Souls: 63 -> 92

Hektor has been on the run for the past few hours, the sun could no longer be seen. He didn't know if it was due to the dark clouds or just because nightfall finally came, but either way Hektor's focus was drawn on something else. His escape carried priority more than anything else.

He had the souls necessary but his mana was not recovering at a fast enough rate for him to even think of manifesting any new minions. In safer areas where he can just meditate, he can manifest so long as he had souls but in his current situation even just another new crow would be impossible without a potion.

With both his aura and mana in such low levels, the young man was exhausted.

SQUAWK! SQUAWK!

With the warning signs from his birds, he knew that he still had a lot of ground to cover. The squawks were beginning to get louder.

"Come, human." The voice of a shadowy figure exclaimed. "You can't just run away from a fight."

It was the same single-horned and thin earth demon from earlier. Middle-class demons often have the capability to communicate to humans. Even at full strength Hektor thought that this creature was hard to take on. 'A special variant of the Earth Demon species.' Hektor concluded due to the vast amount of mana that he could sense from the creature.

With a heavy breath he covered Hektor took on a stance. He had enough aura for one more strike.

"Great… FIGHT ME!" The demon jumped forward, with its right fist cocked back.

With sheer reaction speed and without the use of aura, Hektor dodged the strike. He then used his shield wielding arm to swat the earth demon away.

'He only managed to hit me earlier, due to timing.' Hektor concluded.

Punch after punch was thrown but the spearman only dodged or deflected the blows. He knew that a punch from this creature was far stronger than a strike from the club wielding variant that he faced.

'I still have a mana potion in my back pocket.' Hektor kicked the demon away again.

He quickly dashed towards a tree. "Fuwoooo."

His birds heard the whistle and all of those that were still alive flocked around the demon. The demon was taking them down one after another but they were serving their purpose."

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Hektor gulped down the last of the potion with vigor. 'An Imp? No.. far too weak!' He thought. "I'm going to miss having mana again."

He was forced to pick from one of his Middle-tier Presets once more. The Vulture was of no use in this situation and the black drake was far too small. Among the "defects" that he summoned before, one of them stood out.

He pressed the button.

Souls: 92 -> 82

The last crow died.

His next words were the only thing that the armored insect needed.

"Let's kill him."

The two of them dashed out from the different sides of the tree. "I'm back for round 2."

The demon didn't even notice the insect, all of its focus was back to Hektor. The demon has been having negative feelings since the fight began. Annoyance was a constant thing, from fleeing the main battlefield to dodging and deflecting every punch the demon ran into a slippery opponent.

The flock of birds that he had to kill were just the icing on the cake of his growing frustration.

Hektor knew that the defective insect soldier was fragile, if even regular weaponry took it down what made it better than an Imp?

While Hektor was researching books at the library, he came across a book known simply as "The Monster Compendium". In particular it had information on monsters that were common in the Markluzian Kingdom. Among these monsters were the insectoids who all came in different shapes and sizes, they were variants of bugs that mutated due to either a vast source of mana or through a deity.

Among the insectoids that Hektor read about a few diagrams came up, those that informed him of the kind the "Insect Soldier" was. The most common variants were that of ants, but the beetle-like face and the somewhat hard black exoskeleton made it seem like one in the first place.

The diagrams showed him clearly that the four-armed insect that he manifested was the juvenile equivalent of the Tiger beetle.

The demon felt a slash from his back only to see nothing behind him. Hektor sent out a thrust with his spear forcing the demon back.

"What was that?" The demon shook his head.

Hektor refused to answer. The demon sensed that something was going on but with the prey right in front of him, he couldn't help but continue with his assault.

This time around the slash from its back actually damaged the earth demon.

The insect soldier would soon reveal itself as another slash came in, one that the demon was finally prepared for.

The Tiger Beetle insectoid is said to be one of the fastest variants of the common insectoid soldier. While weaker in terms of defences and power they more than made up for it with speed. The minion was powerful but at its current stage it couldn't compete with the demon alone.

Hektor was necessary if they wanted to win. But with the numbers now on Hektor's side, the tables have turned.

From that point onwards, Hektor was on the offensive.

'I misread the situation.' Hektor thought while he sent a flurry of spear thrusts at the demon. 'He's strong but if I had just a bit more aura.'

Due to his strikes the demon was forced back, overwhelmed by the blows despite their lack of aura.

'Then he's nothing.'

Tired from all the running, Hektor had enough of the demon's presence. With the last of his aura he pierced the tired demon right through the skull.

His head was spinning, the mana exhaustion made him nauseous and his legs were aching from all the running. Hektor was a mess and he knew that passing out would be inevitable.

"Get me to a safe area, keep heading in that direction."

Souls: 82 -> 83