System vs Rebirth

"What are we going to do now? That guy must be running away, leaving us here to fend for ourselves." Lezlev gritted his teeth, looking at Alfred. Even though he could cooperate with Noel and trust him a bit, this was already beyond his ability.

"Nothing we can do." Alfred shook his head. "Even if we run, this demon will hunt us down. We need to find an opportunity if we want to run…"

"An opportunity?"

"Yeah. If there's another battle around us, we can drag this demon there to get some help from others. But… let's wait for five to ten minutes first. If he doesn't come back, we'll do it." Alfred nodded in agreement. He also wanted to escape right now, but the situation didn't allow him to.

Seeing there was still a trace of trust in Alfred's eyes, Lezlev could only grit his teeth and endure this battle for another few minutes.

The battle continued as the demon continued to overwhelm them. Alfred had exhausted most of his stamina while Lezlev was covered with bruises. The hope became dim as these few minutes felt like a few hours.

The one they expected to come back never appeared.

But when the situation couldn't get any worse, they heard a shout from the side.

"Lezlev, Alfred! Run toward me!"

"!!!" Lezlev and Alfred turned their heads, finding Noel on the side with his shirt completely soaked with sweat.

It seemed Noel had been working hard on his own.

After exchanging a nod, Lezlev and Alfred hurriedly ran to Noel.

As Alfred said earlier, the demon chased them. Its speed was quicker than them, so the demon caught up to them soon.

When the demon was about to leap and pounce them, Noel leaped forward and grabbed Lezlev and Alfred's shoulder and pushed them to the ground.

The three suddenly dropped to the ground, making the demon miss them and falling to the bushes behind Noel.

Even though falling to the ground was painful, Noel still stood back up and thrust his sword.

Surprisingly, the moment the demon reached the bushes, it stopped in mid-air as if he was stuck in that position. And Noel thrust his sword to the area that wasn't protected by its spikes, the butt.

*Huft!*

*Huft!*

Noel panted a few times as he dropped to the ground, smiling. "Finally. It dies."

"What is happening?" Lezlev widened his eyes. There was a shock and confusion reflected on his eyes.

On the other hand, Alfred opened the bushes and found a few sharp spikes planted on the ground. Two of them impaled the demon's face, making him stick in that position.

"Spikes from woods… No, they're roots." Alfred gasped.

"That's the roots from the demon we killed earlier. This demon beast is protected from all sides, so I thought about using a surprise attack to impale him. This way, the fangs won't be fast enough to stop them." Noel explained while panting.

"The demon tree?"

"Yeah. I noticed that the demon tree was sturdier than normal trees. At the same time, we didn't have enough time to carve a spike made of its trunk. Hence, I chose the roots that had pointed tips. They were perfect to pierce our body, so I thought it was at least better than a normal tree trunk to impale him." Noel nodded.

"So, the reason why it took you so long…" Lezlev looked at Noel in shock.

"Yes. I ran there and came back here before planting these roots." Noel nodded.

"Still, why did you think about using a trap?"

Noel smiled and recalled the lesson from Shale. "Let's admit that we're weaker than the demon. Even if we combine our strength, we can only take down a demon tree earlier… The time limit and the difficulty don't match up. So, I thought this is a test to apply all the lessons we've learned so far. In other words, our adaptability.

"We can use everything as our weapons, even the parts of a demon's body. That's why they only want us to bring the crystal back. They want us to use their parts to kill them. Just like these roots, if we use those sharp fangs as a dagger, won't it be able to cut the enemy if we place a trap like this?"

"Now that I think about it, there are two superior weapons other than a weapon made of metal. And one of them is a weapon created by a demon body." Alfred nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. The time limit is too long. So, I figure out they're the time it takes us to create traps and strategy to kill the demon. And the other reason is…" Noel looked down, hesitating to say the other reason.

"What is that?" Alfred frowned.

"It's to join hands with other groups. Although we need to kill two or three times the number, it's going to be far easier to kill the demon with that number." Noel looked at Alfred. "It's just I don't think you're fond with this idea."

"…" Alfred remained silent. It was true that getting another three people in the group would allow them to kill the enemies easier. However, he didn't like the fact that he was taking advantage of other people. After all, they could simply leave after achieving their objective. It was basically the same as Lezlev's previous strategy.

But Alfred found one more thing. "There is a difference between your words and Lezlev's previous plan. It's to have an equal cooperation. We can't go back until both groups have achieved their objectives. So…"

"Are we going to cooperate with another group then? But we don't know where they are…" Lezlev reminded them about the problem.

"That's…"

*Swish!*

*Swish!*

Before Alfred could reply, the bushes started moving before a beast leaped above the bushes, trying to pounce Noel. The demon had the same appearance as the one they killed earlier.

"Noel!" Alfred shouted while Noel turned around, thinking, 'There's another demon around us? Not good, I can't dodge this one..'

Noel closed his eyes for a moment, knowing he would be heavily injured by the monster.

However, the pain he had expected never came, confusing him. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw the demon's head flying.

The one who beheaded the demon was a woman. Her blond hair had some yellow lightning spark on it, making the hair shine like that of a gold. When she turned around, she smiled warmly and asked, "Are you alright?"

Noel instantly recognized this face. How could he forget about it? She was the woman that planned the entire execution of his parents and the downfall of his family, Anna Stargaze.

Despite her having saved Noel from the demon, the blood rushed into his head as veins started bulging on his forehead.

Gripping the sword tightly, Noel had no hesitation to swing his blade to her with a shout full of anger.

"ANNA STARGAZE!"