haaa!"

Click!

Crying inside of my heart, I tapped on the sheath of my sword. Just like usual, a subtle clicking sound rang out.

Clang!

However, unlike my previous fights, the demon did not cower at my attack as it met it head-on. The demon appeared to specialize in speed; therefore, it left me with little to no time to attack. The moment I was about to attack, the demon was already upon me, preventing me from releasing the full might of my attack. Taking a step forward, the demon's sharp claws carried a powerful force as they violently met my sword mid-swing.

Clang!

A clear sound of metal on metal came rippling out from the mid-point where my sword and the claw met. Then, following the circular sound waves that came as a result of the collision between my sword and the demon's claws, a powerful force soon began to spread out, blowing everything that was near away.

The ground beneath me and the demon also began to crack, forming small crevices that expanded for a couple of meters.

"Khh"

At this fierce exchange, I came out at a disadvantage as I took a couple of steps back in contrast to the demon who was merely pushed one step back.

"Kekeke, very good human. I didn't expect to meet a human this strong at your age."

A disdained laugh escaped from the demon. It appeared that the demon was feeling confident about its chances against me. Or perhaps it was just trying to provoke me.

BANG!

Ignoring the demon's blatant provocation, I stomped my foot on the ground, and my body explosively shot towards the demon, like a sharp arrow.

However, the demon seemed to have expected my attack, as it did not do any of those useless dodging actions. Instead, its sharp and sturdy nails swiftly danced around as none of my attacks were able to penetrate past them.

Every time my attacks would meet the demon's claws, they would be violently repelled back, creating an opportunity for the demon, which it rightfully didn't miss.

Clang! Clang!

The clear sound of metal being exchanged sounded throughout the battlefield, as the ringing metallic sound lingered in the air for a while after each exchange.

Bang!

Sent flying backward, I crashed against the side of the tower. Fine miniature crevices began to spread around the area I crashed as I spat saliva from my mouth.

"Kuhk"

Wiping the side of my lips, I looked down and found blood lingering by the thumb area of my hand.

Standing up, my eyes locked onto the demon opposite to me. Although the demon was also sent back during our previous exchange, for anyone that witnessed our exchange, they would've been able to tell that the demon held the upper hand.

Removing the hairband on my air and letting my hair loose, I started to circulate the mana inside of my body fully.

'Enough playing.'

Once again, wiping the side of my mouth, a subtle green glow enveloped the bottom of my shoes.

Right after, my vision blurred, and I reappeared a couple of meters away from the demon, much to its surprise.

The previous exchanges were merely me trying to figure out the demon's attack pattern and what worked against it. Although I did suffer quite a bit during our previous exchanges, I now understood how it fought.

As I reappeared in front of the demon, three rings revolved around my body.

It was now time to end things.

Bang!

Just as I was about to enter the demon's attacking range, I stomped my foot on the ground and tried to stop my body from fully entering it. But this wasn't enough as the momentum I had pressured me forward, but I had a solution. Pointing with my finger forward, one disc appeared towards my left and another towards my right, a bit further from the second disc.

Jumping in the air, my foot softly touched the left ring before I tensed my leg and shot towards the right ring, where a similar situation occurred.

Before the demon could react, I was already upon it. The demon's face finally changed, but it was too late.

A powerful wave of mana suddenly burst out from my body.

"Huuup!"

Letting out a low cry, rather than using the Keiki style, I simply unsheathed my sword and swung upwards. This was no regular swing, however.

The moment the demon was about to block the attack, using my last remaining ring, I used its gravitational pull effect and changed the course of the swing. Since I was already going fast, the demon was unable to react on time.

"Puchi!"

Blood poured down from above, creating a misty rain of black.

Turning my head, I looked at the demon's immobile and upright body. Leaning forward slightly, the demon's body fell heavily towards the ground with a small thud.

Thud!

Staring at the demon's 'lifeless' body on the ground, I was not fooled. Since the core was not destroyed, the demon was still alive.

As the demon helplessly stared at the nearing ground, sheathing back my sword in my scabbard, I walked up to its body and once again pierced my arm through its body and removed the demon core before putting it inside of my dimensional space.

Finally, the demon's body turned into soft powder before it was blown away by the winds that arose due to nearby conflicts.

Gently rubbing my chest, which had somewhat swollen, I let out a soft cough.

"Cough, I can't fight anymore"

Turning my head, much to my relief, I found that the fight in the distance was slowly showing signs of calming down.

It looked as though the second wave was coming to an end.

Wiping the right side of my mouth, I decided to move upstairs to the tower.

