GAHH!

Nolan grunted, hitting the ground with a loud thud, holding his rib.

This was the first time he was actually getting badly hurt in this regression.

Not too far from where he stood were two D-rank demons. He stumbled into them not too long ago.

He was smarter, he saw the openings, he knew where to strike to weaken them, but there was just one problem:

His body was way slower than his mind's processing. He pushed himself back up, gritting his teeth. "Curse this body," he said, spitting out blood from his mouth.

It would've been easier, handling one, but two was just too much to handle.

He blitzed towards them, his muscles aching. They both lunged at him at the same time, but Nolan had already thought this through.

He needed to stop worrying about his body's limitations for now. What was his mana for if he wasn't going to use it?

Nolan made an ice path that curved up a tree. He stepped onto it, ducking at the demons' attacks, letting his momentum take him sliding forward.

As he went up, he spun around in air. His ice sword in hand, transformed into a spear and he cocked his hand back, putting all the strength he could into this one strike.

His hand grew whiter, feeling completely numb, as he huffed out a cold breeze. "Die, die, die, die, DIIIEE!" Nolan roared, releasing the spear with an explosive shockwave of cold air.

The spear embedding itself to one of the D-rank's head.

… …

"DIIIEE!"

The echo of of Nolan's roar reached the team and they all hesitated for a moment.

"Was that Nolan?" Cedric asked, slashing the head of a low-grade demon.

"Sounded like it," Selena replied.

Liana's jaw clenched. 'Just what is he up to?' she thought.

"Okay," Selena clapped once. "I'll take the lead now."

"Lead who? You didn't even do anything against the low-grades," said Finn with a slight frown.

"Hehehe," Selena laughed, jogging playfully to the front.

"Where are you going?" Liana complained. "Come back!"

Selena turned to Liana with her tongue out mockingly, hopping backwards.

A sudden wave of pressure hit them and a silhouette appeared behind Selena. A bigger D-rank demon with that familiar, burning red eyes.

Everyone's eyes widened as the tried to call out to her, but…

Selena's smile grew even wider.

A clawed hand came down for her head, but in a blink, she was skidding by the demon's side.

She put her leg on a tree, pulling out her daggers and spinning it in her hand, before launching at the demon.

The demon swiped at her, but she stepped on the hand and launched herself further upwards. She then used a tree branch to ricochet downwards.

She landed on the ground with a loud thud, hands pulled back.

Two parallel gashes suddenly appeared across the demon's chest, its blood spraying out.

The team blinked at her displayed.

The demon's hand suddenly came down for her head once more. Selena turned, a bit surprised that it recovered quickly.

"I'm not letting anyone with me die," Liana breathed out.

In a flash, Liana was behind the demon, sword raised behind her.

The demon's arm and leg fell off and it collapsed to the ground.

"Not bad, not bad," Selena laughed.

The demon started to roar, when a spear was launched into its head, putting an end to it for good.

Everyone turned to Kayra who shrugged, smiling nervously.

"Were was the male supremacy?" Alexander mumbled, eyes narrowing as he glared at Liana who noticed and glared back at him.

"Alright, let's keep going. Stay close everyone," Liana said, sheathing her sword.

The continued the walk and soon reached the clearing Nolan was talking about. Liana turned to Maximus who seemed even more restless as they got to this part of the woods.

"Are you okay, Maximus?" she asked.

"Y-yes, of course," he replied with a tightened smile.

Liana nodded and looked around wary of the environment, incase something unexpected popped up.

When she looked back, Maximus was gone. "Damn you," she cursed, before saying out loud, "Where's Maximus?"

"Wasn't he beside you?" Alexander asked.

"How did he vanish before your eyes?" Liana gritted, worry etched in her voice.

"Over there," Finn said, pointing to the side.

They all turned to find Maximus, standing still, looking at them with a blank expression, his feigned innocence a mask thrown away.

"Maximus, what are you doing there?!" Liana yelled at him.

Maximus remained still. "I don't know how you managed to know something was up and kept an eye on me," he started. "but… he was the only one who was supposed to live."

"What are you talking about?" Liana asked, walking towards him.

He pulled out the glove on his left hand and lifted the hand up. There was a circle with an eye inside, tattooed onto his palm. "Don't come any closer," he said.

Two D-rank demons appeared behind.

"Maximus stop this and get away from there. You'll get killed!" Liana yelled.

"You think I'm the one in danger here, huh?!" He yelled back.

The demons flanked him like guards flanking a King. "I'm sorry. You were all good people, but… I just can't let you live," he added.

The team was left in shock as the demons stood by Maximus's side, not doing a thing to him.

Two more appeared behind them.

"We have company from behind as well," Alexander said.

They turned to see the two demons behind them.

Liana turned to Maximus again. This all felt surreal. "Wh-why? Why are you doing this? You're working with the demons? How is any of this even possible?"

Maximus ignored her questions and pulled out his dagger. He brought down his left hand and said, "You're strong enough to deal with them like this. So, I have turn things around," then he stabbed the eye on his left palm. "Argh!"

The four D-rank demons around them suddenly roared, their muscles expanding, claws enlarging. The red in their eyes shrinked and was now coated with black.

"Please let the berserk demons kill you," Maximus said, his voice flat and empty, his eyes devoid of any humanity as black blood dripped from the stabbed symbol on his palm

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