System vs Rebirth

"Tsk." Noel pointed his palm at the demons and released a snowflake. "Freezing Crystal."

The snowflake exploded, sending the cold into all direction and covering everything with a thick layer of ice.

He could see that some demons were trapped inside ice, some were outright dying, while the rest managed to stay alive with some injuries.

However, the demon he worried the most was the hawk. He hurriedly checked the hawk, not wanting his flame to be extinguished by the ice.

Luckily, when he found the hawk demon, the flame was still burning. As expected of the Undying Fire, its ferocity was at a different level. He wondered if there was anything that could wash away that flame.

He even thought if he could defeat Anna with this flame.

"In any case, I can't use this fire that easily and even if I do, I need to touch their bodies before activating it." Noel shook his head helplessly before turning his head around, seeing the demons who managed to stay alive to charge at him.

He took another glance at the village and realized they had evacuated properly. So, he didn't hesitate to cover his sword with the black flame.

Sword Fire.

He slashed the first Low Level Demon that came after him, slicing its body easily as if the fire was tenderizing the meat that the sword had to cut. Even the cut wound was burned, engulfing its organs.

There were a few more demons that he had to cut, so he kept slashing one after another, killing them.

As soon as he killed all of them, he immediately changed direction to pursue the hawk. But to his surprise, the hawk was causing all kinds of mess.

It was slamming the body to the trees and the ground because of the fire. The entire area looked wet, yet, the fire burning them was not a normal one. Even if the rain came, it was doubtful if it could stop the flame.

"…" Noel didn't want to start a forest fire, so he had to retract his Undying Flame.

Fortunately, the flame on the soils and the trees disappeared as well, but not without leaving a charred mark on the burning part.

Meanwhile, the hawk realized the flame had vanished, allowing him to retain his life. He had to escape because his body was weakened by the fire. Even his organs felt like they were already charred by that black flame.

Noel didn't let the hawk demon go and sent forth a pair of chains from the rune to capture the hawk.

When he was about to reach the hawk, another wave of demons came out, stopping him.

"Tsk." Noel clicked his tongue and jumped back, glaring at these demons. "How many demons are hiding on this mountain?"

He suddenly saw a light among them. There was a demon who was gathering Spiritual Energy in its horn and released a lightning strike.

Noel summoned his Spiritual Energy Dispersion Rune, causing the lightning to disperse in all directions.

After that, he charged at the demons and struck the ground with his Ignition Sword.

The blast caused the dust to rise, hiding Noel from them.

They tried to use their noses to track Noel but the charred smell was too strong, causing them to lose Noel inside. On the other hand, Noel had his Demon Hunter Medal, sensing their presence all the time.

He swiftly slipped past them and reached the hawk without fighting another demon.

The hawk immediately leaped into the air to kick Noel's head, but Noel summoned his Sword Fall.

When the three swords were about to reach the hawk, they began to curve. The new trajectory startled the hawk as the latter tried to move around to avoid them.

However, the sudden change caused the hawk having a hard time to dodge them and one of the swords ended up hitting its wing, pinning the demon to the ground and ultimately cutting the hawk's wing.

*Cry!*

The hawk was lying down on the ground as if it had given up after one of its wings was cut.

The other demons realized their leader was injured, so they rushed back to help. Sadly, Noel had predicted their movement and released his Freezing Crystal, stopping them.

*Roar!*

*Roar!*

The demons were unwilling to be stopped, but they couldn't move their bodies due to the ice. Only two of them managed to continue, but Noel swiftly cut them down with his Sword Fire.

After that, Noel returned to the hawk and utilized his Sword Fall again, killing the Advanced Level Demon.

"Did I kill it?" Noel muttered while checking the system. As soon as he got the confirmation, Noel turned around as he knew there might be more demons coming, so he struck down a few of them while making the rest to release a distress roar. This way, more and more demons would come in.

It took one hour for Noel to kill the rest of the demons. He had exhausted most of his Spiritual Energy.

"As expected… The Sword Fall and the Undying Fire are draining my Spiritual Energy. Even though they're powerful, I can't rely on them too much because I'll be in disadvantage if I don't have any more Spiritual Energy." Noel let out a sigh of relief and dropped to the ground.

"I feel like there are more things to discover about the Advanced Level Demon. Just like a Spirit Wielder, an Advanced Level Demon can be stronger than the others. Also, from what I've found in this fight, they seem to have a difference in wisdom as well.

"The Hawk is surely the most intelligent Advanced Level Demon I've fought so far. I can still solve this one, but it's surprising that there is an Advanced Level Demon in this area…" Noel furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head, almost forgetting there was another important matter he had to take care of.

"That's right. The battle caused a lot of destruction. It seems I have to apologize to the villagers." Noel sighed and stood up since he was going to search for them.