Noel gritted his teeth and planted his sword into the tree. While hanging on, he looked down to see Anna had turned around.
She created a circle with her Spiritual Energy and pushed it forward, creating a chain made of lightning. After that, she channeled her energy into her hands, skillfully forming a sword.
This lightning sword would be her weapon against the Advance Level Demon.
The Advance Level Demon stopped climbing and looked at the lightning circle with its bloodshot eyes. It raised both hands and caught the lightning.
"Burn it away!" Anna shouted while snapping her finger.
The lightning sparked for a split second, but the Advance Level Demon ripped the ring apart.
"As expected, I don't have enough Spiritual Energy to conjure a more powerful lightning attack." Anna clicked her tongue and slashed her sword downwards, trying to knock the demon off the branch.
However, the demon managed to grab Anna's sword easily. If it was a normal junior knight, they would be shocked by its power, but Anna had fought against demons stronger than this one. Hence, the moment the demon caught her lightning sword, Anna let the sword go and kicked him from the side, knocking him off.
After that, she landed on the branch and waved her left hand. "Sword D'Dantalian."
The lightning sword she conjured earlier to destroy the Ancient Demon Tree's root appeared again. She shot it right at the Advance Level Demon who was still trying to find a way to avoid getting shot down.
Unfortunately for the demon, Anna's sword was faster than it expected. The sword arrived in an instant, causing the demon to catch it again.
The sword sparked and exploded, launching the demon to the ground. As if it wasn't injured, the demon still had a clear vision of Noel who almost reached the top of the tree while avoiding the branches.
It opened its mouth again, charging the Spiritual Energy to shoot Noel down.
Anna wouldn't let the demon do whatever it wanted, so she jumped to the ground and stomped the demon's stomach, getting its focus again. Even the beam disappeared due to the disruption she caused.
When the demon realized Noel had reached the top of the tree, it was clear that he couldn't shoot him anymore. Hence, it shifted all its focus to Anna who was on top of him.
Suddenly, an eruption of Spiritual Energy shook the area, creating a shock wave to blow Anna away.
Anna skillfully directed the Spiritual Energy with her own, but the demon moved its body, forcing her to leap off the demon's body.
But as soon as she landed on the ground, the demon appeared next to her.
"Too fa—" Anna couldn't even finish her thought, but her instinct managed to react by putting both arms next to her head where the demon struck her, blocking it.
As one would expect from an Advance Level Demon, the force from the sweep was extraordinary.
Anna was blown away and crushed into a tree several meters away from her original position.
"Kh." Anna gritted her teeth and hurriedly rose from the ground, thinking, 'Without the Increase Agility Rune, I wouldn't be able to react to that attack. And the Blessing Strength allowed me to sustain only minor injuries from this. As expected, an Advance Level Demon is different.'
She took a deep breath while letting her instinct take over. 'My speed can't match an Advance Level Demon yet, so I need to use my instinct to react to its movement. Five minutes best or in the worst case scenario, I need to wait for ten minutes until Noel digs up the core and kill the Ancient Demon Tree.'
While she was grabbing the Advance Level Demon's attention, Noel had finally reached the top of the tree.
To his surprise, the top of the tree looked like it had a platform on it. The branches came out only on the edge.
"This is…" Noel was amused by the tree's structure, but he soon raised his vision and saw the branches coming from above. Noel leaped to the side and avoided getting his body pierced by the branches.
However, he noticed an important detail. When the branches were about to hit him, they decelerated until they were slow enough to not pierce through the trunk.
'The branches are now afraid of injuring the trunk? As expected, the core is near the top.' Noel looked down and thought, 'There are two ways to kill a demon. The first one is to split the demon into two, especially sever the head and the body. For a tree , I just need to cut right below the tree's face. Or the second way is to crush the demon crystal.
As long as the crack is big enough, the tree will die because the demon crystal acts like a human heart. One stab is enough.
'But the problem right now is… where is the core?' Noel looked at the platform above the tree. The tree trunk was ten meters in diameter and this platform had roughly half the size of the trunk. Even so, it would be hard to dig up everything in this environment.
Yet, when Noel should start digging out for the core, a ridiculous thought appeared in his mind.
'Now that I think about it, I don't need to rush here. The Ancient Demon Tree won't become stronger for the first one hour. If that's the case, I can wait for a bit until the Advance Level Demon kills Anna before killing this tree.'
It was such a logical idea because this occasion was perfect to kill Anna and the blame would go to the Advance Level Demon instead of him.
However, Noel had an uncomfortable feeling in his chest. It wasn't love.
He simply disliked the idea.
Clenching his fists, he shook his head, 'This is why I hate owing someone. It makes me hesitate to kill them. I can become like that evil woman and kill her with this scheme, but why should I become a hypocrite and do something like the person I hate?
'If someone owes me a debt, I'm going to settle that debt first before I kill them. That's the same for you, Anna Stargaze. People will think I'm an idiot, but at least, I'm not a hypocrite. Be grateful, Anna Stargaze, for I am not someone like you!'
Noel glanced to the top and avoided the branches again before he started striking the tree's trunk with his sword.