After crossing swords with the demon king, Ryan understood the massive gap in their skills; however, far from feeling intimidated, he had verified something important.

His hidden skills, even if only for a brief, minuscule moment, had worked against Rigal.

’But if I truly want to take advantage of that small opening, I need to be faster, stronger...’

If the system was granting him that debt bonus right now, that meant at least half of his allied groups outside had already successfully completed their assigned objectives in the towers. His troops were gaining ground.

Taking advantage of the brief and invaluable stun the demon king suffered, Ryan quickly distanced himself by taking three short leaps backward, sliding his boots over the broken floor to create a safe distance.

Without losing sight of his lethal enemy for a single millimeter, Ryan mentally deployed his system’s interface. The translucent blue screens floated before his eyes.

[ CHARACTER STATUS ]

Name: Ryan

Level: 120 — Rank: SS

Class: Templar

Title: Wolf Hunter

Strength: 18,430 | Magic: 10,100 | Agility: 10,100 | Psyche: 13,980 | Stamina: 10,300 | Luck: 100

Available Points: 9,800

Ryan analyzed his numbers. His physical strength was still not enough, but in the previous exchanges it had become clear that the demon king Rigal still surpassed him in reaction time.

What he desperately needed right now was to be much faster.

Without hesitating for a moment, Ryan applied absolutely all his new bonus points directly into his agility stat.

Instantly, a surge of power coursed through every muscle, tendon, and nerve in his legs and arms. His body felt lighter.

Rigal shook his immense furry head, blinking to dispel the sudden and strange stun from his mind. The demon king looked at the human who had managed to escape his mortal claws.

"I must admit you have an astonishing tenacity for a simple mortal," the demon king flattered him with a smile full of arrogance, bearing his sharp fangs.

"Surviving my blows for so long is an achievement very few elite demons can boast about. But this is your limit."

They began the fight to the death once again.

Rigal propelled himself forward with bestial force, shattering the floor beneath his feet. Ryan did not back down. With his new agility pushed to the limit, he charged head-on to intercept the monster, gripping the hilt of the Chimera sword with pure murderous intent.

His main weapon’s passive skills activated immediately. The sword mastery granted him a massive increase in the precision and damage of his slashes. Ryan unleashed a storm of heavy blows against Rigal’s chest and arms.

Every time the Chimera sword’s blade clashed against the demon king’s tough skin, the heavy symbol’s effect ignored a large part of the beast’s natural defense, causing tremors in the beastman’s immense muscles.

At the same time, the blade’s phantom drain stole minuscule fractions of the enemy’s mana with every impact, attempting to deplete Rigal’s reserves.

And thanks to the physical and magical damage reduction granted by his weapon, Ryan managed to withstand the brutal counterattacks of the enemy claws without his bones breaking to pieces again.

The combat continued its course in an intense and destructive manner. The shockwaves from their physical clashes shattered the remaining columns of the lower hall, kicking up clouds of dust and stone rubble.

But despite using all of the Chimera sword’s advantages and having almost twenty thousand agility points, Ryan still could not land a truly clean and critical blow on his rival.

The demon king Rigal was not even using complex magical skills, he simply relied on his instinctive reflexes and his brute physical strength to block and deflect the edge of Ryan’s sword.

Or at least that is what it seemed like in Ryan’s eyes.

’Damn it,’ Ryan thought, dodging a lethal swipe that cut off a lock of his hair. ’A single mistake and I will end up dead. I know perfectly well that I cannot continue like this for much longer.’

Suddenly, Ryan noticed a drastic change in the environment’s mana flow. The demon king’s sharp claws and thick bestial legs began to charge and emit dense arcs of static electricity.

That intense bluish glow was a clear warning that the beast would increase his already monstrous speed to a completely unreal level.

And before Ryan could distance himself again, the demon king jumped straight at him.

The movement was so absurdly fast that it seemed like a simple flash of light crossing the hall, as if the enormous monster had teleported directly in front of the human’s face.

Rigal let out a deafening roar and stretched out his electricity-charged arm, aiming his thick claws straight at Ryan’s chest with the firm intention of piercing his heart and ending the fight once and for all.

’Now.’ Ryan thought, with his green eyes shining at the peak of his concentration.

Ryan activated his latent sealing skill at the exact moment before the impact.

"Debt Seal."

The demon king’s overwhelming electrical technique and destructive mana were extinguished at once, disappearing into the air like a candle blown out by a strong gust.

But the restrictive effect on a demon king-class monster lasted only zero point zero two seconds.

That minuscule and imperceptible fraction of time was all the skill could withstand of Rigal’s immense magical pressure before breaking.

Which, however, was more than enough to make the beast lose his focus. Rigal felt the sudden void in his mana and his arm hesitated for a millisecond, losing all its lethal momentum.

Ryan did not waste the oversight. He charged forward with all his body weight and unleashed his offensive technique.

"Blazing Blade."

Seven dense and massive blades of concentrated heat shot out at point-blank range from his sword’s blade, combined with a brutal physical slash. The attack struck dead on and mercilessly against the beastman’s unprotected torso.

The explosion of fire and brute strength sent the immense demon king dragging backward on his own feet for several meters. Rigal’s boots carved two large grooves into the floor as he tried to stop his backward slide.

But despite the damage received directly to his body, the demon king did not fall to the ground.

The smoke from the explosion slowly cleared. Rigal placed himself back into a firm combat stance, shaking the residual fire from his scorched fur. His yellow eyes shone with an intense mixture of surprise and deep fury.

"Did you just seal my magical skill in the middle of my attack? You damn human insect," Rigal murmured, breathing heavily as he evaluated the bleeding cut on his chest.

’I thought the restriction would last much longer,’ Ryan deduced with total coldness, holding his sword high.

’The Debt Seal is supposed to completely silence opponents’ skills for at least ten seconds. But the difference in our power is too great, I could only seal his magic for a minimal fraction of time. It is definitely not something that can work twice on him.’

Even so, that minuscule lapse of time was more than enough to make the immense demon king doubt his own invincibility on the battlefield.

And for the first time since he saw the human walk through his castle doors, Rigal would begin to truly take him seriously as a mortal threat.

"I suppose I cannot keep underestimating you simply for being a human," the demon king said, straightening his immense posture and letting his murderous aura flood every corner of the fortress.

"After all, if that woman sought you out personally to make an alliance, you must be hiding more than one trick up your sleeve."

The demon king raised his right hand in front of his own face. And without showing the slightest sign of pain or hesitation, Rigal drove his sharpest nail deep straight into the hard flesh of his own left forearm.

Dark blood gushed from the wound, splattering the stone floor.

Ryan gritted his teeth, watching the grotesque scene. Rigal sank his fingers into his own flesh and pulled hard, pulling from inside his arm a strange, glowing metallic object that was embedded in his body.

It was a round, complex object. It had the lethal shape of nine small, sharp swords perfectly connected by a thick circular chain, creating a perfect, macabre harmony of blood-stained steel.

’A relic?’ Ryan thought immediately, feeling a cold sweat run down his back upon noticing the immense amount of magical power that strange object radiated into the air.

He knew from pure experience that something completely unexpected was about to happen.

The demon king held the bloody relic of the nine swords firmly, letting his own dark mana flow into the chains, making them shine with a threatening glow.

"Alright, human," the demon king said, looking at Ryan with eyes laden with pure destructive madness.

"After using the power of this, I must make sure that absolutely none of your allies out there remain alive to tell the tale."

The king of the frozen lands laughed with a deep and overwhelming arrogance, preparing to unleash the true massacre.

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