Now, a new problem presented itself to Ronald and the others.
They had indeed arrived at the location where Patricia and Lam were engaged in battle.
Just beyond the frontlines where the two were clashing, two or three grapevine walls needed to be crossed to enter the fray.
However, the high-speed and dazzling frequency of attacks between the girl and the demon left no chance for anyone to intervene.
If one were to carelessly interfere,
It was hard to guarantee whether it would help Patricia or actually hinder her suppression of Lama.
In such a moment of hesitation, Spencer made the first move.
Also hailing from Springs, this investigator had brief encounters with the people of the Nicholas family.
Drawing on experience from past missions,
He raised his metal short staff and prodded at several locations on the demon’s body through the air.
The invisible sound waves shattered the vines in front and charged straight towards the demon’s body.
Immediately, corresponding spots on Lama’s robust body emitted deep and dense impact sounds.
Visible dents appeared on his solid form.
Even the fur covering his body showed ring-shaped ripples from the shockwave.
Faced with tangible injury,
Lama roared once more, as expected.
The demon had indeed noticed the arrival of Ronald and the others.
He had also detected the commotion caused by Spencer.
With Patricia’s storm-like onslaught, he had absolutely no opportunity to spare!
Thus, the few sound waves that came just in the right moments of attack firmly struck him, causing Lama’s already weakening physical strength to drop further.
Patricia, in the midst of her attack, had no intention of holding back.
Noticing the situation,
Her longsword, originally thrusting towards the opponent’s shoulder, suddenly lifted in the air and then swept behind her in a single motion.
Patricia’s movements were undoubtedly fast.
In an instant, the blade slid around her body under the night sky, with the force of her shifting center of gravity applied to the blade, culminating in an upward slash from Lama’s lower side.
The silvery blade, reflecting starlight, spun into a round moon in rapid motion, a neat steel arc that seemed to follow the beat of music in front of the enemy.
The sharp and cold blade, sparkling with starlight, made an unimpeded cut from below.
All her strength, plus the added inertia from the rotation.
With a full-force blow, Patricia sliced off Lama’s entire right arm along with half his shoulder, and it fell to the ground.
Had the demon not reacted so fast and turned his head in time,
it was likely that half his head would have been lost to that sword stroke!
Subsequently, something interesting happened.
As the demon’s right hand and arm fell to the ground, at first they were a bloody mess.
this mess transformed into black mist and gradually dissipated into the air.
Leaving no trace to be seen.
The demon’s shout echoed in the arena enclosed by grapevine walls:
"Human, you are courting death!"
In Lama’s roar, there was a clear undertone of pain.
Though the words were strong, actions don’t lie.
Struggling to dodge Patricia’s relentless attacks, his eyes flickered left and right.
He was contemplating how to escape.
At such close range, transforming into a crow would be tantamount to losing the ability to resist, and before he could even fly two meters, he would likely be wholly cleaved in two by Patricia.
And maintaining his current state, the demon’s physical abilities were no match for the person in front of him.
As for casting a spell...
Now, where was the opportunity for that?
Did he seem to have no other choice?
Seeing the support from the cult magician side delayed and not discerning any chance of victory,
he steeled his heart and suddenly let out a loud howl.
Accompanied by his agonized scream,
a red-black energy burst crazily from the demon’s body in an instant.
But at the same time, his robust physique visibly wilted away.
This was not the transformation from human to crow that had just occurred.
It was a wasting away of flesh and spirit, a weakening.
Moments before a towering figure nearly three meters tall, he now shrank in an instant to a skeletal, paltry stature, less than one and a half meters in height.
What Lama had exchanged for, at the expense of severe self-inflicted damage,
was this black energy that rapidly spread around his body, even filling the dueling space that he and Patricia had created.
The attacking girl barely had room to dodge before the energy onslaught hit her in the face.
In an instant, Patricia’s legs gave way.
She quickly stabbed her longsword into the ground to steady herself, nearly collapsing onto the surface.
Fortunately, Patricia knew
that she had come today in pursuit of the killer of her kin.
Hence, she had naturally made thorough preparations in terms of protection before setting out.
In the span of a breath, an unknown amulet in the girl’s embrace took effect, swiftly restoring some of the strength the black energy had sapped.
However, when Patricia looked up again,
she found herself in a very vexing situation...
With the demon spewing red-black energy at the cost of his own vitality, she wasn’t facing a desperate counterstrike or a fight to the death.
The demon’s frenzied action...
was merely to rob Patricia of her mobility!
Seizing the brief moment, Lama had once again turned into a black crow and, mixed with the swirl of energy, flew off into the distance.
Patricia was very aware
that farther away, the view of Ronald and a few others was blocked by the red-black energy, completely obscuring the crow’s flight path.
And once distance was created,
catching a fleeing black bird in the darkness of night would be a fool’s errand.
She had to make a quick decision!
With that in mind, Patricia didn’t hesitate to throw her longsword.
The cold metal cut through the air, and Patricia channeled what little strength she had left into that decisive strike.
the sharp silver blade accurately pierced the crow’s body.
Then, with momentum, it ruthlessly pinned the bird, one wing conspicuously smaller, onto a grapevine.
At that point, Lama could no longer maintain the appearance of a crow.
Hanging on the vine-entwined wall, he slowly reverted to a little over one meter in his weakened form, struggling briefly before ceasing to move.
The intense battle before and the attempt to escape by casting a spell
had drained all of the demon’s strength.