'Let's give it a few more shots…'

As the Elemental Blade saw the several small holes that were made by his third mixed elemental attack, his eyes shone for a moment, it seemed like his theory was correct, but it seemed that it would take more than just one or two hits even for an attack like this to break that barrier…

'As concerning as that may look like, there is only that way left.'

The thin thread that rose from the chaotic battlefield was no longer just a thread, there were more than dozens of black clouds connected by thick vines, all of which seemed to be supplying 'power' to the tri-horned demon.

However, the Elemental Blade ignored the instinctive fear that he felt towards this darkness as he already thrust his sword for the fourth time. Unfortunately, he was forced to cut the continuous casting of his attack as the halberd full of that black matter was thrown towards him, his sword directly flew under his leg as he swiftly retreated!

The halberd didn't work quite logically as it followed him like a homing missile that was controlled by weapon essence, even though he was already away from the tri-horned demon by about 20 meters…

It was actually quite fast that he was forced to retreat by 10 meters while his attack still didn't impact the pitch-black barrier just yet, it was at this moment that the unexpected happened!

Klang!

The tall flying halberd lost its pitch-black color as it fell to the ground, no longer forcing the Elemental Blade to evade while doing nothing, what followed was even more improbable, the wall of darkness that almost acted as absolute defense instantly broke down under the mixed elemental ray!

The smug tri-horned demon's expression couldn't even start its change before he was swept over by the power that was left within the ray, sending him over to crash against the rock wall of the nest that returned back to its normal look as a body of rock…

Thud!

"What is the meaning of this?! This isn't the right time to play tricks on me! Hurry up... give it back!"

`~~`~~`~~`

"Something is wrong!"

"There is indeed something wrong, you should have never come out."

A woman with a young beautiful face full of vitality and contradictory long white hair stood in the confrontation of a demon with dark-red skin and two long spinning horns, looking at him with dead eyes as five colorful snakes slithered around both her arms.

"The connection is broken…?!"

The demon's red skin slowly lost its color, returning to its usual purple tone as the spinning became undone, even the young woman who was just in a serious battle with him couldn't help but be a bit surprised.

"This…"

The scorching hot aura that could be felt from the molten land beneath their feet no longer reached her as the demon's weird ability to control fire and earth elements with darkness to form strange lava seemed to have lost its effect…

The icy stand she needed to constantly supply with Ice elements was no longer needed as the ground turned cold immediately after!

"Gahhhhh!"

"Guahhhhh…"

"..."

Several kinds of blood screams could be heard from the battlefield that was in action close to them, it seemed like there was indeed something wrong as the demon had said…

'This couldn't be, unless the network has been severely damaged in several sites, this should have never happened!'

The demon who felt as if his blood was seeping away from him denied the possibility of such happening, it was too bizarre for this to happen out of nowhere, he had only been sustaining this battle with the help of the 'blessing' that he received, now that he no longer could…

"This is a bit surprising and consequential, but your elemental powers have indeed greatly weakened. Whether you are just putting up airs or really suffering from something, I say we use this to end this battle a bit earlier than it should have…"

`~~`~~`~~`

Swish!

[ You have absorbed the blood essence of a 'Novice Demon Shaman', purification in progress… ]

[ You have obtained 23,336 EP! ]

'I guess that's another yes…'

As one of my five Wind Essence discs separated the head of the 64th shaman, my suspicion only grew stronger as I saw the puny amount of EP that I received…

After all, that wasn't the only 'Novice Demon Shaman' that gave me such a diminishing amount, every one of them that was killed gave me a lower amount of EP than the one before it, the last four especially gave me only less than a mere tenth of the amount that first let out!

Despite me leveling up twice in the last two hours of constant fighting after transferring a good bit of EP to Light as well, the rise of two levels could hardly explain it reaching such a low point, what I feared was likely to be the reason behind such occurrence.

As such, that only encouraged me to get rid of them faster as I even started searching more than fighting besides what Light and Long did, but…

'No signs of others?'

{Indeed, we didn't meet any of these demons in cosplay anywhere since we found the last one. The circle-like sequence they seemed to have followed for their distribution within the demon army has already reached its end, we are back to the place of the first one…}

'Keep looking around for the next few minutes, we need to be completely sure.'

{Alright, you better give me something good by the end of this…}

'We will see about that later.'

Although it seemed quite logical for this to be the last one, it wouldn't harm to conduct more searching with Long and Light's help, as for me…

Thud!

A quick shadow flew over the battlefield before it hit the small mountain that the army of the demons emerged from before a loud wronged shout resounded in the battlefield!

"What is the meaning of this?! This isn't the right time to play tricks on me! Hurry up... give it back!"

'This…'

[ congratulations! You have managed to destroy one of the erupted demon bases of the Nature Domain! ]