"Don't tell me the spores?" Noel gritted his teeth and hurriedly formed an snowflake on top of his left hand before sending it forth.
Freezing Crystal.
The snowflake exploded, releasing a huge amount of ice and cold wind that would freeze everything in a fan-shaped area. This was the only way to deal with the demons right now. If they failed to kill the mushroom demon today, the city would fall. So, failure wasn't an option.
"Saintess! Please trap them!" Noel shouted.
"How about your defense?"
"There's no other way!" Noel decided to abandon their defense as long as they could kill the mushroom.
Meanwhile, Anna knew that the problem was already beyond their competitive spirit. Although she was embarrassed from what happened earlier, it was clear that the situation was beyond their expectation. The only person who could stop those demons were Layla.
"I understand." The Saintess agreed before the problem got bigger. Although Noel was younger than her, his ability in commanding and fighting were greater than her. So, there was no need to hesitate.
A barrier formed around the demons and trapped them inside. As long as the Saintess was here, they wouldn't be able to leave this place like how the demons couldn't destroy the barrier and attack the city every night.
Noel saw this as an opportunity to get rid the mushroom demon. This was their only chance. The longer they waited, the higher the chances that the mushroom demon called more demons out of nowhere.
He kept chasing after the mushroom demon with Anna, but slightly lowered his speed so that he could talk to her.
"Anna. We have to kill it before it's too late. Failure is not an option."
"Understood. Give me the plan."
"I'll take the front. You support me."
"Got it."
Now that Noel had given his command, there was no need to reject the plan since she had no plan anyway.
So, she watched Noel increasing his pace and gradually caught up to the demon.
Seeing this approach, the mushroom tried to blind Noel with another spore smoke.
The smoke was big and million of spores were contained in that smoke, so it would certainly bring more demons if the wind carried it.
That was why Noel prepared two options to handle the spore smoke. He didn't know which one was effective, so he used both of them at once.
Spiritual Energy Dispersion Rune.
Freezing Crystal.
Since the mushroom released all these spores continuously, it was clear that the spores itself were created by its Magic Power, so there was a chance that the Spiritual Energy Dispersion Rune would work. As for the Freezing Crystal, this was Noel's best option.
When the spores touched the Spiritual Energy Dispersion Rune, some dispersed but some didn't. It seemed the majority of the spores were created by using Magic Power, but the real spores were dangerous.
That was where the Freezing Crystal came into play. The snowflake burst and froze all the spores, but because each spore was next to each other, he ended up freezing the entire smoke.
The only way for him to go through was to destroy the ice.
"Sword D'Dantalian."
"!!!" Noel heard Anna's voice and glanced back, finding the lightning sword coming into his direction. He hurriedly ducked down and saw the lightning sword destroy the ice, allowing Noel to go through.
Noel smiled and took this opportunity to use the Four Points Circulation in his feet, boosting his speed. It only took a few seconds to catch up to the mushroom demon.
The mushroom demon opened its mouth to blast Noel with its beam. This time, he was seriously going to kill him.
However, Noel created another Spiritual Energy Dispersion Rune.
The beam split into eight and scattered due to the rune. This might be the best way to utilize this rune, Noel thought.
"Die." Noel muttered as he struck the mushroom demon. The latter grabbed Noel's sword again, preparing to dodge it with another acrobatic move.
However, Noel had prepared another trick in this situation. "Swift Strike."
The speed of his swing suddenly increased by two times, making the mushroom lose its timing. When it launched himself into the air, he ended up tripping and spinning in the air.
Noel smirked as this was the opportunity he had to seize.
"Sword Fall."
A huge sword appeared on top of the mushroom and fell down to stab it. But the mushroom tried to release its spore again to twist its body so that the sword didn't reach him.
But this was what Noel had been waiting for. When it was charging the Spiritual Energy in its body, Noel knew the mushroom couldn't defend from his attack.
Before the Mushroom Demon noticed, Noel struck the mushroom with all his Spiritual Energy and Mega Slash, slicing the demon into two.
"!!!" The demon was shocked but it was too late as its body had been split. And when the residual Spiritual Energy that was about to release came out, a snowflake appeared and exploded, freezing its dying body and eventually killing it.
"Done." Noel let out a breath of relief.
"Congratulations. You just killed an Advanced Level Demon," said Anna after catching up to him.
Though, Noel still didn't lower his guard. After taking a breather, he reminded her, "We have to go back to the Saintess and get rid of the demons. Even though the mind control has disappeared, she can't deal with all those demons."
Anna nodded in agreement and immediately headed back with Noel.
As expected, the Saintess was still holding back the demons.
She smiled when she noticed Anna and Noel's presence, knowing that this mission was a success and the city would be sav—!
"Aaaaaahhhhhh!" Layla suddenly screamed in pain as she covered herself with the barrier. But this time, the black spots had almost covered the entire barrier as if symbolizing that the mushroom was about to take over her.
"Saintess?!" Noel and Anna were stunned. They had killed the monsters, so the control and the contamination should have disappeared.
But Layla dropped to the ground while wailing in pain. She tried to endure the pain while stuttering, "The demon… hasn't… died."
