‘What the hell is this demon? No matter what I do, no matter what I use against him, he just wouldn’t go down!’

By now Doran was completely out of mana, but his opponent still continued to use magic.

Though, to be fair, Robos Bukka had seen better days.

During their intense battle, Doran managed to pierce Robos with countless spears and blades made of darkness magic, and sometimes with several at once, yet Robos’s formidable will and mighty physique allowed him to withstand such massive damage.

By now, Robos was all bloody and battered. Using his demon eyes, he managed to close all the bleeding wounds, but he still suffered from fatigue and mana drain.

Over half of his mana reserves were used up fighting against Doran, who continued to stand in his way like a stubborn madman.

“You should give up, darkling. That’s what people of your race are called, aren’t they?”

When Doran did not respond, Robos continued.

“I am a bronze ranked demon, on the verge of reaching the level of Demon Lords. By demon standards, you are a high Iron Ranked at best”

“My demon eyes can see that your body has already run out of mana. Your darkness magic will not save you now”

“That seems to be the case” Doran smiled with clenched teeth.

“Then why do you keep standing in my way? Why keep fighting? You should know by now that you are not my match”

“Like I said before, I must protect my family.”

“That human is your family?”

“He is a demon. And yes, he is my family” in fact, with Master Ymit gone, Ren was the only thing that remained of Doran’s beloved teacher.

Robos smirked before cracking a little chuckle.

“Well well well, isn’t this touching? A man who would willingly sacrifice himself for the sake of another…I can’t say I don’t respect that. In that case….State your name! I am Robos Bukka, the leader of the Bukka clan of ox demons!”

“Doran Tengu”

“Tengu eh? A member of that once declining clan are you? Very well. Doran Tengu…I shall remember that name when you are dead and buried!”

Seeing that he was up against an opponent far more powerful than him, Doran’s mind flashed back to the lessons by his teacher, Ymit Karatengu.

‘Doran. Relying only on magic is no good. You must develop your hand to hand combat skills as well’

‘But master Ymit! I am a darkling! I can teleport and use darkness magic! Isn’t that enough for me?’

‘By far not. If that was all it took to survive, we would have far less corpses to bury, wouldn’t we? Now listen carefully, this is the fighting style I have developed while training with my fiancée…close friend. It is not complete since it requires mastery of Demon Lord Mode, but if used wisely, it will save your life some day’

“Master Ymit…”

“Fighting style that you have taught me…I still remember it”

“Demonic Martial Arts: Tengu Style”

With Robos’s fists coming at him, Doran closed his eyes.

Instead of relying on sight, his focus was now on Robos’s mana signature.

With skills befitting of a master, Doran repeatedly countered Robos’s multiple arms while making minimum amount of movement.

Sensing the mana of the opponent to avoid and counter attacks, and striking weak points with overwhelming force – that was the main idea behind the Tengu Style. It was simple as an idea but far harder to pull off in practice.

With a leap and a forward flip, he avoided Robos’s fist and landed behind him.

‘I am out of mana, so the only thing I can rely on…is chi!’

Unlike mana that came from mana points, chi can be generated by one’s will.

But chi was far harder to control than mana. It could not be used to cast magic and it placed huge strain on one’s body with each usage.

Doran was more of a specialist with mana. When it came to chi he was more of an amateur.

He could only use one type of chi, the fire type, for a massively powerful attack. But with his current mastery over chi, he could only use that attack once a day, after that, his willpower would be all used up.

Usually he did it with his mana, using it to harden his fist, but now that he was out of mana, he was desperate enough to use his chi instead.

He needed to make this one attack truly count.

Using his left hand, Doran delivered a devastating blow to Robos’s ribcage.

Coated in his fire chi, the crow’s claw did additional burn based damage to the already powerful attack.

Even Robos, with his extremely powerful hide in his True Demon Form, felt blood flow into his mouth after receiving such unexpected damage from someone he regarded essentially as a weakling.

“You bastard!”

Not giving Doran a chance to attack him again, Robos kneed him in the stomach and sent him flying with an extremely powerful elbow strike.

Due to the sheer power behind Robos’s punch, Doran ended up landing about twenty meters away from him. His body was badly damaged and he no longer had the strength to stand up. Another bad thing about using chi, it really saps out a person’s stamina, even worse when the chi user is an amateur.

‘Out of mana…Everything is going blurry….I see…I have failed.’

As he saw Robos charge forward, Doran thought.

‘So this is the end’

At that very moment, he was prepared to die.

Then, he heard a sound of an explosion.

“What?”

He was not sure what just happened.

One moment, Robos was heading towards Doran, with all four of his fists coated in fire magic, then something strange happened.

A small round stone struck Robos in the head while he was moving and at that moment it exploded.

The power of the explosion was so much that Robos ended up being flung away, like a ragdoll at the hands of a titan.

That round stone was one of the Destruction Spheres made by the Baris clan.

“B-b-brother?” Doran muttered, speechless after witnessing such a massive explosion.

While Robos took pride in his durability, that explosion ended up causing him rather extensive damage. It was even worse than all the injuries that Darkling had managed to inflict upon him.

Many of his bones were broken or even shattered; only his powerful physique prevented him from being blown apart during the explosion.

Even worse, the explosion knocked him out of his True Demon form, reverting him back into his base form. Now he was no longer a four armed minotaur-like giant demon, but simply a horned two armed humanoid.

Granted, he was still tall, about two meters in height, but he was no longer four meter tall giant.

Using his demon eyes, Robos essentially stitched his damaged parts together in a botched attempt at pseudo regeneration.

Body manipulation was a powerful skill, but it was still inferior to true regeneration, which would activate automatically. Body manipulation required conscious effort.

He already used up a lot of lipids and fats in his body to recover the damaged parts, and by the looks of it, he would not have enough mana to regenerate again. This was the last time he would be able to patch himself up during this battle.

With his muscles and bones creaking under pressure, Robos, who landed with his front first on the ground, stood up with visible effort, to face the one who threw an explosive at him.

And there he was.

The man himself.

Ren Karatengu, walking in his sleep, snoring for all eyes to see.

“Y-y-you!” Robos clenched his fists.

As if to mock him, Inner Ren now assumed his own fighting stance.

“I will defeat you if it is the last thing I do!”

At last, the true battle between the leader of Bukka clan and the leader of Tengu clan had begun.