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Having an opponent suddenly activate her Territory like that caught Aques Lumen completely off guard. In the first place, his Territory was unique in that it required certain conditions before it could be deployed. Besides, Ferti’nier’s Territory was several times larger than his own, so even if he did manage to deploy his own Territory, it would most likely only last a few seconds before being completely dominated. Aques Lumen had lost before the battle had even been decided.

All he could do now was try and preserve his life, in hopes that his opponent wasn’t out to get his blood. Yet what happened next came as a complete surprise to him. Not only did she not attack him, she instead launched an attack towards another target.

With a casual wave of her hand, Ferti’nier fired off a black sphere of lightning towards a tree, merely twenty meters behind Aques Lumen. As its mighty trunk came tumbling down with an ear-splitting creak, a silhouette took the opportunity to zip behind Aques Lumen, claws ferociously tearing into the Demon Hunter’s back.

Aques Lumen had already noticed that something was going on behind him. Now that his opponent had clearly shown his hostility, he spun around and stabbed at his foe rather than defend. A hit! An unexpected outcome to the Demon Hunter, but it had merely pierced the left hand of the new opponent. More importantly, that opponent seemed to have no intention of letting that sword slip from his grasp…

His foe was a whirlwind of blows. Upon sealing off Aques Lumen’s weapon, he never stopped attacking for even a second. Finally, his razor sharp claws managed to find an opening and tore at Aques Lumen’s heart. This time, it seemed like it could really deal a decisive blow… even with Aques Lumen’s abilities, his body was still that of a normal Human’s. Should his heart get pierced, he was done for.

The situation was looking dire for him. Aques Lumen did not have much choice but to dodge backwards, hopefully outranging his opponent’s reach. Slim as that possibility might be, all he could do now was leave his fate up to the heavens…

Yet just when he thought he was done for, a black shadow suddenly erupted from the ground and deflected that attack!

The claw tore right through the shadowy figure, but it did not even react in the slightest. After all, shadows could not speak.

While shadows ordinarily weren’t physical objects, this shadow summoned by Ferti’nier Territory was unique. It had the properties of a physical object, and slowed the claw attack down by a second as it passed through. With this tiny sliver of opportunity, Aques Lumen immediately channelled all his Fighter’s Aura into his sword, blasting a bloody hole into his opponent’s other claw. His sword was now free to act once more.

This sudden development had caught the figure by surprise. His ambush not only ended up failing, the shadow which he had pierced was now coiling his way up his shoulder, and soon his entire body was bound up!

“A Werewolf?!” Pulling himself away from his opponent, Aques Lumen managed to grab a proper look at his opponent for the first time. It was a nearly four meter tall, grey-furred Werewolf. An unexpected opponent to meet here, but his confusion merely lasted a second before he came to a rough conclusion. “I see even the fearless Werewolves have now fallen so low as to work with their hated enemies, the Vampires.”

“ROARRRR!!” The grey-furred Werewolf howled at Aques Lumen as it struggled to break free from the serpentine binding put on him. Unfortunately, his efforts bore no fruit in the end. With no choice left, assuming he wanted to get out any time soon, he could only pull out what looked to be his ultimate move. His body began to emit an eerie white light that quickly engulfed a fifteen meter radius. Three hulking white spirit wolves appeared out of thin air and rushed at the serpentine binding, clawing and biting furiously.

Territory: Nether Wolves!

Now that he was free from the pesky shadow, he wasted no time at all in leaping at Aques Lumen, fangs glistening in the light!

Naturally, Aques Lumen wasn’t one to underestimate his opponent. The fact that he had deployed a Territory meant that he was dealing with an Overlord Werewolf. The Werewolves were one of the well-known combat races amongst the denizens of darkness. Their race was blessed with an impressive regenerative ability; as long as the damage wasn’t fatal, they could slowly heal back up. That was why Werewolves often attacked with no regard for their lives. As long as their wounds were able to trade for another, it was their firm belief that their regenerative abilities would take care of the rest.

And there was no better proof of this than the fact that the gaping hole in that Werewolf’s hand was already starting to close up, even as he was furiously swinging at Aques Lumen.

Unlike his opponent, Aques Lumen couldn’t risk getting hit at all, even with the power of a Devil flowing within him. After all, he was just a normal Human with no superhuman regeneration to save him.

