The middle-aged man surveyed the shop.

He was expecting to encounter an old man, who was the master of this shop.

However, after observing the shop, talkless of finding the master, he couldn't even find his servant who rarely leaves the shop.

His eyebrows creasing into a frown, he asked in a cold voice, "Boy, where is the manager of this shop?"

Arlo at this point was very tense.

He could feel the dangerous aura surrounding these people and he could tell they didn't have good intentions.

Not receiving any reply, the middle-aged man walked further inside the shop and approached Arlo, "Didn't you hear my question?"

Anita that was resting in Arlo's arms shivered ever so slightly.

Feeling her slight tremble, Arlo woke up from his stupor and summoned the little courage he could, "I-I don't know."

The middle-aged man stopped.

He observed Arlo's facial features closely, and not gleaming any signs of lying, he fell into deep thoughts.

He took out some type of stone and sent his mana into it.

The stone lit up slightly, before he brought it to his mouth, "We have a problem…"

"You fucking bastard! What the hell are you doing? The old man is here. Get your ass over…" An urgent and somewhat flustered voice resounded out from the stone.

Not even taking a moment, the middle-aged man disappeared from the spot as he flashed out of the shop.

The other ten men made way for him to pass before they turned around in unison, intending to follow him.

However, after leaving the shop, the middle-aged man stopped once again.

Turning around, his eyes met with Arlo's, and after a deep thought, he told the weakest among those following him, "You take care of him."

He wondered why Arlo wasn't demonized even after being engulfed by evil energy. The little slime also drew his attention, and if not that he needed to urgently regroup with his leader, he would have taken care of Arlo himself.

Leaving the weakest among them to handle him was his limit, as he couldn't allow anything to disrupt their plans.

However, it was enough as even the weakest was an early advanced mage, not to mention he was a greater demon. Leaving him behind was even overkill.

With that, ten out of the initial eleven disappeared while the last returned to the shop.

In Arlo's mind, Old Bro's voice resounded, "Boy, this will be your first true trial. All those previous battles of yours were merely child's play. You only have one goal…>>

Arlo drew in a deep breath.

<< Survive. >>

…..

A lot of plans hatched simultaneously in Arlo's head.

Even though he didn't know the exact picture, he knew the situation outside was dire.

After taking barely ten seconds to organize his thoughts, while the other party walked towards him, Arlo finally made his choice.

Putting on a terror-stricken expression, Arlo took light steps backward as the other party drew closer.

The little bit of cautiousness lingering in the other party's eyes slowly disappeared.

Initially, he was a little cautious of Arlo, as no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't wrap his head around why a little kid and some slime could resist evil energy.

In the end, he was only a kid.

With that thought, he quickened his pace, and Arlo fell on his rear side from such a sudden change.

Before Arlo could regain himself, a large hand suddenly clutched his throat pulling him up.

Anita resting in his embrace fell to the ground.

A pair of silver eyes met a pair of crimson eyes filled with a menacing glow.

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Even though the man's eyes were filled with a crazy light, he seemed to be able to restrain it.

Arlo tried to struggle free, but it all ended in futile.

With a thoughtful look, a wave of thick evil energy left the man's hand, and into Arlo's body.

Even though Arlo struggled, he didn't show any sign of demonization.

What the man didn't notice was the pair of glowing lights at the back of Arlo's hands.

"What are you?" He asked in a hoarse voice. His voice sounded like two metals scraping against each other. It was very disturbing to hear.

However, to Arlo?

Seeing the man's entire attention on him, Arlo screamed out in his mind, 'Now!'

A shadow instantly appeared on the left side of the man, and before he even noticed it, the shadow expanded in size as a sweet girl's voice echoed out…

"Universal devouring!"

The man's senses tingled dangerously as he lost all sensation in his left side.

However, he was still a mage with years of experience.

With the crazy light in his eyes finally released, a thick burst of evil energy exploded from his entire body as he screamed, "Scram!"

Anita was flung away from the force.

He turned to his side to ascertain the situation when a cracking sound rang out in the shop.

With a burst of pain hitting him, his head snapped back to his front, only to see his right hand broken by Arlo's left hand, his right fist already hurtling at his heart.

His eyes widened from surprise, and before he could even react…

*Bam!*

He was sent flying through the shop, destroying several obstacles before finally impacting the wall beside the door.

Arlo stood surprised on the spot.

