Ian tried for quite a while.
But he discovered that his godfather gave absolutely no response. The demon was not absorbed by the pendant and turned into delicious little crystal snacks, but Ian obviously was not going to question whether the bond between him and his godfather was close enough.
"This is definitely because you don't bathe! My godfather thinks you're filthy!"
The moment Ian realized the pendant was not working, he flew into a rage and slapped the bull-headed demon several more times.
"Look at those horns. How long has it been since you polished and waxed them? Does Hell not offer scrubbing services?"
Ian picked up several bottles of sulfuric acid from the floor and prepared to give the bull-headed demon a proper cleaning.
He was still clinging to hope.
Still craving those delicious little crystals.
However,
"Damned human!"
The demon's head was ringing from the beating, its bull eyes bulging wide. It had lived for thousands of years and had never been humiliated by a human like this before. Being ridden was one thing, but being insulted for the condition of its horns?
"I don't care who your damn idiot godfather is! You've completely enraged me!"
The demon roared furiously, grabbed Ian by the throat with one thick arm, and hurled him away.
Bang!
The demon's strength was outrageous. Ian was flung straight into a wall, and even the classroom's support wall shattered and collapsed on impact. Rubble and dust instantly swallowed him up.
"I'm going to crush every bone in your body one by one!"
The bull-headed demon stood back up, its hooves cracking loudly against the ground, flames beginning to roar across its body.
Step by step, it approached the pile burying Ian.
"Your opponent is over here."
Rachel finally snapped out of her shock at Ian's sheer recklessness. Her eyes turned crimson, and with a thrust of both hands, she unleashed a blinding red blast of energy at the demon.
As Trigon's daughter, she could unleash two types of energy attacks. The dark-purple energy was her own magic, usually used for restraint, defense, or nonlethal attacks.
The red energy, though, meant she was trying to kill.
That power came from her demon tyrant father. It was made for destruction and lethality, something that could deal fatal harm to any living thing.
Boom.
The bull-headed demon, having turned its attention away and taken the blast head-on, was launched backward. Its massive body slammed into a wall, then dropped into a pile of spilled chemical solution.
Various liquids clung to the bull-headed demon's body, causing thick white smoke to rise off it.
But only the area directly hit by the energy blast had actually been charred black.
Chemistry, it seemed,
could not defeat demons.
Only magic and brute force could.
"Are you okay?"
Seeing the bull-headed demon go still, Rachel rushed to where Ian had been buried. But when she got there, she found Ian lying in the rubble with green light glowing from his body.
"I don't have any miracle lozenges here."
Ian gave the stunned girl the most down-to-earth response possible.
His voice was full of energy.
"???"
The corner of Rachel's cold face twitched slightly. She had thought Ian was dead, only to find him totally fine and saying things she could not understand at all.
"Tell me, when a demon gets mad but I, a Berserker, can't get mad... is that normal? Is that scientific?"
Lying in the rubble, Ian wore a faintly gloomy expression.
He really was depressed.
[Current Rage: 9/100]
That was all he had managed to build up, and only because he felt frustrated and resentful over not being a proper Berserker. Ian truly hated the fact that he had apparently been born as an emotionally stable sweetheart.
"??????"
Rachel still said nothing.
She was simply adding more question marks to her face.
"I need a Red Lantern. A Red Lantern could definitely become my best buddy and partner for life."
Ian was full of yearning for the [Berserker Job Advancement Divine Artifact].
After healing himself and seeing the [Berserker EXP +4] prompt, he ignored Rachel's dirty outstretched hand and climbed out of the rubble on his own.
"You're really fine?"
Seeing Ian alive and kicking, Rachel's eyes flickered slightly. She was starting to suspect Ian was some kind of monster disguised as a human.
Just like herself.
Even so,
despite the unease in her heart,
she kept her face blank and said in a low voice, "Leave. This has nothing to do with you."
Rachel clearly had the sort of personality that hated dragging others into her mess.
Ian could see that.
But that did not stop him from enjoying the idea of stealing other people's experience. Young people loved getting involved with mysterious things. Who could resist the chance to practice demon-fighting?
"Let me trade blows with it for ten more rounds, then I'll go. You can't stop a superhero from delivering justice."
To prove he really did possess heroic virtue, Ian even spread his arms and prepared to use his own flesh and blood to stop the silent concrete sneak attack the bull-headed demon had already launched at Rachel's back.
Boom.
The demon had lifted a huge block of concrete and hurled it straight at Rachel. Ian threw himself forward, determined to save the beauty and gain some experience in a perfect two-for-one win.
However,
the concrete curved in midair.
"Cheating?!"
Ian only had time to shout in shock before he lost at least three points of experience. The massive concrete block slammed into Rachel anyway and crushed her hard to the ground.
Pff.
Rachel spat out a mouthful of blood.
With the heavy weight pressing down on her,
only her head was left sticking out.
Her hair hung in disarray, like Sadako had returned.
This was absolutely not how Ian had expected things to unfold.
"Sorry, I'm still on probation."
Ian found what he considered a reasonable explanation for his negligence. He was at least relieved Rachel was still alive, and he felt that, in some vague and intangible way, he had still gained a little experience.
So it was not a total loss.
...
Buried in the rubble, Rachel said nothing, but she clearly knew where the real blame lay. The symbol on her forehead flared brightly, and her crimson eyes locked through the dust onto the demon in the distance.
Her power was about to activate.
But the bull-headed demon was not worried at all.
"I told you. I brought the greetings of your great father."
As the last word fell, it snapped its fingers, as though releasing some substance it had brought with it into this world.
"AAAHHH!!"
The tough girl who had not made a sound even under a block of concrete instantly screamed in agony, as if subjected to unbearable pain. The light in her eyes and on her forehead dimmed at once.
"Don't panic! I'm here! I've always been here!"
The moment Ian saw that, he immediately activated his superior intellect and rushed to the collapsed cabinets, rummaging until he found the medicine he wanted.
Clatter clatter clatter.
Ian poured half the white tablets into his own mouth, then ran back to Rachel's side. With one hand he lifted the concrete slab crushing her, and with the other he pinched open her mouth.
"W... what is this?"
Through her blurred, pain-filled vision, Rachel could only see several white pills shaken into her mouth, while the boy dumped the remaining half-bottle into his own mouth.
"Ibuprofen."
Ian's mouth was full of chalky medicine powder.
At that moment,
he felt like a miracle doctor descending from the mountain.
"??????"
But the suffering Rachel did not seem to feel any relief at all. Her expression twisted even further.
And that was not because of the splitting pain in her head.
It was because she had seen it.
Seen it very clearly.
After feeding her the medicine, the boy gently lowered the chunk of concrete back down.
Once again, only her head was left sticking out.
Like a concrete turtle.
(End of Chapter)
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