It never occurred to them how chaotic the fight would end up being.

Sahia and Maximilian had not had extensive combat experience beyond the ones taught to them. As a descendant of a hellhound, Sahia could hold on her own and was actually the one that posed an immediate threat to the female demon they fought, who had now identified herself as a succubus. Despite this, being a second-generation surface born who was born into a peaceful era did not make her ruthless, giving her a flair to her combat style. This flair, however, did not help against the succubus, who, despite of being dressed to seduce anyone, was actually a proficient whip user. The whip wasn’t used to showcase her sadistic personality but was to fight multiple opponents. The succubus was clearly not there to seduce anyone; she was there to kill.

Maximilian, while also capable of keeping the pace and the fact that he was a Lycan, was still unable to deal with the whip attacks that were very unpredictable, forcing him to stay away from the whip’s range while his wife dealt with the succubus. This was not made easy by the fact that he was using a shotgun, designed to kill at a closer range. He should’ve brought a rifle with him, although he soon found the merit of the pump shotgun when the spreading bullets made quite a distraction for the succubus, who was forced to dodge them as they could injure her, only to be attacked by Sahia. The two made a great team against the succubus.

The succubus did not look frustrated. Rather, it seemed amused by the tenacity of her opponents. She, still, however, was aware of her own advantage over the two, mostly because she kept them pressured and, despite some connected attacks from Sahia, it was nothing but scratches. She was also amused by how the two realized her proficiency with her whip, which could easily yank out their weapons if she got a chance. This was also the reason why they attacked either from afar or close, both being the weakness of her whip.

While the battle with the succubus raged on, Ifrit was fighting Sovor by himself. Unlike Sahia and Maximilian, he struggled against his opponent. Not only did Sovor had an advantage with his levitating swords, but he was also still very distracted by himself, owing to the fact that he tried to accept himself without even understanding the meaning of that word. There was a very prevalent mental block that he subconsciously put around his true potential, which was represented by his darker personality being tied and muzzled on a cross in a sea of flame. His darker personality could try and wrestle control by himself, but by this point, with Ifrit already afraid of himself and distraught by all the revelations, that personality could not do anything except convincing Ifrit that it was the only way.

Sovor, noticing that Ifrit did not fight as he expected, said, “What’s wrong, half-blood? Show me what you are capable of, or I’ll end this.”

“Don’t tempt me, cat,” said Ifrit while groaning. “It will end very soon.”

“Once you got it worked out, which you clearly don’t,” said Sovor. “Your taunts have no weights without showing what you are capable of, hellhound. Do not waste your words!”

“(He’s right, you know),” said Ifrit’s darker personality. “(Maybe you should listen to him if you value your life).”

“(Why are you on his side?)”

“(I am trying to tell you this over and over again, Ifrit. This is not going to save us!)”

Sovor’s relentless barrage of sword attacks forced Ifrit on the defensive while also trying his best to keep their fight away from Sahia and Maximilian. He had no chance to see how the two were doing, worried that they might not be able to fight against the succubus. He had his own fight to finish, and that’s what he was going to do.

Knowing that he needed to be smart, Ifrit made a risky decision. After dodging and rolling away from the unpredictable swords, Ifrit dashed towards Sovor. The leopard demon saw this as an attempt to attack and, like the previous attempt, tried to blindside Ifrit with his swords. Ifrit, however, had anticipated this.

Ifrit quickly jumped aside as the swords flew towards Sovor. The leopard demon was aware of this attempt to stab him with his own sword and turned the hilt around. He did not, however, anticipated Ifrit ducking beside him and slashed his unprotected stomach. The attack connected, but to Ifrit’s surprise, it was only a superficial wound. He was sure that the slashing attack could spill his opponent’s guts due to the strength he put into it. It might not be enough to bisect a person, let alone a demon, but it could at least cut open his stomach.

That’s when he realized that he was not fighting against a hellhound. He was fighting against a demon. His regular sword would not do anything to the leopard demon.

