Mind Demon's Path of Domination

The creature from the water burst out of the river and Mark’s soul sense watched it with cold battle intent. It was a black-scaled, huge snake, its slimy skin covered in thin tendrils of lightning. Its black eyes covered in lightning stared straight at Mark and just peering into it, Mark knew the creature was no ordinary Middle Demon.

It stared right at him the way a predator watched its prey.

Mark laughed. "Brother Naga, let’s fight it together!"

The Naga, who was mere meters away from Mark, screamed. It had stayed away from the lightning snake’s territory to avoid conflict, yet Mark ruined everything. The snake swam through the water like an eel, its speed blinding before it soon crawled into the land.

It was big, big enough to eat a bus.

Hiss!

Mark distanced himself with a grin and a flap of his wings.

He stopped atop a tree branch and peered down, eyes shining brilliantly.

Turning towards him for once and noticing him being at a distance, the Lightning Snake focused on the Naga.

The two snakes stared at each other, one bold, one hesitant. One would be prey, the other the hunter.

They stood unmoving as if waiting for the other to make a move.

Mark covertly let out the Boss Demon, looked towards the battle once more, and commanded calmly, "Keep the enemies from getting to me. Your absolute mission is to keep me alive."

Nodding as if it understood, the Boss looked at the battle. It howled noiselessly.

"Don’t take their attention. You are to ambush."

Mark once again focused back on the enemies and licked his lips.

The black snake moved, lightning crackling in its maw as it leaped at the Naga. A fierce crunch echoed as the mow bit down, slamming around the Naga’s body.

Tier 2 Pinnacle Demonic Trick—Lightning Bite!

Just as Mark worriedly wondered whether the Naga was all right, its figure vanished into misty smoke. The snake looked around with its cold gaze.

Tier 2 Pinnacle Demonic Trick—Illusion of Fear.

The ability to create the illusion of something that a target feared. When Mark met the Naga for the first time, it had used that on him to show the image of a giant Gryffin. He had indeed been worried about the Gryffin, no wonder the illusion ability manifested his worries into reality.

Now, the Lightning Snake’s fear came true—not being able to bite into its prey.

Appearing near the Black River, the Naga coldly hissed.

Both of them were Pinnacle Middle Demons, both capable of hurting each other. Both had incredibly powerful Defensive Magic Auras passively defending them for now and even if that was broken, they had incredibly powerful demonic tricks to fight. If even that didn’t work, they had their Ultimate Demonic Arts to rely on!

Not even their Defensive Magic Aura had been broken yet!

Only a very powerful Tier 2 attack can break a Tier 2 Defensive Magic Aura!

"Usually, demons avoid conflict with each other if they are not hungry, right? You called them cowards, even."

"Well, not this Lightning Snake. It’s hungry for battle, I think."

Mark licked his lips.

Just as he was focusing on that, though, a powerful slam landed on his back and he was thrown off of the tree branch. He collided against the ground with a bang and rolled to the side, face covered in wet mud.

Mark immediately stood up and sensed around with his Soul Sense, sweat oozing down his face.

The Lightning Snake is just five meters away from me!

The Naga was on the tree branch where he had been standing. He did predict such an outcome but the attack still came out of nowhere.

It was because of the Naga’s demonic trick.

Tier 2 Pinnacle Demonic Trick—Nonexistence!

The Naga had used a demonic trick that allowed it to have no existence. Invisible, soundless, and odorless, it had reached him and slammed him towards the Lightning Snake. Mark jumped back and stared at the slimy creature with a wary gaze.

He shouted, "Hold back the Naga! Don’t let it attack me!"

The Boss had also just noticed the Naga. Growling, it jumped out of a branch and howled noiselessly. The Naga’s huge tail lashed out against the dark-skinned Dungeon Demon, but the Boss didn’t even deem to dodge and just ran at the enemy coldly.

Naga’s eyes widened. Its tail phased through the body of the enemy as if the enemy was just an illusion.

Tier 2 Pinnacle Demonic Trick—Phantom Transformation!

The Boss slammed its powerful fist against the Naga and punched it repeatedly. At the same time, a small ball—like a little bubble—moved out of the Boss’ hand and hit the Naga on the face, turning it incredibly dizzy.

Tier 2 Pinnacle Demonic Trick—Phantom Ball of Dizziness.

The Phantom Ball moved incredibly slowly but when it hit, the enemy grew clearly dazed.

Hiss.

Mark felt his heart lurch as the Lightning Snake lunged at him. In that split second, he made his wings disappear and moved to the side, avoiding the lunge but failing miserably to escape. The snake’s tail wrapped around him with incredible quickness and Mark felt his heart shake as it tightened.

