One representative reason demons do not descend in their true bodies lies with the Ares Church.

The Ares Church, which uses holy power as its main weapon, exerts tremendous force on demons, which can be called evil.

However, this is something people came to know through speculation and expectations.

Of course, it’s true that demons fear the Ares Church and therefore do not descend in their true bodies, but there was another reason as well.

Among humans, there were those who bore the name legend.

They were strong.

Long ago, in the Human-Demon War, the fact that demons—who believed they would easily conquer the human realm—failed to occupy it is proof.

Humans are weak.

But legends are not.

And Graut knows.

‘The human breed gathers according to rank.’

The strong become friends with the strong, and the weak band together with the weak.

Where does Hyunsoo fall?

Neither strong nor weak.

Graut thought this.

‘If those things he calls friends come.......’

He would tear them to pieces.

He would show insects his power.

Just as a human pins down a mosquito with a single finger, he believed he would do the same.

But.

BRRRR-

Graut’s body trembled.

[Sword King’s Killing Intent]

[The killing intent emitted by the Sword King dominates the battlefield.]

[You are afflicted with the status ailment Fear.]

Standing beside Hyunsoo and supporting him, he looked at the first legend and doubted the situation.

[Rage of the Blue Sky]

[The rage of the spear is revealed. A massive pressure strangles the enemies’ throats.]

[You are afflicted with the status ailment Breathing Difficulty.]

When he saw the second legend, he took a step back, cold sweat running down his back.

‘This makes no sense.......’

To summarize, it was this.

The average level of the demon race is between 400 and 450.

On the other hand, demons of the demon realm have average levels in the 700–800 range.

This situation right now was like a demon race shouting Hey, friend, help me! and calling a demon.

And demons had come running to protect a mere demon race.

“Was it you? The one who made my friend Hyunsoo like this?”

At the words of the one called Blue Sky, Graut almost answered like this.

‘No?’

He almost denied it, turned away, and ran.

A humiliation for a demon. But he had no choice.

[Sword King Barad Lv.478]

[Blue Sky Ben Lv.488]

Graut, who had descended in his true body, was in the 500s.

The effect from tiger energy had already been dispelled.

‘You’re saying I’m being crushed by their momentum?’

The fact that he could not resist the status ailments was proof.

The legends’ status-ailment skills were the greatest in Ares, and the demon’s status-ailment resistance had been lowered because true-body descent weakened it.

He held his breath in tension.

At last, Sword King Barad moved.

Graut was watching his face, twisted with rage.

He asked, purely.

‘Why?’

Because of that one guy, how could this happen?

Also, there is a clear difference between the strong and the weak.

The weak ruin combat with rage and excitement, while the strong use it as a medium to fight even more calmly.

Graut tried to brace himself.

At that moment.

SHRAAASH-

Barad had already cut past Graut.

[You have taken 33,301 damage.]

The damage Hyunsoo had dealt earlier was in the ten-thousand to seventeen-thousand range.

On average it was between ten thousand and twelve thousand, and when a critical hit landed it rose as high as seventeen thousand.

But Barad was different. With a single basic attack, he inflicted damage that reached thirty-three thousand.

The point is this.

At the time, Hyunsoo’s sword attack power had risen into the 200% range due to the mysteries of a rampaging sword.

And this—training for NPCs, and a skill concept for users.

[Sword King’s Sword Mastery Lv.7]

Swordsmen possess Sword Mastery.

Beginner, intermediate, advanced, supreme.

Among users, no one has yet surpassed supreme.

But even if they did, they still could not have Sword King’s Sword Mastery.

Sword King’s Sword Mastery is, to begin with, a grade one step beyond supreme.

Furthermore, if ordinary Sword Mastery raises sword attack power and cutting power by 3% each, Barad had been raising it by 4.5% each all this time.

Ares’s number one swordsman, who far surpasses ordinary swordsmen.

KRAAASH-

He launched Graut upward.

Graut, soaring into the sky, prepared to respond.

But Barad was above him.

“Sword King’s swordsmanship.”

RRRRUMBLE-!

A red haze rose.

One of the powers within Sword King’s swordsmanship.

Blade of Tempest.

Recently, Hyunsoo leveled up Sword King’s swordsmanship once.

Because of that, Hyunsoo’s Blade of Tempest within Sword King’s swordsmanship became stronger, changing to 150% additional damage, and 200% additional damage upon a successful vital-point attack.

But.

[On attack, 400% additional damage is dealt, and upon a successful vital-point attack, 600% additional damage is applied.]

Barad’s surpassed him by a vast margin.

Graut instinctively tried to defend his vital points.

However, the sword of the greatest swordsman was not something you could block even if you wanted to.

