Not only was Simon and Thorgan stunned, even the Alpha was stunned by what just happened.
It had seen Thorgan throw a sword toward the demon who suddenly appeared on its back from out of nowhere, and for a moment, it saw its life flash before its eyes.
However... the sword turned to ashes just as it was about to pierce him?
How lucky was it?
"What the hell?! What just happened?!" Thorgan shouted in utter disbelief, confusion, and also fear as he stared at Simon. But Simon remained silent.
He was looking at his hands with a baffled expression, and the gears in his mind spun rapidly.
’What just happened? Why did the sword turn to ash?’
Simon had a few guesses, and all were related to the Chaos Wraps, the Chaos Sword, and the changes to his Chaos Flame in his Demon Heart.
However, regardless of the suspicions and guesses he came up with, there was no confirmed conclusion yet.
’I need to experiment more... This might become a problem.’
Just as Simon had this thought, he heard a growl, and he looked in front of him.
He saw the Alpha staring at him with immense killing intent and fury in its single eye, and it opened its mouth.
The shadows in the surroundings began converging toward its mouth along with the Alpha’s demonic energy, and Simon felt his instincts ring loudly in his mind.
Well, he didn’t need his instincts to warn him that this attack was dangerous and could end his life.
However, he was calm. Fearless worked its magic and his experience came into place.
His eyes calmly shifted toward the spear that was stuck in the eye of the Alpha, and he ran forward.
Thorgan watched Simon with wide eyes as he ran straight at the Alpha’s head, where a massive ball of shadows was gathering.
"Crazy. Crazy fucking bastard." He mumbled without blinking.
Meanwhile, Simon coated his entire body in demonic energy, then he jumped forward with his right leg shooting like an arrow.
Bang!
PUCHI!
He kicked the spear deeper into the Alpha’s skull, and the Alpha staggered backward.
The light in its eyes flickered as he hovered in the middle line of both life and death.
Its brain was pierced by the spear, and only the sheer tenacity of a demon beast and a berserk Dread Beast was keeping it alive.
Simon stared at the beast with a cold and indifferent expression, then he twisted his body mid air, coated his right arm with 75% of his remaining demonic energy, then he punched the Alpha’s temple with all that he had.
The Alpha staggered, then it fell on its back before turning to the side due to the force of its fall.
The shadow ball it was about to release fired into the distance, and fortunately for Simon, Thorgan, and the remaining candidates, the direction of the fired shadow ball was not toward them.
BOOM!
An explosion that was similar to that of a tanker firing its weapon boomed in the valley, and Simon, Thorgan, and the candidates looked at the trees and everything in the distance which seemed to have been erased from existence.
’That was close.’
Simon thought, then he shifted his gaze to the Alpha.
The Alpha’s body was moving slightly, showing that it was breathing, and Simon slowly approached the Alpha.
He stood in front of its head, making sure to keep enough distance from it, then Thorgan approached him and stood beside him.
"It’s still alive? Even after taking a spear into the brain?" Thorgan said with surprise and disbelief evident in his tone.
"The spear is just a normal spear, not an artifact, so the damage it caused to its brain is not enough to instantly kill it. And demonic beasts are known to be more durable than us demons. With time, it should die."
"I see." Thorgan nodded, then he looked at Simon with a raised brow.
"What happened back then? Why did the sword turn to ash?"
Simon nonchalantly shrugged. "I don’t know. You saw that I was surprised too."
"Hmm." Thorgan shifted his gaze to Simon’s hands, not because of the Chaos Wraps, but because he was wondering if it was just a one time thing or if Simon could truly not use weapons or swords in particular."
"Maybe it’s that black cloth-like artifact wrapped around your arms? Why don’t you remove them?"
Simon smiled at Thorgan, then he gestured at the Alpha.
"I believe we have something more important to focus on."
Thorgan looked at the Alpha, and he took a step back while shrieking.
"Fuck! It’s looking at me!"
Simon’s lips curled up slightly. "As you can see, it’s still alive. So, kill it."
Thorgan wasted no time doing this, he stretched out his hand to the side, and a spear rose from his shadow.
The spear was an ordinary spear, not an artifact, and Simon raised a brow at Thorgan’s shadow.
"You store things in your shadow?"
"Yes." Thorgan nodded, then he threw the spear with full force, completely piercing what was left of the Alpha’s eye, and its brain as a result.
"How convenient."
The Alpha died just as Simon responded to Thorgan’s "Yes."
Thorgan released a breath of relief at the death of the Alpha, then he looked at Simon.
"It’s over."
Simon nodded, "Yeah. It is."
He then looked in the distance and saw that the candidates were still in one piece and none of them had been able to escape.
"I want to have the corpse of the Alpha. You can have the corpses of the remaining shadow wolves you killed and half of the candidates I killed. You can have their condensed shadow essence."
Thorgan blinked, and he looked down while thinking about it for a few seconds before nodding.
"I’d have preferred to have the Alpha’s corpse, but I know that without you, I would have struggled a lot more to survive. It’s a deal."
Simon smiled lightly as he shook Thorgan’s outstretched hand. "Perfect."