The Paladin in the Abyss

Seeing the powerful burst of Divine Power, even the normally taciturn Steel Demon was shocked, exclaiming:

"Priest!"

Lancelot realized he somehow understood the demon's language, but he immediately knew he hadn't directly "heard" it. Instead, through his connection with Eckmond, he grasped the meaning of the word the demon had uttered.

The Steel Demons' surprise was understandable. If a priest was controlled by a succubus, they must already be on a path of corruption, and it would be impossible to receive any power from the divine. The present situation clearly defied logic, suggesting this team was not as the fiends had anticipated.

The demons, who highly valued logic, planning, and strategy, were well aware of how severe the consequences could be if they misjudged their enemies' strength.

Bruto and Kalalin rushed to support Lancelot's fight as soon as they could. Faced with the dense Skeleton Sea, Bruto hesitated slightly, but still gritted his teeth and charged through.

The dwarf's form easily passed through the illusions of skeletons, encountering no resistance. He shouted joyfully as he hurled his warhammer at a Steel Demon in front of Lancelot; meanwhile, Kalalin pulled out a scroll, ready to cast a spell to strike at the demons.

The rest were slightly slower, but they soon reacted and ran toward Lancelot's side.

Bruto's warhammer hit a Steel Demon right in the chest, knocking him back, but a wounded companion behind him caught and steadied him.

The hammer spun back to Bruto's hand, and a noticeable dent appeared in the chest of the Steel Demon—clearly, Bruto's strike had caused some damage, certainly more effective than Eckmond's headbutt.

Just as they were about to envelop the demons, an unexpected event occurred.

The surrounding skeletons, previously illusionary, suddenly vanished, bringing smiles to everyone's faces. Yet, Kalalin, as if remembering something, suddenly turned pale and shouted:

"Be careful! High-level illusions require focused casting, there's…"

He didn't finish his sentence when a wall of ice suddenly appeared, splitting the cave space in two.

The ice wall was over seven feet thick, stretching from the cave's ceiling to the floor, and spanned from one side of the cave to the other. Aside from Lancelot, Bruto, Kalalin, and a certain floating skull, the rest were blocked behind the ice wall.

"Phil!" The werewolf grabbed the goblin, "It's finally time for your bombs to be useful, blow this ice wall up for me!"

"I know! Put me down!" Phil shouted, "Let's move over there, we don't want to hurt them, listen, I need you to make a few holes in the ice wall…"

On the other side of the ice wall, Lancelot finally pinpointed the position of the spellcaster based on the resurgence of magical fluctuations.

He moved swiftly, deploying an extremely bizarre footwork technique, dragging several afterimages, and darted lightning-fast towards a large boulder at his front right, while the Steel Demons could not block him in time.

Just as a puzzle solver finally figures out the solution, he was certain that the source of his unsettled Spirit Perception, the one who summoned the Skeleton Sea and the ice wall, and the elusive Demon Spellcaster was hiding behind that stone.

Faced with the obstructing boulder, Lancelot did not ponder whether to bypass it from the left or the right; he raised his Great Sword high, powered by Innate True Qi and executed the Qingyun Sword Art, striking directly at the boulder.

If the performance of the Qingyun Sword Art was underwhelming against Metal Armor, against rock, the Wood Attribute of the Qingyun Sword Art displayed its formidable power. The large rock, like a radish, was cleaved into two by Lancelot's sword, and the Demon hiding behind it had not anticipated an attack from this angle.

The invisible Sword Aura extended the range of the attack, giving the Demon no chance to dodge.

However, this Demon had a large body, and more than half of its length was comprised of a tail. Lancelot's sword had chopped off its tail but failed to injure the creature's body.

The tailless Demon let out a wretched scream, and in extreme pain, it burst forth with incredible speed, darting behind the Steel Demons.

The newly appeared Demon looked like a skinned Giant, standing ten feet tall. Its dried flesh tightly clung to its remaining skeletal frame, its enormous skull had an oversized occiput, giving it an exceptionally eerie and terrifying appearance.

Bones extended directly from the tips of its fingers, forming sharp claws that could undoubtedly shred flesh effortlessly, and it had insect-like translucent wings on its back.
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Every vertebrae of its spine was equipped with huge bone spurs, protruding from the flesh, with the longest ones measuring about a foot. However, its sharp, spiked tail, which ended with a beak-like tip, was now lying at Lancelot's feet, resembling a giant snake with its head chopped off.

"A Succubus of the good alignment!!" This giant Demon let out an unbearable, bone-grating screech, which Eckmond translated in real time without delay.

"Boss, this is an Osai Demon, also called a Bone Demon, it seems they are middle-rank Demon Spellcasters, possessing the ability to instantly see through a creature's true nature," the skeleton intensely stared at the Demon, "I don't know why, but seeing it just irks me."

"Hey! You, the skeleton frame over there!" Eckmond yelled carelessly at the Demon, "What's that thing on your butt? Does it mean that you never wipe after you do your business, and it just clumps up like that!"

The provoked Demon immediately raised its hand, and a green Acid Arrow flew toward Eckmond, who dodged it with a strange laugh.

This movement acted like a signal, and both sides clashed again.

Bruto and Lancelot charged from left and right, while Eckmond, using his nimble stature, bypassed the frontline Steel Demons and headed straight for the Bone Demon.

But the fastest was Kalalin. He unfolded a scroll that had been prepared for some time, drew Magic Power from the Magic Net into the Arcane Symbols on the scroll, forming a purple ray that directly hit a Steel Demon.

Lancelot immediately noticed the enemy's change; the Steel Demon that was struck by the ray seemed slightly weakened, causing his heart to leap with joy.

Kalalin, however, slightly frowned. This was a first Circle Spell 'Ray of Enfeeblement', and its effect seemed less than expected, but that was unavoidable; all Bartez Demons have a strong resistance against spells.

He reached for another Ray of Enfeeblement scroll, ready to try again on another enemy, but suddenly, an unbearable metallic friction sound interrupted the Scholar's casting.

The Steel Demons were collectively moving their bodies rhythmically, causing their armor to rub against each other, producing that horrendous noise. The sound was so irritating that Kalalin wished he could tear up the scroll he was holding and stuff it in his ears just to block out this terrible noise, utterly unable to focus enough to cast his spell.