Chapter 74: How To Fight The Demon Lord

[ARKLAW]

“Scatter!!”

“Shit—”

Boom!!

A massive surge of invisible force erupted from Jamie, blasting the two captains violently away. Cain was hurled straight into a skyscraper, his body smashing through concrete and steel, while Fiona was driven downward into the tar road below, striking the ground with devastating force and carving a jagged ridge across the asphalt.

Didn’t expect them to team up… I’ll have to be more cautious from now on.

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily!”

Cain’s voice echoed from the fresh crater embedded in the building wall. A moment later he burst out of the rubble headfirst, flying back toward Jamie with a predatory grin—far too eager for someone who had just been slammed into a skyscraper.

“Don’t count me out yet.”

Fiona had already risen from the shattered road. She closed the distance quickly, now even nearer to Jamie than Cain.

Once again they surrounded him.

This time they didn’t stand together. One faced him from the front, the other hovered behind him. In one sense it was better—perhaps their coordination had weakened after the earlier blast—but in another sense it was worse. Jamie now had to divide his attention constantly between two directions.

He can use that technique even though he’s not in that demon lord form… and it’s stronger now. Wow. He’s really been training. We might’ve underestimated him. Time to get serious.

Cain raised his arm again, a grin stretching across his face, hinting at some deeper scheme.

Clap!!

The sound cracked through the air.

In an instant Cain vanished.

In his place appeared Fiona, rushing forward with explosive speed. Behind her surged a swarm of blood missiles—each one dripping with scorpion venom—following her like obedient henchmen.

“Aaah!”

Cain’s roar exploded from Jamie’s back. His fist had already formed a mass of dense brown magic, the technique known as Stone Asteroid swelling around his arm.

They switched places. That’s annoying… I won’t even know whose attack I’m countering.

Jamie deflected Cain’s incoming punch with the calm precision of a monk redirecting force, then twisted aside to evade Fiona’s poisonous projectiles.

And then the chaos truly began.

The two captains attacked relentlessly, their strikes weaving together like dancers in a violent rhythm. Jamie dodged nearly everything—but the attacks they switched were the real problem.

The difficulty wasn’t the disappearing itself.

It was the velocity.

Whenever they exchanged positions, the fighter appearing didn’t emerge stationary like normal teleportation would dictate. Instead, the technique allowed them to reappear with any motion they desired—full speed, mid-attack, momentum completely intact. Their stance before switching didn’t matter at all.

That unpredictability made their attacks incredibly hard to read.

This would be easy with Arklaw… but I can’t use it too much. If I do, the barrier Kasa made might break.

Jamie evaluated every option rapidly.

Arklaw—his most dangerous technique—allowed him to control an individual simply by speaking a command. Yet it had strict conditions: it only worked on targets without magic.

Over the years, Kasa had helped him train the ability to its absolute peak. Each session expanded its effective radius. Now it stretched beyond fifty kilometers.

But that power came with a terrifying drawback.

Jamie could no longer control who it affected. Anyone without magic within that fifty-kilometer range could eventually fall under its influence—ally or enemy alike.

That was why he had asked Kasa about the barrier earlier. The barrier shielded the demons from Arklaw’s reach.

But even that protection had limits.

The more Jamie used Arklaw, the more strain the barrier endured.

Alright… if I can’t read their attacks, I’ll just follow the clap.

Jamie steadied himself. Though he had avoided serious damage, bruises and glancing hits had begun to accumulate.

Clap!

They switched again.

Cain appeared to Jamie’s side, standing casually as though he had never raised his hands.

There you are.

Jamie spun toward him, fist cocked and ready to shatter his face—

—but his strike slammed into a shimmering magical shield Cain had conjured at the last second.

Slash!!

One of Fiona’s poisonous blades struck true, slicing across Jamie’s left leg.

His eyes flicked toward the wound just as Fiona lunged forward, killing intent blazing across her face like a starving wolf closing in on prey.

Revenge fueled her.

And revenge was a terrifying motivator. It kept fighters moving even when logic told them they were outmatched.

Jamie reacted instantly.

His leg whipped upward, smashing into her chest and sending her flying away with brutal force. In the same motion he kicked backward through the air, widening the distance between himself and Cain.