“(Why the hell did you even carry a sword if that thing can’t kill?!)” commented his other self. “(I told you to stop being so stubborn and just--)”

“(I’m trying to! I didn’t know my words are not enough!)”

“(What you say do not reflect your heart, Ifrit. Embrace your darkness. Embrace me).”

“(How! Just tell me how!)”

“(Remember what you did when you fought Azgal. Remember how quickly you let me take over. Remember when you touched the fire to heal yourself. The fire isn’t the trigger; it is your acceptance that you can heal yourself with fire, hence your acceptance that you are an Infernal and it’s as normal as being a hellhound. Try and understand that, Ifrit. You need it now more than ever).”

Again, Ifrit was trying to ask for specifics, which made it even more difficult to fight Sovor. Even if he could focus, the lack of hellfire or anything that could harm the demon made the fight very one-sided. Even Sovor felt disappointed with Ifrit’s lackluster showcase. It even made the leopard demon conclude that being a half-blooded demon made him vulnerable to the weakness of a mortal. He fought his best, but without using his demonic ability, he was just another hellhound, albeit with more tenacity than usual.

Sahia and Maximilian’s fight against the succubus was also not progressing to their liking, but unlike with Ifrit, the succubus had moments where she played defensive, owing to Sahia’s increasingly capable of blindsiding the succubus and attack her while exploiting the weakness of her whip. Granted, the succubus managed to fight a close quarter combat and, with the help of her cloven hooves, made her kicks as deadly as her charms. This demonic charm was something that she used to give her the advantage.

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When the succubus realized that she was not going to win and could potentially be defeated if the fight went on, she used her demonic charm at Maximilian and Sahia. Maximilian was quickly incapacitated and could not concentrate as he was distracted with lust welling inside him. The Lycan noble felt his legs becoming weaker and his body wracked with a pleasure comparable to sex, along with his face being all flustered and his breathing quickened, which only added to the embarrassment as he groaned in frustration. Sahia was also affected, but unlike her husband, the effect on her body was not as distracting. However, without Maximilian’s shots, the succubus became fixated on her, making the fight even harder for the floppy-eared hellhound.

Sahia, realizing what the succubus did to her husband, exclaimed, “You are not doing that to my husband, succubus!”

“I tried to do it to you, too, you know. Fair’s fair when it comes to love,” said the succubus. “Maybe you’d be more…subservient if I happen to look like a hellhound. Or maybe an incubus.”

“You mean, there are hellhound succubi, too?” Sahia quickly shook her head. “Never mind that! You are not going away with humiliating Max, demon!”

The succubus let out a laugh, amused by Sahia’s rather obvious draws. Of course, given the situation, the succubus could not use that strategy against the hellhound, though she knew she still had an edge against Sahia now that her support had been incapacitated. Even so, Sahia was more than capable of fighting equally with the succubus, even though she knew she would lose the battle due to having less stamina compared to the succubus.

Her battle with the succubus was mostly an exchange of glancing blows, often with Sahia keeping within the human-like demon’s range while the succubus played a keep away game. More than once, the succubus managed to grab Sahia’s sword, but Sahia always found a way to break free, once even threatening to cut the whip when it was pulled taut. Sahia’s persistence and offensive game made her evenly matched with the succubus, and this frustrated the demon.

This frustration and the overdrawn battle did give the chance for Maximilian to recover after a rather intense feeling of pleasure, enough to incapacitate him. Fighting the embarrassing urge was not something he thought he would do in the middle of a fight, so he hoped he would not need to go through that in the unforeseeable future.

Yet in the present, he had something he needed to do. Now that the succubus was distracted by Sahia’s surprising agility and proficiency with a sword, Maximilian resumed his role in the fight: that to distract the succubus and possibly end the fight. Knowing that he could not afford to get incapacitated again, he decided that he needed to make one well-placed shot after causing a distraction big enough to cause the succubus to be stunned, making it easier to incapacitate her.

And nothing could give a bang strong enough to distract the succubus than a hand grenade.

