Even though they had spent a lot of time together as a team, this would be the first time the two of them teamed up directly to face a powerful enemy on the battlefield.
Although the threat remained firm and imposing before them, radiating a bloodlust that froze the air, Ryan could not help but have that sudden and reflective thought cross his mind.
Until now, he had managed to form a tactical team with Karol and Irina during the journey to the dwarves’ land, with Mirian when fighting holy knights, and even with Beatrice during his ascent to the S rank.
Each of them brought a unique and rational skill to combat.
But now, Helen stood right beside him, holding half of a heavy demonic boomerang. Carrying something very dangerous: an absolute, blind, and suicidal loyalty toward Ryan.
Helen was ready to do absolutely anything Ryan ordered her to do. Regardless of whether the plan sounded like madness, regardless of whether she did not understand how the stupid enemy magic worked, and regardless of the final result or the physical damage her own body might receive in the process.
She trusted her life in her leader’s hands.
’I only have a minuscule fraction of a second to do this right,’ Ryan calculated, adjusting his grip on the weapon and taking a deep breath.
’I must be precise. The exact moment this beast’s guard slips, and Helen launches her attack, I must deactivate his darkness defense.’
The demon king Rigal roared with deafening fury and the swift exchange of blows began.
Ryan firmly took the vanguard, using his agility and strength to intercept the beast. He blocked every one of the monster’s swipes with the thick curved blade of his boomerang, withstanding impacts that made his bones tremble and shattered the floor beneath his boots.
At his side, moving like a lethal shadow, Helen attacked relentlessly. She launched slashes at Rigal’s neck, ribs, and eyes. But the immense gray beast was absurdly fast and dodged her blows by moving his gigantic body with unnatural agility.
Up to that moment, despite the overwhelming intensity of the fight, they had not managed to land a single clean blow on either side.
Orange sparks flew all over the dark hall every time metal clashed against claws.
Chloe, the holy knight who watched the entire combat from the supposed safety of one of the thick distant columns at the entrance, covered her ears due to the roar.
With her simple A-rank eyes, Chloe could barely distinguish the hazy flashes and the motion trails the three monsters left in the air while moving at such speed.
To her, they were just three shadows clashing and destroying the entire castle with simple shockwaves.
After a loud crash, blood finally splattered with great force.
Rigal’s claws managed to pierce Helen’s shoulder. Tearing her open from the base of her neck down to her chest.
In the center of the hall, Rigal raised both furry arms and launched a blunt, downward attack meant to crush Ryan’s skull.
Ryan planted his feet firmly, tensed all the muscles in his back, and raised his crossed weapon. He managed to perfectly deflect him, a flawless parry that redirected all that immense kinetic force to the side, causing Rigal’s claws to crash uselessly into the floor.
"Recovery."
With his guard totally lowered by the failed momentum, the monster’s chest and legs were left exposed.
Helen did not hesitate for a single millisecond. Taking advantage of the perfect moment her leader had created for her, she slid across the floor and launched a brutal upward strike.
Capturing that exact moment with his senses pushed to the limit, Ryan applied his restrictive skill.
"Debt Seal," Ryan pronounced.
The invisible pulse hit the demon king, stripping away and dispelling the dense layer of passive darkness protecting his thick skin for exactly zero point zero two seconds.
In that microsecond of vulnerability, Helen’s heavy boomerang struck with all its brute force directly into one of the beastman’s massive hind legs.
The crunch of splintering bone echoed in the room. Rigal let out a loud and genuine growl of pain, losing his balance for the first time and bending his injured knee.
Immediately, to not lose the momentum, Ryan spun on his own axis and landed a brutal blow with his own weapon directly on the monster’s head, seeking to shatter his skull.
The violent impact knocked the immense demon king back several meters across the floor, but Rigal received no real physical damage from that last blow, for his impenetrable darkness armor had already covered his body again after the seal’s time expired.
But the strategy was confirmed. It worked perfectly.
Rigal stood up, roaring with murderous fury upon seeing his own blood staining the floor. He lunged toward them with much more savage and uncontrolled attacks, trying to tear them to pieces with pure brute force.
