Of course Ian had his own reasons for doing this.
He did not like people stealing his kill.
"Leave it to me. Relax. This is a guaranteed win."
Ian patted his chest, then stood up, tossed aside the empty medicine bottle in his hand, and looked toward the bull-headed demon, who was staring at him with its head tilted.
He charged.
He jumped and threw a punch straight at the demon's face.
"Again?"
This time the bull-headed demon had learned its lesson. It made full use of its size advantage and reached out before Ian's fist could even get close.
Anyone who's ever been in a fight knows this.
Longer arms really are an advantage.
"Huh?"
Ian swung his fist a few times, but failed to touch the bull-headed demon at all. Instead, the top of his head was grabbed tightly, and his whole body was lifted into the air.
...
Even Rachel felt despair at that sight.
One minute?
This guy had not even lasted thirty seconds before going down!
"Pathetic human!"
The bull-headed demon's hand ignited with violent flames, setting Ian's hair on fire and swallowing his entire head in blazing hellfire.
It wanted this human to suffer the cruelest torture imaginable.
It wanted him to feel the agony of his soul burning.
However,
[Berserker EXP +6]
Ian only felt like he was about to level up again. Sure, it hurt, but not in a way he could not endure. If he had his phone on him, he honestly would have wanted to take a selfie and send it to his old man.
The caption would have been:
[Ghost Rider Ian]
"Suffer! Scream! Beg me for mercy!"
The bull-headed demon laughed wildly.
[Berserker EXP +8]
He really was about to level up!
"Uh... I understand wanting me to beg for mercy, but why are you rewarding me?"
Instead of screaming in agony, Ian looked excited inside the flames.
Berserker Lv.4 (1/80)
[Strength: 8.5 → 11]
[Constitution: 6.7 → 8.9]
[Intelligence: 2.7 → 2.8]
[Spirit: 7.1 → 7.5]
How could he not be excited?
He leveled up again!
Ian felt his newfound strength and understood one thing clearly. From this moment on, he was no longer an ordinary mortal.
He was now an advanced mortal with double-digit strength.
"No! Something's wrong with you!"
For a demon with a wooden block for a head, the bull-headed demon had taken a shockingly long time to notice something deeply disturbing.
This human's soul was completely fine.
His soul was entirely immune to hellfire.
"Not completely immune?"
The bull-headed demon stared in uncertainty as Ian's face started turning green.
It almost thought it had unlocked some brand-new hellfire side effect.
Little did it know,
danger was already closing in.
"Ptooey!"
Ian spat out a thick glob of green phlegm, landing it perfectly in the center of the demon's chest.
The next second,
the demon's grip on Ian's head loosened completely.
Pain and screaming did not disappear. They simply transferred themselves onto the loser.
This time, the demon was the one who let out a truly heart-rending shriek.
After Ian was thrown to the ground,
the creature staggered back several steps.
"What did you do? Did you poison your spit?" Rachel had managed to crawl out on her own, whether because the demon was hurt or because the ibuprofen had actually done something.
When she saw the demon's condition, her face changed.
The area hit by Ian's spit had already started smoking and corroding, while countless tiny green "tendrils" writhed underneath the surface.
It was spreading.
Continuing to spread.
As if it wanted to assimilate the demon's entire body.
"It's fel energy! I put fel energy in my spit!"
Ian defended his personal hygiene immediately. He was merely a mature Berserker with superior intellect.
And mature Berserkers always knew how to make the most efficient use of their negative status effects.
"What is this power?! It's using my magic as nutrients!!!"
The bull-headed demon roared in terror. The effect fel energy had on it was far beyond even Ian's expectations.
It was basically a perfect type matchup.
In just a few dozen seconds, it had already consumed most of the demon's body.
Even Rachel felt her scalp go numb watching it.
"No! There's a voice! I hear a voice!"
