A Demon's Journey

Chapter 21 - Azaroth Vs The Beasts

All sorts of Wild Beasts surrounded Azaroth and cut off all paths of retreat. In the air, a large flock of birds appeared, circling above Azaroth's head.

Meanwhile, Azaroth was in his battle posture, this time flaring his aura completely as he enhanced his senses using Ardor.

'Mystic Eyes of Perception!'

Azaroth's eyes turned purple in color as he stared at all the beasts. Currently, he was analyzing the beasts' every minute movement and anticipating their next move. Using this technique, he was even capable of reading their emotions.

It was a Wild Boar who suddenly shot at Azaroth. It was a 4 Star Beast, but Azaroth sneered in response as he saw such a straightforward attack.

The other beasts didn't move as they continued to stare at Azaroth with a hostile and curious expression.

The Wild Boar charging at Azaroth seemed to be the lone warrior from the Beast's side.

Azaroth changed his posture and gave a straight punch to the head of this Wild Boar that charged at him.

As soon as their blows connected, a significant shockwave occurred, forcing the weak beasts to skid back.

Only hundreds of beasts remained around Azaroth now, but each of them was at 4 Star Rank.

Meanwhile, the Wild Boar, whose head had been punched by Azaroth, was still relatively okay. Suddenly, its body began to grow in size as it pushed back Azaroth.

'Wind Blade!'

Azaroth's left hand was still free, and he created a blade of Wind before immediately using it to slice off the Wild Boar's body.

However, surprisingly enough, that wind blade barely pierced the Wild Boar's body before it was stopped by some sort of brownish energy.

'So its element is Earth!'

Azaroth understood why this beast was able to overpower him in pure strength.

However, this only deepened the killing intent in Azaroth's eyes as he stared at this Wild Boar.

Suddenly, the wind blade in Azaroth's hand got even sharper, and its length increased as it slowly sliced the Wild Boar's head.

For some seconds, there was utter silence in the area. But that was merely the calm before the storm as all sorts of beasts charged at Azaroth at the same time.

Azaroth dispersed the Wind Blade as he wasn't proficient in using Wind to deal with these many enemies just yet.

'Currently, I am nearly 300 miles away from the encampment. Even that man with the Wood Element can't sense me at such a distance. I can let loose here without an issue.'

Purple Flames was released from both of his hands as it swirled around Azaroth, emitting a dangerous aura.

These were the Hell Flames found only in the 49th Level of Purgatory!

Azaroth was the only demon other than the Demon Venerable who possess this flame…

A sword appeared in Azaroth's right hand, and he finally moved from his position. Currently, he was running towards a Leopard that was the fastest amongst all its comrades.

Azaroth noticed that it was using Lightning to enhance its speed. Moreover, the boost it received was much greater than Azaroth, probably because it was built that way.

Azaroth didn't care about it at this moment, though. As long as he could see its movements, he was confident in striking it.

'Triple Slash!'

Soon enough, Azaroth and the Leopard used their respective attacks and went past each other.

There was a scratch on Azaroth's face as he kept running towards the horde of beasts.

Meanwhile, behind him, a leopard's body fell on the ground, missing half of its organs.

This time, Azaroth was fighting against a Giant Black Bear that was nearly 3 times his height.

The Black Bear attacked Azaroth with its claw. It wasn't a simple attack as it was enhanced by the Earth Element.

Azaroth's naturally met that attack with his sword, and even his destructive sword stopped for a couple of seconds.

Suddenly, a Brown Ape pounced at Azaroth and tried to punch his face. Azaroth tilted his head so that he just barely dodged that attack.

Currently, the Brown Ape was flying in the air, and Azaroth pulled back his sword that was stopping the Bear's Claw and kicked the Ape's gut very strongly.

By the time the Ape was sent flying away, the Bear's Claw, which was in motion, couldn't be stopped, and it struck the ground powerfully.

As it struck the ground, the ground near Azaroth began to shake as the beasts lost their balance.

