The scythe was as tall as its wielder. The delinquent swung it with such speed that it made it seem like the scythe was as light as a feather.

He cut Kon from throat to hip, and blood gushed out.

Kon’s eyes widened in shock, and he winced. The sword slipped out of his hand; he hadn’t even had the chance to use it to block.

"Damn it!" Gem swore out loud.

The delinquent had appeared out of nowhere! It was some kind of teleportation ability.

"It is common sense always to take out the leader first," said the delinquent-looking guy. "I can tell you're all panicking. Probably trying to figure out what is happening. Don’t wet your pants; we’re just here to slaughter you all."

Kon fell to his knees and clutched at his bleeding chest.

Gem was about to attack but stopped as the guy pointed his scythe at Kon's back. "Your special ability has to do with shadows, right? You’re probably from the Kuro Clan. If I see any weird shadow movements, your leader's head will fly."

‘Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!’

Gem didn't know what to do. Every ounce of his body was panicking.

Would Kon die because of them? He was a good leader, but they fucked up! They had gotten too overconfident when other teams were injured.

'I had gotten that foolish bias going! Thinking that I was better than the other teams, who were injured during the exams!' Gem gritted his teeth, and his hands shook. He glanced at Kon.

Gem now understood that it wasn’t that their team was exceptional. Kon, and only Kon was exceptional! He seemed to have plans for everything, and every scenario was within his calculations. It was almost as if he could calculate the future!

The team was coddled by Kon’s excellence, mistaking his brilliance for their team. When in truth, only Kon was special!

If only Gem was special too, then things wouldn’t have turned like this! He blamed himself for what had happened.

But there was no medicine for regret. The delinquent grabbed the blue ribbon and tied it around his wrist. "For a team coming in first place, you were quite easy to take out-"

He stopped talking and looked down at the ribbon. It was wet, and the water formed needles which shot for his eyes.

This was his chance!

Gem waited, ready to pounce, when the delinquent took his scythe from Kon's neck.

But that didn't happen; the delinquent only swatted away the water. "Heh, it must be that low-class demon from before. Sorry kiddos, but we have a middle-class demon with us. Low class demons can, at best, control a bucket of water."

Without a second thought, the delinquent swung his scythe at Kon, attempting to decapitate him.

Both Gem and Bets exchanged glances. Neither spoke a word, but at that moment, they understood the delinquent would never let Kon live even if they complied with his demands.

They both moved to attack. Gem summoned his shadows. Bets took out a nail gun and pointed it at the closest enemy.

Boom!... A pillar of water slammed into the delinquent’s back and sent him smashing toward a tree.

This surprised Gem, but neither he nor Bets stopped their attacks.

Gem clapped his hands, ready to summon a shadow wolf under the delinquent’s shadow and rip him apart.

"Nika! Protect him!" Yelled out the girl, and the tamed demon on their side moved in front of the downed delinquent. A barrage of nails pierced the demon’s face, but it didn’t yell or do anything.

'He’s tough, but it doesn't matter. Now the girl has left herself exposed!' Gem changed targets. He was ruthlessly going for the kill!

Manifesting his shadow wolf usually took less than a second: for the average person, that was fast.

Even for Exorcists, it was quick. But in that split second, the man with the golden teeth threw his coins at Bets.

Gem was about to turn his attention toward incoming scythes, but Bets shook his head and rapidly shot nails from his nail gun—each had Ord imbued into them. It shot down the coins and scythes before they even got close.

A Magic Weapon? It seemed like Bets had fixed that weakness for direct combat.

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The girl jumped back, which caused her shadow to be on the ground while she was in the air.

Gem was unbothered by this and clasped his hands. The shadow of one of the tree branches gurgled, and a shadow wolf shot out.

Since she was in mid-air, she couldn’t dodge.

“That was a bad move,” she winced as the situation dawned on her.

But a knife flew between them before the wolf could rip her throat. The delinquent appeared there in a flash, he had a coin in his hand which turned into a scythe, and he cut the wolf in two.

A teleportation ability took a lot of work to deal with. But the world had no perfect ability, so there had to be some big drawbacks.

Gem also realized how the delinquent had appeared out of nowhere and attacked Kon. Amongst the countless scythes, the small knife would’ve been hard to notice.

An overwhelming presence suddenly burst through, and a ring of water smashed into the mid-air delinquent and girl, throwing them against a tree. Though the delinquent maneuvered his body, he landed feet first on the tree and caught the girl in a princess carry.

