Demon King Ascension System

197 The Third Option

The scrawny humanoid demon had done his best effort, waiting for the perfect moment when the forest front needed help, sending the muscular humanoid demon away so that he could have himself a leeway to do his other plans such as preparing the rune formations that he might need, then the most troublesome of them all, herding the demon horde to go into the forest base direction.

The demon horde method might not work if the scrawny humanoid demon had sent them to anyone random, but he knew the muscular humanoid demon well. The muscular humanoid demon would have taken the horde of demons as a challenge, and with the base being attacked, there would even be more reasons for the muscular humanoid demon to stay and fight the demon horde.

No matter how strong the muscular humanoid demon was and even though the greenish humanoid demon mage’s runes were highly advantageous in fighting large numbers of weaker enemies with its versatile movements, the two of them and the demon army would have been exhausted, or even their nether capacity expended.

With the rune formations and preparations that he prepared, the scrawny demon would be able to use that opportunity to sweep in and take the seat of power in their kin, something that he had already planned the second he lost the battle to determine the leader of the mission to the muscular humanoid demon.

However, how would the scrawny demon could expect that the demon horde was not needed, and instead, he saw with his own eyes how the muscular humanoid demon had run away with all his might, trying to preserve his life and survive after fighting native demons of the first realm.

Of course, the muscular humanoid demon’s strength was real and couldn’t be underestimated since he lost in the first place, which means that the native demons that had defeated him could not be anyone without skills and ability.

But the thought of fighting the natives that had less experience and knowledge than him greatly boosted his confidence in defeating them compared to the muscular humanoid demon who had tons of experience battling other demons, ones that were as strong or even stronger than himself.

Hence despite the muscular humanoid demon’s position in their standings, he still had the brain to know when to retreat and save his life to come back another day.

Despite the sayings of brutes that the scrawny humanoid demon used to describe the muscular humanoid demon, he knew better than anyone that the muscular humanoid demon wasn’t only brawn without brains.

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He knew when to advance and when to retreat, and he would learn from his mistakes, and the saying ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ resonates a lot with the muscular humanoid demon in the sense that he analyzed the mistakes that he made, learning from them to avoid the same mistakes, and predicting new ones that might appear in the future if he weren’t careful.

However, that saying did not only apply to the muscular humanoid demon. It resonates even more so with a runemaster, people that put preparations above all else as they used their flexibility and plethora of spells to make use of their enemy’s greatest or even most invisible weakness.

And that was exactly the reason why the scrawny humanoid demon, a runemaster from the second demon realm, had his eyes locked onto the two demons in the base below him.

Blake had taken his time well after getting his body flying by having his chin slugged by the muscular humanoid demon. A numbing sensation still lingered around the area under his mouth.

‘I would have broken my neck if not for the dark earth armor…’

Absentmindedly looking at the red sky above, Blake took several deep breaths, recollecting his mind and calming his breath. The shake that his brain felt, despite the dark earth armor cushioning his blow tremendously, speaks volumes about just how strong the muscular humanoid demon’s uppercut was.

It was the first time that Blake felt a significant amount of damage on his body through the dark earth armor. Most of the time, even the deformed wings demon’s charge would only leave a part of his body numb despite a similar result of his body flying through the air. It was Blake’s first time receiving an unnegligible amount of damage despite the almost indestructible armor encasing his body.

He would probably felt the same sensation if Robus had swung his fist at him, but that would have never happened unless Blake told him to do it, which was rather impossible considering Blake would not want to feel Robus’ man-sized fists collide with his body.

Blake had the thought of jerking his body up and readied himself once again for a deadly fight with the muscular humanoid demon. Despite the latter’s look could be said to be anything but good with his white bones exposed, parts of his body still burning with the dark flame, he still looked not less intimidating at all.

“Brother!”

However, when he heard Cyra’s shout, calling him, Blake turned his head towards the shout, seeing there was no one but Cyra in his vision, Blake threw away his earlier thoughts and just decided to lay on the ground a little bit longer.