Azaroth was currently in the air, so he was saved from this impact. He raised his right hand and immediately tried to slice the Bear's head now that it was in range.

Just as his sword was about to touch the Bear's head, Azaroth was suddenly struck by a quick lightning beam.

This was shot out by none other than a Purple Striped Lightning Snake as it hissed dangerously.

The Lightning Beam wasn't strong enough to hurt Azaroth, but it did throw him far away. Azaroth changed his body posture and controlled his body while he was in the air.

By the time his body was about to strike a tree, Azaroth was in a perfect position to use his legs to land over the tree's trunk. However, he didn't waste all that momentum as he used a lot of his power and leaped towards the beasts.

This was the same Brown Ape that had been kicked in its guts earlier appeared in front, its body shinning with a Golden Light as it slightly increased its body's size and changed the color of its fur to a Golden.

'What the?! That's the Golden Ape's bloodline skill, Innate Strength!'

A strong aura condensed over that Golden Ape as it threw out a punch at Azaroth. Azaroth knew he could no longer be stopped.

'Since there isn't a way to dodge this now, I should use this opportunity to deal with this beast.'

Azaroth's whole sword was now covered with purple flames. He raised that sword and placed it so that his sword would block the Golden Ape's punch.

As soon as Azaroth's sword contacted the Golden Ape's punch, Azaroth felt as if the world was absolutely still for a brief time.

He soon felt a strange shockwave that forced his body to fly back and roll on the grounds for a couple of seconds before he could stand on his feet.

As he stood up, Azaroth touched his chest and thought 'Just the shockwave from that punch managed to break my ribs… As I thought, this Golden Ape is one of the most dangerous beasts here. Still, to think there is a beast that possesses the bloodline of a Beast God here…'

However, the Golden Ape hadn't been any less damaged. Azaroth's strength was also quite impressive as he managed to slice off its three fingers and even crack its right arm bone.

Azaroth couldn't remain on his spot for a very long time as a Bison was just a few meters away, and its horns were glowing with a bluish light.

Azaroth rolled back and dodged that Bison before he stood up and raised his sword.

'Dark Spheres.'

20 dense Purple Flame spheres were formed just ahead of Azaroth's sword.

Azaroth couldn't keep charging them since the opponent was attacking him with their own long-ranged attacks.

He immediately shot them at the beasts.

The beasts shot their own long-ranged attacks at Azaroth. Those dark spheres were met by dense Ardor beams shot out by the rays.

However, not all the beams launched by the beasts could stop Azaroth's Dark Spheres. 4 Dark Spheres managed to pierce the slightly weak beams shot out by the beams, and Azaroth smiled sinisterly.

"Perfect. Now, explode!"

Immediately enough, Purple Flames exploded in that area. This explosion not only killed some beasts but also injured many other beasts in that area.

Right now, the beasts in that area were more worried about running away rather than about fighting Azaroth.

Azaroth finally found a moment to catch his breath.

However, suddenly, he sensed quite a bit of Ardor gathering in the sky.

Azaroth raised his head, and his eyes widened slightly when he saw the bird's wings glowing with different colors. Some birds' wings were glowing with blue color, some with a reddish color, and some with golden color.

Before he could even think something, the entire flock of birds launched thousands, if not tens of thousands of feathers, imbued with intense elemental energy at Azaroth.

It was feather rain.

Each feather exploded as soon as it touched the surface, spreading the elemental energy in them. So the explosion consisting of tens of thousands of these feathers was indeed impressive.

The beasts backed away slightly as they didn't want to get caught up in this chain of explosions.

Dust cloud covered their vision as some of the beasts were curious whether this human survived that attack or not.

A few beasts suddenly growled angrily as they smelled it. The presence of that human…

Azaroth appeared from the dust cloud, Golden Flames surrounding his body, saving him from those explosions and healing him quickly.

Once he had healed sufficiently, he recalled the Golden Flames and brought out his Purple Flames once again.