I was no longer in the condition to fight and needed to go back upstairs to recuperate.

***

Distancing its body from Waylan, who stood opposite, disappointment flashed the Marquis ranked demon as it looked below.

"Looks like this attack is also a bust?"

Extending its hand, black threads of mana started to swirl around the demon's hands. Following this, a ferocious black ball levitated on top of its palm. The energy contained within the ball caused Waylan, who was standing opposite, to become wary.

Kracka! Kracka!

Black bolts of lightning crackled around the energy ball as circular waves of pressurized wind began to spread out throughout the surroundings, creating strong winds.

Within seconds, the ball which had become the size of a car slowly started to compress together before turning the size of a football.

"Since we're losing, I might as well even the playing field once more."

WIIIIIING!

But just as the demon was about to attack below, Waylan suddenly appeared before it. He had not been staying still when the demon was accumulating its energy.

It wasn't like he was just going to let the demon do as it pleased.

Tightly holding onto the broadsword, the golden glow around it brightened considerably. Right after, the sword lengthened drastically.

"Uaaghh!"

Screaming at the top of his lungs, Waylan cut diagonally. From the bottom right towards the top left.

"You annoying fucker!"

The Marquis-ranked demon was obviously not happy with this new development as it glared at Waylan. Then, extending its enormous wings, a small shadow cast below.

Fwuap!

Flapping the wings once, within an instant, the demon appeared a hundred meters away from Waylan. Outside of the striking zone of the broadsword.

But it was then that something shocking happened.

Seeing that his attack was about to miss, steam slowly expanded out of Waylan's body. The veins on his face became more prominent, and his muscles expanded.

A bright light shot out from his body before it directly converged with the broadsword in his hand. The broadsword once again lengthened, this time, a lot more than before. The weight of the sword also increased drastically, and the velocity of the swing followed suit.

"You!"

This time the demon was unable to react in time. Staring at the incoming attack, the demon had no choice but to discard its previous plans and slapped the palm that contained the ball of energy towards the incoming attack. Soon, the two forces met head-on.

A powerful blast of energy shrouded the sky. An instant later, it brewed into a terrifying force that caused both the demon's and Waylan's expression to change drastically as they both hastily distanced themselves away from each other.

BANG!

Soon, the energy blast expanded, before reaching the battlefield below. Instantly, many of those fighting below turned into ash and a thunderous noise reverberated through the whole battlefield, drowning out every other sound.

As this was a bit further away from the tower, it didn't affect those that were protecting it. But it did affect those that chose to leave the defensive line to fight the demons.

Dust and debris flew everywhere, enveloping the whole battlefield and preventing anyone from seeing the conditions of the battlefield.

Standing opposite to each other were the demon and Waylan.

Before long, the dust cleared out, and the aftermath of their collision became clear to see for the two of them. Lowering its head and staring at the damage below, the demon's face darkened.

Opening its mouth, the demon's raspy and cruel voice rang through the ears of each demon present.

"Retreat."

Then, expanding its wings, the demon flew away. But right as it was about to leave, the demon did not forget to send one last terrifying glare in Waylan's direction.

"This is merely the start."

***

Upon walking the stairs of the tower, I once again met the others.

The second wave lasted a total of two days, and everyone was understandably tired. Me especially.

"Are you guys alright?"

"Just barely."

Hein replied weakly.

"You don't look so good."

Compared to when I last saw him, he was indeed in a worse state.

Not only were his clothes and hair a mess, but his shield, which he had just bought not too long ago, was almost completely broken.

Ava and Leopold were also in a similar state as they were too tired to speak.

Slumping down on the ground, I leaned my back on the wall.

"I need to rest as well."

Although my body was all healed up due to the potions I had, mentally, I was anything but fine. My mind was utterly exhausted.

At the end of the day, I did fight for two days straight without rest.

"Human."

But just as I closed my eyelids, as if the world refused to let me rest, someone called out for me. Opening my eyes, what greeted me was a short dwarf.

"What is it?"

"Someone is asking for ye; follow me."

Without giving me a chance to object, the dwarf turned around and left.

"Hey, wait."

Groaning to myself, I propped my body up and caught up with the dwarf.

Given our size difference, catching up to him posed no problem for me. I still complained, though.

"At least wait for me, damnit. I just came back from a fierce fight."

Once I reached the dwarf, I stopped complaining and just silently followed him from behind.

Knowing that the dwarf wouldn't answer any of my questions, I didn't bother asking them. Not that it mattered since I already had an idea of what was happening.

Looking back at the northern tower, I wondered.

'....he should've already figured things out, no?'