Blood Assimilation

Even though he didn’t use his full strength, it was still an attack that should’ve killed his opponent, considering he made sure that they couldn’t escape by covering their surroundings with his flames.

Exasperated, the red-scaled demon spoke with hatred: “You pesky rat!”

‘It turns out that this human was indeed hiding his strength like that bastard, Gleat said. Even his summoned creature was stronger than it looks.’

He stared straight at incarnation Randy, then continued with a cold tone: “Then, I will deal with you before killing your summoner.”

In the distance, incarnation Randy, who had barely managed to escape the influence of the flames, continued to breathe heavily.

“That was too close. If I couldn’t activate my Body Strengthen skill at that time, I would’ve melted from just a touch of that flame.”

The Body Strengthen skill was initially just a simple skill that worked by greatly enhancing a certain body part. But for some reason, it worked considerably well with his incarnation body.

He wondered if there was something special about this incarnation body besides lacking mana. With that thought, he tried to use another skill.

.....

Wind Sailing Skill.

But nothing happened.

“...What happened?”

As he was confused by the current situation, the red-scaled demon had charged toward him while unleashing attacks from the distance.

As incarnation Randy saw the incoming burning flame, it eliminated all his current thoughts as he quickly activated his Body Strengthen skill and immediately strengthened his body holistically before dodging the incoming claw manifested flames.

Boom!

After dodging one flame claw, another one came rushing in, followed by another, and then another. At the same time, the entire sky seemed to be covered with balls of crimson-dark flames, seeming to trap him in his current position.

“Damn it!”

Randy cursed and immediately executed his basic martial art movement technique.

Chasing Tiger Steps!

With that, he barely dodged the rain of flames falling from the sky.

However, even though, he managed to dodge the flames, he could still feel his surroundings turning hotter as time went by, which caused his movement to slow down due to not having enough air to breathe.

‘At this rate, I’ll end up roasted by these flames. What other skills do I have that can be used with this body. Think!’

Randy contemplated as he continued to dodge the flame attacks at short intervals.

However, the red-scaled demon did not give him any time to think, as he surreptitiously appeared behind him using the flames as a cover.

When he got close, he uttered loudly afterward: “Die!!”

Then, a claw with crimson-dark flames, emitting intense and suffocating heat, slashed at incarnation Randy’s back.

“Oh no!” Incarnation Randy yelled out in shock.

Boom!

With a resounding explosion, he was sent flying shortly after the impact of the clawed flame attack.

...

The other battlefield.

Due to the abrupt explosion, both Randy and the black-horned demon stopped their attacks momentarily and observed the situation.

“Hm?”

“What an interesting ability you have. That puppet of yours could still move, even without your active control? Do you mind telling me how you achieved this? If possible, do you mind telling me the name of your spell?”

Momentarily observing the fight between Incarnation Randy and the red-scaled demon from the corner of his eyes, the black-horned demon commented.

‘This puppet is undoubtedly unlike anything I have ever seen from other humans. Not even their strong ones had such abilities. This is truly an unimaginable feat since it does not appear to be a clone made of pure energy but a physical entity instead.’

The black-horned demon was inwardly shocked by what he was witnessing with his own eyes, but he still kept his calm.

Despite his highly intrigued thoughts, as a trained soldier, he knew how to not let his emotions fluctuate in front of his enemies, unlike his partner, the red-scaled demon.

On the other end, right across from the black-horned demon, Randy had a confused expression. He had long since noticed that the black-horned demon seemed interested in his incarnation body, but he had no idea why.

‘Why does he keep referring to my incarnation body as a puppet? Do they have something similar to my incarnation technique?’

Now that he thought about it, earlier, he had been attacked out of nowhere by the black-horned demon even though his body was still on the other side near the red-scaled demon.

‘Wait a second!’ Randy was shocked as he came to a sudden realization.

He immediately turned to look at where the black-horned demon had sneaked attacked him before he used that opportunity to make the distance between them using his Shadow Swap evasion property of his armor.

However, what he saw stunned him momentarily.

Even now, the black-horned demon’s other body was still standing there motionless, as if it had no life in it. He had initially thought the other body was the black-horned demon’s afterimage, but he was sorely wrong. It wasn’t his afterimage but an actual body. In other words, it was a body substitute or clone of the black-horned demon.

‘Don’t tell me...’ Randy’s eyes immediately widened. His eyes filled with worry as he looked back and forth between the two black-horned demons.

The black-horned demon saw the change in his expression and actions before stating: “What’s with that strange look on your face? Are you surprised that I also have a puppet of my own?”

“...” Randy said nothing in response, but his heart immediately sank deeply upon hearing the black-horned demon’s confirmation.

Seeing this, the black-horned demon smirked and said: “Don’t worry, I don’t possess the ability to make my puppet move independently like yours.’

‘...Does he mean that his puppet can’t move without his control? If that’s the case, there’s nothing to worry about for now since it won’t be three against two. That would’ve been too troublesome to deal with.’

‘Wait a second! That can’t be right. Why is he telling me this?’

Randy was bewildered by the black-horned demon’s actions.

The other party carelessly revealed their capabilities to him, their enemy, as if it were nothing. Why do such a thing? Shouldn’t that be a secret they should’ve withheld from their enemy instead?

As he observed his reaction, the black-horned demon laughed and said: “If you’re wondering why I am telling you this, it’s because you’ll be dying here either way. Since your outcome would be the same regardless of whether you know the truth or not, why bother to conceal something that would be meaningless to your corpse?”

“Then again, you’ll figure it out gradually as the battle goes on, so it doesn’t matter if you knew it beforehand.”

Randy: “...”

‘So he was just confident in himself?’