The winged demon hadn’t let excitement cloud its judgment.
It circled the two in the air, reassessing the human enemies on the ground who had clearly changed after chanting that spell.
It was actually a bit afraid of dying, but it also couldn’t bear to let the credit slip away right under its nose.
Maybe it could call for companions?
After hesitating repeatedly, however, the winged demon abandoned that option.
Although it was a relatively rare centurion among the demons in this raid, once more of its kind came to share the spoils, it would be hard for it to gain any real benefit.
It would try first.
That was its decision.
“You think I’ll tell you just because you ask?”
The winged demon flew high in the air, looking down at the two on the ground.
“And you talk about cutting off my wings?” It sneered.
“How ignorant. Our wings aren’t as fragile as you think.”
Seeing that he couldn’t get any answers, Ed had no intention of wasting more words.
He just stared intently at the fiery red figure in the sky, always on guard against a possible attack.
“Ed, what… what do we do next?”
Bailis moved closer to him, asking nervously.
Ed glanced at her.
That “important target” the winged demon mentioned earlier must refer to her, but the reason behind it—this silly little witch probably had no idea.
Ed had a rough guess about it, but now wasn’t the time to think it over.
He turned his gaze back and lowered his voice.
“You assist from the side, using magic to disrupt his attacks. Also, he might suddenly target you. I’ll try not to give him the chance, but you still need to be careful.”
“Okay, I got it.”
The girl nodded vigorously.
“I definitely won’t hold you back, Ed!”
The winged demon in the sky flapped its wings slowly, a trace of anger appearing on its fiery red face.
“You still have the leisure to discuss tactics?” It roared.
“Watch me tear you apart and roast you to a crisp!”
Its mouth puffed up, and scorching flames appeared once more the next moment!
Ed and Bailis quickly shifted positions together.
The flames scorched past where they had been standing, leaving a patch of blackened ground.
But the flames didn’t stop there. Instead, they followed as the winged demon turned, scorching along the path of their movement!
“Don’t separate!” Ed shouted loudly, turning at the same time to swing his sword toward the direction the flames were coming from!
A wide wind blade suddenly emerged from the edge of the sword blade, charging fiercely straight at the winged demon!
The winged demon was forced to interrupt its magic, flapping its wings fiercely to lift itself higher.
“Damn mage, damn human brat!” It cursed angrily.
The winged demon’s original plan was to use the flames to force the two apart, so it could rush down and grab that important target.
But after thinking it over, it decided to deal with the more dangerous human mage first.
It didn’t want to be constantly on guard against a human mage’s sneak attacks—who knew what strange spells these people could unleash.
As for the target?
The magic she used wasn’t anything advanced.
The winged demon had just been caught off guard before; next time, it was confident it could dodge easily.
But now, in front of this human mage who had suddenly shown ranged capabilities, that idea had obviously failed.
Rashly using ranged fire magic again might really let this insidious human brat land a sneak attack.
The winged demon felt irritated. If it dragged on any longer, other demons would come rushing over.
“Prepare to die, humans!”
It roared in fury, demonic power surging out from its body, soon igniting a pair of flames on those sharp claws.
Seeing this stance, Ed knew the creature couldn’t hold back anymore—it was probably going to come down for close combat next.
“Remember what I said earlier.” He gave one last reminder to the girl beside him.
Only after seeing her nod did he feel relieved, turning to face the diving winged demon directly.
Clang!
When Ed raised his sword again to clash with those flaming sharp claws, he suddenly realized an extremely serious problem—wind attributes didn’t have an advantage against fire attributes in direct confrontations, and the same held true even in clashes between spells and magic.
Each collision of sword blade and claws would erode part of the wind flow attached to it by the flames.
Although the spell contract’s effect remained, Ed would quickly replenish the lost portion with mana, but this was ultimately a war of attrition.
Based on Ed’s combat experience, a war of attrition wasn’t wise without knowing how much strength the opponent had in reserve.
“Hahaha, human mage brat, how much of that so-called mana do you have left to squander so freely?”
The winged demon realized this too, its smile growing increasingly arrogant.
“It’s enough to deal with you.” Ed swung his sword to deflect the incoming claws, responding coldly.
The winged demon wanted to mock him further, but a gust of fierce wind suddenly blew from its side.
Caught off guard, it was blown tumbling in the air for a moment.
Ed didn’t waste words. He pushed off the ground fiercely, leaping into the air.
Seizing the opportunity, his sharp sword thrust straight at the winged demon’s head!
“Fool!” The winged demon suddenly burst into mad laughter. With just a flap of its wings, it regained its balance in the blink of an eye.
