Shin watched from the sidelines as Bael continued his battle with the mermaid queen.
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"You're just a useless little kid who likes clinging onto others because you're weak," the boy grabbed Shin by his hair.
"Is that so?" Bjorn appeared next to the boy. "I don't think he is weak. The fact that he knows what to do at such a young age is strength enough."
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Ok Shin, we need to get to the demon God's shrine by the end of this week. But first, we need to deal with this bump on the road.
Shin searched his bag and found his sword. He stashed it in his coat and ran to join the fight.
The mermaid queen launched a hook at Bael, but it didn't reach him because something pulled her back.
She turned to see that it was Shin.
"Didn't I tell you to stay out of this, weakling—!!" Shin tossed the mermaid queen into the woods, demolishing trees in the process.
He turned to look at Bael. "Let's get going. We are going to be later than we should be."
Bael was at first shocked but eventually nodded and ran up to their luggage. He strapped it onto his orca.
It swam up ahead of them. They followed closely behind.
"Don't leave me alone, land dwellers. We were just about to have fun," the mermaid blitzed over to them.
Shin jumped onto the orca's back and faced the mermaid queen.
"Okay, future king. Let's see how well you face up against stronger opponents," Bael ran up in front of the orca.
Shin let out a stiff breath as he raised his hands towards the mermaid queen. The queen followed close behind them, grinning like a madwoman.
"Oh, the weakling wants to give it a shot. If so, give it your all. I want to see if you can give me even a hint of a challenge," the mermaid queen said.
Oh, you want a challenge? I'll give you a challenge. I am a former hero and the only human with three magical attributes.
"Do not put disrespect on me. Dark magic: Tier 3: Void Strike: REPULSION," Shin shot out a dark beam at the queen.
The blast sucked in and tore up everything in sight. The mermaid queen grinned as she jumped headfirst into the attack.
The blast tore off her scales and mangled her body, but she was unfazed. She walked through the blast as if it were not tearing away at her flesh.
"This is more than I expected you to do, but can you do better?" the mermaid queen caught up to Shin.
The blast stopped firing as it drained a ton of mana from him. Just as the mermaid queen was about to crush him with her hand, he drew his blade.
Using all the energy that remained in his body, he swung his blade, slashing off the queen's hand.
The mermaid queen looked at her hand in shock. A grin slowly replaced the shocked expression on her face.
"You injured me. You actually pulled it off. Finally, someone that can injure me," the mermaid queen continued her chase.
Her body was blood-red and mangled. Her chest was torn open, her right hand chopped off, yet she still smiled. She enjoyed every second of the fight, even though she was bleeding out and on death's door.
She dared to smile and relish the opportunity to feel fear—that she might die for the first time ever since becoming the apex predator of her ecosystem.
Though she felt something off about her body. She looked at her hand and realized how much the human had cut it off with ease.
This was a shock to her, as she knew her skin was as tough as titanium and nearly impenetrable.
My skin should be impenetrable. How did that weakling pull it off?
Her eyes became bloodshot as rage consumed her. Her bloodlust filled the entire forest, causing every nearby creature to feel dread.