Is this really a Game?!

Some bruises and cuts, as well as a slight shock to their insides, were the only injuries they had suffered, all except for Liara and the demon who hadn't moved from the spot and endured the powerful shockwave and the shaking of the ground.

'Just what kind of a monster is he?' Liara asked herself as she gulped whilst looking at where Reign had been.

'A human, one on the same level as me, should never be able to possess such strength, how is this possible?!' The demon asked himself in shock as he stared at the devastation Reign's attack had brought forward.

The ground was blasted away, and a large hole, one that was more than 100 meters in diameter and over 30 meters deep, had appeared nearby, with the center being where Reign was previously standing.

'Their souls?'

"Ay, I got them, but they're badly damaged," Aethion said as he sighed before looking at Reign.

"HAVE YOU GONE INSANE?!" Aethion suddenly shouted as he stared at Reign's injured body.

The armor he wore had warped from the explosion, multiple ribs were broken, his arms were broken, and one of his legs had suffered a slight crack. His insides fared no better as the explosion had dealt him some internal injuries as well.

"I know, I know, this was definitely not a good move, I wasn't able to control it properly, it was a failure." Reign said with a sigh as he continued laying down on the ground. He could barely move at this moment thanks to his injuries.

"I wanted to control the explosion upwards, that would have destroyed their attacks and injured them heavily, perhaps killed them, but instead, I got this result, it was all because I overestimated myself, as well as underestimated the power of such a combination."

Reign had used the [ Lightning Discharge ] to bring forth as much lightning as he could in an instant in order to boost the combination while using the coating to create a sharp blade of mana that, in theory, should continue existing even when he used the fourth sword, which was a long-range attack.

The fourth sword, combined with the two skills, would become even more powerful and faster, not only would it gain the destructive power of lightning, but also a boost in speed, bringing its already incredibly fast attack to an even higher level.

The sharp edge coating was supposed to further increase the penetrative power of the skill, and the fourth sword would be able to stab through anything in its path, whilst still dealing some damage to the surroundings thanks to the fact that Reign didn't compress the power of the lightning fully, allowing it to explode all around it.

Still, he judged that that wouldn't be enough to deal with all the attacks as they were spread out, so he needed something else, something that would allow the attack to explode around a wider area, which was why he used the [ Compact Punch ], or at least he used a modified version of it, one that would work with a sword as well.

His plan was for the attack to go forth about 15 meters, which was where the attacks were, before exploding. He would still control the skill, limiting the range of the explosion to about 20 – 30 meters in diameter while forcing it to go upwards, which would not only limit the damage to the surrounding area but would increase the destructive power of the already incredibly destructive skill even higher.

It would be more akin to a ray gun, or a nuclear blast that instead of exploding in a wide area, was concentrated and created in a sort of ray. 

He failed, however.

He underestimated just how powerful the skill turned out to be, and the more powerful it was, the wilder it was, and the more difficult it was to control it. It exploded without any control, but luckily, it exploded around 40 meters above Reign, which was what saved him, well, that and the fact that the attacks that were launched at him were hit first, slowing down the explosion for a bit and weakening it.

The explosion had killed all three Ethereon Demons, but it had actually damaged their souls by quite a bit, which meant that it would be hard for Aethion to get all the information they knew.

'Well, this is still better than the other attack I had in mind.' Reign said as he thought of the combination of five skills he had thought off before, but deemed it too dangerous.

"You would have certainly died had you done that."

"Yeah." Reign tried moving, but he was barely able to move his feet, as for his arms, they were broken, so even the slightest attempt of moving them hurt like hell.

He used his light manipulation with the little mana he had in order to mend his injuries a bit. He mostly healed his insides, but he also attempted to heal his leg which had cracked, but he stopped as he noticed that healing it fully would take a lot of mana.

Right now, he was unable to even use a mana potion as he couldn't utilize his hands, so he wasn't able to drink it.

He could hear the sound of battle from afar. He wasn't worried, he was certain that Liara would win, after all, she had an incredibly powerful weapon, and even without it, she was even with the demon in terms of skill and strength, had she not used the white tiger previously and fought against his golem for long, she would have been able to take the advantage even earlier and might not have needed to even use her halberd's true form to win.

While Reign was stuck inside the giant hole he made, Liara was still battling the demon. He was still in shock from the powerful explosion and display of power from Reign when she attacked, taking him by surprise.

His golem was still there, but as the bottle progressed, the golem did less and less as the demon didn't have enough demonic energy to spare thanks to Liara's constant attacks. He was pushed to his limits and soon, the golem broke down, finally allowing Liara to focus solely on the demon.

Thanks to her halberd's powers, she was able to attack him from long-range, which meant he barely had any chances of attacking her, placing him in a defensive position and making him very passive, which made him angry, but also helpless. He couldn't escape from Liara, as the moment he tried to, he would be attacked by the halberd from the back.

Even worse was the fact that his reinforcements were gone, taken out by a single person while Liara had multiple Tier IV combatants near her, and all of them could jump in and help her defeat him at a moment's notice.

If not for Liara wanting to prove herself and defeat the demon by herself, he would have already been dead.

Liara struck the demon's weapon once again, and suddenly, the cracks widened before the weapon finally broke in half. That moment was when the demon knew that his fate was sealed. Without a weapon, he was no longer Liara's opponent, and that soon showed.

The halberd continued attacking him, and with only half of a weapon left, he was unable to block the attacks, while dodging was the only thing he could do, it was hard to constantly dodge a weapon that could be wielded in such a weird way, not to mention the fact it could move by itself as well.

Cuts appeared, then some holes appeared on the demon's body, before finally, the halberd managed to not only cut him deeply at his waist but also pass next to him and move around, coiling around him and forcing him to fall down on the ground.

It quickly bound his legs and then arms before Liara appeared in front of him.

In a final act of desperation, the demon opened his mouth and used the last remaining bits of his demonic energy to fire a red missile that Liara easily dodged. It exploded several meters behind her, doing nothing to her and her team.

She crouched and stared into the demon's eyes before smiling.

"You wanted to see how desperate I would become after my team got killed, well unfortunately, you were unable to do that, instead, I was able to see just how desperate you were once your minions were dead, as well as the reinforcements you had placed such high hopes on."

Liara smirked at the demon before grabbing her halberd and swinging it down at the demon, decapitating him.

She then moved to where the hole was in order to check up on Reign who had still not appeared, only for her eyes to widen in shock by the sight.

Reign was still lying, but his legs were brought up. They were near his face, and he was holding a bottle of mana potion with them, doing his best to open it and drink it. He saw Liara and blinked several times before smiling in embarrassment.