The Beast King and King Phillip struck the Devil when he was distracted. King Phillip’s blade whipped through the air with a thunderous sound. His attack hit the mark, but only barely, cutting cleanly through the Devil’s armpit, where no scale protected him.

A fountain of black blood gushed out, and the Devil roared in anger and pain, but the surprise attack had yet to conclude. The Beast King pounced on the Devil’s back and twisted the Devil’s arms, resulting in another fountain of blood gushing in all directions before the Devil’s arm gave in.

The inflicted gash was deep enough to weaken the Devil’s arm but not enough to sever the arm. However, the Beast King solved that problem. He ripped out the Devil’s arm in a moment of fury.

“Yes!” King Phillip roared. The Devil was not yet dead, but losing an arm would permanently lower his prowess. Their chances of victory would have skyrocketed instantaneously if it hadn’t been for the Devil smiling.

He smiled through the pain, his devious expression instilling fear in their hearts.

Percy pulled back instinctively while King Phillip prepared to block a counterattack. But the two humans weren’t the Devil’s target. The Devil’s power surged, and Percy could barely tell that some of the Devil’s Essence had been consumed. It was so sudden and illogical that Percy couldn’t react in time.

Why would the Devil sacrifice his Demonic Essence after losing his arm?

Finally, he reacted, his head flicking to the Devil’s lost arm. The Beast King held it…or he had been holding it. It disappeared, transforming into a massive hole that tore through the fabric of space.

The air around the hole expanded, and it took Percy a moment to realize where the Devil’s Essence had gone. It was in the hole that expanded rapidly in the Beast King’s claws, shredding his claw and arm before he could react.

The black hole appeared, expanded, and disappeared in less than a second, but it didn’t require more time to stir chaos and cause tremendous damage.

From one moment to the next, the Beast King lost his arm. Purgatory Fire and hot blood gushed out of the Beast King’s remains of an arm, but even his Ancient Power had been damaged through the black hole.

What in the Seven Hells did he just d–...

Percy couldn’t even finish the thought in his mind when the Devil’s tail smashed into him, hurling him through the air. His Dragonscale Armor was already lost, but the darkness tendrils wreathing the Devil’s tail transformed into bladed whips and lashed out at Percy, severing the last strands keeping the armor together.

Percy’s mana surged forward, enveloping the Dragonscale Armor, hoping to repair it while it sustained damage, but it was to no avail. The Dragonscale Armor clashed with the ground while he was sent flying. The bladed whips struck Percy, inflicting small cuts all over his body.

He somersaulted mid-air and conjured the Cataclysmic scales all over his body, ready to face the Devil’s follow-up attack. But there was nothing like that. The Devil cackled heinously, his laughter resounding throughout the war zone.

He raised the remains of his arm stump into the air and stared straight at Percy with a dead-pan expression as his Essence surged toward the stump, which started regrowing.

It wasn’t an instantaneous process, but the Devil’s arm was regrowing at a visible pace. It was even faster than King Phillip’s [Monster Regeneration].

Fuck!

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

He wasn’t the only one cursing inwardly. The Beast King growled deeply, his eyes trained on the Devil, while King Phillip heaved heavily. The King was exhausted. His mana was already drained, forcing him to subside the lack of mana with his lifeforce and Essence. That allowed him to summon more power but also pushed him to the brink of death.

The Beast King was still up for a fight, but he was far from peak condition with a missing arm, whereas King Phillip was on the verge of death.

That would have been bad if not for one particular fact: The Devil was also growing weaker.

The Devil had consumed too much Essence to take the Beast King’s arm, and he was forced to sacrifice a lot of Essence to regrow his arm. It wasn’t visible to most because it looked like the Devil was still at his peak, smiling confidently at his adversaries, but Percy was highly sensitive to the changes around him.

The Cataclysmic Dragon’s blood augmented his eyes, increasing their sensitivity to all types of energy, whereas [Roc Eyes] improved all aspects of his vision.

Percy witnessed the Devil’s strength drop by a noth.

The only problem was that the Devil had weakened his enemies more by sacrificing some of his Essence than he lost through the sacrifice.

He appeared behind the Beast King when the Beast King’s eyes trailed to the Devil’s regrowing arm stump. All it took was a quarter of a second.

The Beast King burst forward, evading the Devil’s first attack. The claws coated in darkness hit empty air, but only once.

The Devil teleported before the Beast King, his other claw, mantled in a darkness blade, thrusting forward with shocking speed. Even if the Beast King had been at full power, it would have been hard to evade the incoming attack, but it was impossible to escape while dashing straight into the blade.

The only thing the Beast King could do was to unleash his Purgatory Fire. He unraveled the full potential of the Purgatory Fire, wreathing his arm in it, burning his fur, skin, and flesh in the process. Not even his natural fire resistance was strong enough to escape the intensity of Purgatory FIre’s full power. His remaining arm burned brightly as the black flames shot forward to clash with the darkness blade that had grown out of the Devil’s regenerating arm stump.

Their Ancient Powers collided and clashed violently until they exploded in an attempt to destroy each other. Dirt was stirred up and hurled in all directions, blocking Percy’s direct view of the situation.

He could only detect some things.

The Devil’s Essence surged forward and repelled the Beast King’s Purgatory Fire, uncaring how much Essence would be destroyed.

It took a few seconds for the whirlwind of dust, wet soil, and pebbles to settle, but the sight unfolding before Percy and King Phillip was terrifying, to say the least.

A two-meter-long blade had pierced the Beast King’s chest neatly. The Devil smirked at the terror filling the air while the Beast King clutched desperately onto the darkness blade.

“I’ve endured the sight of you long enough, lousy animal,” The Devil snarled, throwing the Beast King to the side.

Unable to move, the Beast King smashed into the ground and rolled over, the hole in his chest visible to everyone. Blood spurted from the wound, drenching the ground in the Beast King’s blood.

He was still breathing, albeit barely, but he wouldn’t be of any help against the Devil anymore.

The Devil returned his attention to Percy, a smile creeping up on his hideous face. He grimaced at Percy and salivated the emotional turmoil on the crown prince’s face for a moment. Then he turned to King Phillip and teleported next to him.

Instead of reacting to the attack, King Phillip used [Ghost Step] to step through the incoming attacks with little effort.

The Devil snickered, but there was no annoyance in his grimace. On the contrary, he seemed to enjoy the situation thoroughly as he teleported to Percy, who responded promptly as well.

Or he would have if his body didn’t stop listening to his commands.

Percy tried evading the incoming attack, a claw sweep aimed at his chest, but he could only watch as a red notification popped up before him.

[The effect of Limit Break has worn off.]

The aftermath of going above and beyond, surpassing his limit numerous times in the last few minutes, came crashing down upon him.

Fuck.