"I give up! I will join you instead and help you defeat Lord Ignavar!"
The earth demon said, raising both of his hands to the air and showing his empty palms.
Kayn stood at the end of the hallway, tilting his head a little as he heard the earth demon's proposal.
Kayn would appreciate it if he could gain an ally in fighting a strong enemy that he might not be able to beat himself.
He didn't know how strong this Lord Ignavar was. Even though his subordinate wasn't that strong, it didn't say anything about the actual strength of this lord.
'To be capable of ruling over an entire region, if that was even true, and making demons, who had the natural tendency of a murderous sociopath, to behave, was an achievement that needed to be applauded for.
And in this world, nothing can convince more than strength. So it's safe to say that this lord Ignavar would be the demon that the ice demon mentioned.
An enemy that HE couldn't defeat.'
Kayn thought about the proposal for a while, but after considering this and that, and almost becoming unsure of his decision, Kayn realized something that made him 1000% sure.
'To be able to easily betray his so-called lord when he was threatened a little… He would betray me the second he got the chance to make sure his life wasn't in danger.'
"No. Proposal rejected. I would mind letting a traitorous coward help me."
The earth demon then looked down, his face seemingly dejected by Kayn's answer.
"Alright then…
Die!"
Runes then appeared in front of the earth demon's palms, a set of runes that the earth demon hadn't used before.
"Forest of Spikes."
When the runes manifested the spell, Kayn began feeling foreign mana gathering in many points in his surroundings.
From the walls to his back and sides, the roof over his head, and the ground beneath his feet, they started trembling as the spell manifested itself.
Spikes made of Earth jotted out of the walls, the ceiling, and on the ground, all aiming towards Kayn.
Kayn had guessed the earth demon would try something, but it was slightly out of his prediction that he could do something like this.
He forgot that the whole castle itself was made out of earth, not limiting the earth demon's ability to only summon earth from the ground below.
Fortunately, his four hands were already prepared to cast any spells the moment he saw the moment the earth demon raised his palms towards Kayn.
"Ice Armor."
"Ice Shield."
"Ice Absorption Barrier."
Since Kayn didn't have much time, he wasn't able to put more mana into the runes to make the Ice thicker, but he compensated for it by using multiple defense spells.
The ice armor manifested first, coating Kayn's whole body with rigid ice. Then the ice shield appeared, protecting Kayn from all sides. And the ice absorption barrier appeared last, just like what he intended it to.
The spikes coming from below him arrived first, and Kayn wasn't able to move and dodge anywhere as the spikes would be coming from everywhere around him.
But he got his ice armor with him now.
He felt the exact spot where the mana gathered, the point where earth spikes would come out from, then he stomped his armor-covered feet straight into them.
He wasn't actually fast enough to completely stop the spell from manifesting itself by destroying the ground, but Kayn was able to stomp and destroy the tip of the sharp spike before it could manifest fully.
He stomped his feet multiple times, destroying even more earth spikes prematurely.
Then by the time his ice shield materialized, it succeeded in stopping most of the spikes coming from all directions before being destroyed itself.
Some spikes made it through, but his rigid ice armor stopped them. Some spots were cracked from tanking the fully-summoned earth spikes, but they still held up.
The ice absorption barrier then appeared, absorbing all the ice attribute mana that the ice shield and the cracked armor left behind, gathering them back into a thicker shield made of ice mana.
The earth demon saw what happened, and he was about to repeat the same skill again, but Kayn was faster this time.
"Frost Barrier: Burst."
"Frozen Wind."
The ice absorption barrier then exploded once more, releasing even more ice mana into the surroundings.
But before the wave of ice mana explosion could freeze the walls and ceiling, the frozen wind spell carried them all forward towards the earth demon.
The earth demon, who had thought of casting the earth spike spell once more, changed his decision at the last second.
He knew that an ordinary wall would be bypassed by the wind, so the earth demon decided to fully hole himself up.
"Earth Prison."
Just like the ice prison spell, the earth prison spell summoned a dome of earth to surround a certain spot, in this case, the earth demon himself.
The frozen wind then crashed against the earth dome. Only a small part of them froze the surface of the earth dome, while most of the other flew past it, freezing the walls of the room the earth demon was currently in.
Seeing this, Kayn quickly cast another spell. Twice
"Ice Spike Prison."
"Ice Spike Prison."
He had seen enough of what the earth demon could do in this fortress, fully made out of earth.
And Kayn was betting his left kidney that the cowardly demon would make a hole in the ground to try and escape from the second floor.
Fortunately, his ice spikes stopped the demon. He even cast two ice spike spells on top of each other, making sure that the demon would stay in place even if the ground below crumbled.
"ARGHHH!!!"
Screams of pain soon resounded from inside the earth dome.
Kayn used his ice claws to cut open the top of the earth dome, being careful not to destroy the whole earth dome, as his ice spikes also grew from the walls of the earth dome.
Kayn then looked inside and heaved a sigh of relief.
The earth dome was filled with ice spikes coming from almost every spot on the earth dome.
The earth demon was hanging in the middle of the earth dome, ice spikes being the only thing that kept his body suspended in mid-air with a hole in the ground.
The earth demon seemed to be trying to cast more spells, but just like any ice affinity spells, the ice spikes not only stabbed their enemies, they also spread coldness to the enemies that they hit.
With his whole body stabbed by ice spikes, it was already a miracle that the earth demon stayed alive with multiple ice spikes stabbing his head.
'They're much tougher than ordinary demons…'
'But this ends here.'
"Exploding Ice Bullet."
Instead of the many ordinary bullets appearing, only 3 of them manifested, but their size was different than an ordinary ice bullet.
They looked bigger and sharper, similar to a sniper bullet.
The three bullets shot themselves, packing more strength that enabled them to go through the tough skull of the earth demon.
And when they had reached their target, the bullet exploded, turning the demon's head into ice and killing him.
Without wasting more time, Kayn grabbed the earth demon's soul and swallowed it.
His body trembled as the taste filled his mouth and the soul empowered his body.
'It does taste better! But not very much. It wasn't worth it to try and kill elemental demons, even though they have a better tasting soul and more power contained inside their soul.'
The soul was so rich in power that it felt like Kayn had swallowed the souls of 5 demons, but it took much more effort to kill the earth affinity demon compared to the ordinary demons.
He could easily get 5 ordinary demon souls with a tenth of the effort he had exerted to fight the earth demon.
Kayn took a mental note of that and wasted his time no more.
He had an upcoming battle in the near future, and he wanted to prepare as best as he could.
'Which skills should I steal- borrow from the cheater ice demon now…'