Arata looks up. It usually lurks above, waiting for a chance to strike. Morgan had armor… she doesn't wanna drink my blood-

  Arata dashes towards Selena, slicing above her head before Beelzebub has the chance, intercepting the snout of the bug. Arata then shouted to the rest of his team, “If the probiscis touches you, it’ll drain your mana! You’ll end up like Cayden!” Plan of attack… it’s something? There’s not much we can do… the opponent is flying above us constantly. Just need to wait for the mistake of using mana.

  Beelzebub lowers itself to the ground, giving Arata an epiphany. Since mana is limited and it can’t just use its proboscis from the sky with no distraction… It’s not going to waste mana on spells when it assumes it could kill us without using magic. The goal is to instigate it.

  Arata readies his blade in anticipation of Beelzebub’s attack, yet he doesn’t see a thing. The beast is already behind him, the human wrist contorts into a drill made from bone. Beelzebub's human form hangs upside down as the wings face upwards, despite the extra weight of the human body, it could fly well.

  It’s so much quicker than possible! How did it move? The wings? Luckily, before Arata is skewered, Morgan intervenes.

  Morgan’s blade intercepts the drill, causing sparks to fly. A sound of screaming metal sounds through the air before Morgan frees their blade from the bind to prevent further damage from occurring.

  The opponent is much faster, can break our weapons and has a backup option of just flying away? That is, unless the wings are destroyed. Arata seemingly was just going through the motions, following up on Morgan’s defense; he focused on how to fully utilize the single win condition he saw. Yet he didn't swing a sword. Arata aims at the wing’s base, barely reachable from the ground, yet his wooden stick gets caught by Beelzebub.

  “Really? You thought you’d do something there, did you, human? Stopping the lord of flying fiends, I, Beelzebub from taking off into the sky? You are nowhere NEAR fast enough to sneak your sword past my eyes.” Beelzebub exclaims with a prideful expression. He finally uses a spell, from the mana sucked out of Cayden, a red violent lance is formed.

  Yet something happens, his hand catches fire, the shit-eating grin Beelzebub just had fades. Demiurge's Foundry absorbs that very mana, blasting the bug back in the face with flames heated up like a white beacon. If he tries going fast while on fire, he risks supplying oxygen to the flames.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Aggh!!! Fuck fuck fuck! Human! You-” Beelzebub’s flesh melts apart, a hollow shell of meat falls against the ground, crumbling into ashes. I… killed it? A general of the demon lord, dying to it’s own foolishness.

  Arata smiles towards Morgan and Selena, silently stating that he won, in which he suddenly freezes. Beelzebub’s breath rests right on Arata’s face. Beelzebub smirks, grabbing Arata by the neck to toy with him, hoisting Arata up into the air. Beelzebub, spreading his wings, makes the bound all the way onto the nearby rooftop in where he chuckles, dangling Arata by the neck over a fall to the floor.

  The drop, I’ll die if he drops me, he must be waiting for me to show a reaction. This monster wants to see the struggle in my eyes before he drops me, not like that faded bug, not like the baku, not like the knight Selena, nor like the faded Cayden. It wants to watch you die miserably.

  Beelzebub groans, “Come on you pussy! You do know I’m gonna drop you to your death right? Maybe you were secretly suicidal, but why are you calm, human? Do we need to go higher?”

  At the mention of going higher, Arata slashes at Beelzebub’s arms, Beelzebub drops him without second thought. Arata comes falling back towards the earth when in the air he watches Clemence's magic golden sword right in front of him. High energy can create better results, Clemence figured it out too.

  Energy, it's more than just fire. I need to create something different, counteract the force. Arata’s body moved on its own, like a reflex. He created a force to push up on himself, wind propelled against his face heavily as Arata fell.

  Arata poured more energy into the air, yet not enough to impede his movement, rather slow it so he could safely fall.

  Arata’s body braces the ground, bending on impact as Arata falls flat, spreading himself out to minimize the impact of falling.

  Arata decides to pray, calling forth Ravenna from the theater, who snaps awake upon being summoned. The exhausted angel descends in confusion. “Hey Arata, why summon me in the middle of combat? I can’t interact with the world, can’t help you fight?” Ravenna explains her confusion.

  “Scout for Beelzebub, I can't predict his movements since it reacts to where I'm looking,” Arata shouts, pleading into thin air to the eyes of everyone else. Selena and Morgan glance over to each other, wanting to say something, however decide to hold off while in the middle of battle.

  Beelzebub, meanwhile, was more enraged than ever. Now, Arata survived the fall from that height and revealed a new trump card in his arsenal. The bug rushed down to attack Arata.

  “Now!” Ravenna shouted, Arata moved and released his whip of flames at Beelzebub. The bug narrowly avoided Cauterizer, Arata’s goalpost just got moved yet again. That was until the follow-up attack, the second one, cauterizer whipped back around, grazing Beelzebub’s ribcage, the bug screaming out in pain. He zipped around to attempt to put the flames out, speeding across the skies until something fell from them.

  On the ground lies a piece of man-sized charcoal, the former form of the bug. In his distressed attempt to put the flames out, Beelzebub made the stupid move of speeding up. The move was almost too stupid; it made no sense for Beelzebub to try that. The corpse was surprisingly hollow, yet the inside was wet and slick.