I had been sweating as I rapidly engraved any kind of magic circles that I could think of on the ground.
And in contrast to my palpitating heart, is the malevolent calmness that the Crimson Oni exuded as he walked forward, all while giving off such a menacing aura and killing intent.
My mind raced fast as I commanded my Demonic Essence to use its Polytasking, carving all sorts of magic circles on the ground like my life was dependent on it.
After carefully reviewing the movement binding spell that I crafted back then, I noticed that a mere suggestion of instances was not enough to take down this red-seeing bull. I needed something more complex, more robust, and more layered to make up for the weak output of my Demonic Essence.
And I need to stall for time!
Determined to live, I sent out a carefully placed flying weapon lying on the ground behind the oni.
I made it accelerate immensely toward the Crimson Oni's head.
The oni bent forward and avoided it, and the weapon flew past without hitting.
I began sending out my flying weapons to barrage the oni again. They shot forward in waves.
Just like how none of my orbital strikes did nothing, the oni skillfully avoided all of them while slowly walking forward.
He dodged left and right without breaking step, only moving his upper body and his legs when I aimed specifically for it, in which he just lifted up his lower limb.
Before long, I activated all of the magic circles I had been engraving.
There was a magic circle of binding, a magic circle of weakening, a magic circle of muscle entropy, a magic circle of blood clotting, a magic circle of lightheadedness, a magic circle of testicular torsion, a magic circle of enlarged kidney stone, a magic circle of shrinking blood vessels, and many more awful and painful state of physic that can harmonize with each other like domino pieces.
This whole plan was nothing but reckless—I used an enormous amount of Demonic Essence when compared to the quality of my essence and the fatigue of my heart.
One wrong move then I would become No Heart Messenger From Hell instead.
It made me cough out a good amount of blood. My chest burned from the strain of the Fool's Forge producing more Demonic Essence than what I should handle at my level, and there was a massive headache.
In exchange, the Crimson Oni got staggered. He screamed as he gritted his teeth to endure the pain and the effect of the horrible spells that were being put on him.
Yet even despite all of that, he stayed on his feet.
『 All of the spells that you made are nothing but evil. I am disgusted at you for it. 』
Eli said that with a tone of sarcasm, but I felt genuine disgust from it too.
Some of the magic circuits used Quantified Circuits for the alteration of the body.
That means there might be a clear margin of error since I cannot deduce the right mathematical numbers by just looking at his body.
That made the spell unintentionally destructive too, heh.
I broke through from my horrible headache, and I sent out my flying weapons for one more time. They rushed at him in a group.
"What have you done to me!?"
His voice no longer had the same guttural and dangerous power behind it, but it was coated in reddish anger, more colorful than before.
The Crimson Oni swung his great sword and deflected all of them.
The metal clanged as they scattered.
Then he swung down.
He unleashed a massive shockwave—the force ripped through the air.
I clung onto my halberd once again and used it to fly away.
The attack from the oni destroyed the ground where the magic circles were engraved. It dispelled them outside of the permanently altering ones.
The binding and weakening faded, but the body changes lingered.
"Tch, he knew about the magic circles all along."
『 Looks like someone need to learn ethereal spellcasting. 』
Remind yourself to teach that to me again later.
『 Sure, sure~ 』
The Crimson Oni planted his feet on the ground.
He screamed, the sound was ear piercing and deep.
I did not really notice it at first. But then great rumbles could be heard from all sorts of directions in the distance.
The ground beneath vibrated as the bones clanked, dust and sand afloat.
I do not sense any Demonic Essence. Is what the red demon did just now his Ego?
『 You are rather sharp in the moment and crisis 』
I take that as a 'yes'.
Before I knew it, numerous enormous balls of lightning flew from all over the place, and they landed near our location.
There was no mistaking it, those were Jagan Basilisks!
The oni spoke with his guttural and deep voice once again.
"I will appear another day, and I will be there to skin and torture you alive for what you have done to me."
I felt the chill on my bones, yet at the same time, I noticed that I no longer could feel the presence of the Crimson Oni the moment that voice was heard.
He was gone.
『 Right, I forgot to tell you one thing about the Jagan Basilisk, which I didn't expect that this information would even be crucial. 』
What is it!?
『 You see, there is a chance for them to hunt in packs when contesting a territory with a predator from a different species. 』
Those damned dragon-looking bastards are hunting in a pack, what.
"What kind of monster demands a whole pack of Jagan Basilisk…"
Then I remembered that I had been talking with the so-called Cosmic Savant this whole time.
『 Ehe~ 』
Twelve enormous Jagan Basilisk were lining up and analyzing their surroundings. They stood tall, their scales gleaming in the light of their own colorful lightning.
The moment they caught a part of their kin being a desiccated carcass atop a mount of bones, rage spread among them. They roared in unison.
The sound echoed across the wasteland.
Of course, the fact that the Jagan Basilisk made themselves known and gathered like this also had a side effect on its own.
"What just happened…?
I saw one of the Jagan Basilisk get decapitated. A clean cut severed its head.
It fell with a thud.
Before long, chaos brewed as an outside force of numerous humanoid silhouettes joined the fray.
They began wreaking havoc, figures rushed in and attacking the basilisks like a pack of wolves.
They all had a distinct fighting style with what appeared to be their Ego and spellcasting style. They fought with all sorts of weapons. One used curved swords that sliced through scales, others had metal gauntlets, one swung a scythe in wide arcs, another held a shield and mace—blocking the razors and the lightning while breaking the scales and flesh of the oversized komodo.
Seeing all of the arrays of colors and fighting spirits.
It somewhat reminded me of my time at Athera.
"Hell yeah! Finally, a proper exercise to end the day!"
I heard one of them scolding the other.
"You idiot! How many times have you been scolded for rushing in like a mentally-challenged moron!"
I heard the laughter of a maniac.
"HAHAHAHA! MORE! MORE!!"
"How long has it been since there are so many Jagans in the same place!"
"I saw an unidentified individual within the vicinity, can someone deal with that, in case we get backstabbed!?"
"You mean that blood-coughing dork with a very weak essence?"
"Guys, I'm going to take a nap, wake me up when it is over~"
"We will, don't worry!"
"Don't enable her! Drag her back to the frontline!"
Yes, the side effect of the Jagan Basilisk gathering and making them well known, was that it also attracted another predator who deemed the Jagan Basilisk as nothing but a pack of prey.