When he broke the other party's hand, he expected a scream or at least a groan. Yet what he received was indifference.

What surprised him the most was that after his fist connected with the other party's chest, he was expecting his hand to blow through him with force, after all, he had concentrated all his Ki when he launched the attack.

However, the result was far from it.

'But he should still be dead.'

Arlo was confident in his strength. There was no way the other party could survive from that.

Arlo quickly moved to his side, "Anita, are you okay?"

The little slime seemed to tremble slightly on the ground, as several strands of evil energy were released from her body.

As he inched closer to her, Old Bro's angry voice resounded in his mind.

<< You foolish brat! How dare you distance yourself from a mage? >>

Arlo blanked out, 'Isn't he dead?'

Sure enough, an angry voice drifted into Arlo's ears:

"Bastard! You deceived me." As the man stood from the ground, he spat out a mouthful of blood. How could he not tell that Arlo was a warrior, but actually acted like a weakling so that he could close the distance between them?

Arlo's pupil turned into slits when he saw a small screen of water lying in front of the man's chest where his fist had impacted.

"But you are still too inexperienced." He closed the door beside him and before Arlo could hurry to close the distance between them, he called out menacingly…

"Water domain!"

A burst of evil essence surrounded his body, as his mana spread across the entire shop.

The ground of the shop was suddenly filled with water, and when Arlo looked down, he could see the water barely reaching his ankles.

What gave Arlo a more dangerous feeling was the wave of evil energy being emitted from the water's surface.

"Kill him!" The man ordered.

*Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!*

Several whooshing sounds echoed in the shop, as several shadows leapt out from the water on the ground.

Life-like sea creatures made of water attacked Arlo in mass.

There were huge fishes, crabs, prawns, and many more.

The more than twenty creatures all hurled their massive bodies at Arlo.

In response, Arlo retreated backward at his fastest speed.

Well, he tried to.

He found his speed greatly reduced, and it didn't take him long to realize the cause.

'It must be the water.' Out of instinct, he looked down to observe the water on the ground.

However, this was a battle. How could he divert his attention to something else especially when facing several enemies?

The sea creatures closed in on him from every direction as they snapped open their jaws to attack.

Several sharp massive teeth surrounded Arlo's vision, and even though they were made out of water, they seemed very life-like and real.

Arlo didn't dare to test the biting power of such teeth, and in his panic, he did what he deemed most suitable.

Using the energy already congregated at his neck, he shouted out, "SCRAM!"

As if there was an invisible wall lying in front of them, all the sea creatures stopped on their path momentarily before they were all sent flying backward.

<< Foolish boy! You could have used ruler's authority to win this fight by taking him by surprise. >> Old bro angrily scolded in his mind.

Sure enough, the demonized man's eyes flashed with vigilance. He didn't understand what just happened, but he knew he must not allow Arlo to come closer to him.

He didn't dare to pull his hands anymore and decided to use all his strength, treating Arlo as an enemy on his level.

"Come out!" he commanded. A huge portion of his mana drained from him and before long, his forehead became matted with sweat.

In response, a four-meter-tall octopus rose from the water behind him, reaching the ceiling of the shop. Its massive tens of tentacles swayed at its side before a majority of them moved to shield the man.

Old bro could feel a headache coming on. He could already tell from the previous explosions that the situation outside was dire. And if he was to consider the worst-case scenario, it meant all the vampires in the city were already demonized. Therefore, to survive, Arlo would have to forge a path among hundreds if not thousands of demonized lesser demon vampires. Yet, here he was struggling in his first fight.

He understood that Arlo was not really at fault, as this was his first time fighting a real human mage not to say the opponent was even a greater demon. With him by his side, he didn't need to fear the evil energy, however, the other party was still far more experienced than him.

<< Brat. Unsummon Anita before summoning her again. Even though she cannot be demonized, she is still struggling with the evil energy, but with her by your side, the effect will be greatly reduced. >>

Arlo immediately did as he was told. Anita appeared back on his head and she seemed to fare better than before.

Looking at the water reaching his ankle, Arlo looked up at the approaching sea creatures that swarmed towards him before his eyes landed on the far-away shielded culprit.

Clenching his fists, he realized for the first time that his situation wasn't optimistic.

.....

AN: Thanks to all those who are following the novel. And to those that aren't, please drop a review and add the novel as your favorite. It helps to boost my motivation to write, <3.