System vs Rebirth

Circular Sword Strike.

Lightning Force.

Noel's Spiritual Energy started to expand, but due to the toughness of the skin, the part where it touched the skin ended up getting stuck while the rest expanded. On the other hand, Anna's lightning element sparked to the limit, trying to break apart the skin.

The earthworm's skin looked smooth like that of a normal earthworm, but when they struck it with their swords, it felt like they hit a rock. In addition, the rock was so hard that they wondered if this was a rock or a metal.

"Haaa!" Noel shouted while releasing more spiritual Energy, stretching his Circular Sword Strike to the utmost degree. The Sword Strike also hit the Peak Level Demons on the side.

Unfortunately for him, his ability actually left no scratch on the earthworm's skin.

On the other hand, Anna's lightning element had a better chance against it. The lightning's penetrating force was much greater than Noel's ability. A huge area of the strike only left a graze, but the first strike where it was hit the hardest broke apart and left a wound.

"…" Anna furrowed her eyebrows, realizing that a normal strike wouldn't be useful against the earthworm. She had to concentrate all her attacks in one direction.

However, the moment she thought about it, the earthworm had fully emerged from the hole. Its body suddenly wiggled to the side as if it was trying to flap its tail at her.

"!!!" Noel obviously wouldn't allow such a thing. He planned to make the earthworm focus on him. His sword began to emit the Undying Flame as it suddenly burst out.

Ignition Sword.

*Boom!*

The flame exploded and scorched the tough skin. The explosion was even bigger than the last time he used it due to the ability he learned from Old Ru.

Although it was faint, the skin reddened as if the inner part was actually being burned from the outside.

"I see. The earthworm's inner part is extremely delicate, while the outer part is the only thing that is tough. If we can somehow find—" Before he finished his thought, just like what Noel wanted, the earthworm focused on him. Instead of hitting Anna with his tail, Noel was the one getting slapped to the side.

"Kh." Noel still managed to cover his body with Spiritual Energy, but the impact was quite painful. In addition, it blew him away. The front part of the earthworm actually chased after him.

Noel saw the earthworm's giant mouth that seemed to be able to engulf everything. There were sharp teeth all around the mouth. He would definitely get skewered alive the moment it devoured him.

"You're not going to do it!" Anna released a burst of Spiritual Energy, ready to jump on top of the earthworm to deliver a powerful blow.

Sadly, there was no way the other Peak Level Demons would allow such a thing. They had appeared around Anna, attacking her.

"Tsk." Anna clicked her tongue and struck their attacks, albeit they ultimately stopped her from chasing after the Superior Demon.

Meanwhile, the Peak Level Demons on Noel's side also surrounded him from two directions. But instead of stopping him, they only tried to distract Noel by shooting their Spiritual Energy so that he didn't move from his spot. It seemed that they were scared entering the earthworm's mouth as well, further proving the lethality of that mouth.

A pair of black wings suddenly formed and expanded, catching the Spiritual Energy that the Peak Level Demons shot. After that, Noel formed a huge ice block made by stacking all his Ice Mirrors.

He thought this should be enough to prevent the earthworm from eating him. Yet, the latter gave him a surprise by drilling the ice block and all the parts that entered his mouth were ground into fine pieces before it disappeared into the darkness of its stomach.

"For real?" Luckily, Noel had another plan. He used the ice block to cover the earthworm's senses and jumped on top of him the moment he broke the ice block apart.

But as one would expect from an earthworm, it didn't have eyes, but it could easily sense Noel's position.

Instead of moving forth, it raised its head and chased after Noel.

That was why Noel was shocked. "Ice Lotus."

Noel changed his approach and sent for multiple ice petals inside. The moment they entered the earthworm's mouth, the ice petals exploded, forming a giant ice crystal inside the earthworm's mouth.

Once again, the earthworm's teeth vibrated and shattered the ice crystal in an instant as the head continued to chase after Noel.

Noel tried to fly away, but the earthworm had enough length to reach the ceiling. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, a bolt of lightning suddenly hit the upper part of the head and knocked it down.

*Bam!*

The earthworm's body shivered for a second as if it was indicating the pain it suffered. The lightning turned out to be Anna.

She managed to escape from the Peak Level Demons' encirclement and shot herself to the earthworm.

