Chapter 901: The Wingless Hero
Elaine’s sudden actions caught everyone off guard, especially the humanoid dragon she’d targeted.
"!"
Still, this man had been sent to eliminate Hero Candidates.
Even caught off guard, he reacted on instinct, his right fist igniting with black demonic flames as he swung it toward Elaine.
In response, she coated her left hand in life energy and caught his wrist, her power clashing against the black flames that tried to burn her skin. As she forced his arm aside, she activated Drain Touch at maximum potency, drawing as much life force as she could from him.
At the same time, her right hand, pulled back, summoned her spear from the ground directly into her grip. The life energy she absorbed flowed through her heart, converting into death energy that poured from her right hand, swirling around the spear with law energy as she thrust it forward into his left shoulder, piercing through scales and flesh alike.
’Necrotic Burst.’
The death energy surrounding her spear, along with what had already invaded his body, detonated, blasting away his entire shoulder in a violent explosion, the shockwave knocking the projectiles fired by the leader of the demonic dragons off course.
Elaine’s allies in the Hero Candidates reacted immediately, starting with Archer, who released several arrows that intercepted the remaining attacks from the enemy leader, and Mage, who unleashed spells to prevent her from being targeted.
Lancer charged straight at the third dragon, who quickly summoned a great sword, while Tank drew his short sword and moved in to flank him, supporting Lancer.
As for the dragon Elaine had attacked, with his shoulder obliterated and parts of his upper torso blown apart, his body was violently tossed aside, crashing into the ground and tumbling across it for several meters.
Elaine, consuming more life energy to extend her Vital Enhancement across her entire body, quickly chased after him and caught up.
But instead of aiming for exposed vital points to end his life quickly, she stabbed him through the stomach, lifted his body onto her spear like a pike, and shouted, "Knight!"
"?!"
The man reflexively turned toward her at the sound of his name, and with the humanoid dragon’s body on her spear, Elaine swung it sideways, flinging him toward Knight, who immediately brought down his raised sword.
"The Devil’s Sword."
The sound of his calm voice that rang out a few seconds after his supersonic slash was completely drowned out by the powerful roar that filled the air as his sword cut straight through the humanoid dragon’s body from the centre.
The slash split the ground beneath, dividing the land for several hundred meters forward and even cutting through the nearby hill.
Right after cutting that one in two and reducing their opponents from three to two, Knight immediately turned and dashed toward the leader, whom Mage and Archer were currently engaging.
That one was also a mage, fighting entirely at range, and she was highly skilled at maintaining distance, as none of Mage’s spells or Archer’s arrows had managed to graze her.
Knight rushed straight at her, his sword glowing faintly as he swung it, releasing several slashes that cut through the magic threads forming her barriers, tearing them apart. Archer’s arrows followed immediately, several streaking toward her shoulder and upper torso.
She managed to twist her body at the last moment to avoid them—or at least she would have if Elaine hadn’t suddenly dashed in low, sliding across the ground on her knees behind the humanoid dragon and grabbing her right leg.
"wha—?!"
Elaine instantly activated Drain Touch, drawing her life energy away, and the sudden weakness forced her to stagger backwards, disoriented.
In that state, she couldn’t properly defend herself against Archer’s arrows, her hastily raised barriers only blocking the first two before crumbling under the third, leaving the remaining three to pierce straight into her torso.
They detonated moments later, the blasts throwing her backwards, and with Elaine still holding her leg, she crashed onto her back just as Knight leapt into the air, raised his sword, and brought it down.
Knight’s sword pierced straight through the demonic dragon’s neck, and he dragged the blade downward, slicing through her chest and cleaving her draconic heart in two, ending her life.
By the time he finished and turned around, Elaine, nearby, had already launched herself into the air with her spear drawn back. Death energy coiled around the weapon as she hurled it with all her strength toward the last humanoid dragon, whom Lancer and Tank were already pressing.
For the demonic dragon about to swing his massive great sword, the spear dropping from above and piercing his left arm disrupted his attack, creating an opening that Lancer immediately exploited by thrusting his spear into the dragon’s stomach.
Tank followed up by slamming his shield into him, sending his body crashing through trees and smashing against rocks. He rolled across the ground before coming to his knees, and when he looked up, his eyes widened as his senses failed to locate his two companions.
Elaine landed nearby, stumbling briefly before regaining her balance and calling her spear back into her hand. The moment she caught it, the remaining demonic dragon roared, shedding his humanoid guise and returning to his full demonic dragon form.
He lifted his limbs, slammed them into the earth, and unleashed a violent breath of rocks, jagged stone, and sand, all propelled forward at high speed, the wide spread consuming everything in front of him.
Tank immediately slammed his tower shield into the ground, raising a fortification law energy barrier to protect the group from the dragon’s breath.
The breath attack ended quickly as the demonic dragon drew back his head, compressing vast amounts of demonic energy into his maw before releasing it again, this time aimed directly at the ground. His rock breath struck the earth, boring deep into the soil as all the energy he poured downward concentrated beneath the surface.
A moment later, the trapped energy erupted back upward, blasting the ground apart across several kilometres as the forest collapsed inward. Trees vanished into the earth, the land caved and split, and the terrain crumbled in a violent chain of landslides and sinkholes that swallowed everything as the forest sank into the depths below.
The devastation left the Hero Candidates with no choice but to take to the skies. Being Infernal Devils, all of them except Knight unfurled their wings and leapt into the air, Elaine included.