SHUNK-!

[You have taken 157,875 damage.]

“KHAHAAAHK, UAAAHK!”

Graut felt the sensation digging into his flesh. Instinctively, he grabbed the sword with both hands and screamed.

A damage amount that defied common sense.

“......How dare you grab whose sword.”

And as the price for daring(?) to grab the Sword King’s sword, he was carved up in midair.

SHINGSHINGSHINGSHINGSHING-!

A fast sword of more than three strikes per second cut Graut.

[You have taken 36,313 damage.]

[A critical hit has occurred.]

[You have taken 47,971 damage.]

[You have taken 31,041 damage.]

Of course, Graut was not only taking it.

Graut’s sticky blood, surging upward, splattered across Barad’s body.

To Graut, blood is the source of power.

Even if he couldn’t keep up in swordsmanship, he could overwhelm with this.

The blood scattered across Barad’s body caused a chain explosion.

KABOOOOM-

BANG, BA-BA-BANG, KRA-KABOOM-!

[Barad’s HP falls below 70%.]

Graut was the one who could deal damage a notch above Barad.

A groan leaked from Barad’s mouth as he was caught in the chain explosion in midair.

“Kuhup.......”

In the midst of that.

SHINGSHINGSHINGSHINGSHING-!

‘This insane human......!’

He was cutting Graut while enduring the explosion.

At that moment.

TSK.......

He heard an old man clicking his tongue.

“That’s why sword-wielding bastards don’t work, they’re flashy on the outside and empty inside.”

Sword-wielding?

Graut doubted his ears. How could he say that to someone that strong?

Soon, some unknown something shot upward, grabbed Barad’s arm, and hurled him to the ground.

“Rest a bit.”

He called him a sword-wielder, but there was affection in that voice.

An old man with thick white hair looked at Graut, holding a spear.

And the substance he spoke of revealed itself.

THUNK-!

[You have taken 45,031 damage.]

A spear that stabbed Graut in an instant.

The basic attack damage of that spear overwhelmingly surpassed Barad’s earlier.

The reason people mainly use swords is because they are the easiest weapon to handle.

The range is appropriate, and simply swinging it can damage the enemy.

A spear is different.

Because a spear has long reach, it takes at least 30% more time to attack than a sword, and therefore it is not an easy weapon to handle.

But a spear lets you fight while maintaining a certain distance from the enemy, and is efficient at piercing vital points.

Of course, those advantages only show if you succeed in piercing those vital points, but to Blue Sky’s eyes, all of them were visible.

The hundreds of vital points a human has.

And since a demon ultimately has the same bodily structure as a human.

THUNK, THUNKTHUNKTHUNK, THUNKTHUNKTHUNK-!

Attacks on vital points that stabbed without rest.

Because of that, critical-hit damage that rose exponentially.

[A critical hit has occurred.]

[You have taken 64,805 damage.]

[A critical hit has occurred.]

[You have taken 56,319 damage.]

Just as he said, Ben was someone who made a spear into substance.

But this was only an extremely small part of him.

“Extreme Spear.”

The power that made the current Blue Sky.

A secret art he had possessed since before he created Ghost Step.

Blue Sky’s every stat and attack power rose to a truly transcendent degree.

ROOOOAR-!

The old man’s thick white hair fluttered, and at last, attacks raged from all directions.

[You have taken 74,805 damage.]

[You have taken 68,319 ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) damage.]

Graut couldn’t comprehend it.

Combat had begun only thirty seconds ago.

In that time, his HP had dropped in a way that made no sense.

[Graut’s HP falls below 50%.]

Graut suffered as he watched his own blood endlessly splatter upward.

Soon, thousands of droplets of blood that burst from him condensed.

That condensed mass beneath Ben soon exerted immense power.

[Blood Storm]

KRRRRRUMBLE-!

It swept away everything around it, even pulling in Blue Sky.

But.......

SNATCH-

The old man being sucked into the storm grabbed his own collar.

The caster of Blood Storm does not take damage.

RRRRRIP-!

Inside the storm, the old man’s voice was calm even as his entire body was shredded to pieces.

“Hooh, not bad?”

“......!?”

The old man displayed extraordinary mental fortitude, and as he fell like that, he continued stabbing without end.

THUNKTHUNKTHUNK, THUNKTHUNK-!

[Graut’s HP falls below 45%.]

And the two of them fell together to the ground.

KABOOM-!

“I must be old—this is exhausting.”

Ben swept his gaze over his own body, bleeding.

He felt dizzy for a moment and staggered.

Graut thought this was an opportunity.

If Ben and Barad came at him together at the same time, it would be difficult for him to endure.

