Imp to Demon King: A Journey of Conquest

Leraje's eyes widened for a split second before they narrowed into threatening slits.

"Determination won't get you anywhere." He smirked, retrieving a vibrating arrow that seemed to dissolve the surrounding air. "Say goodbye to your demonic essence."

In a single breath, he drew his bow and scrutinised Adam's bloodied figure diving at him from the sky.

The string twanged when only ten meters separated them.

Unavoidable and whistling with incredible power, the arrowhead glinted with malice on its lethal trajectory.

Adam could only grit his teeth and shove his left arm into its path to protect himself from a fatal wound as he continued his desperate dive.

BAM

The arrow cracked his scales, halting his momentum for a split second. An excruciating pain blinded him as it dug into his flesh and drilled through his bones. Yet, confusion gnawed at him. He didn't feel the searing, festering pain, only the bizarre vibration of the arrowhead before his chaos forced it to stop.

Shoving his doubts aside, he resumed his charge, his sparkling blade raised high as he scrutinised Leraje's broadening smirk and blurring hands.

As fast as Achilles during their sparring, the great marquis planted his bow on the ground and unsheathed two daggers from his belt.

Shadows danced along their curved edges as Leraje swung them in a cross to meet his blade.

CLANG

Sparks flew as the clangor of metal colliding with metal reverberated with Leraje's laughter.

"Pitiful, demon. Despair as your hope to overpower me in melee collapses with your essence."

Adam frowned, his fingers tightening around his blade.

'What about my essence?' His eyes widened as he understood. 'His large arrow disrupts energy!'

His lips curled into a vicious grin. "Your strikes... they're weak!"

His voice thundered, his unimpeded essence roaring in his veins.

"How?!" An icy shiver ran down Leraje's spine, the suffocating heat and Adam's strength weighing on his trembling arms.

But he recovered the next second. Everything was fine. There was no way in the demon realm he'd lose this fight, not even if he toyed with his prey.

Undeterred by Adam's raging features, he stepped back. Then, shifting his balance, he hurled his right foot toward his adversary's neck.

CLICK

With the noise, a short blade pierced through his boot and cleaved the air to decapitate Adam.

However, the pressure pushing him vanished. The sensation of ripping through flesh didn't follow either. Instead, his jaw clenched—he saw Adam's hair dance, a few locks cut by his blade, as he bent backwards. Worse, a shudder rocked his shoulders the next second.

Meanwhile, a steely glint flashed in Adam's eyes as he pounced at his off-balance enemy like a tiger.

Despite his advantage, his eyes never left Leraje's weapons. After all, this insidious marquis had a knack for vicious strikes, and this time was no exception.

He crouched lower in urgency, feeling one of the daggers brush his scalp before his hand blurred from bottom to top in the same movement.

The flames coursing along his blade roared, the edges glinting with blinding gold as he felt fabric and flesh rip under his hand.

"Bastard!" Leraje's face contorted in pain and hatred, his sharp teeth in full display and his gallant image turning horrifying. Dense shadows engulfed him, turning his upper torso intangible before the blade reached his heart. "You're just Baal's plaything! I'm done with this masquerade!"

Yet, the gash running from his pelvis to his lower chest ignited, infernal flames and divinity charring his flesh mercilessly despite his shadow form. The scent of his own burning muscles made him grit his teeth. When did he, a great demonic marquis, suffer such a shameful wound from a lowly demon?

Without wasting a second, he gripped his bow, dissolving into the ground as he prepared to put distance between them. With Adam's festering wounds and the range advantage, he would never lose.

However, Adam's blades trembled above, his mocking voice grating at his ears.

"You're not going anywhere!"

Thick infernal chains rushed into the shadows and wrapped around his limbs.

He tried to shake them off, but they pulled him with irresistible strength, as though the potent demonic essence boosting his physique was inferior to that energy.

"What's this blade?!"

As he roared his confusion, Adam pulled him out of the ground and spun.

The Chaosbringer glinted in a scarlet arc, the chains bringing him closer to its edges with sharp clangs.

"In your dreams!"

Fueled by his unbound pride, he shoved his dagger and bow into the trajectory as his demonic essence raged in his veins.

BAM

As expected, his arms trembled like branches trying to stop a boulder. Therefore, he tilted his dagger after absorbing the initial impact. Amidst bright sparks, he controlled the blade's trajectory, forcing it to slip aside in an elegant show as he planted his foot forward.

"Die!"

His blade cleaved the air as their position reversed. Yet his eyes widened as Adam's knee shoved his arm upward.

His breath caught in his throat, dread's icy fingers wrapping around his drumming heart. He might lose if the chains continued to restrain him.

Adam coughed at that moment, the metallic taste of blood filling his mouth as the festering wounds he had endured began to assault his organs. Yet, his eyes only blazed with more intensity as he pushed through the agony with a defiant roar and swung again.

CLANG

Sparks flew around him as Leraje blocked, but he wouldn't give him a second's respite. His life and his subjects depended on it, but he felt something more. This battle wasn't about proving himself to Ozymandias anymore. It was one to cement his prestige and honor, one he needed to win to gain enough confidence to raise his head and declare, "We'll march on the demon realm" in the future.

His eyes narrowed into slits as his blade left fiery trails in the air. The clangor of metal deafened him with each blow he traded with Leraje, but he could feel the marquis' strength wane and his opportunity approach.

Despite the vicious counter-attacks, his movements became more fluid, allowing him to bridge the difference in speed. Though his worsening wounds slowed him down and made him grunt, his instincts sharpened. And with them, he reacted a split second earlier after each exchange.

On the other side, Leraje bit his lip harder, his elegant fighting style becoming more feral with each second crawling by. Adam should have collapsed by now, his body twisted in agony and his weak voice pleading for mercy. So, how could he match him?

The absurd idea infuriated him. Yet, his groaning bones and burning arms began to give out. As much as he hated to admit it, he would soon lose.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"If not for this blade!"

Despair guiding his hand, he dropped his dagger, gripped his bow, and retrieved an arrow. One shot, that's all he needed to end the exhausted leech.

However, Adam's eyes sparkled.

"You won't!"

Seizing the opportunity to use his strongest strike the moment Leraje's muscles twitched, he raised his blade overhead, arcane, divine, demonic, and chaotic energies coating the edges in a blinding light, and slammed it down. Mid-movement, a burst of flames ignited at his elbow, propelling it like a missile as he roared.

"Devil's Dominion!"

CRACK

The energy condensed and shot forward, leaving a deep gash in the earth that ran for dozens of meters.

"ARGH!"

Leraje let out a wail of agony, a sensation more horrible than the worst torture assaulting him as his arm flew in a bloody arc. But it was only the beginning.

Each strike blended into the next in a dance of lethal precision as he lopped the marquis' limbs one after another.

Ignoring the agonising roars and curses, he pressed his fiery blades to the cuts, sealing the wounds.

Sure that Leraje wouldn't die, he snatched his quiver and exhaled a mouthful of turbid air as his voice cracked.

"The blade helped, but you suck in melee. Serves you right for focusing on range, bastard!"

Riddled with putrefying wounds, he gripped Leraje by the neck and stumbled back towards the antique city, a bright smile creeping onto his face. Victory was his.