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Blood rained over dozens of demons as I felt the EXP flowing towards me, I accumulated it through the Grimoire’s Ability to accumulate EXP, which granted bonus EXP the more it was accumulated. It was a power I’ve been using for a while, something often referred as [EXP Combo] or whatever. The more EXP accumulated I had before receiving it, the larger the bonus would be. Perhaps this is also a way to compensate for my slow progress, although it feels like a glitch more than anything fair. But well, knowing the damned Lucifer, would he ever do something fair?
It had its flaws, if no more EXP was accumulated after a minute, the EXP would be automatically distributed, I cannot hold it infinitely, but this cooldown is reset each time I gain a bit of it, as long as I keep slaughtering demons, I can keep the bonus up. I believe this is my only ticket towards reaching Level 10, alongside using the 1.5 times EXP Ticket which I will use in the last moment, when all the EXP is distributed.
As I heard the screams of the demons, I noticed I had already slain way over a hundred, 99% of the troops were weak Imps, some more armed than others, but they were all the bottom of the food chain in terms of strength, slaughtering them in masse wasn’t hard for me as I could absorb their Blood into Blood Ki and refill my energies. However, Onis were getting more common, and I was struggling against so many at the same time, especially because they were way stronger in both physical power and magical power compared to Imps. I had to retreat a few steps while using long-ranged attacks and my Crimson Blood Flames and my spear as my primary way of defense. Eleanora should be able to be summoned in roughly 3 more minutes, so I’ve been killing demons for seven, enough for everyone in the backlines to reach the frontlines some minutes ago..
Naturally, they were surprised when they saw my abilities, but I had no time to explain to them, nor I was interested on it, they had many questions but the pressure of imminent death quickly told them that this wasn’t the place nor the time for questions. I noticed Jack and Seth in the backlines leading the rest of the priests alongside Elizabeth and Erdrich. The children were no longer recklessly charging into the frontlines thankfully.
Aside from that, Eric, Erika, and Chris were running to my side, each one mounting the Fenrir I left for them. They had received the aid of the priests and everyone else, so they had taken little damage, although I noticed a few bruises and burns in the hands and faces of the kids, while Erika had some damage in her doll body, but the make permeating it made it hard to see, her legs had a few cracks though, and so did her arms. This can be healed through the Nature Magic Tier 1 Spell named Plant Healing, which heals plants. It works on Erika because her body is made out of wood, which is obviously a plant, even if dead, the wood can heal this way. Normal healing magic can also heal her, but Plant Heal seems more efficient and less MP consuming.
“Blake!” Erika ran to my side, jumping off the Fenrir and quickly swinging her enormous Cursed Blade with a pirouette using her [Dance] Skill, as she spiraled through the air and fell like a meteor over a group of six Imps, crushing half of them and slicing in half the rest.
BOOM!
“You’re so far into the frontlines, we finally found you!” Erika began slaying more Imps. She had gotten used to killing more than the boys, mostly for reasons I had explained earlier, such as her body, different from that of a human, and her stronger mental strength.
“Erika…” I said with a mild smile, as I was covered in blood, she quickly stopped running to my side the moment she realized how I looked.
“Uwah! Y-You’re all red! Is this all blood?” She asked. “You’ll take a bath after this is done, alright?”
“Don’t worry, I can clean myself… Blood Gathering.”
[0)ᴠʟ FLUOSH!
I gathered all the blood covering my body into a sphere over my hand, and quickly refined it into Blood Ki, the liquid turned into red essence, flowing into the interior of my hand. My body continued to unleash streams of Mana and Blood Ki, as I unleashed spears of blood and blood flames against the faraway Imps, while keeping the Onis at bay.
“A-Amazing…!” Erika said with her mouth wide open, while spinning and jumping around, as she took care of anybody trying to sneak into my back. She was a very competent fighter, especially these dolls floating around me casting healing spells, I guess they noticed I had a lot of wounds over my body, which I’ve been cauterizing and ignoring afterwards.
“Blake, don’t think you can just take care of them all by yourself!” Chris said, as his fox floated around him, unleashing storms of tiny fireballs. They were small but when they dozens were fired at the same time, they were like machine guns. He had also learned an ability that allowed him to instantly set fire traps in the floor, perhaps by leveling. By merely touching the floor with his foot, he left a magic circle that when demons stepped over, exploded with a fiery blaze, kind of like landmines. He was dishing out a lot of damage through this method, which I might copy in the future, as it seemed rather useful.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
His landmines proved to eb rather amazing, and with Erika covering my back, I noticed Chris, who was behind her. He was using his bow to unleash explosive arrows infused with a lot of nature mana, when they hit the ground, they exploded into vines that entangled foes, making it easy for the three of us (Erika, Chris, and I) to pick the demons that were trapped within the vines.
“T-The frontlines are too much for children like us, Blake, let’s pull back!” Eric said timidly.
“You can pull back, I will continue moving forward, there’s no way I am missing all of this!” I said with adrenaline pumping through my blood.
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