“I told you—we’re going to kill this guy!”

Cain shouted gleefully. Who could blame him? Their strategy was working. Their attacks were landing exactly as intended.

“That poison will weaken you slowly. Your insides will be chewed apart until there’s nothing left.”

Jamie remained motionless.

Completely still.

Like a frozen statue.

No expression crossed his face—no pain, no anger.

Perhaps the poison had already begun working.

Then—

Stststt—

Another Jamie appeared beside him.

Identical in every detail.

The two captains blinked in surprise, though neither panicked. Clones were something they had seen before.

Tsatstst—

Another Jamie appeared on the other side.

Then more.

At first the duplicates looked like mere extensions of a basic technique.

But suddenly they multiplied.

Dozens.

Hundreds.

Clones emerged beside clones, even spawning from the copies themselves. Within minutes the sky filled with them—hundreds upon hundreds of Jamies surrounding the two captains.

From the outside the formation resembled a massive floating sphere.

“What the fuck… I’ve never seen this many clones in my life.”

“Huh…”

Fiona’s eyes widened.

But unlike Cain, she realized something else entirely.

“No technique can neutralize my poison… and Jamie knows that. So instead of trying to purge it, he created hundreds of clones. The poison is spreading through all of them… diluting itself until it becomes harmless.”

“Collect.”

Every Jamie spoke at once.

Their voices overlapped with eerie mechanical harmony, like a robotic chorus echoing through the sky.

“I’m sad to kill great minds like yours,” they continued calmly, “but honestly… I’m getting tired of this fight. I have other important things to do.”

Every clone raised a single finger, pointing directly at the two captains.

“So if you don’t mind…”

“Tell the Goddess to come herself next time if she hopes to defeat me.”

Small glowing spheres of energy began forming at the tips of every raised finger.

Hundreds of them.

It was a magnificent sight—unless you were standing at the center of it.

“Shit… he’s about to kill us.”

“Don’t say that!” Fiona snapped. “I’m not stopping until I get my revenge!”

“Fiona, I’m smart enough to know when I’m beaten,” Cain replied calmly, though the grin never left his face. “We underestimated him. That’s what’s sending us to our graves.”

He scanned the surrounding sphere of clones.

There was no escape.

Only one option remained—defend themselves and pray.

[Fire Missile]

Pew!!

Boom!!

An enormous surge of energy detonated within the swarm of clones. The blast consumed the two captains instantly, annihilating them along with the outer layers of duplicates caught in the explosion.

The shockwave tore through the sky, scattering clouds for miles.

Had Jamie allowed the force to strike the surrounding skyscrapers, the entire district would have been flattened.

In that moment, one truth became undeniable.

Jamie was unstoppable.

…

Construction Site

After the battle, Jamie returned to the construction site and reported that the attack had been stopped.

The demons erupted into celebration—jumping, shouting, some even dancing with relief.

The traitor collapsed to his knees, sobbing. Whether those tears were regret or disappointment that his threats had failed, no one cared enough to ask.

While the others celebrated, the officials gathered to discuss their next move.

“Can the machine be fixed?” Jamie asked as the scientists worked desperately on the teleportation system.

“With the current damage… no,” one scientist admitted. “When he removed the power capsule, he secretly destroyed other components too. Some of them we can repair with time.”

She paused.

“But the main issue is worse. He destroyed the power capsules themselves.”

“Then we get another one,” Kasa said immediately.

“It’s not that simple,” the scientist replied.

“A power capsule requires nuclear energy and uranium—two of the hardest resources to obtain on Earth. Humans have them… but they’re stored in military reserves.”

“Meaning we’d have to attack a military base,” Kasa muttered grimly. “That goes against everything we stand for. It would be like declaring war.”

“There might be another option,” the female scientist said carefully.

“We obtain it… peacefully.”

Kasa frowned.

“No way. You’d need serious political influence just to access those reserves…”

His voice trailed off as the realization formed.

He slowly turned toward Jamie, sympathy filling his eyes.

“But Jamie knows someone powerful in politics,” the scientist continued.

“Bray. The newest governor.”

She nodded firmly.

“We’ll have to use Bray.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep