Rogue Villain-Chapter 328: Hiss

The demon had retrieved most of the miasma it let out to wear down the yellow stone after its prison broke. But faint miasma still lingered in the room like fog. Of course, it was only faint in comparison to the thick storm clouds of before. An ordinary human would succumb to it after only a few minutes.

If Makkel hadn’t had Ackster’s Ichor to help him, he wouldn’t have lasted long.

When Ackster’s Limit Broken Overhuman Senses covered the entire room, he soon found a part of the miasma that was moving slightly differently from the rest. It was like a well that both let out and absorbed the miasma. It was like there was something there breathing the miasma, inhaling and exhaling.

The breaths were slow and shallow, probably because the miasma wasn’t great and because the demon didn’t actually need to breathe. But after being sealed in the cramped stone cube for more years than a human could comprehend, it was only natural for the demon to want to exercise his lungs a little.

’Does a demon have lungs?’

Ackster used stray thoughts to control his expression so as not to give the demon a hint that Ackster had uncovered its location. Continuing from that, Ackster dashed forward and lunged out at an empty space not far from the demon’s true position.

When he arrived, and the demon had already read Ackster’s target, Ackster forcefully changed his direction using what Bo taught him, the flexibility he retained from Nold’s technique, Diamond Body, and the Unimportant Whatever Arts.

Ackster didn’t even lose a fraction of his momentum as he turned and cut through the air and miasma with his glistening sword.

Unlike when he cut the illusions, which he didn’t even feel, Ackster sensed something at the other end of his sword. It was faint, and the demon took off before Ackster could land a proper blow.

But when Ackster looked at the sword’s tip, there was a trickle of black blood. It quickly disappeared into the sword, which Ackster didn’t like. But he was too busy staving off the avalanche of poison mist pouring toward him to care about the sword’s misdeeds.

Ackster used the sword and his martial arts to cut through the avalanche and split it, letting it pass him by on either side.

His resistance and recovery were incredible. But Ackster had succeeded in angering the demon. He couldn’t allow even a moment of distraction that enough poison and curses could force upon him.

Ackster spun around with the sword, creating a gust that blew away the poison mist just in time for the demon to launch several spears of concentrated purple poison.

Even if Ackster cut them, the spears would continue toward him, not to mention how it would be difficult to cut them all when they were already right in his face.

Ackster instead took the hit as he forced his way through to where the demon hid with its invisibility again. It was a lot easier to detect its location when it cast its magic. Ackster picked up on during the brief moment of clear air between the mist and the spears.

The spears penetrated his skin but not his flesh. Ackster could feel the power in them. They would have torn him apart if it was before his rebirth. Unfortunately, they only needed to pierce his skin to pump their poison into him.

Nasty poison corroded and melted the areas where they struck. Ackster’s skin and flesh bubbled before dripping to the ground with a sizzling hiss. The poison tried to push its way deeper inside and do the same to Ackster’s entire body.

However, Ackster’s three sources, his skills, and the mere presence of his marble of Ichor were enough to keep the poison at bay. Before he could fight back against the poison, he had already arrived in front of the demon. He could tell that it was about to flee again, so he pushed Limit Breaker’s energy into his body and cleaved the air with greater speed than anything he had unleashed.

Unfortunately, it was nigh impossible to imagine the demon as water without being able to pinpoint its appearance and exact location. Ackster’s martial arts didn’t do much to the body that appeared to be made of shadows. But he still cut it with more force and depth than before.

’I guess this is why people say demons are hard to kill.’

The demon could make itself invisible, its body barely took any damage, even from a Demon Sword, and it could recover as quickly as Ackster.

The demon had made ackster use Limit Breaker just to land a scratch. Of course, there was still a long way to go until Limit Breaker reached its own limit. Ackster had also yet to reach the limit of what his body and Diamond Body could do.

Still, his offensive power and demon-slaying ability were a little lacking. Ackster would have had to rely on his insane endurance to win against the demon and hope that he could outlast it if he were alone.

Fortunately, he wasn’t. He had gathered a party for a reason. Although fighting this demon wasn’t a detail in his plan, it was the perfect practice dummy for them to learn how to work together.

Ackster looked forward to what the others could do when they learned to cooperate and synchronize. That was why he did his best to keep the demon occupied and focused on him so that even if it noticed Mara’s mana building like a dam, it couldn’t do anything about it.

Unfortunately, Ackster couldn’t pin the demon down. He could chase after it like a starved wolf. But the demon was slippery, and when it noticed the potential of Mara’s magic, it split its attention between Ackster and his party members.

The demon conjured and sent a string of purple spears in Mara’s direction. Ackster noticed, but he had a set of chains locked around his entire body and his own spears waiting for him when he broke free.

But Mara wasn’t alone.

Before the purple spears could strike Mara, a golden egg-like shield popped up around her. The spears burned and hissed as they collided with the immovable shield of radiant light. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Karandiel dispelled the shield after the last spear vanished and looked toward Ackster and the demon.