Levi did not expect Bob to be able to counterattack. To her surprise, despite stepping back to dodge, Bob still slashed through her shoulder, leaving a five-inch-long cut on her armor. However, the cut was not deep enough to wound her.

  Levi did not expect Bob to be able to counterattack. To her surprise, despite stepping back to dodge, Bob still slashed through her shoulder, leaving a five-inch-long cut on her armor. However, the cut was not deep enough to wound her.

  "This armor is expensive." Levi complained in frustration as she examined the cut on her armor.

  "Good job cutting through it. You’re good. I can see why Travis lost to you." Levi quickly recovered and complimented Bob. "That attack was the Thousand Blades School’s Pincer Strike. Coming from me, very few people could have countered it. If the Behemoth hadn’t worn you out, I’d be having a much harder time fighting you."

  "Travis was my student you know? I taught him the Thousand Blades style. Now, for my deceased student, I will get serious." Levi added as she coldly stared at Bob.

  "I can see the similarity between the two of you." Bob pointed out with a smirk, "You both talk a lot."

  At this moment, Bob inhaled deeply, holding his breath as he stored a tremendous amount of Mana into his sword. All of a sudden, before Bob could react, Levi stabbed him through his upper left chest, as if she had teleported to his location. Boom! A shockwave from Levi's high speed dash shook the area immediately after.

  "Now, this was the Phantom Blade School’s Vanishing Thrust." Levi said stoically, standing only a few feet away from Bob with her sword lodged in his chest.

  Bob could sense her attack with his Danger Sense, but he could only react fast enough to move his heart out of the way, preventing an instant kill.

  "No!" Tiffany cried out in distress.

  "Cast Kill Zone, now!" Bob shouted back with an urgent tone.

  "Of course, this was inevitable. Do you honestly think you two stand a chance against a Saint? You're not even Holy Knights." Levi said to Tiffany with a smile, as if celebrating her victory. Then, she tried to pull her sword from Bob. However, with a surge of determination, Bob grasped Levi's sword at its crossguard with his left arm, refusing to let go.

  "Octa-cast Divine Spells: Kill Zone!" Tiffany shouted.

  Through Danger Sense, Bob knew that Levi could easily slice through his left chest and then evade the upcoming Kill Zone spell. He did not have enough strength to prevent this. However, while it happened, he would have enough time to drive a sword into Levi’s chest. As long as he could take down the Saint, his family would be safe!

  Levi, noticing what Bob was trying to do, immediately let go of her sword and leapt backward. She did not try to injure Bob more than this, despite her being able to.

  Bang! However, Levi did not go far. Her back collided with a giant redwood tree, which stopped her momentarily. Seizing the chance, Bob mustered his remaining strength to stab the Saint in her left chest. Unfortunately, due to his injury, Bob lost control of his Divine Power, causing Amber-colored Aura on his sword to swirl with instability. Ching! The stab scratched the Saint's armor without dealing any injury. After the unsuccessful stab, Bob lost strength in his right arm, and his sword clattered to the ground. Having failed in his attack, Bob leapt backward with his last ounce of strength to escape from the Kill Zone spell.

  At this moment, Tiffany's Kill Zone spell hit Levi with a mix of spells from multiple elements.

  "So, Danger Sense doesn’t show me futures where I don’t get hurt." Bob thought.

  "Right, Danger Sense always shows you the worst case scenarios using what you have seen." The voice in Bob's head explained. "It can't tell what your enemy is thinking."

  Bob coughed up blood, his consciousness faded, and he succumbed to his injuries.

  "Bob!" Tiffany cried as she rushed toward Bob. She caught Bob before he hit the ground and carefully laid him down on his side to prevent the sword in his chest from dislocating.

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  As the Kill Zone spell struck Levi, a dense veil of steam and smoke obscured her location. Tiffany quickly carried Bob away to a safer distance.

  After the Kill Zone spell ended, Levi cast "Divine Spell: Wind Gust," blowing off the smoke from the area. The Saint emerged completely unscathed.

  "She must have blocked all of the attacks using Water Walls and Stone Walls." Tiffany thought.

  In most cases, blood loss would be minimized by not moving the sword. However, when Levi poured her Aura into the sword, the wound widened by half an inch at each cutting edge, resulting in a gush of blood.

  Upon seeing Bob's wound, Levi said, "Tiffany, if you..."

