Birth of the Demonic Sword

The storm of lightning bolts released a threatening amount of power that forced the entire group to retreat. Each of those attacks carried enough energy to inflict severe injuries to the experts, but the environment worked in their favor in that situation.

The separate space was too frail to hold the full power of a rank 9 creature. It didn't matter how weak the jellyfish was. It was still too strong for an area that was approaching the critical point.

The lightning bolts shot everywhere in the area, and many of them chased after the escaping experts, but cracks appeared on their path and eventually made them fall into the void.

The attacks were so powerful that they would pierce the separate space before reaching the experts. Noah and the others only needed to fly away for a few seconds before the entire offensive vanished and the area shrunk by a lot.

"I made him angry," Alexander exclaimed while giving voice to a playful laugh.

"Its skin is a natural shield that uses most of its power!" King Elbas announced while joining the group. "The insides are soft and unprotected. They probably contain the energy required by the skin. We can damage it by attacking those spots, but we would lower its value in the process."

"Who cares?" Noah laughed as his aura skyrocketed.

Isaac's ability activated and forced his might to reach an insane level without making his centers of power grow. Faces appeared in the dark aura that left his figure, and scarlet shades soon fused with them to give a grim appearance to the scene.

Then, Noah activated his ambition, but the law affected only his body and his weapons. He was ready to go all-out, but the situation didn't require the entirety of his power yet. He only needed his attacks to be deadly and his flesh to endure the drawbacks.

"Wait!" King Elbas suddenly exclaimed. "Give me some time to create something that can affect its skin. We don't need to waste its energy."

"We can't let it be too strong after the separate space collapses," Noah explained as roars mixed with his voice. "We need it to suffer from the event, and we have to weaken it to obtain that outcome."

Noah spread his arms and slashed his swords once he completed his line. His weapons were pointing at completely random directions, but their edges disappeared during the attack.

The giant jellyfish seemed to return to its near-dormant state after the experts retreated, but a storm of black slashes suddenly materialized in its insides and began to spread through its body.

Noah's slashes carried his immense greed, and the jellyfish's insides were full of energy that its skin used to be impenetrable. Still, it seemed that the creature didn't have much control over that fuel, so Noah's attacks could devour it freely to increase their power.

The slashes grew in size and power as they ravaged the jellyfish's insides. A series of wounds opened on Noah's c.h.e.s.t once he lost control of his attacks. The technique continued to feed on the energy and improve, but Noah suffered the drawback before knowing the final might of his blows.

The group stared in awe at the massive dark slashes flying everywhere inside the jellyfish. The creature's half-transparent body allowed everyone to watch the movements of Noah's attacks and their growth. Those techniques even bounced whenever they hit the pale-purple skin and continued their destruction.

The creature didn't know how to stop that offensive, and Noah felt in the same situation. His slashes were out of control in an environment full of energy. Their constant growth even made him fear for what they could become.

"Did you just choose to give us a different opponent?" King Elbas asked while shooting an admonishing gaze toward Noah.

"They have to stop at some point," Noah said while scratching his head. "They must."

"They have reached the ninth rank," Steven commented while staring at the jellyfish.

"It's only a matter of time," Noah replied.

"They are almost as strong as the creature now," Robert added as the slashes kept growing.

"You might want to leave their trajectory," Noah suggested when he saw that the jellyfish didn't do anything to stop the slashes.

The attacks soon matched the jellyfish's power and became able to pierce its skin. They stabbed the pale-purple flesh and stopped bouncing around to gather even more energy.

The thick skin and slashes had the same power, and both of them continued to absorb energy to face that opponent. Still, the jellyfish's skin couldn't grow too strong due to the limits of its level, while Noah's attacks didn't have restrictions to respect.

The slashes eventually grew stronger than the skin and pierced it before flying into the environment. They were fully-fledged rank 9 attacks by then, and the experts quickly moved away from their trajectory to avoid experiencing their pulling force. Yet, the separate space opened again in front of that power, and the blows soon fell into the void.

Many cuts had opened on the jellyfish's head and tentacles. Some of those limbs even ended up hanging by a mere thread of skin. The scene marked Noah as the official counter to those types of creatures. The only problem with that position was his lack of control once the slashes became too powerful.

The jellyfish's level even fell after losing so much energy. It didn't return inside the eighth rank, but the creature felt weaker now.

"Should I launch them again?" Noah wondered.

"You would kill its rank 9 status," King Elbas commented. "Let's avoid that for now."

"Indeed," Wilfred announced. "I'm not losing my chance to get rank 9 nutrients because you like to see how powerful your attacks become."

"They were nice in the ninth rank," Noah admitted while a faint laugh escaped his mouth.

"What now?" Elsie asked when she saw that her companions had no intention to take the matter seriously.

"We force the separate space to collapse earlier than usual," Robert explained before turning toward Noah.

Noah activated the Demonic Deduction technique and spread his violent thoughts among the group. Every expert accepted them, and even the magical beasts had to overcome their fears to experience those instinctive plans.

The entirety of his group learnt that plan in a matter of seconds. They had to stabilize their minds after that wave of violent thoughts, but they recovered quickly and prepared themselves to deploy that strategy.

Everyone coordinated to attack specific areas of the shrinking space. They deployed precise techniques that opened cracks. Spiderwebs of fissures eventually filled the entire battlefield, and large chunks soon separated from them to converge toward the jellyfish.

Noah's plan had made the experts attack specific spots that could place the jellyfish at the center of the collapse. The creature would suffer as much damage as possible at that point, and the falling pieces of separate space would even retrain its movements.

"We must run away now," King Elbas explained, and Noah gave the order through a roar.

The entire group showed their back toward the jellyfish and crossed the opening that King Elbas had promptly opened. The experts and magical beasts soon returned to the safety of the void, but they began to leave the area to wait for the arrival of their opponent.

The jellyfish would eventually reappear in that spot. Noah and the others hoped that the collapse of the separate space could kill it, but things rarely went how they wanted, so they prepared themselves to launch a new series of attacks.

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Author's notes: I have the second shot of the vaccine tomorrow. I'll let you know if I'll need to slow down with the releases to recover.