The trembling ground reminded him that he should not waste a lot of his time laying on the ground as a stampede of demons was getting closer and closer to him and his group.

Acknowledging the horde’s threat, Blake only spent several breaths on the ground before finally lifting his body up, his shook-up brain regaining its balance.

“Yes, Cyra, let’s get out of here as soon as possible,” Blake replied as Cyra pulled in her flames, extending her burgundy-colored hand for Blake to grab onto.

Blake’s wings then spread out, his hands holding onto Cyra’s waist before the two of them sent explosions to their feet, lifting their bodies up from the ground and flying into the sky.

It only took a second for the duo to fly above the walls of the base, revealing the horde of beasts that had almost made it to the walls of the second humanoid base.

With Blake leading the two of them, managing their pseudo-flight better by adjusting his wings, Blake led the two of them flying toward the forest of the beast, the direct opposite of where the horde was currently going.

No matter how fast the horde could run forward, they would not be able to go as fast if they went into the woods that were filled with trees, bushes, roots, and other plant life that made it impossible for them to go completely straight to the front.

Blake and his group would be able to lose them if they ran inside the forest, avoiding the horde completely.

Blake did not know how the horde suddenly appeared and why they even appeared here in the first place, but all he knew was that they were certainly not something normal.

Be it the fact that there were different kinds of demons moving together or the more important fact that their appearance did not seem to be ‘normal’ at all, deep and fatal wounds spreading all over their bodies, but still having the capabilities to run as fast as a healthy Blake, Blake knew that involving himself with them might not be a good idea.

With Cyra’s and Blake’s explosions acting as a boost, Cyra and Blake swiftly went past the destroyed front gate, following Blake’s connection with Robus, quickly finding Robus that had patrolled around the forest of the beasts to watch out for any kinds of enemies.

“Rrr!” A loud grumble came out of Robus’ mouth, calling out to Blake and Cyra so they could find him easier.

“Thanks for watching out!” Sending out several smaller explosions, Blake and Cyra smoothly landed on the forest ground.

“Where do we go to now, brother?” Cyra asked after seeing her surroundings were filled with nothing but vegetation.

“r! Rr?” Agreeing with his new little violent friend, Robus asked more or less the same question as Cyra.

Hearing their questions, Blake then looked up at his surroundings, seeing the same scenery as Cyra, thinking about what they should do next.

‘Despite failing to kill the muscular humanoid demon a few moments ago, killing those humanoid demons from the deeper realms wasn’t my main goal.’

Blake’s goal always had been to get enough souls, level up, to finally evolve, so that,

‘I could be together with Vera again…’

This goal had never been forgotten in Blake’s mind, no matter what kind of planning that he formulated in his mind to take down the bases or how much knowledge he had learned during his time alone trying to gather souls, his initial goal of doing it all had never been forgotten.

So, when asked what he would do next, the answer would still have the same essence.

‘Gathering souls, leveling up, then finally evolving.’

Looking at the similar forest background that he saw all the time back on the island, Blake’s mind began to think of several things.

‘Should I travel this forest of beasts, hunt the demonic beasts inside until I level up? Or should I try to go into another one of the humanoid demon’s bases again? I would definitely get the number of souls I needed if I destroyed another one of their bases…’

But then his mind recalled the muscular humanoid demon suddenly appearing right in front of the forest base, seemingly having a detector that was able to sense the death of the forest green humanoid demon.

And with the muscular humanoid demon having survived his attack, now the humanoid demons would have learned of his existence.

‘Would they now be more aware of their bases and put even more attention to their defense…?’

‘Definitely…’ An answer to his own question instantly appeared in his mind.

‘Then should I go to the forest of beasts…?’

It seems to be the safest option considering the unknown state of the humanoid demons, but then something gave Blake an alternative idea.

Feeling the faint tremble under his feet, a thought came to his mind, ‘But what if there was another large group of demons that possibly wasn’t related to the humanoid demons from the deeper realms?’