Tier 2 Pinnacle Demonic Trick—Lightning Bite!

The snake’s lightning-soaked maw opened wide to attack him, ready to kill him entirely. But just as it was about to close in, Mark howled and the figure of a robust creature appeared before him. The minotaur!

Unable to protect itself the Minotaur took the brunt of the Lightning Bite directly and was blasted off to the side. Mark took that opportunity to touch the snake’s slimy scales—Alchemy Shapeshifting!—but it was useless.

Its Defensive Magic Aura hadn’t been broken.

Mark jumped out of its coils and range and escaped, breathing heavily, staring coldly at the snake.

The Minotaur had been blasted to the side, its Defensive Magic Aura had broken!

Mark grinned. "I know how to break your Defenses, bitch!"

He clenched his jaw, dust floating around him.

Two of his demonic tricks, Parasite and Dream Shock, combined within his World Space and turned into one single ability. Mark felt his Mindpower plummet like crazy and the second the Ultimate Demonic Trick was activated, he felt it reach nearly rock bottom!

The more Mindpower he had, the stronger the Ultimate Demonic Art, but at the same time, the more costly.

Tier 2 Ultimate Demonic Art—Parasitic Dream Shock!

The Snake hissed coldly as its Defensive Magic Aura broke like glass.

But it wasn’t scared but excited instead.

The enemy Demon would no longer have enough Mindpower for another attack! Ultimate Demonic Arts were costly!

If the Snake used an Ultimate Demonic Art now, Mark would be over!

A grin stretched across Mark’s face.

Inside his World Space, the Black Water he had absorbed from the Black River melted in just one second and his exhausted Mindpower was instantly refilled. His Soul Sense clamped down on the Pinnacle Lightning Snake.

Ultimate Demonic Art—Parasitic Dream Shock!

Mark’s golden gaze became like the gaze of a giant looking down at a small worm. In the eye of the Lightning Snake, Mark was one of those scary giants that even the battle-crazy snake didn’t dare to mess with. It whimpered in abject horror.

A giant hand clamped around the Snake’s maw.

"I can’t have you using your Ultimate Demonic Art on me now, can I?" he asked, chuckling. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Alchemic Shapeshifting!

The Snake screamed as its body began to morph from the side, in just a second, half of its side was turning into blood. But before it completely died, a layer of lightning flickered around the creature’s scales and it retreated back, glaring at Mark.

Tier 2 Pinnacle Demonic Trick—Lightning Scales!

"A defensive ability!" Mark growled.

Even his Ultimate Demonic Art couldn’t break past a defense without exhausting the enemy. But sure, the enemy was already on the brink of exhaustion. Mark jumped towards it but this time, it didn’t fight him and ran with incredible speed towards the Black River.

Mark sprinted behind it but it was still faster than him. Even if he used his wings, it wouldn’t cut it.

Tier 2 Pinnacle Demonic Trick—Lightning Sprint!

"A movement ability!"

Just as he was scowling, he noticed the snake’s wounded areas heal with alarming speed. It grew back an entire part of its neck!

"A healing ability!"

Tier 2 Pinnacle Demonic Trick—Lightning Heal!

Just as he was running behind it ardently, Mark’s face changed. The ground beneath him exploded with a fierce charge and his vision was briefly blinded by lightning. He already knew the snake’s abilities and was wary of them, but he didn’t see it coming like this.

Tier 2 Pinnacle Demonic Trick—Lightning Landmine!

His Defensive Magic Aura was broken but otherwise, he was uninjured.

He sneered. "You are not escaping."

The Snake jumped towards the Black River but suddenly, something took hold of its tail and swung it towards Mark with immense force. The Minotaur!

Its Defensive Magic Aura was broken but otherwise, it was healthy.

As the hissing huge snake flew through the air towards him, Mark smirked. Having used this many abilities, the Snake was not going to waste any more energy. As he expected, its cruel gaze looked at him with immense coldness and he felt his heart tremble.

It was going to use its Ultimate Demonic Art.

Mark felt his skin prickle.

Ultimate Demonic Art—Bite of the Immortal Lightning Snake!

The Tricks:

Lightning Heal, Lightning Sprint, Lightning Landmine, Lightning Scales, and Lightning Bite all fused into a single Demonic Art. One power.

Lightning crackled like a thousand birds chirping at the same time. From the ground, an incredibly huge snake made out of Lightning rose and sprinted towards Mark. Leaped towards him. If he got hit without any Defensive Ability, he was surely going to burn to death.

And he didn’t have any defensive demonic trick. THe Boss was not nearby, the Minotaur wouldn’t reach in time either.

Mark sighed.