"To turn your back on an opponent," Zera mocked. "You die!"
The demon swung its axe down again. But it didn't know that Takson's retreat had been a feint.
"I don't think so," Takson said, a confident smirk spreading across his face.
As he spoke, spears of holy light shot up from the ground, piercing Zera's wrists.
Schlick—
With a wet, tearing sound, the demon's hands, still clutching its great axe, were severed and sent flying.
"What—" Zera stared in shock at its bleeding stumps. Before it could react, more chains of light wrapped around its body, binding it completely. It wouldn't hold for long, but it would hold long enough.
More light spears erupted from the ground, piercing every vital point on the demon's body. And as the creature slumped forward, a small, golden-edged battle-axe came to rest on its neck.
Takson used the momentum from his parry to leap into the air, bringing his axe down in a clean arc that separated the demon's head from its shoulders. The headless body of "Zera" slumped to its knees and then fell forward.
"Heh. Teacher was right," Takson said to the empty air. "You demons are so easy to trick, so long as I show a little weakness."
He remembered my lessons over the past six months. This demon was physically stronger, yes, but once it perceived me as the weaker opponent, its arrogance made it predictable. It was a common flaw among their kind.
This was his first real battle against a demon. My previous reasoning had always been the same: Your body is not yet strong enough. Did this mean that I finally acknowledged his strength? The thought brought a surge of pride.
Yes!
He ignored the demon's corpse as it dissolved into ash. The moment it was defeated, a golden portal appeared behind him. With a confident smile, Takson stepped through.
But the scene that greeted him was not what he expected.
He had thought the portal would return him to my side. Instead, he found himself back in the same clearing.
"I am Leslie the Unseen," a new voice announced. "And I am the one who will take your life."
A female demon in a dark cloak now stood where Zera had been. The battle wasn't over. It had just begun.
Takson tightened his grip on his axe, his guard immediately up. The female demon just stood there, waiting, as if inviting him to make the first move.
Did Teacher capture more than one? he wondered. Will there be a third after this? A fourth? So, she wouldn't let me fight them before, and now she's throwing them all at me at once. She really has high expectations.
But this is exactly what I wanted!
If his opponent wouldn't attack, he would. He opened his holy book, preparing to lead with a divine spell.
But as he did, "Leslie" simply vanished.
"?!"
Where did she go?! She had disappeared completely. It had to be magic.
"A spell that conceals the body," he muttered. "Tch. Annoying."
He scanned the area, his eyes darting back and forth. He hadn't learned any "mana detection" spells. If he couldn't see his target, he had only one option left: the raw combat senses he had honed over months of fighting magical beasts. He could just barely perceive movement within a five-meter radius.
Like right now.
Clang!
Takson whipped his axe around, catching a dagger on its flat just before it could strike him in the back. He was still a child; in a contest of pure strength, he was no match for a demon. The blow nearly knocked him off his feet.
But it's working! As long as she got close, he could sense her.
Several spears of golden light erupted from the ground at his feet, shooting out in the direction of the attack.
Unfortunately, Leslie was too quick. She retreated the instant her attack failed, and Takson's light spears shot through empty air. He wasn't discouraged. He had a counter-strategy now.
Another attack, this time from above. He rolled out of the way, dodging the assassin's aerial strike, and immediately cast a Binding Spell on the spot where she had been. The bands of light shot out from the magic circle, but they grabbed nothing but air. The casting time was too slow for an opponent this fast.
Ting—
He blocked another strike, his senses screaming a warning just in time. But this time, the outcome was different.
Slice—
Fabric tore, followed by the searing pain of a blade cutting through muscle. A huge gash opened up on his side, and blood began to pour from the wound.
Two daggers?!
He had blocked the first, but had been completely unprepared for the second. He had no way of knowing his invisible opponent's loadout, and his inexperience had cost him dearly. This was Leslie's true fighting style, a technique that had been useless against my own all-seeing sensors.
"Hah... hah... damn you, demon," Takson spat, clutching his side. "So dishonorable."
"Say what you will," a voice whispered directly in his ear.
Schlick—
Blood sprayed from his chest. He looked down and saw the tip of a dagger protruding from his sternum. He'd been run through from behind. A second blade swiftly followed, slitting his throat.
The world went dark.
Teacher... I'm sorry, was his last thought. You brought them here for me to train... and I couldn't even beat the second one…
….
"Hmm. His first failure, and only on the second stage," I observed from outside the barrier. I had been monitoring the entire simulation, my systems tracking the performance of both the arena and its occupant.
"Let's see what you're really made of, boy," I murmured to myself. "Let's see how far this desire for revenge will take you."
The "Zera" and "Leslie" inside the arena were perfect holographic reconstructions, generated from the data I had collected. Their personalities, their combat styles, were flawless 1:1 replicas.
Of course, I had made one small adjustment. This was Takson's first time fighting demons, after all. I had set the difficulty to "Easy," scaling their power down to a mere 25% of the originals.
A seven-year-old child, no matter how talented, could not possibly defeat the real Zera, a demon who had single-handedly slaughtered half a town's garrison.
The boy would have been cleaved in two, axe and all, in the first exchange.
I had not, of course, informed him of this. I would let his brief, ego-inflating victory stand for now. But his newfound confidence had been thoroughly crushed by the second stage.
Against a more technical opponent like Leslie, his raw talent and brute force were not enough. His first "death" was a valuable, if painful, lesson.
….
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