Roh's heart raced and his steps left pits on the soil he stomped on.
The clanging of the demon's armor only grew louder with every passing second, with every bit of distance to the control pedestal they covered.
Upon reaching the platform, just as Roh was going to lunge to the pedestal, the armored demon had slashed at Roh's back, sending him flying, and preventing him from closing the barriers defenses.
The demon immediately turned and dashed to the pedestal after stopping Roh, but he was met with a heavy charge.
Roh, bleeding profusely from his slashed back, was glowing red as he stood and roared at the demon who was only pushed back a couple of meters.
The armor was unscathed, and the demon warrior unperturbed as he moved forward and slashed his halberd.
Similarly experienced and both at the peak of the 1st rank, the armor and weapon played a major role.
Slash after slash occurred in the matter of seconds; each flash of black leaving a scarlet trail.
Yet, although bloodied and cut, Roh had held off the elite from turning the barrier off for a couple of seconds.
His indomitable will and robust body pushed to the limits to serve his master.
Constantly delayed by the brutes reckless defense, the armored demon showed a hint of annoyance as it took a second to wind up a more powerful attack, before sending Roh flying.
After the demon pushed Roh back, just as it reached out to destroy the alter with a heavy slash from the halberd, it was also at this moment that Adam reached the top of the steps.
The demon's halberd was mid-attack.
With a burst of energy, Adam blurred forward to deal with the elite, catching the strike bare handed, and preventing the him from destroying the pedestal.
The steel hung a couple of inches off from hitting the pedestal.
The demon was surprised to find its attack caught mid-air, while Adam looked on coldly.
Roh had held the elite off for only a couple of seconds, but that was enough. A sooner, and Adam might have not been able to prevent the attack.
A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he sent a penetrating blow to the struggling armored elite's helmet, making it so his mana shock passed the armor, and knocked him out in the process.
Then, with a swift wave of his hand, the pedestal received its command; the barrier finally, fully closed.
The sound of the gate closing was deafening, like a sonic boom that sent a shockwave across the basin, instantly severing the connection and cutting off the enemy's charge.
Relief washed over Adam, but he still had to go back to deal with the last elites.
Regardless, he was now relived of his tension; the flood gates to his raging emotions, of his humiliation and wrath, opened.
It was arrogance that had caused this situation.
Forced into having to deal with the situation in a calm and precise manner, his extreme anger finally raged with every step that he took.
Calm and concentration was no longer needed, and he could no longer hold back.
His volatile emotions erupted into a physical phenomenon.
Idiotic!
Stupid!
Then there was the humiliation that came alongside with it.
He has felt desperation and panic many times in both lives, but this time was different; this time the fault was his own.
The utter lack of contingencies or self-awareness made him fall into a humiliating predicament.
'How stupid!'
His aura grew more and more unstable with every passing thought.
Adam had half the mind to use the attack rune to kill Kamir and his forces out of humiliation. It was only by the last vestiges of his sanity, knowing that he shouldn't expose his trump card yet, that he was able to refrain from attacking with the nexus.
Adam was lost in his inner turmoil, unaware of his own changes at the moment.
His demonic mana formed into tendril like substances, and the horns in his head forcibly grew out, reaching a couple of inches in length; marking that he had passed the faint threshold that separated a low-tier lesser devil from a middle-tier lesser devil.
His human appearance, his distinction from human and devil, was slowly fading, merging with hell's as time passed.
It was only because of a faint itch caused by the growing horns that Adam was able to release himself from his self-loathing.
Their appearance was that of a black crown, slicked back, gleaming dangerously in the reddish light.
The new sense of power was clear and potent.
He marveled as he looked at the swirling, concentrated, dark energy in the palm of his hand: black like night, and twinkling with hellish embers.
Faint signs of his demonic mana gaining an affinity with hellfire.
He saw an armored berserker he knocked down earlier trying to rush past him.
With a single thought, he willed the mana into a whip like form and then struck out; forcibly catching the demon that was 10 meters away with it.
The armored berserker roared and struggled, but was unable to move an inch from Adam's control.
Forcing the demon into submission was so easy that it somewhat baffled Adam, but then a burning rage over took his surprise as he moved towards the rest.
His lone figure steadily crossed the ashen ground.
Tendrils extended and grabbed the armored berserkers that had been knocked out or were trying to catch up; the abysmal steel armor made it hard to kill them, but restraining them was still easy.
Adam moved unimpressed, the armored berserkers were easily dealt with before, but now there wasn't even a hint of struggle on Adam's eerily cold face.
He would casually wave his hand, the dark energy blast or slash from before now in a solid form.
The incoming 10 elites saw the situation at hand, looked at each other, and immediately knew that the mission had failed. Dealing with a low-tier lesser devil was already difficult, much less one that had reached the mid-tier.
Still, they had no other choice but to give it a shot since the barrier had closed behind them, and they were now trapped inside.
A quick, tacit understanding befell all 10 warriors as they all sprinted forward, each trying to take different paths far from each other. Spreading out and making it as hard as possible for Adam to stop them.
Only a single demon making it to the pedestal meant victory!
A mocking anger rose within Adam, watching them spread out.
His figure suddenly blurred, his astonishing speed proving the plan of splitting up fruitless.
Like dominos, each one fell in rapid succession; not a single berserker demon made it within 100 meters of the obelisk.
Soon, all of them were knocked unconscious and tied up.
Kamir looked on with a cold, reluctant gaze as 14 of the 100 elites had been captured by Adam.
Seeing their path of retreat close, the roughly one hundred wild demons, who were attacking and got trapped within the barrier, and immediately gave up once the barrier closed.
Their future now at Adam's whims.
Kamir could only watch as his calculated plan fell through, his rage filled gaze lingered on Agri's seductive and beaten body, a lustful flicker in his eye; he swore mentally that he would capture the demoness and ravage her as payback someday in the future.
His forces were discovered a bit sooner than expected.
Adam was stronger and faster by a bit more than he had planned.
The newborn had battle skill and intelligence that exceed his expectations by a bit
Adam's warriors that held, just for that bit longer.
All expectations, just exceeding his deductions by a small margin, all coalesced into a great change.
Releasing an angry grunt, he took the only armored elite that had avoided capture and went back up the hill. He would have to explain his failure to Lord Kaelgor once he came back.
It was a day that he wasn't looking forward to.
Seeing Kamir's figure leaving alongside his army, Adam's gaze peeled away and roamed over the 300 demons that stood at where the barrier had opened.
Looking at the results with a calculating standpoint, Adam had gain much more than he had lost, but he knew that it was due to his luck and his subordinate's great work.
It was a truly close call.