The Lycan had never liked using weapons that he believed to be crude. His father always told him the horrors of the last war that crippled the Antelberg family, which would only be returned to prominence when his father’s business and good relations with the Demon Hunters made the Lycan nobles a chance to prove that they were not some mindless beasts when transformed under a full moon, which was something he always heard from the Tragorians. Even then, years of stigma against werewolves hardened their capacity to consider a werewolf as normal, though that had mellowed somewhat since the past decade.

Another reason why his kind could no longer be considered mindless beasts was the same reason why they gained their respect: there were Lycan inventors, Demon Hunters, and most important of all, there were Lycan soldiers. In the age where demons became the greatest threat the surface world had ever faced, Lycans and humans were united against a common enemy. The hellhounds were split into two factions, and right now, Maximilian appreciated the help of the friendly faction. Also, their handling of weapons meant that their weapons were not just their claws and teeth.

Yet despite all the weapons, Maximilian hated weapons that could kill multiple beings in one shot, such as the grenade. Explosives were dangerous, and the end results were usually more gruesome, not to mention nasty, especially with all the guts flying around. Therefore, he only used a grenade when there were nothing else he could do.

But fortunately for him, even after he decided to swallow his pride and throw the grenade, the grenade would not be enough. Plus, Maximilian was aware that, even if the grenade exploded, it would not be a violent explosion.

For it was a rather novel invention: the flash grenade.

The flash resulting in the explosion was bright enough to blind a person momentarily, something that Sahia managed to realize just moments before the grenade impacted the succubus. As for the succubus, however, the light contained within the grenade was not just any light, but light created from the burning of anti-demonic enhanced magnesium that could retain its cleansing properties even when it was burned. Maximilian became privy of the technology from his Demon Hunter contacts, and all of them were experimental and not accepted by Erben Central on the grounds of inciting wars. This adherence to traditional rituals was one of the many reasons why they were having a hard time repelling the demonic invasion, and their failure in defending Tragoria.

The succubus let out a high-pitch scream that could easily disorient anyone, especially those with sharp hearings. Maximilian and Sahia endured it while also closing their ears, with the hellhound taking the first attack after they had recovered.

The succubus, still reeling in from the unexpected pain, had no time to react when Sahia made a sweep kick that tripped the hooved demon and, in quick succession, made a deep cut on the succubus’ neck, slitting her throat. But that was not enough to end the demon, as it was clear that the wound, while fatal for anyone else, did not seem to affect a demon as much, despite of the anti-demonic silver sword Sahia used.

What finally killed the succubus, however, was a well-placed shot to the demon’s face. It caused the demon’s head to burst before her body turned to dust. The fight ended as soon as it started, but the damage for the combatants became apparent.

While Sahia managed to match the succubus’s attacks, she found that she was pushing her body too far, resulting in her utterly exhausted. She thought she could match the demon, only to realize that, if Maximilian did not recover fast enough, she might end up losing or, worse, dead. While Maximilian wasn’t as injured, the embarrassment, and the mental exhaustion, already made the Lycan noble felt tired before they could even reach the main battlefield.

“This is…this is what we’re fighting against?” commented Maximilian.

“I never thought…a succubus could be this much of a pain,” said Sahia between her breaths. “I thought they’re…they’re just tempters.”

“And I happened to waste a good flash grenade.”

“Do you have anymore?”

“I don’t. I was acting rashly, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You either take risks or we’ll die to a succubus. We’re not even on the bed.”

Maximilian let out a weak laugh. “Being cheeky when not around the kids, my dear?”

“Says the one fighting his own carnal desires. You fell for a human-looking succubus? You? A Lycan married to a hound?”

“Just so you know, I also have a human form,” said Maximilian. “And there is nothing wrong with that.”

“Yeah. And you also have a feral form. Now that’s a bridge I wouldn’t cross.”

Before Maximilian could even understand the implications of Sahia’s remarks, they were quickly drawn into a different battle: that of Ifrit and Sovor.