DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro looked at the transmigrator with a light frown. Could he borrow the abilities of the beasts that he tamed? If so, then this guy might be a lot more useful, and a lot more capable in combat, than Eiro expected.

There was just one thing that Eiro was wondering. That monster from yesterday was nowhere to be seen. Not even back in that small 'village' that everyone stayed at, as if it simply disappeared. The scent was there, though.

"Hm..." Eiro hummed. Speaking of scent, there was the familiar scent of spatial magic flowing off this man, and it got a lot stronger when he activated this ability, "I see how it is." Eiro smiled lightly, and was overheard by one of the other transmigrators, the boy blessed by the god of magic.

"You see how what is?" He asked, and Eiro turned his head toward him, "Can you use spatial magic as well?"

"...No, I can't. At least not currently. I can use the six base elements, and one advanced version of each of those four elements, but spatial magic is not one of them." The boy explained, and Eiro clicked his tongue, kind of annoyed that this kid was simply handed such useful abilities. Someone that could never have experienced magic, was then suddenly given such power. It was kind of annoying really. But well, it wasn't like the boy had any particular affinity for the elements. He just had the skills, and the blessing of the god of magic made up for the lack of affinity. Even gods couldn't change such aspects of the very soul, after all.

"Well, anyway, that guy has some kind of spatial ability. Probably a sub-space where his tamed beasts can live without worry." He explained, "Sub-spaces really are quite useful."

"What, do you have one as well?" The girl transmigrator asked, and Eiro smiled lightly and just winked at her, not actually revealing anything about himself. He wanted to gain their trust, but it's not like Eiro was going to give them any true trust anytime soon. But his spatial ability wasn't that big a secret, considering the extents to which he usually used it.

During this brief conversation, the fight had already proceeded. The transmigrator still fighting in close-quarters and trying to pummel Biril, while the beastman himself needed a certain amount of distance, even if said distance was still quite short, inbetween himself and his opponent in order to swing his sword around properly.

However, the transmigrator didn't let him do that. He was using some boxing techniques to try and stay as close to Biril as possible. And as far as Eiro could tell, the beastman was actually being pushed back. It was kind of annoying, since Eiro did take a bit of a liking to him. But the fight wasn't over yet, and Biril certainly still had a fighting chance against the transmigrator.

For a good while, the two of them were at a quite even level, to the point where the ability of the transmigrator ran out, and he returned to his normal state, while Biril was still fully transformed. The transmigrator seemed to become exhausted at this point, but he still had superior physical stats compared to the beastman, so he could still put up a fight. For a while, at least. But soon, when it seemed like Biril was going to win, the transmigrator did the very thing that the Baram warriors had been hoping for.

"Stop!" He yelled out, clearly putting power into his words as his loud voice reached beyond the edges of the stone circle. The moment he did this, Biril's body stiffened up. His muscles became tense, and he was clearly struggling to fend off the transmigrator's words.

It seemed like this really did work, at least to an extent. Biril wasn't fully under the transmigrator's control, but he was obviously impacted. The Baram warriors were quite excited to see this, already planning how they were going to make use of this ability. Obviously, they weren't planning on actually using it on beastmen, but if it worked on them, then it would certainly also work on humanoid monsters that were derivatives or evolutions from beast type monsters. Like that bothersome crow that Eiro met back then. Being able to make it stop moving like this would have been great.

Taking this chance that he was given by the halt of Biril's movement, the transmigrator rushed at his opponent and struck the center of his torso, using the physical strength given to him by the god that summoned him.

Eiro could sense part of Biril's life force dissipate as his health value diminished. That was an incredibly powerful attack, to the point where Biril spit up blood. However, this also had a negative effect for the transmigrator himself.

Through this attack, the slight control that the beastman found himself under had been shattered, and Biril wasn't the sort of fighter that couldn't grind his teeth through some damage in the middle of a fight like this.

Given this chance where the transmigrator didn't expect anything like a counter-attack, Biril did just that, and slashed his sword downward. The transmigrator tried to dodge, but he wasn't quick enough, and Biril's blade was too large to be able to fully get out of the way, leaving him with a deep cut all over his body. If he had been just a little closer, that certainly would have been an attack of the fatal sort. With this attack, the tide had been fully turned, and the transmigrator was buried underneath, as Biril won this fight between the two of them.

Sure, the transmigrator was powerful. He knew how to fight and use his abilities properly, but Biril had spent a lifetime trying to perfect his skill with this blade of his. He was a true warrior who had the experience of numerous battles behind him, and was quite powerful on top of that of course. There was a reason why he won his country's tournament.

With a smile on his face, Eiro approached Biril, who was currently trying to catch a breath, holding his chest where he had been hit just now. He hadn't even undone his transformation yet.

"Great fight, Biril." The Demon said with a smile, as the beastman turned his head, speaking with a distorted voice, "Thank you, Eiro. But excuse me, I think I could use a break for a moment. It is your turn now anyway, right?" He asked, and Eiro immediately nodded.

"That it is, yes." Eiro said with a smile on his face, before Biril slowly made his way to where the others were standing, while the transmigrator was given a quick heal by the Baram healers. And then, Eiro stood in front of his opponent, Tin.

The Demon took a deep breath, and waited for the fight to be started by the overseer. With a clap of his hands, the signal was given, and the fight began. The Goliath in front of Eiro used a rather unique weapon, or at least, it was one that Eiro hadn't seen that often. It was basically nothing but a thick metal piller with light grooves all over it. The pillar itself was the height of Eiro's body.

But Tin simply swung it around like the pillar weighed nothing, and attacked Eiro without any hesitation. Preparing for the incoming attack in an instant, Eiro manipulated his body and his armor to the extreme. He had practically fused with the armor, making it part of his body with his new abilities as 'The World', letting him manipulate it to a superior degree. For example, he could use the metal skin ability on the armor itself, making it a lot stronger than before. He could even fuse some of Bavet's slime into the armor himself, manipulating it even further.

Otherwise, Eiro had pulled and pushed around his life force in specific patterns to absorb the shock as much as possible, even weakening and turning part of his body into something more sponge-like, or fusing it with water from the spirit gateway, so that he could properly receive his attack. But even then, the attack was going to be too strong for Eiro to just receive it like its nothing. He would certainly be pushed back a little, but Eiro wanted to show that he was not someone to be messed with right now, so he manipulated the roots of the plants growing underneath the circle of stone, and fused them into his body, quite literally rooting himself down in place.

And then, the pillar hit Eiro's raised arm, and the shock reverberated through his body, as he took quite a bit of damage even though he did anything he could to defend against it. Well, it was a fair amount of damage, but at the end of the day, it was just a drop in the bucket for Eiro's health. And even if it had been more than that, it would have been worth it for Tin's, and everyone else's, expressions as Eiro seemed unaffected by that pillar. Eiro used his wooden hand and pushed it against the metal pillar, using the bit of metal magic that he had mastered thus far to take control of the pillar.

With a swing of his hand, Eiro pulled on the pillar, using his monstrous mana to support this movement. Of course, Tin's grip on the pillar was strong enough so that the pillar wasn't pulled away from him, but rather, he was pulled away together with it, as Eiro threw the pillar, and Tin who was attached to it, away.

"Ah, sorry about that, I was kind of startled.." He said with his head lightly tilted to the side, before finally pulling one of his daggers out of his treasury, "I noticed that I didn't even pull my weapon yet. Should we actually start now?"