Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

It was a person decked in black leather armour from head to toe, half of their face was covered with a mask and they carried two sharp swords that seemed extremely lethal. From their aura to the way they handled Simon's attack, it told others that they were extremely experienced and a first-class fighter.

Simon narrowed his eyes, with that clash earlier he was able to tell that the strength of this person was no less than his. He immediately tried using [Analysis] on them only for his attempt to be blocked by a skill.

"Hey you are quite rude to use [Analysis] in my face all of a sudden" the person said sarcastically as they measured him.

Simon felt a probing attempt from the other party which was quickly dispelled by his body. "Interesting, you have [Analysis] blocking skill too huh, I guess that's a given with how unique you are. It's not a surprise that guild leader is interested in you".

When Simon heard those words he immediately realised who the other party was "You are a member of the Sea god's Trident?".

"DING DING DING, Correct. Congratulations for guessing that I am from the Sea God's Trident. As  a reward, I will answer one of your question" the person said exaggeratedly.

Simon locked his brows, from the latter's attitude he could tell that the person was not at all daunted by the fact that he was a Demon Viscount. He did not know why the other person had initiated a conversation with him nor their motive, thus he pretended to play along with them and asked:

"What is the objective of your guild for going after me?".

The person donned in leather armour from head to toe, squinted his eyes "Do we need any other reason than the fact that you are a Demon Noble? Haha, I guess this reasoning won't work huh, too bad I can't tell you the real reason".

"Stop talking nonsense with that demon, Raven. If you can't do it then I shall do it myself" At this moment another voice sounded out and a presence quickly showed himself.

The person who just appeared, was standing in the sky with a pair of illusory wings protruding from their back. They were donned in an incredible-looking heavy armour that gave off a bluish-green sheen and radiated a heavy mountain-like aura.

When Simon heard the name that the new entrant used to describe the person in black leather armour, his eyes widened for a second. There was no way he wouldn't know the name of one of the three tridents, Raven the [Phantom Night Assassin] who was one of the pillars of the Sea God's Trident after staying in the capital for a while.

At the same time, it also made him realise the identity of the other person. There was no doubt, the description he inadvertently heard from the people of the capital every day, matched with the man in front of him emitting a heroic presence.

He was finally face to face with Godwin, whom the people of the kingdom of Ellesmere regarded as the legend and their greatest genius. However, unlike the ordinary mass, Simon did not have any good feelings about meeting the man at this moment and place.

His premonition was indeed on the mark, the other person was here to capture him. Simon did not even have the time to wonder how the other party was able to find him as Godwin came charging at him as soon as his words fell.

Like a falling meteor, he let the gravity pull him down. His heavy armour along with the momentum from his free fall, was enough to create a small crater where he landed.

Simon swiftly jumped back and avoided the attack, or so he thought when suddenly he felt a foreign energy enter him and he felt extremely enraged and had an urge to charge at Godwin.

[Fragment of Pride is reacting, effects from the Champion's Taunt have been removed]

Thankfully, due to him possessing the fragment, the taunt wasn't able to grab hold of him. A droplet of sweat trickled down Simon's face, he couldn't even realise when the other party had used a skill. This fact in itself told him that he cannot afford to let his guard down even for a second.

The man he was facing right now, was different from any other opponent he had faced up until now so much so that a moment of distraction might decide everything.

Without giving him a moment to think anything, Godwin who maintained an indifferent face, kept pressing him with one attack after another as f probing his strength.

He took out a wide blade from his space ring and sent dozens of blade shadows that had enough power to easily cleave a person below level 200 in half, at Simon.

To counterattack, Simon materialised dozens of flame spears which met his enemy's attack head on.

BOOM… BOOMM… the silence of the place was immediately broken by the continuous explosion sounds from their clash. At a glance, it would seem that the two attacks were even; however, when one looked carefully, the flame spears were actually being pushed back by the sword shadows.

After sending forth dozens of blade shadows, Godwin sheathed his blade inside the ground, stretched his hands and pointed at Simon. Immediately, the wind started picking up and in the blink of an eye it made a complex magic circle that was two meters in diameter and emerald green in colour in front of Godwin.

"[Howling Tempest Fist]" roaring out in vigour, Godwin punched towards the magic circle and created a huge vacuum fist that flew towards the demon.

When Simon felt the incoming attack, all his hair stood on end and his instinct started alerting him of danger. No matter what, he couldn't allow the attack to land on him.

Simon unfurled his wings and hurriedly took to the sky but the fist as if it had a mind of its own followed closely behind him.

"Haha, that fellow really thought that he can dodge your attack by flying away from its trajectory" Raven laughed from the sidelines as he saw the Demon Noble flying left and right trying to dodge an attack that locked onto him.

Simon after an unsuccessful attempt of dodging the attack, understood that there was no way he can evade it and instead chose to face the attack.

The vacuum fist created by Godwin packed so much power that it was basically on par with the [Infernal Heat wave] attack of his sword. Even with the Defense stats of a Demon Viscount, facing an attack like that would be devastating.

Just as the Vacuum fist was upon him, he took out something golden from his space ring. BOOOMM… a huge blast that basically pushed all the clouds in the sky hundreds of meters back occurred in the sky and created a huge twister dispersing dust and soil everywhere.

The attack was so powerful that the noise travelled for dozens of miles and even reached the soundly sleeping inhabitants of the sea city Aqualin.

-----

Capital city Ellesmere, in the backyard of the branch headquarters of the adventurers association was a huge construct that looked like some sort of device.

"Lisa helping that demon noble will negatively affect your reputation and standing in the guild. Is there no way your mind can be changed otherwise?" the branch president asked the lady beside him.

"Father, no matter how many times you ask me, I will not change my mind. That demon has helped me and Chuck when we were almost about to die in that place even though he had no obligation nor did he stand to gain any benefit from it. Now that he is in danger and is being pursued by my own guild, how can I not help him despite knowing that?".

Lisa argued back, she wanted her father to open the teleport gate that is managed by the adventurers association and is installed in a handful of important cities.

The cost of operating a teleport gate is so much that it is only used during dire times or a crisis. But now, Lisa wanted to open the teleport gate, as the branch president of the adventurers association, he did indeed have the authority.

With how doting he was to his daughter, he would have opened it any other case but right now, there was an officer from the main headquarters of the adventurer association located on the mainland and the person his daughter wanted to save was none other than the demon Noble who was behind all this destruction in the capital.

If the news reached back to that person it was sure to bring back some huge repercussions. That is why, he was trying his best to change the mind of his stubborn daughter.

"Lisa, listen to me. He is a demon noble, if we look at history our two races can be considered arch-enemies with so much bad blood between us. There is no need…" the old man tried to reason but before he could complete his sentence, Lisa interjected.

"The demon noble that you are calling our arch-enemy, was the one who had saved the life of your daughter back then. If not for him, you would have already lost your daughter back in the Ghastly Winding Forest".

"If you are not going it's fine, I'll go there by myself and stop them from killing that demon even if I have to step in front of them," Lisa said, adamant on going there.

"What? Absolutely not" the old man jumped up, he was given a huge scare.