Perhaps the demon really did have a bit of intelligence and decisiveness after all. It howled and, with one savage motion, tore off its own still-uncontaminated head.
"Hiss..."
Seeing that, Ian sucked in a breath.
"So there really is another lunatic in this room."
He was honestly surprised by how often he kept running into crazy people. Rachel looked at him, clearly wanting to say something, but in the end chose silence.
The demon had ripped off its own head.
Rumble!
The next moment,
its headless body collapsed to the ground with a crash, while the severed bull head rolled across the floor.
Its mouth, however, kept opening and closing as it continued shouting.
"I've been defeated! But... you will have nowhere to run! My great master will break free! You cannot stop the course of history! You cannot stop what is coming!"
"I'll hear your screams from Hell!"
It hurled vicious curses at Ian and Rachel.
Nonstop.
And it failed to scare either of them.
Not Rachel.
And definitely not Ian.
"You're so annoying!"
Ian looked around, dug a plastic chemical storage box out of the wreckage, shoved the bull head into it, and then stuffed a dirty rag into its babbling mouth.
"You're taking it with you?"
Rachel asked, confused.
"I work out. I'm taking it home so someone can make me some bull-head soup. Great for recovery."
Ian suddenly thought of his psychiatrist, Hannibal, and decided he should not waste the money his parents were spending on treatment.
Hearing Ian's "fitness plan,"
Rachel visibly froze for a second.
"Demon flesh will only corrode your..."
Her brows drew together, a rare expression for her. She was not objecting to Ian eating meat. She just felt he should maybe eat more conventional meat.
However,
before she could finish the sentence,
her eyes fell on the demon's body dissolving under the fel energy on the floor, and her voice stopped abruptly.
Clearly, she had just realized who the actual king of toxins in the room was.
Then suddenly,
creak...
A faint sound came from the corner.
The soul of Mr. White had, at some point, stuffed itself into a supply cabinet. Only a pair of terrified eyes could be seen through the crack.
"Mr. White, can you make dragon?"
Ian politely stepped forward and opened the still-smoking cabinet.
"What kind of dragon?"
Mr. White swallowed hard, staring at Ian in absolute terror. He had just watched this totally unremarkable-looking middle schooler take down a terrifying demon.
"Group dragon, curve dragon, oxygen dragon..."
Ian's memory was absurdly good, so he rattled off the entire legendary set of the Nine Dragons in one breath.
...
Both the teacher and the girl fell into a long silence.
After a while,
Mr. White seemed to realize something and gave a difficult nod.
"Excellent! Honored teacher! Please, step in!"
Ian was overjoyed. He quickly pulled out a dented thermos cup, and after hesitating for a moment, Mr. White let out a sigh and knowingly climbed inside.
"Done!"
Ian nodded in satisfaction.
Under the girl's silent gaze,
he started rummaging through the classroom like a man possessed.
"I've got a tiny little problem. Really, just a tiny one. If I don't take a handful of meds, I'm worried I might lose control."
Ian failed to find what he wanted and could only shake his head in disappointment with a heavy sigh.
"!?!?"
Rachel said nothing.
At this point, everything about him suddenly felt strangely consistent.
And then, right at that moment,
"Want some ice cream?"
The boy asked warmly.
"I don't like ice cream."
Rachel gave her usual concise answer.
She had assumed Ian was trying to get friendly with her.
What she had not expected was this:
"You don't like it, but I do. What I mean is, I just helped you solve a huge problem, so shouldn't you be buying me ten Häagen-Dazs?"
Ian patted the plastic box in his hand.
He remembered very clearly that Rachel had more Franklins in her wallet than he did.
A rich girl.
Not something he was letting get away.
The air went quiet.
A few moments passed.
"If you're so hot you want ice cream, could you maybe put out the fire on your head first... it's kind of terrifying."
Rachel spoke softly,
as if worried that sounding too harsh might somehow provoke the boy in front of her.
(End of Chapter)
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