Thud! Arad teleported back to the forest, staring around. “The fourth one should be around here,” He looked around, “I came to help. Show yourself up. I don’t want to fight.”
As Arad stared around, he could see a kid lying on the ground. This time he didn’t make the same mistake. That’s a halfling. From the white shirt and holy symbol in his hand, it was clear he was a cleric of some sort.
“Are you okay?” Arad asked, approaching the man.
^[Stay away!]^ Doma’s voice boomed in his head as his legs held tight. ^[Something is off,]^
Arad stopped and glared at the halfling with his void eyes, seeing a violent current of corrupted mana coursing through his heart and mind.
“The hell is this?” Arad gasped, and Doma growled, ^[The bastard has a devil sealed inside him. Stay away for now.]^
Thud! Arad jumped back, keeping a fair distance between himself and the halfling. “Is he about to explode?”
CLACK! A mouth opened on Arad’s cheek, “[Your void weakened him, and now he can’t keep the seal down. Depending on what is inside of him, killing him might be the only solution.]”
CRACKLE! Black lightning flashed from the halfling’s back. His body started to levitate as black goo consumed his skin.
“[Baalzebul’s spawn, they are not powerful devils. But at least one that can kill you if they fully materialize.]” Doma said with a giggle, “[This A-ranker has us tied with a troublesome foe.]”
Arad clenched his fist, glaring at the halfling as his body flashed with lightning, the ground beneath him shattering. “This isn’t anything like the devil from before.”
[Devils have three major types and three ranks. Contractors are the weakest type, and they focus on forcing contracts on people to gain power. Fiends are the creation of evil. Their main call in life is causing mayhem, the typical devil people think of. And finally spawns, they are shards of power dripped from the devil lord’s magic. They spawn from their essence and are vastly stronger.] Mom explained.
“[Also, in each type you can find the ranks. Lower, middle, and upper-rank devils. This one is a middle-rank spawn of Baalzebul, the devil lady of insects and lighting. Knock him out before he fully manifests,]”
BAM! Arad lunged forward, swinging his fist at the halfling’s face.
CRACKLE! Before his fist could hit, the halfling’s body flashed away in the blink of an eye.
Thud! The halfling landed in the distance, lighting covering his arms and legs, forming claws and jagged spikes. The ground beneath him burned as he opened his black eyes. The cursed aura of the devil washed over the city, alarming all the paladins to the presence of the monster.
***
In the city, the paladin general turned with a stern face, “Amolis, you finally lost control of the devil. As I promised, I shall be the one to put an end to it.” BAM! He lunged over the castle wall, leaping from one house to the other as he rushed toward the forest.
***
As the adventurers rested in the camp, they sensed Amolis’s devil and snapped up, “Amolis? Damn it!” Meimei growled.
Keno pulled his sword, “We must hurry and save that Arad guy,” He glared at Gura, “Amolis’s devil isn’t so…”
BAM! As they talked, something flew past them, digging a trench in the ground before stopping in a cloud of dust.
“What? Did he lose this quickly?” Keno lunged into the dust, searching for Arad. But soon, he stopped in the blink of an eye, seeing Amolis bleeding on the ground with several punch marks on his skin.
Keno gasped as he lept back, barely dodging the raging black lightning.
BAM! Arad landed in the back, walking toward Amolis with glowing red eyes, “You’re really a handful,”
CRACKLE! Amolis flashed toward Arad, swinging a massive claw of black lightning.
Arad clenched a fist, covering it with his void. CLANG! A sold punch drilled Amolis’s head to the ground, “Your lightning cannot harm me as long as it can’t reach me,”
Lightning as people know it in air cannot happen in the vacuum of the void because lightning depends crucially on the generation of positive ions and negative electrons by ionization of molecules of the air in high electric fields.
Arad’s arms were completely isolating the lighting as long as he kept them covered in his void. That only meant Amolis was harmless to him, as long as he didn’t get fast enough to hit him before he could cover himself.
Amolis’s body twitched on the ground, barely able to move.
“Leave him to me!” A dwarf rushed in from the forest.
Keno looked at the dwarf with a smile, “Jogan you, old bastard!”
Jogan stood over Amolis, lifting a tiny wand. “By the bones of the hells, let the seal be re-written in ash. May the lightning quell under the name of everything holy,” A white spark struck Amolis, and the devil’s aura started fading.
Arad looked at the dwarf, “And who are you?”
Jogan looked at Arad with a smile, “Jogan of the steel forge clan, just call me Jogan. I’m an A-rank warlock, and this fool’s friend.” He pointed at the unconscious Amolis with his thumb, “Amolis, a cleric of Amaterasu that’s sealing a powerful devil as you have seen. The monster is too strong, and we can’t kill it without sustaining a lot of damage. That’s why we keep his seal.”
Arad looked around. “So you are all the A-rankers?” His eyes darted between them.
“A regenerative barbarian that absorbs magic. A hard-headed old swordsman, a suspicious wizard halfling with a ton of magic items, a cleric that hosts a devil, and a Warlock dwarf capable of maintaining such a seal.” Arad said with a passive face.
Meimei stared at Arad with a smile, “And you’re the mysterious dragon slayer from Alina, Arad that beat Five and wiped the ground with an adult white dragon.” .
Keno sheathed his sword, “Your power is something else, newbie S-rank.”
“I’m a B-rank,” Arad replied with a straight face.
“No, you aren’t. Your power is at least A-rank. Defeating five head to head is a feat initiating S-ranks.” Jogan smiled, “Usually after doing a ton of A-rank missions, you can finally take the exam which is fighting her. If you win, you get your rank. If you lose, then you need more power.”
“I still need to do missions then,” Arad sighed. Even if he has the power of an S-rank, he can’t get the rank without finishing enough quests. But at least Five was right, defeating her and granting him s-rank treatment from other adventurers.
He looked a the A-rankers. They probably won’t even bother speaking to him in the first place if he didn’t defeat Five, or might have started suspecting the source of his power.
BAM! As they talked, the paladin general landed beside them, his eyes glowing with divine magic. “Where is Amolis?”
Jogan smiled, pointing at Arad, “He managed to knock him out, so I recast the seal.”
“Arad?” The paladin general gasped, seeing Arad standing there, “You stopped the devil? Without holy magic?”
Keno sighed in the back, “He just punched his head to the ground, no tricks or fancy spells. Manhandled that devil-like he was nothing,”
“How about the devil’s curse? You aren’t feeling sick?”
^[Devils use curses instead of magic. His lightning had the same property. But since you have me, it only proved a delicious snack for me.]^
Arad waved his hand, “Not the first devil I had to deal with,”