Dual Cultivation: Beasts and Women!

Chapter 185: Fighting Puppets

The moment the two sides of the confrontation met, Liam focused on the surrounding demons, knowing that he could use {Black Art} even on the demonic essences of the puppets.

They weren't actual demons, so he wouldn't be able to increase the spiritual quality of Thal'Korr and the incubus. But he could steal their spiritual power and gain a little extra strength during the battle.

He began the battle with the Power Amplification skill, while silver wings formed on his back. He flew around, dodging the attacks of the many Spirits that were focused on him while pirouetting in the air.

The Silver-Winged Leopard unleashed its anger at having fallen earlier on the surrounding enemies, destroying the first one in its path with a single blow.

Its great wings flapping, it flew off in much the same way as Liam, heading for the second of the enemies.

Thal'Korr and the incubus combined against an opponent. Both were weaker than the weakest of the enemies in the area. They focused on a single enemy, one working against the Spirit's mind while the other closed in with physical attacks.

Liam's Spirit Lord ally got little attention from the Spirits generated by the puppets, but a 4-Star cultivation Spirit from the Spirit Earth Realm attacked him and his Spirits.

The remaining man didn't even last 10 seconds. His three Spirits fell to the only opponent in his way before he himself felt the power of the red-furred monkey.

The creature knocked him down with a blow to the mouth before picking him up by his feet and swinging him hard against the ground and the surrounding tree trunks.

By the second blow to his head, the man had lost consciousness. On the third blow, his head deformed, and on the fourth, it split open, exposing his brain, which then spilled out into the surrounding area.

Liam regretted the fall of the last Leopards' man at his party, but there was nothing he could do. He activated {Black Art} on the demon he had just encountered, hoping to prevent the same thing from happening to him.

Thal'Korr and the incubus grew stronger the moment Liam destroyed the first of those puppets' artificial demonic Spirits.

Liam himself felt momentarily stronger as he destroyed the creature, dodging a deadly attack from behind before moving a Third Class spear he had inherited from his enemies.

The moment he moved his enchanted weapon, blades of energy erupted from the cutting body of the weapon, following Liam's movements as they advanced against the enemy's Spirits.

But he didn't fight the creatures that were attacking him. With another leap into the air, he flew close to the last of the demonic Spirits around, noticing that the runes on one puppet were weakening.

'When I permanently destroyed one of its essences, its runes were damaged... Interesting. This might be the way for me to overcome this challenge.'

He reached the other demon simultaneously as the Silver-Winged Leopard reached its fourth target.

In an instant, the number of enemy Spirits dropped from 14 to 8.

However, just as Thal'Korr and the incubus killed the first of their enemies, bringing the total down to "only" 7, a centipede-shaped creature reached the incubus and dealt a fatal blow to Liam's demon.

The incubus's body cracked completely before exploding into countless tiny mana crystals.

Liam felt the blow to his soul and nearly fell from where he was flying in the middle of a battle with one of the enemy puppet flying Spirits.

'Shit!'

He saw Thal'Korr in a bad situation, surrounded by two Spirits stronger than this demon. Meanwhile, the Silver-Winged Leopard was surrounded by 3 enemies.

Boom!

Thal'Korr couldn't last over 5 seconds after the fall of the incubus demon and exploded under his master's watch.

Liam could not keep his wings in use and fell.

One Spirit on the ground reflexively attacked him, catching him off guard.

Liam grew pale, but at that moment, he felt the golden hairs around his body stop the enemy's attack after his armor took heavy damage.

His eyes looked at the spot where he had almost been injured, and anger filled them. A sword appeared in one of Liam's hands as he counter-attacked, aiming for the neck of the creature that had almost seriously injured him.

Boom!

Another Spirit exploded, leaving 6 in the area, still enough to put Liam and the Silver-Winged Leopard in a bad light.

Luckily for Liam, he had reached the 4-Star before this fight and had gained new powers. If he had faced these puppets before the Silver-Winged Leopard, Liam would have been killed by these creatures made by Runemasters before the number of enemies even dropped below 10!

With his improved speed, he dodged another attack that could have been fatal, also using the shadows in the area to limit the bodies of his enemies. Then, with a new attack aimed at the weak spot of one of his opponents, he destroyed another enemy as the Silver-Winged Leopard finally destroyed another of the artificial Spirits.

Boom!

Liam tried to shift the battle to the Silver-Winged Leopard's side as he watched the runes on the puppets slowly collapse.

These were high-quality magical tools. But losing the demons earlier had damaged them so much that they were getting worse by the minute. Without a Runemaster to repair them, they would stop working in the next few minutes.

Liam could see that as he fought.

'Shit! I don't know if I'm going to make it until then!'

He broke into a cold sweat as he felt the first wounds of this battle on his body.

As his mana neared exhaustion, his powers became less efficient, and he was no longer as precise in his dodges, or even his attacks.

But he and the Silver-Winged Leopard still took down two more Spirits when the golden and silver beast next to him gave out and exploded into countless pieces.

Liam faltered when he lost his third Spirit amid an attack by a bird-like Spirit with an extremely long and sharp beak.

The creature attacked him, reaching his unprotected abdomen until it pierced a few inches into his body.

"Aaaaagh!"

Liam screamed in pain as he felt the force of the attack, but he tried to use the moment when the bird got its body stuck in his armor to destroy it.

Boom!

The penultimate Spirit fell almost at the same time as the puppet whose last Spirit had been destroyed fell, completely exhausted.

Now there was only one enemy left, a creature that was already very transparent, while the puppet behind this artificial Spirit trembled like a weakened existence.

The snake-like creature moved along the ground towards Liam's neck, leaving the young man powerless to defend himself.

With only 1% of his mana, superficial wounds all over his body, and now a deep gash in his abdomen, he found himself paralyzed as the snake slithered toward his neck.