“I’m a full-fledged centurion—did you think wind of this level could unbalance me? Now that you’re in the air, let’s see how you block this!”
With that, it agilely adjusted its position in the wind to dodge the sword.
Its scorching claws raised high, seeming about to smash the boy’s head the next moment.
“Bailis!” Ed shouted loudly.
Continuous wind blades suddenly flew up from the ground!
“Tch, this again!”
The winged demon retracted its hand, watching helplessly as the human mage fell back to the ground. It turned sharply to glare at Bailis. “Annoying pest, I’ll deal with you first!”
Ignoring the boy, its entire body dove down like a sharp arrow.
Based on the winged demon’s estimate of its own speed, the target had no chance of dodging its attack.
But it suddenly remembered the elders’ instructions before departure: “If you encounter the target, you must capture her alive.”
What difference did dead or alive make?
The winged demon felt quite displeased, but the serious and grave expressions on the elders’ faces weren’t fake.
In the end, it slightly shifted the direction of this strike, aiming only at the target’s thigh.
The wind whistled past the winged demon.
It was close. It could even see the genuine fear on the target’s face.
The next second, vibrant blood would bloom on her body, and then that leg would be roasted to charcoal by its flames.
A perfect plan—it wouldn’t even need to worry about her dying from excessive blood loss.
Thinking this, a ferocious grin gradually spread across the winged demon’s fiery red face.
However, just before it could touch the target, a sharp wind blade blocked its path like it had been waiting there, forcing it to halt its diving momentum.
“It’s this again! This again!”
The winged demon watched in frustration as the target was carried away by the human mage, its expression growing increasingly grim.
“I’ve had enough!” It suddenly declared.
The winged demon abruptly raised its head, letting out a high-pitched roar from its open mouth that echoed far across the district.
“Shit!”
Even though Ed was calm enough, he couldn’t help cursing out loud at this sudden development.
“Bailis, forget about it—we need to go now!”
“It’s too late!” The winged demon in the sky laughed loudly.
Ed couldn’t be bothered to respond. He directly raised his hand to send two wind blades flying out, forcing the winged demon to dodge awkwardly in the air.
Using those few seconds he’d bought, he pulled the girl and dashed straight toward the north city gate.
“What happened, Ed?”
Bailis glanced at the winged demon roaring and charging after them, asking with a worried expression.
Ed looked back to confirm the winged demon’s position, then swung his sword to send two more wind blades flying.
Amid the winged demon’s roars of “I’ll kill you,” he continued running.
“If I’m not wrong,” he finally took the time to answer the girl’s question, “that winged demon was probably calling for companions just now. Next, we might get surrounded by flying demons, and if we haven’t escaped the city by then, we’re done for!”
Bailis’s face visibly paled.
“Don’t zone out!”
Ed pulled sharply, and the fiery red figure brushed past the girl’s silver-white long hair.
“Realizing it only now?”
The winged demon blocked their path once more. “Disgusting human brat, wait to be torn to pieces by my companions, hahaha!”
Ed had no time for the winged demon’s smug face. He shouted loudly:
“Bailis, suppress it together!”
Mana surged like a tide, one wind blade after another rapidly forming in the air.
With Ed’s increasingly fast sword swings, they slashed densely toward the winged demon in the sky.
At this point, he no longer had any thought of conserving mana—because if they couldn’t quickly deal with this annoying “fly” in front of them, he and Bailis would truly be trapped in a surround by flying demons, which would be a certain death!
“Okay!” The girl snapped back, responding loudly as well.
The magical power in her body poured out without reservation, fiercer cold winds mixed with countless wind blades appearing abruptly!
“Damn it, why aren’t they here yet!”
The winged demon tried to counterattack, but the assaults it had to face simultaneously were just too many. For a moment, it could only dodge pathetically.
Even so, it couldn’t avoid everything, and wounds deep and shallow gradually appeared on its body.
Finally, as a human-sized wind blade slashed past, the winged demon—unable to dodge in time—suddenly felt a sharp pain in its wing, plummeting straight down from the air like a bird struck by an arrow.
Thud!
“Don’t kill me, don’t kill me!” The winged demon hit the ground, screaming shrilly from its mouth.
Ed ignored it completely, flinging two more wind blades to slash at the winged demon’s body. Confirming it was motionless, he didn’t dare stop for a moment, pulling Bailis to continue fleeing.
They were almost there.
Ed calculated the distance in his mind. As long as they ran past the intersection ahead and turned the corner…
He stopped abruptly.
“Ed, what’s… what’s wrong…” The girl panted, looking in the direction the boy was staring.
Then, she too froze in place like a statue.
In front of them were densely packed flying demons, seemingly waiting for quite some time.