System vs Rebirth

"It's not a beaver! It's a freaking FISH!"

Noel was taken aback because the one he faced was not a beaver, but a fish. He had heard about the report of a fish demon attacking the human from time to time, but he never thought that they would gather in this place.

'Now that I think about it, the fish usually swim downstream. But because of the dam, they can't continue to swim there. In that case, how many fish demons are there?' Noel thought while waving his sword.

Swift Strike.

As expected, the fish demon actually had the might of a Mid Level Demon. And with the addition of its momentum as well as Noel's unpreparedness, the fish overwhelmed Noel with its strength.

"Kh!" Noel gritted his teeth, standing on his ground. Still, he was pushed back for at least ten meters back before the fish had used all his momentum.

When the fish fell to the ground, it started flapping its body due to the lack of water. However, the fish didn't seem to be stopping.

Every time it flapped, the fish was trying to go toward Noel to bite him.

'This is annoying.' Noel clicked his tongue and swung his sword upward.

Sword Fall.

A huge sword appeared on top of the fish, but the moment it fell, the fish had already flapped its body again, avoiding the sword.

"It's still too fast even on the ground. But the fish can't live on the ground, should I wait for a while?" Noel muttered before glancing at the hole, remembering there were two more fishes that attacked him earlier. "No. Let's end this as soon as possible."

"Let's see whether this guy is delicious or not." Noel smirked as the Spiritual Energy started gathering around his sword. Then, the Spiritual Energy sparked, enveloping the sword in fire.

Sword Fire.

This black fire could burn the fish bit by bit every time he attacked, so eventually the fish would be cooked alive. He just hoped that no other fish demon came out of the water to help this one.

Noel waved his sword toward the fish while the latter flapped its tail to repel the fire sword.

*Clang!*

"Heavy…" Noel frowned, feeling the intense force from the tail. After knowing that the fish wasn't as weak as he expected, Noel changed his approach again.

He saw that the tail reddened after getting scorched by the fire for a while, so Ardagan's flame was effective.

'Although I have expected this, but Ardagan's flame is indeed extraordinary.' Noel thought while leaping forth, approaching the fish again.

The latter flapped its body, kicking it to the air again. After that, it opened its mouth and tried to swallow Noel from above this time.

Noel took a deep breath and calmed his heart down. Instead of working up and jumping to the side out of panic, Noel calmed down and took a few small steps to the left.

This way, he managed to avoid the fish without a single waste movement.

Before the fish flapped its body again to get away, Noel swung his sword and struck the fish's body.

The black flame started scorching its body, but it wouldn't be able to kill the demon easily. So, he applied one more skill from Ardagan.

"Ignition Sword."

The flame around his sword suddenly flared up and caused an explosion.

*Boom!*

"!!!" Noel covered his eyes with his arm, thinking he would be engulfed by the flame as well. But to his surprise, he didn't feel the heat coming from the sword.

Only the fish suffered from the explosion. Its side was scorched black. A portion of its body even burned to ashes, causing the blood to continuously flow out.

"The power… It's so strong." Noel was taken aback by the strength. He had never used this power before because whenever he used the Black Sword, he needed to use ice along with it since everyone knew that he was an Ice Spirit User.

However, the sword had become white this time and he had another identity. This way, he could freely use his fire.

"Oh, it seems this Spirit Ability is more useful than I thought." Noel smiled satisfied. He saw that the fish was in pain to the point it couldn't use that side of his body to kick his body to the air anymore. Thanks to it, the fish's movement became extremely simple and predictable.

Noel didn't hesitate to approach the fish from the injured side and struck the fish.

Mega Slash.

This time, Noel strike sliced its head a bit, causing the fish to slow down. There was nothing the fish could do to avoid dying at this point.

When he was about to deliver the killing blow, two more fishes came through the gap and jumped to him.

"!!!" Noel immediately stopped his motion and turned around to face these two fishes.

These two fishes seemed to be different from the one he defeated earlier. When these two fishes were flying in the air, they opened their mouth as blue light gradually shone from within.

Suddenly, a water twister came out of their mouth and flew to Noel at a fast speed.

Although he had expected this from a Mid Level Demon, he was still surprised that they used it immediately. From what he knew from hunting Mid Level Demons together with Anna previously, the Mid Level Demon's Spiritual Energy Capacity wasn't that huge. They could only attack him like this less than five times.

With the addition of the usage of Spiritual Energy that they used to attack him at the first meeting, they wouldn't have enough Spiritual Energy to launch another attack like this after they failed to attack him.

Still, the fish truly caught him off guard. Noel couldn't dodge this with his current movement. Hence, he raised his shield again while using his Four Points Circulation to boost his shield so that he had enough thrust to stop the force in the water twister.

*Bam!*

"Kh." Noel gritted his teeth as his hand became numb just from receiving the impact.

As one would expect from a Mid Level Demon, even though their intelligence was low, they didn't act based on instinct like that of a Low Level Demon. The moment those two fishes managed to stop Noel in his track, the injured fish flew toward Noel and opened its mouth, trying to swallow him.

"I have fought multiple Mid Level Demons before, so I know it will be like this." Noel smirked while swinging his sword upward.

A sword appeared above the fish. The fish was in the air this time, so it was impossible for it to dodge.

"Die."

Sword Fall.