Perhaps it was because of my absolute show of confidence or perhaps it was because a strange stickman suddenly appeared out of thin air, but either way, that sprite immediately took up a guarded stance the moment he saw the strange shadow flying towards him. His gaze was immediately drawn to the Shadow Demon Guardian, as if he was expecting the shadow to suddenly throw out some kind of special killer move.
Upon receiving my order, the shadow fully extended its wings out with a flourish and began flying towards the sprite like a perfectly straight arrow. Not only was its flight speed quick, it was extremely stable as well; there was absolutely no indication of this being its first flight.
‘Ah…how envious…in fact, why is that fellow so good at flying in the first place? I’m the original here, not it! Why must I fall like a ten tonne hammer whenever I try to fly? Also, also, what’s the idea behind dodging that Fireball with such a flashy twirl? Is it looking down on me or something? Am I really being scorned by my own shadow…’
Regardless of how much tsukkomi I had to offer, it was a fact that the shadow formed from my very own mana was darting towards that sprite, easily covering the span of a 100 meters in merely a second. As for that sprite, it was beginning to feel the pressure of the shadow’s unerring advance so he promptly retreated backwards while tossing out another fire attack at it.
Yet with its absurdly quick speed and absurdly light body that was not bound by physical concerns, it was able to pull off the most impossible of twists and turns imaginable. If this was Earth, this shadow of mine could probably even beat a cobra at Yoga.
The moment my shadow stepped within 20 meters of its enemy, the sprite opened up its non-distinct mouth and spat out a jet of flames at it. The Shadow Demon immediately swerved to the left in order to dodge the attack but the sprite wasn’t so easily foiled. Wherever my shadow went, he would doggedly hound it with that unending stream of fire.
The Shadow Demon tried a multitude of ways to break past the stream of fire. In fact, I had even ordered it to try and face that attack head on as well. It violently rushed right into that roaring column of flames as ordered but just as it did so, its body was instantly engulfed in flames and started to flicker just as that sprite once did.
At the same time as that, I immediately felt a void in my mana pool that quickly ballooned the longer the shadow stood in the way of the flames. Thankfully, my mana pool had increased significantly ever since I became a Fallen Angel. Under normal circumstances, I could probably maintain the Shadow Demon for almost half a day.
According to Ferti’nier, I already had the mana reserves of a Six-stars. Still, it wasn’t easy maintaining the Shadow Demon right now. During times such as this where it was hurt, I had to use my mana to stabilize its elemental body lest it dissipated entirely.
In order to prevent the Shadow Demon from being destroyed, I had no choice but to channel more mana into it. By ,y estimations, it was possible for it to force its way through to the sprite. However, the mana expended would be horrific.
Ignoring every other consideration, I continued with my order to push through that stream of fire by sheer brute force. In truth, while doing so might have ate up a lot of mana, that sprite had to expend a great deal of mana as well. If I wanted to, I could easily turn this battle into a war of attrition. Yet with Nola in a dire situation, I had to rush to her aid as soon as possible. No matter what, I had to resolve this battle quickly!
As a shadowy clone of myself, the Shadow Demon was completely obedient to my commands. Even if I were to command it to jump into a volcano, it would never hesitate. Thus, when that command was given, the Shadow Demon continued pushing forward despite the growing burns on its body. Truly, this was a dangerous situation to be in. If my mana channeling were to stop for even a second, all that mana expenditure would have been for naught.
By the time the Shadow Demon was less than five meters away from the sprite, my mana pool had dropped by a ton!
Realizing that I was about to run out of mana, the sprite continued with its backpedalling while breathing out fire at the charging Shadow Demon. Just like that, the two of them continued chasing each other around for over a minute at which point the sprite finally stopped.
‘Out of mana huh?’ Yet just as that thought occured, reality came knocking with a tight slap to my face. Barely a second later, I saw that Demonic Fire Sprite leap into the lava lake and pop out a couple seconds later, head first. The bubbling lava not only didn’t harm him, it instead recovered his mana…
Having just stuck its head out of the lava lake, the first thing the sprite did was to chuck over a dozen Fireballs at the Shadowman. With such a barrage of flames, I knew that brute force was no longer an option so I promptly had my Shadow Demon dodge to the side.
With a few dodges to the right and left, my Shadow Demon managed to evade all of the incoming Fireballs. Yet all that was merely a smokescreen for the sprite’s true aim. The Demonic Fire Sprite wasn’t out to finish off my Shadow Demon at all…
While all that was happening, the sprite conjured up a two meter long blade of fire shaped like a crescent. Seeing that, I was just about to order my Shadow Demon to dodge once more when I realized that his blade wasn’t flying towards my shadow at all. Rather, it was heading straight towards Nola who was still battling against that giant Flame Devouring Fish!
Because she was still busy fending off the attacks of that fish, she was completely caught off by that powerful flame bade. Though she managed to perform a last minute dodge in the end, the sheer size of her body caused her tail to still be caught by that attack.
It was at that very moment that my previous instincts about the flame resistant Nola being unable to endure an attack from the sprite were verified. Why? Because that flame blade actually managed to slice through her tail that was over half a meter wide!
She immediately let forth a booming howl of pain. Even if such an injury wasn’t a lasting one because of her regenerative abilities, that didn’t mean that she was immune to pain either. What should’ve hurt still caused her a great deal of pain.
That searing pain fuelled her rage even further, providing even more energy for her relentless attacks!
She frantically sawed at the fish who was still stuck to her claw. This time, the rage of having her tail sliced off was enough for her teeth to pierce through the outer scales of the fish and draw blood.
Now in as much pain as Nola, the giant fish began to furiously struggle. However, Nola adamantly bit down on it, refusing to budge in the slightest and fully intending to strike while the iron was hot. But just as she was about to do so, another flame blade came swinging towards her.
In spite of that, Nola was fully prepared to finish off this fish even if it meant taking on that flame blade again. Realizing her near suicidal intentions, the fish knew that now was the time to let go. It immediately loosened its teeth and gave Nola a vicious ram to the side of her face. Struck, Nola’s head shifted to the side slightly and her fangs loosened as well but not to the extent that they released their vice-like grip. Even in this state, she refused to loosen her bite…
