The Sword Saint’s Second Life As a Fox Girl

2-55 Descent V

The Demon swung and a sea of hellfire swallowed the spot where Erin had once been. The Demon slashed and the wall behind Erin was pulverized by the sheer force of the Demon’s strength.

The blaze of the depths razed the room once more but with greater vigour. The room had been relatively vast but with the destruction of the battle between a Demon and a Fox-kin, the room had become vaster than before with walls being carved out piece by piece. Even huge parts of the ceiling had given into the heat of the battle and crumbled.

Soon, the whole room would succumb to the destruction and give in to the earth that encumbered the room.

But before that devastation arrives, Erin had a much more materialistic worry, that is the increment of her opponent’s prowess. The Demon who was plainly and wildly swinging its greatsword had now landed a few scratches on Erin. The Demon’s swordplay had become more refined than ever. The acquisition of flesh had also increased its strength. Though its level was still thirty, Erin felt that it was at least five levels higher.

The Demon kept a distance away from Erin and kept using the ashen flames to lay havoc upon her. Erin could not get close to the Demon and she could neither find time to cast any strong spells. To this end, she could only prance around until opportunity descends by the grace of the fortune god.

“Is this all? Are you truly a Fae? Where are your magic tricks?” the Demon’s taunt continued even as it unleashed the hellfire upon Erin without stopping. The movement of the Demon itself was swift but the ashen flame was only a flame in the end. Even if its caster swung it at the speed of sound, the flame wouldn’t necessarily move at that same speed.

Though Erin was in a state where her chances of winning were bleak, she welcomed this situation. The Demon race would surely be a huge obstacle in the future and this was the opportunity to learn more about them. She had read many books about Demons and even told a few tales by Nivia but none could compare the benefits of having the first-hand experience. Demons were a feared bunch, that was the absolute truth. They were the reason religious orders had so much sway in the affairs of politics and economies. The public feared the Demons and presumably, only the faiths had the means to repel them. Erin would understand why in this battle.

The tides of the battle shifted greatly in the Demon’s favour. It was unknown to Erin whether Demons had an endless amount of stamina even if the truth was the contrary, Erin knew her own stamina would run out beforehand. The ashen flames once again engulfed the room, shrinking the paths Erin could run to. With a narrower means of evasion, Erin’s wounds began to accumulate and each following wound was deeper than the previous one. She prioritized her vital points and her limbs. As long as she still breathed and her limbs were intact, she didn’t believe she wouldn’t find the opportunity to launch a decisive counterattack.

Fortunately, neither the Demon had any tricks that could be counted as decisive. The ashen flame was versatile but even versatility had its limits. Furthermore, the Demon lacked the proper techniques of a sword. Without a pristine form, avoiding its greatsword was an easy task, provided if the ashen flames weren’t present and she wouldn’t be destroyed from a single blow.

The scale of the fight was never completely tipped to one side. Erin was used to being in a disadvantageous situation. She waited patiently. She waited for the right moment to move. Eventually, the break appeared. There was a gap in between the Demon’s movements. Erin seized that opportunity to close their distance. With her sabre clad in Arcane Edge and lightning, she slashed down diagonally from the right shoulder to the left waist of the Demon. The cut was deep, she knew it for sure but she didn’t stay to see the actual result. She didn’t need to. She didn’t believe it would be this easy to kill the Demon.

The sword came down on her but she twisted her body out of the way and immediately thrust out her sabre. Her blade gouged a chunk of flesh from the Demon’s shoulder. There was a wince in the Demon’s expression but that was all. Erin knew she inflicted pain on the Demon but it bothered her that the Demon cared little for its wound. The Demon countered with a full swing but Erin bent her body back and let the large blade glided over her, though the heat did sear her skin slightly.

The Demon aimed for the ground Erin stood on. She leapt up and brought her sabre down. With the overwhelming difference in strength, her attack was easily battered away. A crack began to form on the blade of her sabre. The damage was only on her blade alone. The strength of the Demon could even be felt by the hands she held the sabre with.

“This is really not good.”

The Demon watched as she faltered. It pounced at the window the Fox-kin showed. The flames flared on the greatsword. It swung with a battle cry but the wind was the only victim.

“Slow,” Erin whispered from the Demon’s back.

Before the Demon could turn around, she plunged her sabre through the Demon’s chest and tore her blade right through the Demon’s flesh.