"Don't underestimate me." Anna harrumphed.

Noel saw the Peak Level Demons that were after her and rained them down with the Undying Fire Feathers.

*Boom!*

*Boom!*

*Boom!*

A series of explosions occurred, but none of the feathers hit the demons. After all, they were not used to kill the Peak Level Demons, but to stop them from coming after her. The moment they served their purposes, the feathers changed directions and hit the earthworm's skin.

The earthworm shivered once again, letting him know that the attack worked.

'We can go with this strategy.' Noel assessed the situation. 'There are a total of five Peak Level Demons and three Advanced Level Demons. I can easily kill the latter, but the Peak Level Demons are quite troublesome in this situation. Then…'

Noel took a deep breath and changed his focus. Since Anna was holding the earthworm back, he should have had some time to focus on something.

Noel formed two runes on his hand. The first rune was the Rune Blast, while the second one was actually the Energy Gathering Rune.

He shot the Rune Blast to the earthworm. Sensing the amount of Spiritual Energy that Noel poured into this rune, two Peak Level Demons actually jumped forth to block it.

*Bam!*

The blast knocked both of them, but they absorbed most of the energy. The remaining energy only felt like a tickle for the earthworm.

Noel had expected something like this. In fact, the reason why he prepared the second rune was for this exact moment.

The Energy Gathering Rune was sucking all the Spiritual Energy around it, concentrating them above the rune.

"!!!" The other demons thought he was planning to do the same but at a larger scale. So, they hurriedly moved toward the earthworm, trying to block it. The remaining Advanced Level Demons were in charge of distracting him.

Noel didn't care much about the Advanced Level Demon. He focused on the Spiritual Energy the rune gathered as well as the one coming from his body.

"Connection… Spiritual Energy…" Noel muttered those words while trying to extend his Spiritual Energy to the one that the rune gathered. He tried to apply Old Ru's ability and connect himself with this huge chunk of Spiritual Energy.

Surprisingly, the Spiritual Energy looked like they were trying to attach themselves to each other and began to form a bond.

As soon as he made that connection, he couldn't help but smile. Even if he couldn't release this amount of Spiritual Energy at once, he could actually use the rune to bypass that limit.

And with this, he began the next step. He poured the fire element to light up this amount of Spiritual Energy.

Suddenly, a huge fireball was formed. The size was as big as the tunnel. Not only the demons but even Anna was shocked by the size of the fireball.

The Advanced Level Demons were more determined to use their lives to stop Noel, but instead of throwing this massive fireball at the earthworm, he tried something else.

'It's quite hard to maintain it, but…' Noel tried the Flame Conjuring Ability to change the shape of this fireball. He wouldn't be able to make something in great detail, but there was an exact example in front of him.

With a wave of his hand, the fireball extended forth like an earthworm and moved around Noel's body.

"!!!" The Advanced Level Demons were shocked because this fire earthworm could move freely in the air and ultimately engulfed them in rapid succession.

With that size, there was no way the Advanced Level Demon could resist.

After that, Noel tried to move this powerful fire toward the earthworm to scorch his entire body.

The Peak Level Demons jumped into the air. They had no choice but to take this attack head-on.

However, it seemed that the Superior Demon also sensed the danger coming from Noel's fire.

Suddenly, a burst of energy shook the entire area to the point where Noel's fire became unstable.

"!!!" Noel gritted his teeth, maintaining his control.

But Anna felt something from the release of that aura.

"Huh?" Anna widened her eyes and raised her head. She certainly felt danger coming from above, thinking it was one of the monsters that hid inside the dead-end tunnel. And she seemed to be right. The demon was actually moving around as if it was trying to smash the ground that separated them.

"The demon is coming… No, wait. That burst of Spiritual Energy… it's actually to call all the demons in this nest?" Anna's body trembled upon that realization. They had just gained an advantage during the battle, yet, that advantage would be gone if those demons actually came to this place.

Even Noel couldn't help but look at the mission.

[Mission: Time Attack!]

[Description: Clear the whole nest within 24 hours. ]

[Reward: Challenger Medal and Secret to Career Advancement.]

[Remaining Monsters: 53]

[Remaining Time: 3:11:25]

Their numbers weren't great, but if they came here, it would disrupt the battlefield and put them at a disadvantage.