Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The devil couldn’t figure out how the Players’ minds worked at all. Worse still, it was now at a disadvantage, whereas their eccentric behavior also rendered its silver tongue ineffective.
As such, the creature could only depend on its own brute strength to kill as many Players as it could, so that they would lose the will to fight and ultimately flee.
In theory, any army in this world would lose morale and collapse when they suffer 30% of casualties—even the most valiant of legions would not hold together when they lose half of their forces.
Therefore, the will of a fighting force were all basically in parabolic form—suffering a few casualties early on would embolden them, causing the curve to rise, but once more die or get hurt the curve would drop immediately down to the abyss.
Even so, the devil soon realized that its adversary simply wasn’t peaking or deflating. Even as the battle went raging on and the Players had clearly lost a third of their ranks—with casualties in fact slowly inching towards half—and yet their will to fight did not change at all.
“Inconceivable… when did the humans evolve to such heights?” The devil was now actually showing disbelief on its face even as it used its bare hands to crush a Shadow Rogue attempting to ambush itself, just as it glared at the dwindling ranks of the Players.
This wouldn’t do. These jokers just might get in the way of its resurgence… but since there’s not much left of them anyway, it could directly wipe them out right here!
Resolving itself, it bore down its palm at another Player!
***
Thanks to the experience it gained by fighting these humans, the devil had learned that they were proficient in combat, but they were just as suicidal and had no regard for self-preservation, only ever intending to inflict as much damage as they could.
Perhaps such a fighting style would hold great advantage for other beings that had similar levels of lifeforce with themselves, since injuries it didn’t matter as long as they could kill their enemy.
Still, that was a style distinctly disadvantageous when aimed against a supernatural species like the devil. After all, merely its normal attacks would inflict tons of damage upon them!
As a matter of fact, this bunch was also tough enough that it takes the devil up to four blows to make sure that they’re dead. On the other hand, normal humans would be reduced to mincemeat with a single slap!
But there was a surprise this time.
A male human, holding a long, unusually thin and unusually shaped single-edge sword had stopped his slap.
The blade was just two fingers wide, and the human wasn’t using any strength to block its blow—but by sheer technique without the use of any energy!
In fact, the devil felt its heart skipping a beat for some reason when its attack was stopped.
It was a sensation it had never experienced before in its long, devilish life. Even against the elven ancient, it had only been sealed by an immense sealing spell while his adversary also relied on the advantage of numbers and location!
“Oh? This thing’s attacks could be blocked.” The sword-wielder appeared surprised himself—as if he didn’t really expect to stop the devil’s strike.
“Don’t get cocky, human!”
The devil withdrew its palm and clench it into a fist, putting every strength it had behind it and swinging it down at the human!
In that split second, however, it abruptly noticed that the youth wasn’t as serious and stoic as before, but was instead showing a vague smile.
An instant later, the devil’s fist met his blade.
The creature’s skin should be unmatched in sturdiness that normal blades wouldn’t harm it, and the same thing happened now too—the edge of the sword couldn’t cut into its skin even after it had thrown so much weight behind its fist.
That being said, what stunned it was something else entirely: its full-powered punch was fully parried!
“If I could block, I could parry. Knowing that, you’re nothing more than a bigger goblin and there’s nothing to be afraid about.” The middle-aged man with a gaze as sharp as a lion’s said excitedly.
The devil, unable to redirect the deflected force immediately was knocked off its rhythm and left staggered.
And since every Player present were veterans, they naturally seized the moment and unleashed another barrage of spells, fearsomely shredding off another notch of HP.
Damn it! These humans are too vile!
The devil knew that this mustn’t continue, not to mention that its strongest advantage wasn’t in physical strength, but from the magical power it could unleash that it cultivated through real battles in hell!
Be that as it may, it had yet to recover its mana and was now barely a third of its peak form.
It would have to let these humans have their day.
But when it regained its strength, it would have them taste what a devil truly had in its disposal!
At that very thought, the thoroughly wounded devil spread its enormous bat wings, intent on escaping and finding a place to recover.
That was the moment that Gou Dan had long been waiting for on his perch, over a towering fir tree two kilometers away.
“Hyper Long-Range Hit, Precision Strike, Loose Charge, Poison, and Death Pierce! I would have been waiting for nothing if you didn’t try to escape!”
Five buffed arrows were let loose from the divine hunter bow AWM with a loud, deafening burst, turning into a single sharp white line that most human vision would have difficulty seeing. It struck the base of the devil’s right wing and knocking it off in its directly, sending the creature crashing down!
“Yeah! See that? That’s the true power of Junglewalkers!” Gou Dan exclaimed in joy, excitedly rubbing his face on the AWM that he bought with all his life savings.
Though he had used it multiple times after finally getting it, he was limited to hunting lower-level creatures and did not unleash the divine hunter bow’s true potential at all. Now, with the weapon’s power unleashed, Gou Dan was whooping in his head about how it was worth every coin!
“We’ll see how you’ll escape without wings!”
***
On the other end of the battle, the devil was howling like a wounded beast as it slammed heavily down from the air, kicking up earth and dirt.
However, its voice was becoming as sharp as it was furious. And as it reared its head, a ball of dark light materialized between its totem-like horns.
Gou Dan noticed that Edward was pinging him then.
[Edward: The Boss is aiming for you! Be careful, don’t get instakilled!
Gou Dan pursed his lips in disdain when he read through Gou Dan’s message.
‘Instakill me? Are you joking? We are 1700 meters apart!
‘If it really could instakill me, I’ll eat up every single pine cone on this pine tree right next to me!’
But before he could offer a retort on the forum, the ball of light charging over the devil’s horn shot out with a massive burst of magical energy like a bullet from a gun.
And Gou Dan himself could immediately feel that it was launched at him!
“Tch! Junglewal—”
There was no way he could have cast the teleport skill in time—the dark ball of light had already blown him sky high along with the ground around him.
Being the Player of a weak class in the first place, he was instakilled.
