Ishiki landed on the ground and didn't move. He even stopped breathing.

As he suspected the look on demon's face changed to that of annoyance, he couldn't pinpoint Ishiki's location now.

'Caught you...' Ishiki thought with a smirk. 'Bastard is finding me by movement of air.'

But the thing was that he was not invisible, he was just harder to pinpoint... and that too would only last until the enemy does not use some special moves or is specifically looking at him.

That was the reason that when he moved... it made [Ghost Blade] less effective.

Ishiki waited until the demon turned to the other side as it slowly absorbed the area around him... just at that moment, he turned around and ran.

he ran for some distance and ducked behind a wall. He actually had no way of defeating the goddamned bastard and he was not a overpowered main character of some fantasy novel.

As he as right now... without a proper weapon and armor he would be going back in a coffin.

'Debts can be cleared later when I am strong...'

The demon stopped after one rotation as he was not able to find a single trace of the human mouse around him. He gritted his teeth and then his yellow, Sulphur like eyes started glowing.

Ishiki felt a very bad premonition that his plan to run away was going to fail spectacularly. The hairs on his arms stood on end.

He hadn't yet deactivated [Ghost Blade] even though he was starting to feel faint throbbing in his head. He was reaching his limit to use the skill, but there was still sufficient time until that happened.

"Your hiding games are not gonna protect you, rat." The demon let out a whiff of rotted breath and then raised both his hands... the intensity of the glow in his eyes increased and suddenly a very strong gale of wind swept through the battlefield.

Ishiki didn't get the time to react before the world turned upside down. Within almost a vicinity of 100 meters everything surrounding the demon was obliterated by the ferocious gale.

A massive gale erupted from the Demon's position with enough force to alter the landscape. The ground itself seemed to scream as wind compressed to the density of a battering ram swept outward in an expanding sphere of devastation.

Buildings that had survived the fall of Aethelburg were pulverized. Rubble was torn from the ground and hurled through the air. The very cobblestones beneath Ishiki's feet disintegrated, turned to powder and scattered like sand.

Ishiki was lifted bodily into the air, helpless as a leaf in a hurricane.

His back slammed against something solid—a wall? a pillar? The force drove the air from his lungs in a painful wheeze. Then he was tumbling and spinning, the world reduced to a chaotic blur of earth and sky that refused to orient itself properly.

He hit the ground hard enough to see stars.

When his vision finally cleared, he understood what had happened.

He was inside a crater.

The Demon stood at the center of a perfectly circular crater easily a hundred meters in diameter. Everything within that radius had been erased—the ground itself was carved away to reveal the bedrock beneath.

And there, at the epicenter, stood the Demon on a raised pillar of untouched stone, looking down at the devastation with a smile of pure, vicious satisfaction.

Its eyes found Ishiki immediately.

"There you are."

Ishiki's heart hammered against his heart as if trying to escape on its own. 'Holy... cow!'

He tried to steady his breathing as he pushed himself up... there was nowhere left to run now. And even if he wanted to, one thing was clear... the wretch was hell bent on ending him.

'Screw it... screw it! Screw It!' Ishiki felt his body tremble as he saw the demon jump into the crater and land not too far away from him.

At that moment he could only see one thing that he could do and that was to use his Exclusive skill, specifically [Soul Chain].

The inherent ability would let him fuse with the shinobi's soul for a limited time of 30 seconds.

'Thirty seconds... that's all i get.'

Thirty seconds where he might actually stand a chance against this monster.

And then... who knew? He would be in a state of being called half dead after that... and if he miraculously killed the demon. There were still the withering beasts, they were just away because of the demon.

But... at the end it didn't matter. If he didn't try, he was dead anyways.

The Demon was ten meters away now.

Ishiki made his choice and activated [Soul Chain].

A strange, ethereal blue aura erupted from his skin, rising like steam as the spiritual pressure and the raw essence of a dead soul flooded his body.

He felt a sudden pain in his head and a very strong urge to puke as his muscles defined themselves... they were flooded with immense strength far greater than his body was made for.

The demon's eyes widened and he stopped in his tracks. "Interesting," it purred. "What did you do, little rat?"

Ishiki didn't answer with words... he acted instantly. There was no time to waste. The purple hued window was tickling down in front of his eyes.

He coiled his legs backwards and then sent himself flying, leaving a small crater and the crater's boundary wall... he dismissed the bladeless tachi mid way and formed raw fists.

The demon acted on his instincts and planted his feet in the ground, then raised his hands to bring them in front of his face to block the attack.

Ishiki closed the distance within a heartbeat... he flew like a missile and brough his fist down engaging all the muscles in his arm to the fullest.

They crashed together like colliding storms.

Demon's eyes widened as soon as Ishiki's fist touched his hands... they carried too much strength, maybe even greater than his own.

Time momentarily seemed to stop... and then the real fight began.

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