Mind Demon's Path of Domination

Hanmo floated above the canyon. He was looking down with a proudful expression. His disciples were winning.

Night had grown deep, and darkness abounded this canyon. He and his disciples were inside the mega-dungeon, hunting a Tier 1 Demon with Wind Abilities. They had arrived early on and met up with the ferocious tiger-like little giant of a creature.

The fight had started just a minute ago, though.

The fight between the Trio Hunters and the Wind Demon.

There was a simple way to identify a Demon's strength. It was not always accurate, but it was more often correct than incorrect. Many Hunters used this method to gauge their enemies—a Demon's strength was proportional to its size.

Most Tier 0 Demons were about the size of a normal human, Tier 1 Demons the size of an average car, and Tier 2 Demons the size of a bus.

This was common knowledge.

If a Demon was so large, the probability that it was so strong wasn't small. Even though there were abilities that some Demons used to make themselves bigger, that, too, sometimes counted to their strength.

In such cases, Tiers, Abilities, and such would take a back seat in battle. Everything would become unpredictable. Death would start to ring bells.

The Tier 1 Wind Demon they were hunting tonight was something like that. It was a Tier 1 Pinnacle Demon and, usually, not something a new B-Rank Hunter would dare to fight. Nearly 5 meters in size, it was strong.

The Demon had dangerous wind abilities. Not to mention a body that humans of the same level could never compare to.

Thus, the Demon was mostly supposed to be in the advantage, but as Hanmo watched from the skies, floating atop the flying ice, he couldn't help but grin in satisfaction.

The Demon ran around Shiden, face full of fear. When it had first tried to attack Shiden, he had touched it, and if it hadn't been for its Defensive Magic Skin, Shiden would have turned its shape into something else and already won.

But since the Defensive Magic Skin took the brunt of the attack, the Defense had already been broken. Now, one more touch from Shiden and the Demon would be done. It was sweating, growling, and even incredibly cautious.

Alchemy Shapeshifting is more and more fearsome, Hanmo thought. Indeed, Shiden is humanity's hope. Even that demon deep inside this dungeon can handle him after he becomes an A-Rank.

He couldn't wait.

"Come demon, what, are you afraid now?" Shiden ran towards the demon, and it screamed. Tens upon tens of wind blades erupted from nowhere and headed toward Shiden like scythes.

Shiden brushed his hand against the ground, and the ground itself morphed to create a muddy wall in front of him. He didn't even have to ask before Fulan, the Healer of the trio, used golden light to heal his exhausted energy.

"Good, Fulan!"

Shiden jumped near the tiger-like creature, and his hand almost brushed against it, but it jumped away and focused on his comrades instead. Maki and Fulan. Both of them were defenseless against such a strong creature.

Eyes glinting, Fulan smirked. "No, you don't!"

When he touched the ground, the whole ground around ten meters of the creature became a swamp. Even though the creature tried to move around wildly, that only caused it to sink further.

"It's easy at this point," Shiden chuckled and walked forward casually to stand with his friends. "My Hunter Ability is the best in offense. Almost nothing in a similar level to me can defend again me!"

"Hehe, we are invincible in the B-rank level!" Fulan rubbed his belly with a grin.

"Shut up, Shiden, Fulan," Maki said, " You haven't won yet!"

Shiden chuckled and looked coldly at the tiger-like demon. His hand moved towards it. "We have already won, Maki—" But even as his hand tried to touch the demon that had already sunk halfway in, his hand froze and red blood blossomed like a flower.

"Huh…"

A hand floated into the sky and Shiden's face paled. "My—My hand!"

Fulan and Maki backed up like scared chickens and screamed.

"Master, help!"

Hanmo looked down calmly.

The demon had used the Tier-1 Pinnacle demonic trick—Shield of Sharp Air.

Anything that grew a certain distance from it would be cut. Splintered. Destroyed. How can Shiden be so arrogant as to believe he truly was invincible?

Let that hand be your lesson.

Shiden stumbled back. His right hand was now just a stump. Blood geysered. His heart was beating. He felt hot headed. Thirsty.

The youth had never experienced this sort of injury.

Adrenaline rushing like crazy, a hoarse voice released from his mouth, "Fulan, heal!"

The fat youth released his healing ability frantically and golden light surrounded Shiden in his entirety. Immediately after, a hand made of light appeared in Shiden's hand and soon enough, it materialized into a normal, strong hand.

Grr…

Fulan immediately had his head spinning and soon enough, he fell on the ground, unconscious. Maki's shadow became a huge maw and Fulan's body sank into it. She could store living people there, too.

"Maki, analysis!" Shiden said calmly and flexed his fingers.

"Wind Demon, abilities seen so far—Wind Blade, that wind defensive ability you just lost your hand to, and the ability to jump really high. There should be one more ability up its sleeve that we haven't seen."

Shiden stared at it coldly as the creature shook itself out of the swamp. Then, it stared at him with the most murderous expression. Shiden felt his options being shackled.

With that defensive ability of sharp winds around its body, he couldn't touch it. In fact, if he went too close, his whole body would be torn into pieces. Slice, slice. WIthout touching it, he had no way of killing it.

His body was weaker. He had no other ability. Certainly, using the ground as a swamp wouldn't get it again. It could jump high and even this swamp, it had used its wind abilities to escape.

Moreover, since Fulan was out of combat, as long as he used his ability once, Shiden was bound to be exhausted. He only had one chance without Fulan's heal.

How can I kill it?

Certainly, swords made out of the mud on the ground wouldn't hurt this demon. Even earth spikes wouldn't hurt it. Death. Death. Death was walking closer.

So this is what it felt like to be hopeless? To be weak in the face of a predator?

Not to mention, the tiger had some kind of ability it hadn't even used yet.

"You are so strong, Demon." Shiden sighed and raised both his hands. "That's it, it's my first defeat. Count yourself something special."

Hanmo smirked from the skies and snapped his hand.

One, two, three. Tens of ice pincers appeared around the tiger demon and pierced it on all its sides. It was skewered. As it whimpered and fell limp infront of Shiden, the boy calmly put his hand on its head and the creature started to shapeshift.

It turned into a puddle of blood. Dead.

"—Sorry, my master is stronger."

Maki and Hanmo chuckled while Shiden stretched.

Hanmo landed on the ground and offered, "Come, we will eat 5-star Ramen tonight. Lets make Fulan fatter."

"Are there even '5 star' ramens in existence?" Maki squinted in interest.

Hanmo just grinned.