“Awooo!!!”
The fog demon threw back its head and roared. Pain made it unable to keep its balance, forcing it down onto one knee.
That just happened to give Marcus the chance to execute it.
Marcus stepped up, his round shield whistling through the air as he swung it, smashing it down onto the fog demon’s ugly skull with terrifying force!
“Bang!”
A small half of the fog demon’s head was smashed apart on the spot. Thick red-and-white fluid burst out, leaving it dizzy and reeling. Its head tilted to one side, exposing its neck.
Cold light split the fog. The warblade followed close behind, chopping down toward its neck!
“Puchi…!”
The blade bit into flesh and blood, and blood splashed out.
But the faint energy barrier on the fog demon’s body was still taking effect. Marcus’s warblade was actually caught halfway through its neck, unable to advance another inch for the moment!
The fog demon’s brutal nature was completely provoked.
“Roar…!”
It twisted its head at all costs, its powerful bones and muscles clamping together. Not only could Marcus no longer pull the warblade free, the edge even began to warp slightly!
Both sides gritted their teeth and began a contest of strength. At this moment, neither could retreat!
But the warblade was already on the verge of collapse. If this went on, the degree of distortion would exceed the limit that the metal’s toughness could endure.
The fog demon opened its huge maw, revealing every one of its ghastly white, razor-sharp teeth. It was horrifying to the extreme.
It inched toward Marcus bit by bit, intending to bite off this human’s head in one mouthful!
“This beast…!”
A ruthless look appeared on Valles’s face. He immediately drew the curved blade at his waist, preparing to rush forward and help.
Fireball!
At this critical moment, Zelil’s second Fireball finished charging and accurately struck the wound on the fog demon’s neck.
“Bang!”
“Beautiful!”
Marcus’s eyes lit up.
The Fireball burst into sparks across the fog demon’s body. Magic power and the energy barrier interacted and dissolved each other, and the final line of defense vanished like smoke.
All resistance abruptly disappeared. Marcus’s warblade was unobstructed once more.
The fog demon’s movements froze, and the vicious expression on its face froze with them.
“Die for me!!!”
Along with Marcus’s roar, he used all his strength to chop downward!
A smooth sensation of slicing through muscle traveled up from the blade. Then it brutally severed the spine, and finally cut clean through!
“Puchi!”
The fog demon’s head rolled to the ground. Foul-smelling black blood shot into the sky like blooming fireworks.
The enormous headless corpse swayed, then crashed to the ground.
The fog demon was dead!
Zelil’s taut nerves finally relaxed. He slumped to the ground, his chest heaving violently as he let out a long breath.
【The squad worked together to kill a fog demon (juvenile form), gaining a large amount of experience points.】
lv.2-lv.3, level up!
Two levels in a single day. His allocatable attribute points increased by another four.
This time, Zelil did not choose to increase Spirit. Instead, he assigned them to Intelligence.
His Intelligence attribute went from 66 to 70.
Zelil suddenly felt that his use of magic power had become smoother, and the spell structure of Fireball seemed a little clearer to him as well.
At the same time, because of Intelligence’s strong correlation mechanism, his Charm attribute also increased by one point, becoming 46.
After allocating the points, Zelil focused his gaze on his innate skill.
There was no change at all in that section of the panel. The gray text that appeared indicated the condition for unlocking the next innate skill:
【Reach Lower Mage.】
In the mage profession system of the Candia Continent, from low to high, the ranks were Magic Apprentice, Lower Mage, Intermediate Mage, and Upper Mage.
After breaking through Upper Mage, one would have to choose a unique class advancement path. Every profession had its own field of expertise.
But figures of that level were all renowned powerhouses without exception, and Zelil was still quite far from them.
As for Lower Mage…
Zelil naturally had not yet reached the level of a Lower Mage.
He did not know whether he could even be considered a Magic Apprentice… Zelil pondered to himself.
Mage evaluations were independent from warrior, ranger, and assassin evaluations. The Adventurers’ Association had no authority to interfere; only the Mages’ Guild could conduct them, and only the Mages’ Guild could issue certified mage badges.
His gaze turned toward the fog demon’s enormous headless corpse, and Zelil felt immensely fortunate.
Thankfully, it was only a juvenile form. And thankfully, he had been lucky enough to sense its movements in advance, allowing the squad to successfully subjugate it.
Otherwise, it was truly hard to say how things would have ended.
After killing the fog demon, Marcus and Valles also dropped to the ground on their backsides.
They panted heavily, calming their pounding hearts, their faces filled with the expression of those who had survived a calamity.
Zelil looked toward Grey, who was lying off to the side.
“Grey? How are you?”
“Still alive…”
Grey’s voice was weak and feeble.
His luck was quite good too. The fog demon’s second attack had failed to strike his chest again; it had only shattered Grey’s longsword. The metal fragments that flew apart had also failed to injure critical areas like his eyes or neck.
However, Grey’s face had been cut, and several iron shards had embedded themselves in his shoulder. Blood kept gurgling out.
Valles propped himself up and walked to Grey’s side, pressing his palm over Grey without quite touching him.
“Don’t move. Let me take a look.”
Valles tore open Grey’s already ruined hard leather armor and inner lining, exposing the skin on his chest.
The fog demon’s whipping strike had truly been terrifying. Valles could very clearly see that Grey’s chest had caved in slightly.
Several of his ribs had undoubtedly broken, but the bone fragments probably had not injured his lungs or other internal organs. Otherwise, Grey would have died long ago.
There was no laceration on his chest, but bloody fluid still seeped out through the skin, forming a bruise-like mark across his chest.
Zelil watched from the side, secretly alarmed.
If I took a hit like that… I’d probably already be dead, wouldn’t I?
There was no way to deal with the blood pooling in his chest right now, so Valles could only shift his attention to the iron shards embedded in Grey’s shoulder.
Cleaning the wound and stopping the bleeding were the first priorities.
“Zelil, go make a fire and heat a small knife. Bring the Firethroat liquor and the medical kit over too.”
Zelil did as Valles instructed. Marcus, meanwhile, kept silent as he stood guard nearby, preventing any unexpected situation from occurring.
Valles took the small knife Zelil handed him and blew on the heat it gave off.
“Bear with it. Don’t scream like a ghost,” Valles said.
“Do I look like a woman to you?” The corner of Grey’s mouth pulled into a faint curve.
Valles used the tip of the knife to precisely cut open the flesh caught around the metal fragment, then pinched its edge.
The corner of Grey’s eye began to twitch, and his body involuntarily tensed.
Zelil timely stuffed a piece of cloth into Grey’s mouth for him to bite down on.
With two fingers, Valles exerted force and yanked it outward!
“Puchi!”
Along with a faint sound that made one’s teeth ache, a small twisted shard of iron was pulled out. A thin jet of blood sprayed out with it.
“Urghahahahahaha…”
Grey’s body suddenly went rigid. All his wails were blocked in his mouth, and by the end, his voice actually sounded a bit like laughter.
Perhaps it was an illusion, but Zelil seemed to catch a glimpse of a pleased expression flashing across Valles’s face.