In the meantime, Ferti’nier continued floating in the air, arms folded and every bit a passive spectator.

Aques Lumen knew he had to deploy his Territory quickly. However, his Territory had the unique weakness of requiring a whole second of activation. Yet with the Werewolf’s ferocious clawing, there was no way he would ever find a second of free time to focus. Especially not when his movement suddenly felt sluggish -most likely an effect of being in the Werewolf’s Territory. Then there was the issue of that Devil still watching from the sidelines. He wasn’t in danger for the time being, but it was only a matter of time before he was dealt a lethal blow.

The Werewolf continued hammering the Demon Hunter, forcing him to be fully occupied with defending, until, finally, he managed to force the man against a three meter tall boulder. The moment Aques Lumen unwittingly came close to that boulder, a swarm of red bats, numbering at least in the thousands, flew straight at him. Now, with a bunch of Spirit Wolves and a Werewolf attacking him from the front, and a horde of bats from the back, he had nowhere to escape to…

Yet just when it looked like he was about to meet his maker, a bunch of shadowy silhouettes rose from the ground and began rending the red bats asunder, turning all the red bats into a pile of red liquid in an instant. Ferti’nier had acted to save him once more! For reasons known only to her, she summoned forth those seven shadows with a curl of her finger and sent them to block the attack.

As more and more red liquid fell on the floor, they began to coalesce towards a spot until a figure started to rise from the gruesome-looking pool of red. Finally, in its place stood a handsome man, dressed in a typical noble’s garb, that was dyed red on the inside and black on the outside…

With Ferti’nier helping to block off the red bats, Aques Lumen was able to precisely time his dodge at the last second. The three Spirit Wolves were unable to react before colliding head-first into the shadowy figures summoned by Ferti’nier, entangling themselves into one giant mess.

“A Vampire Overlord…” The identity of those bats couldn’t be any clearer to Aques Lumen now. His eyes narrowed as subconsciously gripped down on his sword.

“You’ve really teamed up…” He spat out angrily. “Let me guess… those Undead Nicole told me about… that means there should be an Undead Overlord somewhere as well.”

“Haha, you can guess all you want.” The Vampire Overlord licked his lips as he sneered. “Ahh… I can’t wait to taste the blood of an Overlord. It must be sweeter than a virgin’s…”

“…” Aques Lumen was never one for wasting words with his opponents. If there was something he desperately wanted to figure out now, it would be the stance of that Devil floating about. She did not seem to be on his side. But if she was an enemy, she had already saved him twice. Truly, a head-scratcher.

However, thinking too deeply into this matter was pointless now. He had to face these two newcomers with all his might. As for the Devil floating above, at the very least, she wasn’t out to kill him, or he would be dead many times over by now.

Having come to that decision, he decided to try and deploy his Territory once more. Yet just as he was about to do so, his instincts immediately screamed of danger to him. A veteran of countless battles, he knew to trust his instincts at such crucial times. He swiftly launched himself out of the way with a quick kick off, tumbling roughly ten meters to the side.

Barely a second later, the area where he last stood was overwhelmed by dozens of bone hands. Because he had managed to dodge their grasps, they merely dissipated into the air after failing.

“The Branch Leader of Azure’s Demon Hunters’ Guild, Aques Lumen. Publicly, his strength is only announced as Eight-star, but he is actually at the level of an Overlord. His Territory is special, having some connection to Devils. In all likelihood, only the top brass of the Demon Hunters’ Guild know about this. Am I right so far, Mr. Branch Leader?” A skeletal Mage, dressed in black robes and wielding a skeletal staff, walked out from the shadows of a tree nearly two hundred meters away.

“Did you really think we went through all this trouble just to capture your student?” As the black-robed skeleton spoke, his jaws clacked together to produce an almost mechanical voice.

“An Overlord Lich…” Even though the skeletal Mage hadn’t deployed his Territory yet, Aques Lumen could already tell from his oppressive aura that he was dealing with an Overlord. Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined that he would be facing off against three Overlords in this backwater village. Furthermore, the way they acted suggested that they were laying in wait here just to ambush someone like him!

Overlord-tier experts were never easy to kill. Without an absolute advantage in strength, one could only rely on overwhelming numbers to kill off an Overlord. If an Overlord was dead set on escaping, you would need at least two other Overlords to have a chance at killing him.

Clearly, this whole setup was created to ensnare a Human Overlord.

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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