Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Lisa tightly hugged Chuck who looked like he was hovering between the borders of life and death and completely ignored the onrushing Dale. She didn't wish for such an ending but fate was cruel and unpredictable. It showed her moments of bliss only to drop her in the pits of hell the next second.

She embraced Chuck and caressed his cheek, the man who would always wear a stoic face and bicker with her in every opportunity he can find, currently had a peaceful face. She knew how desperately he wanted to save her and for that he worked his body so bad that it was truly a god's miracle that he still had a faint trace of life.

Victory and defeat didn't matter to her any longer. If they were destined to go down, she at least wanted to share the same fate as him.

"You are really a dummy you know. An idiot, always wearing a stoic face, constantly arguing with me. Pushing me into the backlines whenever we went on an adventure. Always prioritizing me over yourself, protecting me even when it means hurting yourself. You incomparable fool why couldn't you just leave me behind!" Her words were softly spoken and only reached the ears of the two of them.

UOOoooHhhh...  Dale covered the distance in a few seconds and glared at the pair with eyes masked with insanity. "More… More, fight me more Chuck Remington" with a thunderous roar, he brutally swung his longsword in a wide arc towards the pair.

The longsword glowed with a crimson halo which contained all the unrestrained strength and the thirst for battle came smashing towards the two of them.

Sensing that their end was near, Lisa tight hugged Chuck's body before closing her eyes and whispering into his ears "Even though you are the greatest idiot I have met who makes me mad every time, you are also the one I love the most Chuck".

BANG… a loud voice of something crashing rang out before everything went silent.

Just when she thought that everything was over, as she closed her eyes and given herself to her fate, to her surprise the expected attack never came. Instead, there was a loud noise and everything went silent after that.

For a moment Lisa felt that she was already dead and that was why the pain never came. But that was not the case.

Opening her eyes, she saw a huge crater a few meters ahead of them and a faint figure of a person standing inside. The loud noise she heard must be from the huge crater that person must have made.

"Did he Drop from the sky?" was her first thought

After the clear outline of the person came into view, she was stunned to find that the person was not human. Wide crimson black wings that spanned more than three meters protruded from the person's back, two jagged adorned his head like a crown.

His pitch-black hair seemed to be like the night itself devouring the light around him. His crimson pupils were so oppressing and menacing to look that Lisa was forced to shift her gaze away.

There was no doubt, the person that dropped out of nowhere was a demon. Though the Ghastly Winding Forest was located in the demon continent, it was unusual to see a demon this close to the central continent.

The humans and demons have waged wars uncountable times in their long history with both sides suffering huge casualties. Hence both sides hated each other. If it was not for the ancient treaty being in effect, Lisa had no doubts that there would be even more bloodshed and wars in their history.

The demon had crashed into the place where she and Chuck who was in her embrace were about to meet their end. However, what she didn't understand was that where did the demon come from. As soon as she asked herself that question, the answer naturally came to her.

She remembered the dungeon they had come out from a few hours ago. There was no doubt, it was his lair. A dungeon could only be made by a demon, that is to say, the demon standing in front of her was the demon that resided in that dungeon.

"Why did he come here?!... is he mad that we are fighting so close to his dungeon?" Her mind spurred as she thought about the motive behind the appearance of the Demon. It didn't matter to her if the demon was angry on the human in front of him and takes action to clean them up. Her fate was already sealed; after all, it matters not whether she died by the hands of humans or demons

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Laris looked on with irritation flashing in his eyes. Just when he was about to swiftly end the pair, Dale went ahead and lost his mind due to overusing his skills and lost all of his self-control, continuously trying to seek a battle.

It would not be a surprise to him if Dale ended up pointing his sword at his teammates next. If that happened, the situation would turn even more chaotic after all Dale wasn't any weaker than him and his rank was also among the top twenty in their guild.

However, the situation didn't turn out as he expected. It was not that Dale came out of his trance but that something had come falling down from the sky just when dale was about to finish the pair.

With an uncontrolled speed, something smashed on top of Dale head who had lost all of his sanity and created a crater due to its insane momentum.

The ground trembled and dust and dirt flew everywhere. After the faint outline of the person came into view when the dust settled, Laris was enraged and maddened to the point of clenching his hands into fists.

Laris didn't need a clear look to know who it was after all his figure was burned into his memory. The person had ruined his carefully crafted plan and had taken things that belonged to him.

Not only that but the person had also made a fool out of him, leading him around in circles by his nose.

"Sigh… I have done it now. Well, it couldn't be helped since I don't want these people to taste any more victory" Simon said as he walked out of the crater.

In the middle of the crater was a burly man unconscious and deeply planted inside the ground. It was none other than Dale who had lost his mind due to the overuse of the skill [Battle Hunger].

Simon used him as a cushion for his free fall and directly landed on top of him. One could only imagine the momentum and inertia he had to create such a deep crater and Dale was the one who had absorbed all of that.

The pressure and force of the fall was so great that Dale immediately lost his consciousness. Of course, Simon did it deliberately as he accelerated and descended from the sky at an insane speed.

His target was none other than Dale who was after the couple behind him. One might even say that he had sneaked upon his enemies and even question his methods. But Simon believed that there was no point in fighting fair and square with these kinds of people.

Purely by their numbers, he was at a disadvantage and therefore he used this opportunity when one of their leaders who seemed to have lowered their guard to bring him down in one fell swoop.

Stepping over the unconscious body of Dale, Simon jumped out of the crater. Fixing his gaze, he looked at the stunned adventurers who were so shocked by the sudden development that they were silent for quite a while.

"Leader…" one of the adventures from Dale's team hurriedly called out right after he snapped out of his daze. Following him, many of them came back to reality and started calling out towards Dale.

Dale's team of adventures didn't recognize the demon in front of them, but that wasn't true for Laris and his party.

At this moment Laris was glaring at Simon with bloodshot eyes while continuously grinding his teeth in hatred.

To Simon, his hatred filled gaze just felt like a passing glance not even able to faze him at all.. Compared to that, he was the one who had a ton of grudge against them and an uncontrollable fury that was difficult for him to hold back.