A water attack? Gem knew Carpy had to be the one doing this. But wasn’t he just a low class demon?

Then he sensed an evil presence close to the river that sent a chill down his spine.

“Our job here is done. We need to get away! There’s a dangerous presence north!” The delinquent warned his team. They immediately started running away.

Gem felt like every vein in his body was about to burst from the pressure.

He was pissed off!

He was about to go into the attack when a faint voice said. "Don't!"

It was a barely conscious Kon lying on his back. He was clutching at his chest as if trying to close the wound and stop the blood from escaping.

"Why? We have them on the run! They also have our blue ribbon!" Gem was thirsty for some blood! There was no way he would let them get away with this!

"Because we aren't the only two teams here. For all we know, another team will be waiting in ambush." Kon breathed heavily and was about to pass out. With the blood all around him, he looked terrible. But despite that, he was as calm and confident as ever.

Gem wanted to find a reason to refute those words. He needed an excuse to hunt them down!

But in the end, there wasn't anything he could come up with. He clenched his fist and helped Kon get up. "Let's get out of here."

He waited for Kon's confirmation, only to see that he had his eyes closed and was unconscious. He looked paler than a ghost.

"Shit! He has lost too much blood! We need to stitch up his wound!" Gem panicked.

"No," Bets said and touched Kon's neck. "He still has a pulse. The sound of battle probably attracted some unwanted attention. If we stay here, we will all die."

Gem clenched his teeth, almost shattering them, and his gums bled. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Why the fucking hell am I so damn helpless?!"

They ran away and finally found the river Kon had told them about.

When Gem put Kon next to the river, he felt a terrifyingly dark presence coming out of the water.

Carpy poked its head out, and every other bug, animal, and water seemed to run away from him.

"I thought Kon said Carpy was a low class demon," Bets rubbed his chin. But his curiosity didn't stop him from doing his job.

He ripped off Kon's shirt, showing a large gash. His ribcage was visible, some of his intestines squirmed in his belly.

"D -Damn! We're gonna need to get him to a doctor," Gem felt his whole body shaking. He wanted to cry in panic, but knew he had to do something!

"Don't worry," Bets reassured him. He sounded almost like Kon himself.

Bets pried the skin apart and took a closer look. "Good, no organs or intestines are cut up. Carpy, supply me with fresh water. Gem, keep an eye out for anything."

Bets took out a needle that looked ridiculously small in his big meaty fingers. Then with precision that looked like he had worked ten years as a surgeon, Bets started stitching up Kon.

In less than ten minutes, Bets stitched up Kon’s wound, sprayed something that smelled like alcohol and bandaged the whole thing up.

"You sure everything is okay?" Gem asked. A trail of sweat rolled down his face.

"It should be," Bets shrugged.

"When did you learn to stitch people up and all this extra stuff?"

"I read it in a book."

Can someone do something like surgery just from reading it in a book?

It was at that moment that Gem realized something; Kon always overshadowed Bets. But compared to the average person, he was a genius!

'I sure am part of one impressive as hell team.' Gem felt that he was a bit underwhelming as a teammate. The irony was that he was from the Kuro Clan and had the best resources and background.

The increasingly dark energy of Kon’s pet fish released, brought Gem out of his thoughts. "Hey, is this normal?"

"Since they're the product of such emotion before becoming demons, demonic creatures' energy doesn't react to emotions. This subject isn’t documented, but if we go by a technical way, while demons also have Ord, theirs is more malicious and, in a way, stunted in ambition. That's why demons usually have linear abilities, unlike humans who can create their own…"

"Okay, okay, I zoned you out during that whole thing," Gem rubbed his brows. "Just tell me if what the fish is doing is dangerous or not?"

"Technically, it should not," Bets rubbed his chin; he was deep in thought. "The Ord used to form the contract shouldn't be enough to react like this. Did Kon purposely imbue his familiar with a lot of his Ord so it would get a power-up when angry in a situation like this? Ord reacts to emotions, and technically. As expected, he was always two steps ahead! This is so exciting!"

Why did this guy suddenly turn into a chatterbox?!

Also, the water on the river stopped moving; that looked dangerous as hell!

"Something like this has never been recorded before!" Bets had a starry look in his eyes.

Why did he look so expectant of whatever was about to happen?

Then suddenly, the presence grew even heavier. Gem felt his knees buckle.

How?!

Just how the hell was this a low-class demon?!