Waiting no further, the Golden Ape launched itself at Azaroth, the Golden Hue over its body shinning even more brightly.

Azaroth already understood the physical strength of this Golden Ape. Although this Golden Ape's right arm was damaged, its aura alone was powerful enough to hurt Azaroth.

"Nether Flame Dragon!" Azaroth coldly utterly as the shape of his Purple Flames changed and transformed itself into a long Chinese dragon shape.

The gigantic Nether Flame Dragon opened its mouth as it rushed towards the Golden Ape.

The Black Bear that had fought against Azaroth earlier immediately arrived next to the Golden Ape, and it threw a massive sphere of Earth Elemental Ardor.

However, all that was for naught as the Nether Flame Dragon opened its mouth and swallowed that gigantic sphere of Earth Elemental Ardor.

It was as if it was just a small meal to it.

The Black Bear felt intimidated as it witnessed its attack being eaten by that Nether Flame Dragon.

The birds with the Lightning Element immediately shot a dense beam to stop this Nether Flame Dragon in its tracks.

However, those Lightning beams turned out to be useless in stopping it as well.

The Golden Ape raised its arm and threw out a punch just as the Nether Flame Dragon was about to hit him.

A gigantic punch was formed of pure Golden Aura as it held back the Nether Flame Dragon.

As Azaroth witnessed how his Nether Flame Dragon was held back by that Ape's Golden Energy, he wasn't surprised at all.

While the Nether Flame Dragon was suppressed by the Ape's Golden Energy, all the other beasts shot out their own attacks, finally dispersing those frightening flames.

He knew that the Golden Ape's Bloodline Skill would be strong enough to stop it… It was, after all, the bloodline passed down by a Beast God. How could it be weak?!

This Nether Flame Dragon was thrown at this Golden Ape to catch every beast's attention so that Azaroth could charge up his energy.

And his motive had been achieved.

'Heavenly Demon Transformation Technique!' Suddenly, a large amount of dark aura exploded out of Azaroth's body.

This dark energy began to enhance each part of Azaroth's body. His muscles seemed to have been inflated with dark energy as they nearly doubled in size.

His originally blue hair was now of pure black color, while Azaroth's red eyes had transformed into light purple. Moreover, a horn also began to grow on the right side of his head.

There was a deadly and demonic aura surrounding Azaroth now. His violet eyes stared at the Golden Ape, and he raised his head and taunted it, "Come. Now let me see just how strong your bloodline is."

As if the Golden Ape was angered at how it had been challenged by a mere 'human', it immediately charged at Azaroth with a blinding speed.

Azaroth suddenly raised his left hand and caught a quick punch from that Golden Ape. Just this created a strong shockwave that even pushed back the Black Bear.

Azaroth now threw out his own punch with his right hand. Unlike how Azaroth had caught his punch, the Golden Ape just returned Azaroth's punch with his own.

As their punches clashed, this time, there was another strong shockwave that pushed even the 4 Star Rank Beasts a couple of steps back.

Azaroth had a neutral look on his face as he analyzed that his own strength and this Golden Ape's strength were entirely equal.

If that was the case, he was confident in winning this fight.

He immediately gave a strong knee attack to the Golden Ape's Abs. The Golden Ape coughed out some saliva, and before it could even respond to this attack, Azaroth had punched its face with his left hand.

However, before the Golden Ape could fly out far away, Azaroth suddenly opened his right hand and grabbed hold of Golden Ape's hand tightly.

Without giving the Golden Ape any opportunity to even think of a counterattack, he brought down this Golden Ape using its arm and hammered its body against the ground.

Azaroth didn't stop with his attack and once again hammered the Golden Ape to the other side. He was relentless with his attack as he was using this Golden Ape to make the other Beasts give up the thought of fighting him.

It appeared to be working for some short period… Well, that was until Azaroth heard a loud howl. The howl that had started it all.

Azaroth gripped the Golden Ape's arm tightly and threw it towards the direction of that howl with as much power as he could muster.