The Demon King's First General
Chapter 106: Let’s Play

Chapter 106: Let’s Play

"Oh, so it does have a weakness. This is the first time seeing those shackles get wrecked," Zeno uttered, amazement present on his face.

Then the colony of rats moved and merged into a single body once more. Ratniss looked at the demon with viscous stares, and the moment a smile curled up on his wide lips, he dashed in the man’s direction.

The next second, he slashed his hand, aiming its sharp, pointed claws with dark green liquid covering them at Zeno’s neck.

"Die!" Ratniss yelled.

However, the demon stayed standing still without any intention to dodge the incoming attack.

"Did you realize that any resistance is futile?" The monster uttered, teasing the silver-haired man after seeing him not go anywhere.

"You’re boring," he added upon cutting the demon’s head away from his body.

"I thought I would have some proper fun this time around," he said, and he whipped his tail at the demon’s headless body, sending it tumbling before sinking into the swamp.

However, all of his eyes widened upon hearing the same voice he heard earlier.

"I’m hoping for it as well, so do your best not to die anytime soon," the voice stated.

It came from his back, and he turned around to confirm what he had heard.

"You’re alive?" Ratniss exclaimed, seeing the demon a few distances away from him.

’I definitely felt a real body,’ he conveyed inside his mind, and he looked where the head he cut had flown away.

However, all he saw was nothing but a puddle of water. He was surprised, yet instead of being disappointed, his eyes gleamed with excitement.

Afterward, the monster dashed towards the demon once more, but like what happened before, the demon didn’t move to evade. Ratniss’ attack landed without any hindrance, tearing Zeno’s chest apart. Afterward, he opened his huge mouth and bit the demon’s head, but as he tried to snap it from his body, he felt a gush of water inside his mouth.

"Damn it! A clone again!" He yelled and looked around while searching for the demon’s whereabouts.

"What are you doing? I’m right here!" Zeno yelled, yawning.

He appeared to be standing near a tree monster, several meters away from Ratniss.

"Fight me head on! Do you only know how to run?" He shouted, gritting his teeth due to annoyance.

Upon hearing him, Zeno let out a loud laugh, which made the monster burst into anger.

"Then let’s play!" He said.

His smile was so wholesome that Ratniss felt a sudden danger coming from him, though he chose to ignore his words. The next second, Ratniss pointed his finger towards the demon, and a dark green liquid formed a giant ball. However, instead, at Zeno’s direction, the ball was catapulted up in the air as soon as he flicked it.

Upon reaching a certain distance above, it exploded and combined with the rain. Every droplet of it corroded the ground; even the tree monsters were caught up in the attack, but Zeno just shook his head, and the red dice on his left ear glowed.

"Cyanide," he whispered, and he let himself bathe in the rain filled with acid and poisonous substances.

"What!" Ratniss exclaimed after seeing that the demon came out unscathed from his attack, aside from his clothes having a few holes.

"Hear me out first! Let’s have this little game where the loser will acknowledge the winner as master!" Zeno repeated his words and stated the penalty upon losing.

"A game? And how do you dare imagine me, a Fallen, being your servant?" Ratniss replied, his annoyance reaching its peak.

"Even those deities don’t—" he was about to say something, but the demon cut his words off.

"Listen! I’m not yet done explaining!" Zeno said before sighing and sweeping his hair backwards.

His voice was not that loud, yet it was filled with overwhelming authority that even made Ratniss gulp a mouthful of saliva. And like Zeno intended, the monster focused all of his vision on him and waited for his next set of words.

"The goal is simple; just touch me with your hands or even rip me with your claws; it depends entirely on you; do that and you win!" He exclaimed, then let out a creepy smile.

"I won’t move from this position and won’t do even a single step either... But if you still don’t manage to defeat me despite these handicaps, you lost," Zeno said.

"While I keep my body standing on this ground, you would have the liberty of attacking me from all directions in any way you like, though I’m certain that you’ll never be able to reach me or any of your attacks," Zeno said, explaining the rest of his proposal.

Upon hearing him, Ratniss’ eyes glared at the demon, and the next second, he asked, "And the time limit?"

Then Zeno looked at his side, and the moment his vision spotted a pillar of soil that was slowly getting washed away by the flood, he answered.

"Do you see that? The moment it breaks will be the end of our game," he stated.

"Oh! One more thing, I won’t attack you nor use any of my hands. I’ll even keep them tied just for this moment. Though I can’t say the same on those," he added while suspending his arms in mid-air before glancing at the bubbles floating around the place.

After hearing and finding the demon’s proposal quite interesting, Ratniss stared at him before entering a dashing stance.

"You seemed overconfident. Let me crush this game of yours. Be prepared! I’ll make sure that the payback for underestimating myself will be tenfold," Ratniss declared.

Then he started to run in the demon’s direction; the rain was still pouring hard, and Ratniss’ body was thoroughly drenched in water.

However, several seconds had already passed, yet the distance between him and the demon had not decreased at all. He was still several meters away from him, so he stopped for a moment and assessed the situation.

He raised his arm and clenched his claws; everything seemed normal to him, yet he felt that there was something amiss.

’It’s strange, maybe an illusion,’ he thought.

Clueless about what was happening, he glanced at the demon and spoke.

"So this is your little trick! You really have no intention of playing fair and square," he stated, which made Zeno burst into laughter.

"I’ve already said my piece; just come at me and claim your victory if you can!" He replied.

Without wasting any seconds, Ratniss enveloped his legs with energy, and he even slammed his tail on the ground to give him an extra push, propelling himself towards the demon. However, the faster he moved, the slower he got, which made him halt the second time around.

"What kind of sorcery is this?" He uttered.

Then he felt something bump at his back, and the next second, a heavy explosion sounded all over the place, and he was drenched in water that soon turned into chains.

"How dumb someone could be? Have you already forgotten that this has no effect on me?" Ratniss stated as he tried to destroy the chains once more.

However, as he began to split himself into hundreds of rats, more bubbles continued to come at him, bursting during the process. The explosion destroyed and locked some of the rats into their rightful places.

Upon seeing this, Ratniss didn’t build his body right away and chose to attack the demon. The colony of rats ran in Zeno’s direction, but after they were completely soaked in the rain, their movements started to slow down, which continued until they almost froze into the place, but the next second, several bubbles landed on them, eliminating those who were caught in the explosions.

The rat that was watching at the backline noticed this strange phenomenon and gave out commands to the others to stop and fall back. However, they remained in a slow-motion state even though they were running away from the demon.

"What’s happening?" Ratniss uttered.

Then he glanced at the silver-haired man, and like he had said, he remained at his position, never making any movement.

"You’re taking so long. Where’s the tenfold you’re talking about?" Zeno said, mocking the monster’s confidence he showed earlier.

Ratniss ignored the demon’s mockery; he contemplated what the main reason was for his movements to be turtle-like. Then, while watching the hundreds of other rats, he moved his small legs and ran towards the demon with the goal of attacking him and finishing the game.

However, he experienced the same mishap: the more he tried to exert force to move faster, the slower his speed became. Upon knowledge of this, he chose to walk as if he were not in a hurry, and to his surprise, he went back to his normal speed, though there was still a heavy feeling in his body.

"Now, I get it! You can’t fool me anymore!" Ratniss’ voice echoed in the swamp as the hundreds of rats spoke.

Meanwhile, Zeno stayed silent, but his lips curled upward, wider than the previous ones.

"Too late for you to notice, though," he said, and the hundreds of bubbles drifting into the air bumped into the rats, exterminating a lot of them in a series of explosions.

. . . . .