It would be a mortal wound for many but Erin kept her expectations low for the foreign enemy in front of her.

A howl of agony erupted from the Demon. “Impertinent bitch!” it roared and commanded the flames to attack Erin but due to the proximity, the Demon itself suffered some damage but it was better than to let the Fox-kin retreat unscathed.

But Erin did retreat unscathed. Her speed was still the victor even though the Demon was faster than before.

The wound Erin drew was deep but compared to the big picture, it wasn’t enough. Pain was clearly written on the Demon’s face but it didn’t have any sense of urgency. That deep wound brought the Demon no closer to its demise.

“You Demons really are resilient,” Erin remarked. She had wanted to use Mystic Blade but she had the faint of suspicion of her hidden skill being useless against a Demon.

“I can’t believe how ignorant you truly are. Are you sure you’re a Fae? So unknowledgeable.”

“Oh, pray tell, what am I ignorant of?”

“Ordinary magic is of no threat to us. It still hurts to be harmed by it but there’s no real threat. Only a divine power or the essence of Spirits had the ability to harm us in the truest sense. This is why my kind is so greatly feared. No mere mortal could kill us or even fend us off.” The Demon sighed. “I can’t believe this. A Fae that isn’t even in the know of their mortal enemies. Are you perhaps some sort of outcast from birth?”

“Close but no,” Erin answered. She withheld her sigh of relief at her cautiousness. “No wonder it looked so indifferent to the wounds it suffered. It suspected I have no means to kill it… Damn.”

The Demon stared scrutinizingly at Erin.

“So, what now? Your power is immense, no doubt, but you lack precision. Are you confident your attacks will land before you make a huge blunder that could cause your demise?”

“You have no means to kill me, Vixen. Enough with your tricks. You can’t use Spirit Magic here. What else can you do?”

“I’m not a learned person when it comes to Demons. For all I know, you could be lying about your kind being invulnerable towards magic.”

The Demon snickered. “Is this desperation I’m sensing?”

“Is that denial I’m sensing?” Erin retorted with a grin.

“You’re really impudent. I wonder if your ancestors are ashamed.”

“I’m sure my ancestors are smiling right now.” Of course, that was a lie. Erin knew nothing about her ancestors. She could barely remember her own parents.

“I have fought wars with various races long before you were born, vixen. I have been in battles more than you. My experience triumphed over yours. Your tricks would not work twice, whatever is it you have up your sleeves. We all know how this is going to end but the path leading to that destination is still changeable. Just submit and your death won’t be as painful as I have planned, but painful nonetheless.”

Erin scoffed. “I wonder about your experience. I know if I had your experiences, I wouldn’t be a level thirty.”

“Levels don’t denote one’s true power. It’s only an overall and vague measurement. The perception of level equals strength is only the illusion mortals told themselves to comfort their inferior nature.”

“...Really?” Erin said after a brief silence.

“I have slaughtered many who are levels higher than me. They fell because of their reliance on levels. Your kin too. I have even killed my own kind too who have existed longer than me.”

“That means what to me?”

“The longer a Demon has existed, the stronger it is, or that’s the common denotation. Once in a while, you have an anomaly like me. A Demon who is only a few hundred years old but stronger than many Demons who were thousands of years old.”

“Is that supposed to frighten me?”

The Demon chuckled. “That was the intention. I wanted to avoid tarnishing your beauty as much as possible but it seems… that’s not possible. It’s a shame that I can’t keep your beauty in its entirety.”

“Why are you so concerned about my beauty?”

“The face of a beauty alone opens many doors in the human world. They’re just so gullible. Even after thousands of years, humans tend to turn blind in the face of beauty.”

Erin could only agree. Even in her past life, many great figures have fallen due to the schemes set by beauties who had dug into their hearts.

“I thought you wanted to tear me from limb to limb?”

“Those are just words from impulse. I meant nothing of it, for the most part.”

“I see...” Erin muttered. She released her breaths in a quick burst before drawing everything up and still her breathing. Since she wasn’t able to use much of her spells, she still had some decent amount of Mana to spare but her stamina was on the verge of depletion. She mustered whatever strength she could find within her. Her tired eyes regained their blaze from her sheer will. She held on to the belief that despair was only a reality if one had breathed their last. She pointed her sabre at the Demon. “You should know me by now. I’m not going to surrender. You might as well tear me from limb to limb.”

