A Contest Of Strength III

"I give up!" one of the demons shouted while holding his hand up. The crowd looked at him and started booing but he ignored them and pushed them aside as he exited the ring.

"Same for me," another demon also gave up and walked out of the ring. The third also did the same and exited. They were no match for Reepmn and they knew it, so there was no point in continuing the fight.

"Hmph, a bunch of cowards you are!" The only person that was still standing in the ring other than Reepmn was the demoness. The crowd roared in agreement with her.

"If you're so tough, then win against him by yourself," one of the demons who surrendered shouted at Allal. "If you can't even take him on yourself then you have no right in calling us cowards."

"Fine, I will!" Allal shouted back at the demons. The crowd cheered loudly in response to what the demoness said.

"You want to fight against me alone?" Reepmn asked in an amusing voice. "Are you sure that's a good idea? It's not that I doubt your strength as you are ranked fourth in terms of that, but I don't think I need to remind you that I'm ranked first."

"Wait, aren't you the strongest demon here? Why is he saying that he is ranked number one?" Kies asked Tornon.

The demon king looked at him and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not included in the rankings for obvious reasons. Since if I was, then it would be pretty unfair for the others. My existence is definitely not a normal one, you can't compare me to a normal demon," he explained.

"Then what rank is Ammine?"

"I'm rank two in terms of strength," Ammine answered him, overhearing the conversation between him and Tornon. "And as much I hate to admit it, there is a big gap in power between me and him despite us being first and second on the leaderboard. His magic is no joke."

"Really? He didn't feel that strong when I fought him." Kies remembered the fight between him and the Reepmn. The demon wiped the floor with him, but it wasn't to the point where he was completely overwhelmed. Kies managed to break one of his horns during the fight, but it was mainly him being lucky and catching the demon off guard.

"The fight you had with him when you first came to the village?" Ammine asked.

"Yes, that one."

"He was holding back against you. Believe me, if he went all out, you wouldn't be alive right now. His magic is on a whole different level when he gets serious."

"Yep, he's a tough one. Even I would have some trouble beating him if we were to fight," Tornon agreed.

"What?"

"You heard me right. He isn't an easy opponent even for me."

If Reepmn gave even the demon king trouble, then Kies couldn't imagine how strong he actually was. And what did Ammine mean by his magic was on a whole another level when he got serious? Were the magical chains he summons not his main or strongest magic he could use? But then again, the magical chains he was using looked way too simple. There had to be more to it than that.

"If you want to see what we're talking about, just watch the fight. He's fighting against Allal, so he will have to get somewhat serious if he doesn't want to lose," Tornon told Kies.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" The crowd started chanting loudly for the two to go at each other. Kies turned his attention back to the ring where the two were getting ready to fight.

"I'll let you have the first move," Reepmn told his opponent.

"You better not regret your decision then. Someone get me my weapon!" Allal shouted at the crowd. A large two-sided battle axe flew from out of nowhere and landed in the dirt right in front of her. She picked up the giant weapon which was bigger than her with one hand and slung it over her shoulder like it weighed nothing.

"Get ready," she told Reepmn. Allal crouched down and then sprung high into the air. She lifted the axe above her head with both of her hands and cleaved it down on Reepmn.

Instead of dodging the attack like Kies expected him to, Reepmn wrapped his arms with his chains and blocked the attack. The force behind the attack caused him to bend down to one knee. Reepmn pushed back with all his might and sent Allal back flying up into the air. He then created a chain in his hand and swung at it Allal. She parried the attack with her axe and landed back on the ground.

"Ifrit, awaken and ignite my axe!" Allal's axe erupted in black flames. She spun it around in a circle and smashed the ground with it. The floor rumbled and cracked. Pillars of black fire shot out of the ground inside the ring. The crowd all jumped back in surprise to avoid getting burnt by the black flames.

Allal raised her axe over her head and started spinning it. The fire from the pillars all flowed to her axe, adding on to the fire that was already there until it became a massive black fireball the size of a small house. She hurled the fireball at Reepmn who smiled and put his arm out and shouted, "Chain Hall!"

Two rows of chains emerged on either side of Reepmn. With a wave of his hand, the chains formed a wall in front of him to block the fireball. The fireball exploded into a burst of flames when it touched the chains, scorching the unlucky demons in the crowd who were too close.

"Chain Serpent!" More chains appeared from out of the ground and this time, they took the form of a giant snake. It slithered around Allal, trapping her inside a small circle. When it found an opening, the snake jumped and tried to wrap around her. A fiery hand suddenly shot out from one of the pillars of flame and grabbed the snake before the metal beast could reach her. It slammed the snake into the ground, breaking the chains apart.

"Not bad."

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