Her Infernal Devil disguise even came with a pair of wings, though she couldn’t truly use them to fly on her own. They were enchanted with flight magic, which was what allowed her to remain airborne, but she hadn’t trained with it for long, so only simple movements were possible.
If she had to fight seriously in that state, she’d be quite useless, unable to bring out her full power, especially since she liked leaping off solid surfaces to gain bursts of speed.
As mentioned earlier, all of them except Knight had spread their wings.
Tank rushed to him, grabbed hold, and lifted him into the air, his actions leaving Elaine visibly confused as she wondered why Knight didn’t simply use his own wings to fly.
The thought passed quickly, since they now had a half-berserk demonic dragon to deal with in the air.
Unfortunately for the dragon, he was heavily outnumbered, and the Hero Candidates were all slightly stronger after having defeated the Class 2 Demonic Dragon earlier.
The last of the three that had attacked the group fell within a few minutes, and once he was dead, they flew over the ruined land until they reached solid ground, where they all descended and landed.
As soon as they touched down, Elaine quickly retracted the fake wings, disabling the flight enchantment, and breathed a quiet sigh of relief at finally being back on solid ground.
It went without saying that in the battle in the sky, Elaine had contributed the least, something everyone noticed.
"You don’t seem very used to fighting in the air, do you?" Mage asked
Elaine shook her head. "No, I haven’t exactly faced many opponents while in the air with them."
Mage nodded and muttered, "Figures."
Elaine then turned toward Knight and Tank, and seeing her clearly confused expression, Tank said, "You’re probably wondering why I had to carry him, right?"
Elaine nodded silently, and Tank looked to Knight, a quiet gesture asking him to explain himself.
Sighing, Knight spoke. "I’m a Wingless."
For a moment, silence followed, Elaine’s expression growing even more puzzled.
"You don’t know what that means, do you?" Mage asked after a moment, prompting Elaine to turn to her.
"If I did, I wouldn’t be this confused, would I?"
Mage nodded again with a light chuckle and muttered, "Figures."
She then explained to Elaine. "Wingless are pretty much what the name says. They’re mutant devils who don’t sprout wings when their skills and traits awaken."
It was a condition Elaine had never heard of or encountered before, but mutations weren’t exactly rare in the grand scheme of things, or so Arthur had taught her, so she accepted the explanation quickly.
"Oh, I see," she said, and somehow Mage found her reaction amusing.
"Yeah, I figured you’d react like that," Mage muttered.
Elaine didn’t know this, but Wingless devils were often looked down on and discriminated against on Choth. Knight had endured a great deal of that treatment for being different from other Infernal Devils because he was wingless, and he’d nearly been disowned by his family because of it.
When Elaine heard that, her expression turned incredulous.
"What the bullshit?" she said. "They wanted to disown him just because he doesn’t have wings? That makes no sense. He’s still a devil either way."
She genuinely couldn’t understand why lacking wings, when others had them, was reason enough for such treatment.
"Exactly," Knight said, agreeing with her. "I see no reason why being wingless should mean I deserve different treatment from the others. Besides, the same people who looked down on me for it are the ones I bested in the competition for the ’Knight’ role."
Clearly, there was much more to Knight’s path in becoming a Hero Candidate than Elaine had realised.
He’d faced discrimination from a young age, but through talent, effort, and persistence, he’d proven himself equal to and eventually better than those who looked down on him simply because they had wings and he didn’t.
Now, he was a Hero Candidate and already one of the most influential figures on the continent, on a fast track toward becoming one of the most powerful people on this planet.
Elaine felt a strange sense of satisfaction knowing he’d surpassed those who treated him poorly for being different, and just as she had that thought, Archer spoke up.
"I almost forgot about this. Elaine, why didn’t you finish off that first guy, the one whose arm you blew off? You had a perfect chance. You ended up slowing Knight down when he wanted to help Mage and me."
Archer’s words reminded them of the start of the fight, when Elaine’s actions had caught the enemies off guard and she’d blown off one demonic dragon’s arm, knocking him down.
She’d had a clear chance to strike a vital point and end him, but instead she’d left the kill to Knight, delaying him when he wanted to assist Mage and Archer against the enemy leader.
Faced with this question, Elaine tilted her head to the side, lightly scratching her hair as she replied, "Oh, well, you’re going to become Heroes, right? Wouldn’t it be better if you were stronger? Getting the last hit gives an EXP bonus."
Archer blinked at her response.
"Oh, you wanted to give him the bonus? Well, thanks, but I kinda wish you’d..."
His voice trailed off as he tried to phrase his statement properly, and Mage, sighing, picked up on where he left off.
"What he means is that you should pay more attention to the battle situation before doing that. If there’s room for it, fine, but if there isn’t, it’s better for you to take the kill and get the bonus yourself. You also need to get stronger to free your guardian, don’t you?"
Elaine nodded and said, "Oh, okay, if the opportunity presents itself."
She hadn’t actually agreed to taking the kills herself.
Knight, the one directly involved in the matter, wore a slightly odd expression. He recalled the fight with the Demonic Dragon and how Elaine had self-sabotaged what should’ve been a guaranteed kill. Now there had been another clear chance she’d handed to someone else.
He also remembered when they’d first met her and how she hadn’t killed the Demonic Wyrmlings that attacked the town, leaving Archer to finish them.
Normally, those incidents wouldn’t have stood out, just as they hadn’t for his companions, but seeing her pass up obvious kill opportunities now connected those moments in his mind.
Even so, he couldn’t draw any definite conclusions about what was happening or why her actions felt off.
