Blink!
Swoosh. Zoom. Pierce.
The butcher appeared in front of the necromancer when he couldn't use his undead anymore. He lodged his dagger inside Goro's heart while looking him in the eyes.
"Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to see me, Goro. Now get consumed by the anger born out of the unfairness of this world. Find peace in mindless rage."
Eren's voice was like a lullaby for Goro before he lost his grip on reality. His vision turned red before he closed his eyes. The butcher's icy blue eyes shone with brilliance as he activated his Abilities.
'Let me see how it feels to be a necromancer.
The sin of Wrath!
Devour!'
***
Nico was a bald man who looked to be in his mid-40s. He wore thick leather armor and a prominent belt that also served as his defensive artifact. He also had a shield and an axe stuck to his back, indicating that the demon beast owner was quite skilled at close combat.
His demon beast was a dark brown condor. The beast had a thick hide, sharp vision, exceptional aerial maneuverability, and a metal-like beak. He was blessed with various wind spells, which allowed him to dominate the skies against his opponents.
Nico had come here to complete the task given to him by Demonmir himself. It was to kill Eren so that the tripartite alliance between the White Raven Guild, House Derringer, and Levine's faction becomes unstable.
Sebastian Slughorn had contacted Nico at the right time. He immediately agreed to Sebastian's proposal of serving as the reserve force. His main job was to prevent Eren from using his demon beast in case he decides to run away. Only when the situation warrants would he work with the existing team to get rid of Eren.
However, things didn't work out as planned. Nico and the other members of the ambush team had come to realize that they had underestimated Eren thoroughly even when they had tried not to.
Nico was quickly briefed about the ambush team's current situation by Goro before the latter started his battle with Eren. Since then, he has been slated to assist him. In the meantime, he learned that the enemy had also hatched a multi-front strategy to counter them.
And at this point, Nico Chains was angry.
He was angry at a foulmouthed griffin who kept attacking him and his condor verbally as well as physically. His verbal mockery was as piercing as his attacks. His condor beast Shal had to fight with all his strength to defend himself against the griffin's attacks.
This was a battle between a rare-tier C-Rank beast and an epic-tier D-Rank beast. Shal only had a ranking advantage working for him. Otherwise, he would have been owned by Argo a long time ago.
The aerial battle between the two demon beasts was slowing down Nico's advance. He had been trying to get to Goro, knowing well that he might get overwhelmed by Eren's forces. The mission's success was at stake and their chance to finish off Eren would diminish with each passing moment. But this wretched Griffin would not let him go.
The most terrifying thing about Argo was the fact that he would try to bite or claw away some of Shal's flesh and devour it. The hybrid demon beast grew stronger every time he did that.
All of the condor's aerial attacks worked on the Griffin just fine. It was just that they weren't strong enough to hold him down.
As a result of his wings getting injured, Argo lost altitude several times. But he always came out on top soon after devouring Shal's flesh.
It was like Argo never knew how to pay attention to his injuries. He would use his wind-element spells to support and enhance his flight before attacking Shal with newfound vigor.
At first, Nico thought of prioritizing Goro's safety over battling Argo. He thought of conserving his energy so that he could deal with Eren and his forces. However, Argo's attacks kept getting more lethal by the minute. To the point that Nico finally decided to treat D-Rank Argo as his real opponent.
'This beast is a nuisance just like his owner.'
Nico thought to himself before standing up on his demon beast. He took out a bow from his storage and imbued it with his mana. The runes on the artifact lit up as Nico Chains aimed.
In the next moment, a bunch of wind-element arrows were fired at the approaching Argo. The beast released an eagle cry as he sensed the danger coming off of them. An attack from an Expert was no joke. As brave as Argo was, he was not stupid enough to face the arrows head-on.
Another pair of wind wings sprouted on Argo's back. His hybrid form shrunk before the demon beast took a sharp turn to the left just before the arrows could hit him. He sensed another series of arrows coming toward him at the same time. Thus, he opened his bird-like mouth and activated his Devour Ability.
A vortex-like runic formation appeared in front of Argo. The vortex expanded rapidly and took the incoming arrows inside the vortex's eye.
Argo activated the ability to not consume Nico's attacks but to render them unstable. The demon beast instinctively understood that his Ability had the potential to disrupt the basic building blocks of spells, making them unstable. If he used his Ability at the right time in the right way, he could use it to destroy his enemies' spells. One could say that Argo was so much ahead of Eren when it came to making use of his Ability.
Argo's animal instincts were right on point. The wind-element arrows did get disrupted by his Ability. But since the attacks were of the C-Rank, he couldn't completely destroy Nico's spells. The arrows lost their potency, but they managed to break free from the vortex's runic boundaries. In the next moment, the arrows lodged themselves inside Argo's beast-like torso.
Argo screamed in pain and looked at Nico and Shal with narrowed eyes before speaking in a human tongue.
"Bald bitch! Somebody's balls gon pays for this."
