Balrog Goes for Yujun's Side...

The Balrog lunged, razor claws reaching for Yujun's side.

Super Concentration was already active. Yujun had the creature's position locked, and he triggered Flash, slipping the strike by a hair. The Balrog faltered. It had clearly never imagined its opponent would use the same kind of ability, and it glanced about, searching for him.

I have to hit it before it senses me.

He drew on a technique he had honed long ago and fired Chaos in the shape of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a laser. His stealth still held, so the beam flew in near-total silence. Astonishingly, the Balrog reacted, snapping its head back. The shot only grazed its brow, but the demon had dodged.

The laser, however, was made of Chaos. A bead of red blood welled where it had touched, and it did not stop there. The wound refused to close. It split wider instead, and blood poured freely. The instant Chaos made contact—even the slightest contact—not even a Balrog could do a thing about it.

Figures. Hit something with Chaos and rank stops mattering.

The chieftain of the phantasmal races had made such a fuss about how high the Balrog's standing was that Yujun had actually worried. Needlessly, it seemed.

The catch is that I don't have all that much Chaos to spare.

He had to bring the Balrog down before he burned through it.

No—there's also sealing it in the Absolute Sealing Orb.

To trap something in the Absolute Sealing Orb, he first had to incapacitate it. Either way, he had to subdue the Balrog or kill it, and this was not an opponent he could beat by fighting sloppily. Yujun set his face and met the battle in earnest.

The moment he revealed himself, the Balrog charged in a blur.

Let's see how strong it is.

He thrust out a sword carrying only the tiniest trace of Chaos. The blade met the Balrog's enormous hand.

"Graaaagh!"

Yujun did not yield a single step. The Balrog, by contrast, grimaced and staggered back. In a contest of raw strength, Yujun had not merely held his ground. He had overwhelmed it.

"Your strength is remarkable."

The admiration sounded genuine.

"I can't even begin to guess how harsh your training must have been."

"This is all item power."

"......"

Come to think of it, the Balrog wasn't wearing a single piece of equipment. The Hawks had been the same.

"Just so we're clear, I have no intention of fighting a no-gear match."

"I have no idea what you're saying."

"You a Player, then?"

"......"

The Balrog said nothing. No equipment at all, and no particular attachment to items either. If it had an inventory, it could have equipped something on the spot. That it didn't made it likely it wasn't a Player.

"You have no need to know."

"Yeah? Then I'll just ask you myself later."

Yujun shifted the Absolute Sealing Orb to the mouth of his inventory so he could draw it at a moment's notice.

A thick, dark aura began to pour from the Balrog's body. The heat shimmer rising off it melted everything nearby by its mere presence. Yujun was exposed to that heat as well, but his defense was high enough that it did nothing to him.

Farther off, the Demon God Worshippers began to suffer.

"Urgh..."

Flames even caught on their bodies. Few deaths were more hideous than burning alive. For the sake of those pitiful worshippers, he raised the pressure of Space Domination.

Crunch!

Rose and Comain died just like that, almost absurdly. It might have looked cruel. From another angle, he had simply released them from their pain.

That was all bullshit, of course. Demon God Worshippers were things that needed to die, so he killed them.

A level-up message never failed to put the life back in him.

Yujun and the Balrog clashed without pause. Fighting while hoarding his Chaos, he could not subdue the demon easily. It gave him no opening at a vital point, and part of that was simply how savage its attacks were. The blows it swung were so heavy that even Yujun found them difficult to dismiss.

If even my defense can barely hold... this is genuinely absurd.

Facing it himself, he understood why the phantasmal races had feared it. The Balrog was strong. Among everyone he had fought, nothing compared.

And it isn't even wearing items.

If the Balrog had so much as Legendary-grade equipment, he would not have stood a chance.

Yujun kept swinging, pressing in. He had released Super Concentration long ago. Chances to fight someone this strong did not come often, and the stronger he became, the rarer they would be. He did not want to waste this one.

Time to put the Genius trait to real use.

The 2.7-fold increase to skills and traits applied on its own. The option attached after it was different.

This was not the sort of option he could claim by standing still. When the chance came, he had to move hard enough to seize it. Knowing that, he wanted to keep fighting the Balrog without taking a serious wound.

"Keheheh... You're starting to tire."

"Hm?"

The Balrog had no idea Yujun was fighting under a penalty he had imposed on himself in pursuit of enlightenment. It mistook the slower pace—Super Concentration released—for exhaustion. By contrast, the Balrog itself was hardly different from the start. Blood still would not stop from the wound on its brow, but not enough to hinder the fight.

"Victory is mine."

"What is this thing even saying."

