So Elijah blinded this damned snake, it started throwing a tantrum and destroyed the flowers we needed to save Mira, and not satisfied it healed the eyes back. From what I know, such healing is something only beings mostly or completely made out of pure mana can do.

Yet, here this snake is all healed up in just a moment.

Granted, I’m all healed too, but still…

I’m mad. Like, really.

Monsters, beasts, or animals in general have something like a sixth sense: We know when an opponent is stronger just after taking a glance, this is how I know I’ll never be killed by the likes of goblins or the Barren Lands’ monstrified beasts. That doesn’t work on humans though, they’re cunning, being strong isn’t enough to secure a win.

But there’s something off with my sixth sense, and I know why.

Against that troll that nearly killed me and against giants, I’ve felt like I should unquestionably be the winner, even still my gut feeling told me the win was a mere possibility. And I’ve got the same feeling with this snake.

That’s because demons can never be humans.

Apparently, when a demon tries to be a human, it gets heavily weakened. Of course, demons are beasts, monsters, creatures that follow their instincts. Reject those and you’re left with an endless pool of aura incapable of harnessing its full potential.

In the end, I much probably can win this fight if I go all out as a demon.

But…

…I don’t want to.

I never wanted to be a demon, I was human, I want to continue being one, I want to be the same as Ayla, Elijah and Cass… Although only one of the three is actually human.

Pretending to be human is bound to go wrong at some point, yet I want to pretend until my last days, after all I’m not a mindless beast.

Though, not going all out now will surely get Elijah killed. And Mira too.

I won’t die, but I might enter an endless loop of near-death and regeneration.

So anyways, my aura has been leaking this whole time, so might as well match the energy, right?

"Elijah."

"Y-Yeah?"

"Go check the Desolaris. If anything remains, protect them. I'll deal with this loud clown here"

"Yes ma'am!"

"...Just to be sure, anything you see me do, you didn't."

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"Yes ma'am!"

What up with calling me ma’am? Ah, it doesn’t matter. We’ll win this fight.

Let’s go all out!

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

Oh, the cracks on my face are back.

[Prerequisites fulfilled, Skill [Infinite Thought-Process] has awakened]

Skills? I’ve heard Ayla talking about those once. Somehow I seem to fully understand what it can do, maybe the knowledge came with the awakening? Eh, anyways.

So I can increase my thinking speed and spend decades just processing a single instant? Huh.

I jump into action, now standing on its body, I stab my spear down, to my surprise, one of the scales actually shatters, is my normal use of aura that inefficient?

The snake comes biting in my direction, I use my skill. Time seems to slow down, instead it’s my mind who’s working extremely fast. At this rate, until it bites down it might take a few months, if I use the full potential of the skill, it’ll take a few decades, maybe slightly more than a century.

I can take as much time as I want watching this, there’s time to analyze every detail, every opening in this single bite, the doable and the impossible ones.

I release the skill, time seems to flow normally again. I jump into the air dodging the bite and reactivate my skill. I watch the unfolding events: If the snake bites its own body, where I was standing, I’ll pin it down with my spear, if it adapts, I’ll attack continuously to shatter as many scales as possible.

Oh? Didn’t expect it to bite itself… Anyways, I stabbed my spear down though the upper jaw and into the body, now…

“Change scythe”

I pull the scythe upwards and slash an eye on the way, I just need to stab the brain and we’re don-

CRASH!

Dammit this tail! It hit me harder than before, guess that’s the power of fearing for its life? I wouldn’t know.

The impact ripped off one arm, and threw me against two trees. There are branches stuck to my body, of course I take them out so my body can heal, but before I’m fully healed, that clown comes at me again.

No biting and no tail sweep, this time it is trying to body slam me, I’m getting used to my skill, I can get out of the way, but I’ll go with something different.

I punch the giant body coming my way, the movement ceases, then I follow up with a kick, the strongest kick I’ve ever landed until now.

The snake was sent into the air, it is screaming in pain, music to my ears.

After a jump, I stare at the beast in the eyes, I can see its despair. Without breaking eye contact I slash its eyes with my scythe. Now, now, let’s test your healing powers.

Ayla told me to ‘create strings of aura and form a magic circle with it’, when I failed to make the correct pattern, the spell backfired. Elijah used a fireball spell before, if I remember the circle correctly…

BOOM!

Ah… The spell backfired. My clothes are burning and so is my body, but more importantly, the wound I inflicted, the eyes of the snake cauterized.

And it isn’t healing any time soon it seems, and it is screaming again… Good.

The eyeless snake is throwing a tantrum again, I’ll end it before it destroys something.

“Change spear”

I create another magic circle regardless of being correct, this time at the tip of my spear, but don’t launch it.

The beast is reaching into the sky as if seeking salvation. With its size, the head is probably reaching fourteen meters in the air.

I charge, then jump aiming for the head, or rather, the brain.

I stab through the skull, into the brain, and launch the spell I had prepared.

BOOM!

The flames didn’t reach me this time, but I’m sure it worked, after all…

…The beast is falling.

It is dead.

Ahh, it’s finally done. I just need to get to Elijah, grab the flowers, go back and save Mira.

Putting my weapon into the dormant state, I start walking.

Getting there I see Elijah collapsed in the ground, wounded from head to toe, bleeding a lot. And he’s also holding a small pouch, a flower pouch with a few Desolaris inside.

I check his pulse, he is alive. Most of the flowers got crushed by the debris from the fight.

We need to go back. I just grabbed a few more flowers that remained and stuffed them into the pouch, put Elijah on my back and started walking back.

“You better not die on me now, alright? I won’t be able to face Oli if you do!”