Second World

1918  Chapter 1918. Among Yourselves

Though Belphegor had many opponents ganged up on him, he was attentive to his surroundings. He was aware when Red Death vanished from his detection. He paid more attention to the mana within his ice aura. His sense swept the surroundings. There was no trace of her presence.

'Did she use a teleporting skill to move away?' He thought.

When he was still pondering about the situation, he sensed a sudden burst of energy behind him. It only lasted an instant. Following that burst was the stinging pain of getting stabbed. He received critical damage from that stab. That burst of energy was gone as soon as it appeared. When he turned around, there was nothing.

This was Death Executor's level 80 skill, Death Shadow. It was similar to the Stealth Mastery from the Ninja class, only much more powerful. This skill let Red Death blend into the shadow. As long as she was in a place with minimal lighting, she was practically invisible. This was why she asked Badass for the spell that darkened the environment, so she could utilize this skill to the fullest while in the daytime.

This skill gave Red Death other advantages aside from blending into the shadows. Her speed and the damage she inflicted increased while this skill was active. If she happened to receive an attack while hiding in the shadow, the damage she received was decreased by 80%. So, even if the enemy tried using an AOE attack to draw her out, she could remain hidden and tank the damage.

All her mana was concealed when she blended with the shadow. The first attack she landed when she came out of the shadow was guaranteed to be critical. This skill lasted five minutes. She could go in and out of the shadow as many times as she wished in that duration.

This was what she did. She kept zooming in and out of the shadow, utilizing the moments when Belphegor clashed with the other combatants.

Belphegor was peeved. His icy aura didn't seem to affect this shadowy assailant much. The time by which she appeared and disappeared was too short for him to react.

When the archdemon lord's gravity field ended, Belphegor suddenly stopped moving and crossed his two arms in front of his head. He looked like someone who had been cornered and gone into full defense. Nameless and the others didn't waste the chance. They redoubled their offense.

Belphegor abruptly opened his two arms when his assailants were at their closest. An energy shockwave radiated out of him, stunning all his melee assailants. Four of the floating ice weapons, which had lost the clones who wield them, returned to him. They attached themselves to the end of his ice chains, turning those chains into flails.

Belphegor's arms started swinging at high speed. His swings created multiple afterimages of the ice flails that hit everything around him. This swinging attack was a skill. It caused tremendous damage to those in his vicinity. The Archdemon Lord received repeated damage but survived due to its high HP. Red Death's death clone was not so lucky. It failed to escape the strike zone. It perished after receiving multiple hits.

If Nameless didn't have God's Shield and God's Protection active, he would have perished as well. He had a backup life from Grace's Generosity of Hope but preferred not to waste it. He kept retreating until he was out of the strike zone.

Only Badass kept on attacking from range. With Devilize and Devil Possession, he could be said to be their highest DPS contributor, even higher than Red Death. Red Death herself stayed within the shadow. All the damage she received was greatly reduced. She was also in Devilize form so she could tank the damage. She didn't dare to come out, though. Belphegor's skill struck every inch around him. She would get smacked the instant she came out.

Belphegor's skill finally stopped. When Red Death was about to come out and resume her attack, the devil made a super jump into the sky. The jump was so high he was out of the Dark World Domain, so Red Death couldn't follow him.

Up in the sky, he put both his hands together. It was the signature move of Battle Monk's Ki Blast, but the energy ball he formed was ten times larger than the regular Ki Blast. It was also filled with ice mana.

"Perish! You, worms," Belphegor said before unleashing this super ice ki blast.

The giant ice ball shot into the ground at high speed. Everyone tried their best to get as far away as possible from where the ice ball landed. When the giant ice ball touched down, an ice world was born. The explosion encompassed the whole area covered by the Dark World Domain and beyond. It was called an explosion because of how abruptly the energy expanded, but it was not a bang like in the traditional explosion. It was more like an instant freezing of everything within its area of effect.

The only ones who were not trapped within this frozen world were Grace and Badass. They were the furthest away from ground zero.

Belphegor dropped back down with folded arms. Standing upright, he stomped both feet onto his frozen world. Cracks spread like wildfire on the ice surface. The whole ice world then shattered and turned into ice dust.

Nameless' HP dropped to zero even with his buff, and so did Red Death. The ice world dispelled the Dark World Domain by force. Red Death was out of the protection of the shadow when she was frozen. Only the archdemon lord survived, but its HP was less than one-third.

Grace's Generosity of Hope took effect. Red Death and Nameless returned to life.

"Hmph…," Belphegor was displeased seeing that. These outworlders had more tricks than he expected.

"Ugh…!" Red Death was still shaken by her death. She might have come back to life but she lost her devilize form. Her Death Shadow also ended when she died.

Yet, she had no plan to back down. She was about to go on the offensive again when she sensed something coming at her from the side. She jumped back and saw one of Belphegor's clones fly past her. The clone fell violently a distance away and skidded on the ground.

"Deal with these clones! You, uncooperative woman!" Grace scolded.

It was Grace who threw the clone. She didn't have the firepower to kill any of the clones. All five were still alive. The clones were level 96 mythical grades. They had natural HP recovery. Additionally, the clones were pretty cunning. Only four or three fought Grace at any one time. The ones with the lowest HP retreated to recover themselves. She finally couldn't take it anymore and used her Devilize form as well. The strength boost let her overpower the clones and break out of their encirclement.

Red Death was upset by the scolding. She ignored the clone Grace had thrown and defiantly advanced at Belphegor again.

"You, mad woman!" Grace put herself in Red Death's path.

"Move aside!" Red Death gave Grace a spin kick. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Grace was startled by the attack of her teammate. She barely blocked the kick.

"What the…!" Both Nameless and Badass were shocked by this turn of events.

Even Belphegor stopped moving when he was about to lunge. He massaged his chin and watched.

Grace's strength during Devilize outclassed Red Death, so she didn't budge from the kick. Red Death didn't mean to truly attack. She just wanted to give Grace a scare, so Grace stopped blocking her. She ran past Grace when Grace was still dazed by her kick.

Contrary to expectation, instead of getting scared, the kick pissed Grace off instead. Grace's hand shot out and grabbed Red Death's arm before she advanced too far. Red Death suddenly found herself getting yanked by a very strong force.

"I said, move back…!" Grace yelled and flung Red Death far away.

Red Death somersaulted in the air before landing on her feet. She gritted her teeth. She was also pissed now. She lunged back.

Grace didn't waste any more words. She simply stood in Red Death's path. If she had to knock some sense into this woman's head, so be it!

Both women were ready for a clash as they neared one another, but something interrupted them. An ice spear pierced Grace's back. The speed of this spear had been so fast that Grace failed to react by the time she sensed the backstab. Her body was flung forward by the impact force. She crashed into Red Death. The two fell rolling on the ground.

Thanks to Grace's insane defense aided by Devilize, the backstab wasn't fatal. She still lost almost half her HP because of the back attack bonus.

The ice spear was thrown by Belphegor. The devil was sneering. He said, "As amusing as it is to see you fight among yourselves, I prefer to wrap this up as soon as possible."