“Very well then. As you wish, Nine-tail kin. I’ll be lying if I said I didn’t wish for this.”

“Cease your infernal yapping and come already. You talk too much.”

The Demon bellowed. It took off into a dash that created cracks with every step. “I have always enjoyed putting overbearing people like you into despair.” The ashen flames spread from the blade and covered the whole sword and the arm holding it.

It was a reckless move but Erin understood why the Demon made such a move. It saw the crack on her blade. It intended to crush her will by shattering her blade. Her body was too precious for it. No matter the degree of the humiliation and pain it received, it wanted to have her body in the best state possible.

Erin swallowed her uncertainties and met the Demon’s forward assault head-on. The Demon’s greatsword came and she raised her sabre to guard it. Per the two’s expectations, the greatsword shattered the silver-steel blade-like glass. The shards glittered like stars in the night before losing their glow once they hit the ground. Erin muttered a silent apology to Sven. She then quickly stepped back and shot a Lightning Bolt at the Demon’s face. Seeing through Erin’s scheme from early on, the Demon evaded the spell with ease and closed the gap between them once again.

The Demon grabbed Erin’s free arm and tightened its grasp while searing her skin with the ashen flames.

Erin gritted her teeth to endure the pain and sent her tails at the Demon. Each of her tails dug into its flesh but that was all there was to it. The pain was a generous cost for the Demon to end this fight. What’s more, Erin was hurting herself by using her tails against the Demon’s flesh which was seething with the ashen flame’s heat.

“Guess I’ll have your arms first,” the Demon said and swung the oversized sword down at her left arm.

Erin smiled as she cast aside the broken sabre she had been holding on to. “What a coincidence, I’ll be having your arm first too,” she said and drew her other sword. The silver sabre wasn’t the only sword she had. The rusted iron sword was tough but blunt. However, with Mystic Blade, it would still cut. A gentle blue laced the withering iron blade. With her speed, the Demon didn’t have enough time to react. She sliced the Demon’s right arm, the arm holding the greatsword.

The realization came all too late for the Demon. Now, it understood it had been played all along. It had revealed its own key weakness to its opponent. Spirit Magic and Holy Magic weren’t the only means to kill a Demon.

Erin snatched the greatsword from the severed arm of the Demon. The Demon tried to escape but her tails dug in deep into its searing flesh.

“I won,” Erin declared and swung the greatsword at the Demon. The ashen flames drew a black and vermilion glow in its path.

The Demon’s face was blanked. It could not comprehend its defeat but reality wasn’t so kind to wait for the Demon’s mind to catch up. The ashen flames within the Demon’s body faded, along with the other flames that were engulfing the room. Once the flames had died out, the body of the Demon began to wither.

“Slain by my own arm…?” The Demon spouted its last words in disbelief.

“As I said, you talked too much.”

“Unacceptable… I will not accept this—” the Demon had yet to finish its final words but its body was already crumbling away into dust.

The faint breeze flowing in the room scattered the remains of the Demon.

Erin’s world blurred and swirled. Her arms trembled as the grip around the burning greatsword loosened. Blood dripped from her nose. She fell to her knees. Her state would lead people to imagine her death to be near but her expression spelt the contrary; she had a triumphant grin on her face.

[Experience gained +150% - Level Progression: 210%]

[Erinthea: Level 27 increased to Level 29]

[Skill points gained +4 | 4]

[Ability points gained +4 | 8]

[Level Progression: 10%]

Erinthea - Faerie-kin: Five-Tailed Fox-kin

Level: 29 | Status: Mild Exhaustion

Might: 22 | Arcane: 35 | Finesse: 30

Magic Arts
Spirit Magic Lv. 8 | Arcane Edge Lv. 5 | Arcane Armor Lv. 10 | Lightning Magic Lv. 10 | Arcane Aegis Lv. 3 | Mystic Tail Arts Lv 1

Combat Arts
Sword Art Lv. 8 | Fleet Foot Lv. 5 | Brawler Lv. 5

Innate Skills
Appraisal Lv. Ex | Night Vision Lv. Ex | Sixth Sense Lv. Ex | Toxin Resistance Lv. 8 | Lust Deviant Lv. Ex | Mana Harvest Lv. 1 | Lightning Resistance Lv. 1

Unique Talent
Mystic Blade Lv. Ex | Revenant Lv. Ex

Level Progression: 10%

Remaining Skill Points: 4

Remaining Ability Points: 8