God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Hunter ducked to the side, revealing Cain, who had Stingè locked in.

"Eat metal, bastard!"

Cain fired two heavy rounds at Stingè. The golden bullets tore through the air at speeds far exceeding the speed of sound, reaching the Demon in a fraction of a second.

"Idle World."

The bullets smashed against an invincible barrier without even touching the hem of Stingè's garment.

Cain gritted his teeth as he let loose a barrage of shots, providing cover for Hunter who charged in through the hail of bullets...

Hundreds of magic circles appeared around him, and {Flaming Hounds} straight from the hottest pits of hell burst forth, charging at Stingè with bloodlust dripping from their fangs.

"Idle Slash."

An invincible slash that seemed to cut through the world itself was released from nowhere. Not even a magic circle appeared. A majority of the {Flaming Hounds} were sliced apart. However, Hunter and the few remaining managed to slip through.

With a grunt, Hunter became airborne. Using the force of his descent, he threw a heavy blow at Stingè. However, the demon gracefully evaded it.

Putting an arm on Hunter's shoulder, he pulled forward, causing him to lose balance. His most then flew forward, smashing into Hunter's midsection.

"Gahh!"

Blood and saliva steamed down Hunter's mouth as he suffered a terrible injury. Still, Hunter managed to summon even more {Flaming Hounds} to assist him. Taking a step back, he twisted his lower body and snapped forward with a Ki-charged kick at the Demon's upper body.

However, the kick was stuck in place by that same invincible energy field.

Hunter's face turned was engulfed in panic as he gazed into the inhumane eyes of Stingè,

'Crap!'

Before Hunter had his limbs taken from him again, he switched positions with a summon. The poor thing was shredded into pieces in a split second. Reappearing beside Stngè, Hubter let loose a series of linked kicks and punches.

Anyone with any martial arts experience would be able to tell that Hunter's technique was absolutely superb. He had practiced a form of hand-to-hand combat called Muay Thai during his time working in the underground.

And now, he was able to make use of his knowledge of martial arts to bring out every ounce of potential strength in his body. Hunter was a very hard hitter when it came to melee combat just based on his stats. Combined with his beautiful application of martial arts, he would be able to overwhelm an opponent with higher stats with just technique alone.

However, Stingè... was not a regular opponent...

'Stingè's place is on the battlefield. He was born to kill by the sword, and then, die by its edge. However, as the perfect spawn of the battlefield, death is nothing but a non-existent privilege.'

How would a creature that had been embellished so much by the system be normal?

Stingè stood at over eight feet tall, towering over Cain and standing at almost the same height as the transformed Hunter.

The hands of the Demon ended with long claws. His eyes were bigger than those of a regular human, and two sharp canines peeked out of his closed mouth.

A dark cloak that seemed to be forged from darkness itself rested on its shoulders and a long serpentine tail stretched from its posterior. A single horn stretched from the center of its head as well.

Despite his monster-like features, Stingè's facial appearance was quite handsome and regal. However, behind it, was a sickening malevolence.

With all of Hunter's skillful moves, he was unable to lay a single finger on Stingè. Every attack was blocked with so much fluidity, it was as though Huntrr could never reach his target.

His counterattacks were also always lethal if Hunter didn't have the ability to exchange places with his summoned creatures, he would have either lost all his limbs, or he would have been dead a long time ago.

In a place where a single mistake would cost them their lives, both Cain and Hunter were performing at their peak. Cain continued firing well-placed bullets. However, they were all stopped by an invincible force field that was constantly around Stingè.

The crushed metal bullets simply fell to the ground without causing much damage. Xain sucked in a deep breath as he changed his strategy.

He immediately switched to magic bullets. Or in other words, {Flame Orbs}...

When Cain had created the {Hand of Midas}, he had etched a {Flame Orb} magic circle into the Forx Stone. He had done this because magic circles required time to manifest. However, if it was etched permanently into the weapon, there would be no need for him to conjure one up every time he needed it.