  Levi suddenly dashed backward very quickly. Multiple Water Slicers and a Water Dragon struck the ground between Levi and the couple, creating a barrier. A black-robed, masked man followed behind the Water Dragon. The force of the attack shook the ground, blowing up mud and dust. Once the dust settled and the smoke cleared, Tiffany spotted the man's back and wondered, "Is that N? What brings him here?"

  The man in black faced Levi, drew his sword and extended his black-silver Mana. His Aura was apparently an order of magnitude weaker than Levi’s; similar in strength to Bob's before his battle with the Behemoth.

  "Judging from your Mana, you’re about as strong as a Holy Knight, but I don’t recognize you." Levi said as she picked up Bob's sword and carefully examined N. "I guess you won't be introducing yourself, then?"

  Without diverting his eyes from Levi, the black-robed man calmly said to Tiffany, "Take him away and use a first-aid kit. Hang in there and wait for me."

  Recognizing the man as N, Tiffany replied, "Okay," and carefully carried Bob away. N stood warily between Levi and Tiffany, protecting the couple.

  After Tiffany carried Bob away, N answered, "Thank you for waiting, Saint Levi. I am a demon. Nice to make your acquaintance."

  "And I must commend you for your bravery," Levi clapped by hitting her shield with the side of her sword, "to openly admit being a demon in front of a Saint."

  "I am flattered. Now, what are you going to do?" N asked politely.

  "Um… do you even need to ask?" Levi, not in a good mood, asked back with animosity as she readied her fighting stance.

  "Try it." N's facial expression turned stern. He took a deep breath, stood sideways and pointed the tip of his sword at Levi’s stomach. As he focused, the occasional swirl of the black Mana on his sword became steady. The instability of Mana in the Reinforced Blade spell was a weakness. The sword was toughest when all of its Mana were concentrated and pressured into an immobile cluster.

  "What is that stance?" Levi wondered, as it did not seem to be from any of the four major combat schools. The typical stance would point the sword upward toward her throat. "Could it be a stance from a lesser-known school? What’s even more striking is that he has no sidearm or shield on his left hand. It's outrageous, to say the least, for someone with significantly weaker Mana to challenge a Saint, literally, single-handedly." With hundreds of years of fighting experiences, Levi felt that something was off, but she could not tell what it was. She carefully moved closer to the demon with a fighting stance. "Let’s test it out with something safer. Thousand Blades School: Flash."

  First, she quickly thrust her sword at the demon’s eyes from a distance. She averted her gaze as a brilliant flash of light shone at the tip of her sword, which could temporarily blind a person. Still out of range for a direct attack, she stepped forward to her left and attempted to disarm the demon with a strike aimed at his sword. N deftly tilted his sword and evaded the strike with ease. Then, with her sword pointing downward, she dashed ahead, and executed a swift slash at N’s legs. N took a step back and skillfully evaded it.

  "You could still see after my Flash spell?" Levi inquired, but she was not surprised because many experienced fighters could also counter it.

  "First, I need to impress her." N thought before saying, "I averted my gaze after reading your glyph."

  "Glyph reading? Now, that is an exceptionally rare talent." Levi commented with a spark of surprise. She was impressed by N.

  The huge majority of people used Divine Spells without any understanding of what the glyphs showed. This was especially true among high ranking combat-oriented knights, who often prioritized brawn over brains.

  Next, N initiated his assault by chanting, "Stone Lances." Three clusters of Stone Lances shot up from the ground at an angle, surrounding Levi from the left, right and back about five meters away. At the same time, he swung his sword downward from the front, cutting off any potential escape route to the sky.

  Levi did not expect someone to be able to perform Triple Cast. Caught off guard, she jumped back and got grazed by the Stone Lance on her back, resulting in a slight injury and bleeding. Thanks to her strong Divine Power and Stoneskin, the wound was not deep.

  "I understand now." Levi suddenly realized what had been bothering her. "A Triple Caster! His Aura is spread out just like that man from centuries ago. Interesting."

  "Water Slicer, Stone Lance, Stone Bullet," N cast three spells at once, and again from three different directions, while attacking with his sword.

  Levi blocked the Water Slicer with her shield, deflected the sword strike with her sword, and raised a Stone Wall to shield herself from the Stone Lance and Stone Bullets on her back. However, one defensive spell was not enough to block two offensive spells - her Stone Wall was quickly shattered and her back was again struck by the Stone Bullets.

  "I need to come up with strategy to fight against Triple Cast." Levi thought as she endured the pain.