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Chapter 325: Strongest Sage, Decides on Strategy
Chapter 325: Strongest Sage, Decides on Strategy
Chapter 325: Strongest Sage, Decides on Strategy
"Err… Is that demon as good as Mathi-kun in combat?"
"…Strength of a demon paired with Mathi-kun's combat ingenuity, can such thing even be stopped…?"
Alma and Ruli asked me.
True… Were Zadokilgias as good as me in combat art, it would be unstoppable.
Zadokilgias's combat is exceedingly refined.
The demon itself isn't particularly adept at high powered magic or anything, it's simply skillful at deploying and controlling magic.
Especially in group battles.
Against a group of enemy, normally, you'd want to decrease their number one by one to shrink the numerical inferiority.
However, [Demon of Destruction] Zadokilgias never kills its enemies one by one.
Even in a situation where it could instantly kill its adversaries, it would instead choose to destroy important body parts like arms and legs and then drive in magic that disable regeneration for good measure to someone in the group.
The demon doesn't kill them not out of mercy of course.
It creates a burden on the enemy's group by leaving one of them alive.
A dead enemy would simply mean one less force.
However, by leaving one of the enemies alive, letting them suffer poison or massive bleeding… Their friends in the group would try to save them.
Neutralizing not only that enemy but anyone who attempts to save them.
And once the group had failed to function properly, the demon would proceed to annihilate them all in one go.
However… Of course, launching attacks that would only cause a handicap to the enemies is incomparably harder than killing them outright.
If the damage is too small, it would immediately get healed and risk getting counterattacked.
And yet, if the power is too high, the opponent would end up dying instead.
Incapacitating enemies while keeping them alive while trying to survive the battle yourself demands an extremely fine control of magic.
It may sounds easy… but putting that into practice is an extremely difficult task in reality.
There were several other demons that tried to mimic the method, but Zadokilgias was the only one that managed to perfectly execute the strategy.
This demon's skills in combat and magic were simply far ahead of the rest.
Even reincarnation magic, the demon must have made use of its skill to develop it.
Yet…
"I should come on top in term of combat ingenuity… The difference is paper thin unlike anything we've faced before though."
When I fought him in the past, Zadokilgias was better at fighting than me.
The reason why I could kill the demon is because I was simply stronger than it.
I wouldn't be a match to it were my combat skill remained the same as that time.
However, fortunately I had the opportunity to train for hundreds of years after defeating Zadokilgias, perfecting my craft.
On the other hand, Zadokilgias had been dead all this time… Which means, its combat skill stayed as it was back then.
Fortunately, I've got a good affinity with Zadokilgias.
Furthermore… I know all about Zadokilgias combat style down to the last detail.
After all--part of my combat art was developed based on the combat art that demon used in the fight.
"Paper thin difference to Mathi-kun…"
"That's… I can get why this demon's far dangerous than Zaridias then…"
"…But that makes it a complete monster then!?…Do you mind if I run away?"
Ruli and Alma looked tense when they heard me.
Iris curled up.
But… Of course I don't plan on losing.
I've got all the material needed to win this fight too.
"I have one good news… This demon's revival is probably not perfect."
Zadokilgias most likely got revived in this era by way of reincarnation magic.
However… That reincarnation magic is most likely not perfect.
Zadokilgias's mana mixed in Dragon Vein had a slight noise in it.
Mana noise caused by a damage on soul.
Its soul must have suffered some damage because its self-developed reincarnation magic wasn't perfect.
Demon's soul is sturdier than human's but a damage is a damage.
The wound is not serious enough to affect its magic control… but it's a key to defeating Zadokilgias.
To be frank, defeating it would have been difficult without that weakness.
Gotta thank this failure in its reincarnation spell.
"Not perfect… Do you mean like the [Warmongers] resurrected by Anmorr brothers?"
Alma asked me.
Indeed, incomplete revival reminds me of those [Warmongers].
However… Zadokilgias's case is nothing alike.
Unlike resurrection magic, reincarnation magic put the user in a new body.
Hence, there is no worry of deteriorated body like resurrection magic.
The disadvantage is that you've got to start from zero again though.
Things would have been simple if Zadokilgias's body was that of a newborn demon… But judging from the mana mixed in Dragon Vein, that doesn't seem to be the case here.
It's that of a young demon but the body itself is relatively mature. Or so I perceived.
There must have been some tricks inserted into the revival magic to forcefully mature the body or perhaps it had sealed its mana until it grew enough.
"No, the degradation won't be visibly apparent. In a normal fight, the demon would be no different than its perfect state."
"A normal fight…"
"You mean we're not going to fight it normally?"
"Exactly."
To be honest, I wouldn't have enough lives were the current me go toe to toe against Zadokilgias.
I could have a chance if the battle could end quickly, but someone adept in battle like Zadokilgias would most definitely turn it into a protracted battle where it would slowly shave down my stamina.
Yet using moves intended for protracted battle like [Mana Poison] will only get us countered to our defeat.
Hence, we won't fight the normal way.
We're gonna make use of our enemy's weakness to forcefully bring about a short decisive match.
That said, winning a short match is possible only if Zadokilgias's strength remains as is.
Its body may have matured but neither is it perfect.
In other words, Zadokilgias would gradually grow into its perfect state if we leave it to its own device.
Once that happens, we have no hope of winning.