41: Grace vs Ren

"Dam it! Hurry up and kill that brat! It's just a little girl!"

"Shall fight… for okaasan."

Himeko was displaying the swordsmanship she learned from Lorina. And of course, it was far superior compared to the holy knights. For the Void Blade, armor was meaningless.

"Oi, is that an elf? Why is she so skilled?"

The next remark was referring to Lorina. She was chopping heads left and right. Her cuts were precise and her hands were a blur. Normal knights don't stand a chance against her.

"What the hell!? Get this goo off me!"

Sue was extremely nimble. Because she was a slime, she twisted herself like a snake and strangled everyone she came across.

"What magic is this… I can't move…"

A few soldiers got trapped in Irina's strings.

"Ara Ara! Such an ugly prey. Let me put you out of your misery."

She slightly tapped her string and in the next moment the humans were cut down because of the string tightening. Then Irina quickly wiggled her hands and made a halbeard out of her strings. It was as strong as any steel weapon and she started swinging it around.

"Come on men! What are you…"

Before the high ranking soldier was able to finish his sentence, his throat his throat was slight. Like a true assassin Momoyo managed to sneak behind him and take him out.

"Use magic! Fire some spells!"

"[Aqua Shield]!"

Felicia was galloping around the battlefield doing her share of killing. Needless to say, no human spell managed to breach her magic shield.

The 3 demon kings were at a loss for words.

"Oi, how come those guys are able to do damage? Why were the humans able to predict our every move, yet with just those guys they're having a hard time?"

"I don't like it either, but maybe we can turn the tides now. Look, Milla's battle maid wants to take on the leading hero. If he dies, the humans might be easy prey for us!"

------

*Bang*

Sparks flew in the air as Ren's sword and Grace's scythe clashed.

"Hou? So you can keep up with my moves. You ain't half bad for a demon."

"I wish I could say the same."

"Triple Slash!"

Grace spinned her scythe around turning it into a shield. She managed to block all of Ren's slashes. Because the scythe was longer than the sword, Grace had the advantage in terms of reach. The scythe and the sword kept clashing at great speeds.

Just as I suspected, somehow he's draining my mana. I better not let this drag on for too long.

Those were the thoughts Grace had.

"Sir Hero, I will get a bit serious now.

[Air Cutter]!"

Grace swung her scythe while chanting that spell. 3 wind blades were generated and were heading straight for Ren.

"Ha! I can handle that!"

Ren met each of the wind blade with his holy sword Galatine and crushed all of them. But when the last one dispersed, Ren opened his eyes wide as Grace had already closed the distance between them.

"What!?"

"Such an amateur mistake!"

Grace swung her scythe down towards Ren. She wasn't aiming for any vital spot as Milla gave her a clear order to not kill him. Ren poured the mana he absorbed into his boots and managed to dodge by a paper thin difference.

"You… who are you calling an amateur? Something like that won't reach me!"

Grace only smiled at that sentence as she pointed towards Ren.

"Are you sure about that?"

A small scratch appeared on Ren's cheek. He didn't manage to completely dodge it. Naturally Ren was furious, but after a brief pause, he couldn't help not ask.

"Oi… why can't I smell anything? I can breathe just fine… but I can't pick up any smell. What the hell did you do to me, bitch!?"

"So, it was the sense of smell that was taken. Such a pity."

"Answer me!"

Grace was calm and collected. There was no way she would reveal her secret just like that. The reason why Ren lost his sense of smell was because of her scythe. The Scythe of Astaroth. It had a unique special ability. It has the power, with each cut to seal one sense from the enemy. There are 5 basic senses: smell, taste, sight, hearing and touch. The scythe will randomly strip you away of one of your senses. But once all 5 senses are stolen, the 6th strike will instantly cause death.

Of course, this ability has some restrictions. It can only be used on enemies as strong as the wielder or weaker. If used on a superior enemy, the burden of sealing a single sense would be too big to bear.

"I'm willing to make a deal with you."

Grace extend her index finger and pointed towards someone. That someone was Shiori.

"That girl with blonde hair over there. If you hand her over to me, I shall retreat."

"Huh? As if I'm going to listen to you! You did me a favor. Now I don't have to deal with the stench of blood."

Grace took another long glance at Shiori.

Milla-nee, I really hope you will be prepared. Because that girl… is dead inside.

"Where do you think you're looking?"

Ren charged at Grace and wanted to swing his sword down on her, but Grace used her scythe as a pole and she drove it into Ren's stomach.

"Guah…"

"I think it's time to end our little game."

Grace dashed forward in order to deal another blow to Ren. But as Ren was lying on the ground from the previous impact, he let out an evil grin and from the gem on his headgear he fired a laser beam. Grace quickly spinned her body to dodge, but the beam still managed to hit her shoulder a bit.

"Using such a cowardly tactic… that won't work on me."

Grace checked her shoulder. It was only a scratch. As she brushed it off and wanted to take another step, her feet started wobbling.

"What!? That attack… had some sort of poison in it…"

As Ren stood up he started laughing like a maniac.

"Hehe… hahahaha! That's right! This is my power. Because it only scratched you it will take a little time for it to spread through all your body, but from here on, no matter what you do, you will only get weaker and die by my hand!"

At those words, Grace could only narrow her eyes and clench her fist.

I wasn't careful enough. This isn't good. I need to end this quickly before it's too late.