Chapter 491: Blessings Of The Patron

Their attacks simply did not possess enough power to inflict substantial damage on a Grade 9 demon.

They could distract Kylarod,interfere with his movements, and create openings for Hayley and Eduardo.

But actually hurting him was another matter entirely.

And after the prolonged back-and-forth, the difference in strength had finally caught up with them.

Nearly everyone was down.

Some were struggling to recover from their wounds. Others were barely beginning to pull themselves back onto their feet.

Eduardo was currently on one knee at some distance away, with one of his vampiric wings almost completely torn in half.

The damaged flesh was slowly knitting itself back together, aided by Valerie, who had used her sealing magic to close the wound and accelerate the healing process.

Wilson was still recovering from another devastating exchange.

Percival was in some distant corner.

And Hayley was in the worst possible position.

She remained hunched over with one hand clutching her chest, blood dripping profusely from her mouth after taking a brutal punch to the chest from Kylarod earlier.

Unfortunately, the demon was already walking toward her.

That left Bernadette to temporarily hold the fort.

Her magic was nowhere near powerful enough to directly contend with a Grade 9 demon. Even True Magic could only help so much.

The Demon Continent possessed very little natural mana, leaving Bernadette with less ambient power to make her spells any stronger than what they were at Tier 6 and 7.

So instead of attempting to overpower Kylarod directly, she relied on the environment.

Bernadette raised both hands as she used space magic spell on the surrounding ruins.

Broken stones, slabs of concrete, pieces of collapsed buildings, and enormous chunks of debris suddenly lifted from the ground.

Then she hurled everything toward Kylarod who continued walking forward.

A massive slab smashed into him from the side, momentarily stopping his advance.

Another followed immediately, then even more.

Rocks and debris bombarded the skull-faced demon from different directions as Bernadette continuously maintained the space element around them, lifting anything she could find and throwing it into his path.

None of it was doing any meaningful damage. But for those first few seconds, it didn’t need to.

Every impact slowed Kylarod’s advance toward the recovering Hayley.

And right now, seconds were all Bernadette was trying to buy.

However, Kylarod suddenly charged forward with a violent burst of speed.

He stopped bothering with most of the debris being thrown at him, smashing through the incoming rocks and broken structures as he closed the remaining distance toward Hayley.

His clawed arm rose in a bid to attack.

Hayley’s eyes widened at the sight of it. She was still recovering and had barely managed to straighten herself, so there was no time to properly defend against the incoming strike.

Then—

A massive golden shield suddenly came spinning across the battlefield.

BANG!

It slammed directly into Kylarod’s face, sending the skull-faced demon flying backward before the shield continued spinning through the air, completing a wide rotation as it returned toward the person who had thrown it.

Percival raised his arm and the shield dropped perfectly into his grasp.

He caught it with a grin.

’You have such terrible timing, man’, Percival communicated mentally, through the Sigil of the Spirit King.

The message was directed toward Ethan who had sent the Shield of Pythos to Percival using the same sigil link.

For almost four minutes, Percival had repeatedly tried reaching Ethan through the Sigil of the Spirit King, asking whether there was any additional blessing his patron could provide that might help turn the battle around.

This might have technically been training, but Percival understood what Morgana was trying to demonstrate.

If this had been an actual battle against a dragon, his current strength would not have been enough.

And if there was anything his patron—and best friend—could provide to help close that difference, Percival had absolutely no intention of letting pride stop him from taking advantage of it.

He was Ethan’s Blessed, and using the advantages that came with that status was part of the point.

Unfortunately, Ethan had been completely occupied with Agravain and was unable to respond all these while.

It was only a few seconds earlier, when Agravain’s second devastating attack had suddenly been halted by Arthur’s appearance, had Ethan finally gotten enough breathing room to answer Percival’s request.

And his answer had come in the form of weapons.

Everyone stared toward Percival in surprise.

He adjusted his grip around the enormous shield that was considerably heavy, even for him, but he managed to hold it steadily as he began walking toward Hayley.

Then another weapon appeared in his free hand; Nina’s flaming longsword.

Percival glanced at it, then immediately turned his gaze toward Eduardo.

"I’m not a sword fellow." He said, tossing the weapon towards the Hybrid.

Eduardo raised right hand and caught the sword cleanly by its hilt.

His eyes briefly narrowed as he examined it.

Eduardo recognized the weapon, knowing that it belonged to his young master’s half-dragon summon.

Although, he did not completely understand how Percival had suddenly gained possession of Nina’s sword, but it was obvious that Ethan had something to do with it.

Percival arrived beside Hayley as she finally managed to straighten herself.

The two exchanged a glance and acknowledged the other with a nod.

Within moments, the atmosphere among the group had changed.

They were exhausted, but this time, they had something capable of properly bridging part of the enormous difference between themselves and Kylarod.

Nina’s weapons were equipment belonging to a Beast Class summon, originally forged from body parts of the old flame dragon, Pythos.

But that alone wasn’t what made them useful here.

Given that the weapons were an extension of Ethan’s summon, that also meant that they were also connected to Ethan’s mana and as such, his Amplification trait could affect them as well.

So he amplified both.

With that, their power had been elevated, bringing the weapons up to a level where they could contend with the durability and power of a Grade 9 demon.

Kylarod eventually emerged from the rubble, looking more enraged than before.

But this time, the team was ready for him.

The battle immediately resumed.

Through the Sigil of the Spirit King, Ethan continued sending different summon skills toward Percival in the form of blessings whenever he had the opportunity.

And gradually, the battle became more balanced.

Percival assumed the defensive role.

Whenever Kylarod attempted to land one of his devastating attacks on another member of the team, Percival would swoop into the exchange with the Shield of Pythos and intercept the blow.

His access to the Roz family’s Scent Erasure made this even more effective.

The trait suppressed Percival’s presence, concealing his scent and mana signature and making it more difficult for Kylarod to account for his position during the chaos of the battle.

One moment, Percival would seemingly be absent from an exchange. In the next, an enormous shield would suddenly appear between Kylarod’s fist or magic and its intended target.

Eduardo, meanwhile, had taken full advantage of Nina’s flaming sword.

He swung the weapon to his heart’s content, repeatedly carving through sections of Kylarod’s armor that their previous attacks had struggled to damage.

Flames poured into the openings with every successful strike, burning through the decayed flesh beneath.

Hayley and the others continued attacking as well.

Little by little, Kylarod was being worn down.

His armor was broken apart and his movements became increasingly sluggish.

Eventually, the accumulated damage created the opening they needed.