As Graut moved under that judgment, a snort of laughter formed at the corner of his mouth.

“......?”

The insects he had judged insignificant had, before he knew it, surrounded him.

He had thought they were mere small fry outsiders.

At that moment.

FWOOSH-

“Arrow of the Peak.”

The Horn Bow of Jumong in Ian’s hands absorbed scorching flames.

“Dragon’s Cry.”

WRIGGLE-WRIGGLE-

The dragon within the Dragonlight Sword in Dragon Knight Ressel’s hand moved.

“Wave of Frost.”

Cold that could freeze anything flowed out from a shield and rushed at Graut.

“Ironblood Arrow.”

“Ironblood Sword Slash.”

“Ironblood Kick.”

Hanul, Hyeji, Taehun. The three geniuses burned the haze.

And all at once.

FWOOMP

CRACK-CRACK-

THUD

CRRRACK-

KIIYAAAAAAH!

[You have taken 73,319 damage.]

The moment the arrow pierced him, Graut’s head turned white.

The ones he had thought insignificant.

Their single attack was beyond common sense, like the Sword King, like Blue Sky.

[You have taken 71,001 damage.]

[You have taken 63,578 damage.]

[You have taken 58,010 damage.]

He couldn’t come to his senses under attacks surging from all directions.

THUD, THUD-THUD-THUD-

And when Taehun’s kick slammed in—SKRRRT—he slid back, pushed away.

[Graut’s HP falls below 15%.]

Graut felt fear. There had never been a precedent for his HP being shaved down to this extent.

Of course, if you compare them one by one, Graut wins.

But the power held by Hyunsoo’s unusually special(?) friends was pressing him.

Yet soon, Graut grew calm.

Just like named NPCs.

Demons also have traits.

The trait that represents the seventy-two demons is tough and wondrous.

A trait so much so that you could say it’s what makes a demon race into a demon.

That trait revealed itself.

[Blood Demon]

FWOOSH-

Blood scattered around.

Without distinguishing between his blood and his enemies’ blood, those tiny droplets of blood were absorbed into Graut’s body.

[If there is blood nearby, you can continuously recover.]

[HP recovers by 15%.]

[HP recovers by 13%.]

[HP recovers by 16%.]

[Graut’s HP recovers to 75%.]

This is the trait of the Blood Demon.

Infinite regeneration.

SSSSSSS-

Graut, whose wriggling wounds had recovered, drew in a refreshing breath.

“Haaah, are you done?”

He had forgotten while afflicted with the status ailment Fear.

Who he was, and what power he possessed.

And he felt it. They would be horrified and afraid at the power that broke their common sense.

But he was wrong.

“Hooh? Good.”

“......You’re thinking the same thing, spear-wielder.”

Barad and Ben, who had regained their strength before he knew it, traded words.

“I haven’t met a worthy opponent lately, so I was curious how much damage I do to an enemy when I go all out.”

“I’m the same.”

“So that means we can keep beating the shit out of him, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, it means we can keep beating the shit out of him. It would’ve been a shame to kill him right away. I wanted to beat the shit out of him more.”

“.......”

Graut was flustered.

Because there was no lie in their expressions—only truth.

And because they had the skill to prove it.

‘Me...... a demon like me......!’

Demon Graut had become a damage test dummy.

A high-performance one, at that.

Meanwhile.

Hyunsoo, receiving Belia’s treatment, knew.

‘It’s dangerous.......’

Barad, Ben, Guild Radiance.

If you combine all of them, it’s possible to overwhelm Graut.

The problem is that Graut’s regeneration is infinite, and their power is finite.

Whether user or NPC, once you use a skill one time, a cooldown applies.

Furthermore, Graut’s infinite regeneration prevents him from tiring, but humans get tired.

‘There’s only one way.’

Kill him without giving him time to recover.

The problem was this.

After seeing that trait release just now, Hyunsoo felt fear.

‘Too fast.’

The fact that he recovered in less than two seconds the moment he absorbed blood.

The strongest powers had to bring Graut down in one blow.

At this time, Hyunsoo needed damage on par with Sword King Barad and Blue Sky Ben.

‘But I don’t have the power to bring out that much.......’

At that moment.

[Skill creation is completed.]

The custom skill inspired by Hey, Friend, Help Me.

[You have unlocked the skill Fate.]

[It is Legend grade.]

Hyunsoo, who read it, was shocked.

‘An attack skill.......’

Hyunsoo admired it.

With this power, he could become strong like the Sword King, like Blue Sky, even if only for a moment.

Hyunsoo’s chest grew hot.

“I’ll join too.”

Just imagining the reward for killing a demon with his own hands was making his chest burn hot.