'So that's how luck helps?' Ryan thought as he watched the demon bleed out on the ground.
The remaining demon turned around, visibly surprised.
"What...? How? You're supposed to be support."
"I have the same question," the young mage commented, looking at him with curiosity.
"Are you trying to chat in the middle of a fight?" Ryan questioned.
The demon hesitated and looked at his fallen comrade. Then he looked at Ryan. Then at the girl. Then he turned and ran.
"Oh, he's trying to escape. He's fast," Ryan commented.
"Relax, he won't escape," the mage girl added. She reached into her pockets and pulled out a gem—small, engraved with two matching, faintly glowing symbols.
"What is that?" Ryan asked.
"A magic relic," the young mage replied flatly, extending both hands forward.
"Twin Fire."
Two swords of fire emerged directly from the ground. They pierced through the demon's body.
He screamed in pain.
"D... damn you! I..."
Before he could finish his sentence, in a matter of seconds, nothing was left of him.
The girl laughed.
"See? I told you I'm the most powerful mage in Ehres Valley."
Ryan looked at her for a moment. Then he nodded slowly, considering the situation.
'She's strong, but I think she's crazy.'
"Yeah, whatever you say. So why did you look like a little girl earlier? Is this your real form or not?" Ryan asked as he approached the young woman.
She walked over to him as well and looked at him with curiosity.
"Does that surprise you? It's because of my cursed title. Whenever I run out of mana, I assume that appearance," the young woman explained briefly.
"I see..."
"Yeah, I told you I wasn't a child, remember? But the most surprising thing here is you. Aren't you supposed to be a priest? How do you have that kind of strength?"
Ryan opened his mouth to answer.
But a strange sensation stopped him, and he turned sharply, going on guard.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"I felt someone approaching."
"Stealth?" she murmured.
Ryan remembered his skill in that instant.
"Reveal Hidden."
About ten meters away, a figure appeared under the rain—another demon. And the Inspection window confirmed it: he was a Principality. But from the way he looked at them and his stats, he was clearly different from the previous one.
"Well," the demon said calmly. "I didn't expect you to notice my presence."
He extended a hand and pointed directly at Ryan.
"Burn Mana."
When the demon finished his sentence, Ryan fell to his knees, bracing himself with one hand on the ground. He felt as if nearly all of his energy had vanished.
Ryan remained on his knees as the rain continued to fall violently.
That technique had wiped out 80% of his mana. Meanwhile, the demon approached him with the confidence of having won the fight.
"The other idiots focused on the mage, when they should have killed the support first," the demon spat out, holding a dagger burning with a blazing aura in his right hand.
"Twin Fire!" the young mage shouted. The demon leaped forward, dodging the fire swords, and used that momentum to pounce on Ryan.
"Wall of Fire," Ryan declared, and the wall rose up. The demon's dagger stopped dead.
"Tsk, I can't believe you still have mana left," the demon added. And in an instant, he used his stealth skill, vanishing from Ryan's sight.
"Twin Fire!" the mage shouted.
The swords appeared.
"Argh..."
The demon's silhouette reappeared. His right thigh was pinned down by one of the fire swords from the young woman's technique.
"Idiot. You used stealth, but you went straight to his blind spot. You're so predictable," the young mage said mockingly, a smile on her face.
"Damn you! I'll kill you first!" the Principality roared.
"Shit, I feel so exhausted, but... Fire Aura..." Ryan stood up.
The demon was still bound to the sword.
He tried to turn around when he felt the pressure of bloodlust coming from behind him.
"Damn it, how can you move? You shouldn't have any mana!" the Principality roared, terror in his eyes. And before the demon could say anything else, Ryan's fire-blazoned fist slammed into his face.
The demon fell a few meters away from him.
He tried to get up, but Ryan was already in front of him.
One, two, three consecutive strikes straight to the demon's chest made him spit up blood.
"You should have used stealth to run. I guess being arrogant is normal for a demon, right?" Ryan said, standing on his feet with difficulty.
"Damn you, shut up...!" the Principality shouted.
Bang.
Ryan's fist pierced through his chest and heart.
The demon's life was extinguished almost instantly.
[Bonus acquired: +62,000 EXP]
"That was close," Ryan murmured, sitting on the ground in front of the demon's corpse.
He panted.
Using more of his skills after being hit by the demon's technique that drained so much mana made his exhaustion extremely noticeable.
The young woman approached him.
"Hey, you practically took out all the demons by yourself. Are you an S-rank hiding your power?" the young woman asked in confusion and curiosity, unable to fathom how a support—the very one who had buffed her skills—was capable of fighting hand-to-hand against demons equivalent to A-rank in the human nation.
He panted.
"No, I'm B-rank. But that doesn't matter now, I feel so exhausted..."
"B-rank? Hmm, you resisted mana burn well and could still fight. No B-rank has that much mana; that should have knocked you unconscious," the young mage added.
'And I feel like I'm actually passing out,' Ryan thought. He tried to restore his mana with Recovery, but that skill only activates when his mana is above 40%.
So, being so drained from the lack of mana, he couldn't help but remember Irina, the elven woman of the forest.
"Can you walk?" the young woman asked.
"Yeah, let's move. It would be trouble if more demons showed up right now," he replied.
And so they began to walk. Although they had no idea where they actually were or where they were going, they passed through a field filled with craters everywhere. The atmosphere there made it clear that a massive battle had taken place.
For a moment, Ryan stopped to observe the area. In the distance, he managed to spot a few nearly destroyed houses.
When he turned his gaze to the left...
The reflection of sunlight hit his green eyes, but high in the sky he could see a silhouette.
"A dragon?" he murmured.
"A dragon? Where?" The young woman looked around desperately, searching.
Her gaze landed on the silhouette Ryan was staring at.
"It's... a scarlet dragon, it can't be..." the young woman exclaimed in deep concern.
"Scarl...?"
Ryan didn't finish his sentence as the girl dragged him into one of the field's craters. She fell beneath Ryan, holding him tightly with one arm and covering his mouth with her other hand.
"Don't move... don't breathe... don't do anything..." she said.
'I couldn't see its level. Is that dragon really that powerful?' he thought, remaining motionless.
A short time later, the ground rumbled as the dragon landed in the field.
"If that dragon is here, it must be with its master, Solaris. He is the son of the demon king," she whispered.
'The son of the demon king?' Ryan still had the young woman's trembling hand over his mouth.
From what he had seen of this girl so far, she was very arrogant and boastful. The fact that she was trembling made him realize that this demon and his dragon were no weaklings.
"I'm tired of flying so much, master. Let's go home," said one of the entities outside the crater.
"Irnina, I didn't give you permission to undo your dragon form!" Solaris replied in an arrogant and stern tone of voice.
"I am sorry, dear master Solaris, but I am utterly exhausted," she replied as her footsteps could be heard moving forward.
The mage girl was motionless. Ryan observed her, and she was expressionless, completely paralyzed. It almost seemed as if she wasn't breathing.