But Ryan and Helen had already entered a completely terrifying synchronization and combat rhythm.
The hall turned into a true slaughterhouse. The coordination between the two humans was absolute and lethal, moving like two halves of the same murderous brain.
When Rigal launched a spinning attack, Ryan ducked and blocked it. Helen jumped over Ryan and attacked.
"Debt Seal."
Helen’s heavy weapon opened a deep, bloody cut on the demon king’s chest.
"Somehow, it seems you have grown stronger," Ryan said, recovering a stance away from the demon king.
Helen jumped backward, landing right beside him with a smile.
"I hate to admit it, but it was thanks to Ivis’s training," Helen said, glancing sideways at Ryan without losing sight of the demon king.
"She said that my excitement for the fight makes me lose energy, that when I get angry, I lose energy. So... now by controlling my frustration, I can channel my power more to be stronger," she added with a gleam of confidence in her eyes.
’I see, indeed. I owe you one, Ivis,’ Ryan thought with a slight smile.
Without waiting any longer, Rigal launched into an attack.
The combat continued, with Ryan deactivating the demon king’s defenses every so often, landing critical hits and deep cuts.
Blow after blow.
When the demon king Rigal felt his body covered in deep wounds and his own blood soaking his fur, he completely lost his calm.
The absolute ruler of the north was being cornered. To him, they were two simple and pathetic humans, whose weapons were supposed to be sealed, and now they were gaining a lot of ground in his own fortress.
"Damn humans!" Rigal yelled, gathering absolutely all the dark magic he had left in a last desperate attempt to crush them with an explosion of energy.
Upon seeing the immense concentration of mana, Ryan knew it was the final moment.
"Helen," Ryan ordered with a powerful voice that cut through the room’s chaos. "Use all your power, speed, and brute strength. Do not hold back for anything, we will finish him in this next attack."
"Understood," Helen replied, gritting her teeth and preparing her muscles for the definitive blow.
They launched themselves forward again in perfect coordination, ignoring the pressure of the dark magic trying to suffocate them.
Rigal stomped massively, kicking up spikes of earth and darkness. Ryan dodged the projectiles, slid across the shattered floor, and got directly under the beast’s immense open guard.
"Debt Seal."
With a brutal, upward movement, Ryan drove his heavy half of the boomerang deep into the instep of one of the demon king’s massive legs, piercing flesh and bone until firmly anchoring it against the solid floor.
Rigal bellowed in pure agony, instantly losing all his mobility. The immense beast king could not withstand the damage to his limbs and fell heavily to his knees in front of them, letting out a final roar full of rage and helplessness.
It was the end.
Helen leaped into the air with immense force, raising her half of the boomerang over her head.
Ryan activated the debt seal one last time, stripping the demon king’s body of all his magical protection.
With a cry of pure physical exertion, Helen descended like a meteorite and pierced Rigal’s massive chest, sinking the heavy metal directly into the beast’s heart.
Dark blood gushed out, drowning the demon king’s roars.
But Ryan was not going to leave any margin for the monster to try a last-minute suicidal tactic.
In the exact second Helen pierced the heart, Ryan let go of the anchored leg, jumped onto the demon king’s broad back, and firmly positioned himself from behind.
Ryan firmly grabbed the top and bottom of the demon king’s immense canine snout with both his bare hands.
And without a single drop of mercy, Ryan pulled in opposite directions and ripped it apart, separating the jaws with all his might.
The sickening sound of tearing flesh and giving bones echoed throughout the silent hall. The immense and feared demon king Rigal collapsed onto his own blood, completely massacred, his yellow eyes fading forever.
The inert body of the ruler of the shadows did not move again.
Absolute, sepulchral silence reigned in the shattered throne room, interrupted only by the heavy breathing of the two human victors.
And almost immediately, the system reacted to the impossible feat.
Before Ryan’s tired eyes, the system messages began to appear and shine in the darkness non-stop, multiplying and marking the repeated sequence like an unstoppable, swift spam of blue notifications.
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
...