"No need to force a calm face. I can see everything."

"...Aigoo. That so."

Convinced it had seized the advantage, a smile began to settle on the creature's face as it attacked all the harder.

Cute.

Not its looks. Its behavior. Vicious as the face was, look closely and it almost seemed simple.

"......"

Look again, and he had been wrong. Even at his most generous, it was a winged gorilla.

As if to finish things, the Balrog drew up a vast surge of pitch-black energy. The air around them heated in an instant, hot enough that even Yujun, with all his defense, felt it. The flow of mana began to change. A subtle shift, but he did not miss it.

And right after—

Boom! Boom! Crash!

A tremendous explosion shook the forest and everything around it. The blasts chained together, leaving no gap. Just as the Balrog wore a triumphant smile, Yujun stepped out of the smoke completely unharmed. The forest had been utterly devastated. He had not taken a scratch.

The Balrog was aghast.

"That should have hit you dead-on."

"It did. I couldn't dodge."

"Then why..."

"Had no choice. Used a skill."

Sword Barrier (SSS). It had already been an absurd skill, and once he gained the Genius trait and its effect more than doubled, it became a cheat of historic proportions. It had blocked even the smallest fragments, even the fireballs. Sword Barrier normally needed a little time to cast. Not just now. The instant he willed it, the barrier unfurled and erased the Balrog's attack.

Picked up one hell of a trait.

Genius (EX++) alone had visibly improved the effect ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of every ability he had.

Right. I was supposed to be chasing enlightenment.

That was easier said than done. He had fought as close to the Balrog's level as he could, and he had not gained enlightenment—had not even caught a thread of it. Maybe the moment he went in thinking he had to gain enlightenment, the whole thing was already ruined. It was too early to give up. The Balrog had used something close to a finishing move, but it did not look tired.

"Got anything stronger?"

Yujun asked because he genuinely hoped there was. The Balrog took it differently.

"How conceited you are, human."

The Balrog's eyes caught fire. It thought Yujun was mocking it.

"I will show you properly what the realm of a Demigod is."

"Ugh. Cringe."

Ignoring him, the Balrog surged in with terrifying momentum. Attacks mixed with Flash were hard to predict. Still, after fighting it this long, they were no longer impossible to block.

Crash! Boom!

Sword and fist collided as if someone were setting off gunpowder. The noise was that loud. There was no substance to it. Neither could damage the other. They only traded a meaningless exchange.

Then Yujun did something that changed the fight. He used Super Concentration.

There was a reason he activated it out of nowhere. For the briefest instant, he had seen a grain on the Balrog's chest. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠He knew this was the moment to decide.

Drag this out forever and no skill or trait is ever going to form.

He needed a flash of something. Yujun dropped into Super Concentration.

Besides the chest, he found several more grains on the Balrog. What was strange was that there were grains at the left elbow and along the outside of the right wing as well.

Cut those, and the Balrog just ceases to exist?

A light scrape on the outside of a wing, and it dies. That was a little odd, wasn't it.

With acceleration at its peak, Yujun began to pick the Balrog apart. Before the demon could react, his sword opened wounds across its body. Every cut missed a grain by a precise inch. Not a mistake. He had aimed them that way because there was something he wanted to confirm.

The Balrog leapt far back, brow furrowed.

"What are you doing?"

"What?"

"You could have cut deeper. I want to know why you only grazed me and pulled away."

"Well, look at those eyes."

"...So the reason?"

"Not telling you that either."

He could hardly say he was curious what would happen if he struck near a grain. He would have to explain what a grain even was.

For now, it doesn't seem to do anything.

Hitting near a grain did not appear to deal any extra damage. Or so he thought—until the Balrog started acting strange. Its face twisted hard, and it could not hold its body steady. For some reason, it looked as if it were in tremendous pain.

This is more than a little strange.

The wounds were not deep. He had not struck a vital point. Only cuts that had slipped past the grains.

Don't tell me...

On ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a hunch, Yujun hacked at the Balrog's body with his sword. He did not swing at random. He targeted only the places close to a grain.

"Graaaagh...! Guhk! Aaaagh!"

As time passed, the Balrog suffered to an unnatural degree. In truth, the pain of a sharp blade was often less than one expected—all the more so for a powerful being with a strong mind. And yet the Balrog could not endure it. This was far too much to be the pain of a simple cut.

At last he had a thread. From then on, Yujun focused exclusively on the areas near the grains, just as he had a moment ago. The Balrog was stronger than the Hawk chief, but with the Grain Finding trait, spotting the grains had become easier—and cutting toward them, naturally, easier still.

Not much time had passed when a holographic message appeared before Yujun's eyes.