Firing the {Flame Orbs} with the {Hand of Midas} was very different from using them normally. The magic bullets were treated the same as normal metal bullets. It was compressed and accelerated to increase its damage to the maximum.

A {Flame Orb} compressed and accelerated so much couldn't be considered a {Flame Orb} anymore. As such, Cain called the magic bullets {Flame Bullets}.

The muzzle of Cain's firearms became red hot as he fired the supercharged {Flame Bullets}.

All this time, Stingè had been ignoring him. However, he turned his attention to him. Seeing the {Flame Bullets} approaching him, he let out a condescending laugh,

"If I was a lower-tier being, it would undoubtedly be a hassle to deal with those things."

"However..."

Stretching his finger out, a truly horrifying grin appeared on the face of the Demon,

"Idle World:Blade Continuum."

'Shit...'

A series of world-severing slashes that stretched from earth to sky were launched at Cain. If one was enough to kill him, this much was simply overkill.

The worst part?

There was no way he could avoid this one. The range of {Nexus Tether} was simply too small to avoid all of them at once. Cain's face paled as he stared at his impending death.

'No...'

He gratified his teeth as he stared at the net of unavoidable slashes,

'I can't go down like this...'

Although the lines were almost invincible, he could still see them faintly, thanks to {Eye of Clairvoyance}.

His body was covered with arcs of lightning and a burst of azure flames as he abandoned all caution and dove headfirst into the net of slashes.

If he couldn't run away, then he would have to charge in headfirst. He swapped his weapons again and the {Hand of Stingè}, as well as the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} appeared in them.

Gripping them hard, Cain dashed forward. He encased both of them in numerous layers of Devil Essence. If he tried parrying any of the attacks with the normal weapons, Cain did not doubt that they would be split apart. He didn't want that to happen at all.

Swinging forward, he used the larger blade to slightly offset the course of one of the spatial blades. A large portion of the Devil Essence layers came undone, but the blade wasn't affected.

Cain tilted his head to the side, dodging another spatial blade that came flying with the intent of slicing his head apart.

"Dark Dragon, Orbiting..."

A slithering caricature of a black dragon appeared around Cain, deflecting the path of the spatial blades. Cain dodged, weaved, and bobbed through the net of slicing attacks. A deep gash appeared on his face, but he ignored it and continued pushing through.

Blood dripped down his thighs as more gashes appeared on his legs. Even more blood dripped down his arms as his biceps and forearms were mauled.

Still, he continued pushing forward without stopping. His eyes emitted a scalding golden light as he continued pushing forward.

"Huu... huu..."

A blood-soaked Cain staggered out of the field of destructive spatial blades.

Clapping his hands in mock surprise, Stingè laughed and sneered at Cain,

"Impressive. Truly impressive. I thought the Beast of Ragnarok would be my best catch. I never expected to find another interesting thing."

"Hehe... You aren't so bad yourself." Cain said through a bloody grin.

The smile on Stingè's face darkened,

"Of course. After all..."

He pointed a finger in Cain's general direction again,

"On this battlefield, I am King."

Cain felt danger once again...

"Blade Continuum."

A torrent of spatial blades was launched at Cain again. Cain ran as the blades chased after him like bloodthirsty hounds. Twisting his body nimbly midair, he passed through a gap between two spatial blades, saving himself from decapitation.

Swinging his blades, he continued to parry and dodge skillfully. However, his defense was easily blasted apart by the torrent of spatial blades.

With a pale face, Cain realized that the layers of Devil Essence he had wrapped around {Hand of Stingè} had been completely unraveled by the spatial blades.

'Crap!'

An unavoidable spatial blade was coming his way. The only way to escape harm's way was to parry the strike. However, he was currently incapable of doing so with his other weapon.

This was a risk...

He needed to decide, was the weapon worth the risk of taking the attack head on?

"Screw it all!"

Rage burned in Cain's eyes. The depths of his golden eyes turned black.

An immeasurable pillar of pure darkness exploded out of his body...