"Insolent!" roared the cambion generals and then charged at Kashi.

The daeben grinned as he threw himself into the flurry of blows. This time, he did not do anything fancy, choosing to meet the spear, sword and magic attacks with his bare fists. Despite this, the Maggots present stared in shock as he plowed through the generals with seeming ease. The cambions' spears and swords failed to penetrate the daeben's scales, rendering their attacks futile.

Without suspense, the generals joined their incapacitated comrade on the ground within seconds. Kashi glanced at the fallen generals with clear disappointment. As expected, they paled in comparison to battling a demon-god. Well, that kind of battle was not something you could find on every street.

Kashi shook his head as he issued a light sigh, and then crouched next to the cambions to check their vitals. After confirming they were not dead, Kashi opened a portal and forcibly sucked the unconscious cambions inside. The daeben had a rough idea as to why Leila wanted them alive. In that case, rather than relying on contracts, he might as well force them into loyalty.

Even amongst demons, cambions were considered one of the worst. They were innately greedy, evil and held no regard for any life outside their own. Rivers of blood always followed the appearance of cambions. While Kashi might hesitate to brainwash other sentient creatures, he had no qualms about these veritable plagues on society.

Kashi received a notification about the cambions' successful 'recruitment' as he raced down the hallway. The daeben nodded, having confirmed one of his hypothesis about his inner world. It appeared the amount of time taken to 'brainwash' an opponent was determined by not only the strength disparity between Kashi and them, but their level of consciousness. These cambions were much weaker than the daeben, and had been beaten into near-comas. As a result, they could not summon any strength to fight against Kashi's inner world's indoctrination.

Kashi pushed these thoughts to the back of his head as he, Shadow and Larsial approached the end of the hallway. He spotted Leila and Hogosha standing in front of a large, sinister door that all but screamed out 'boss fight!'

"Hey," Kashi greeted with a short wave as he walked up to Leila. He introduced Larsial to the vice-guildmaster, and then asked, "How've you been?"

"Everything is in working order," Leila replied with a small smile. "I did not expect you here so soon. Can I ask why you came?"

Kashi shrugged with a hapless smile. "Would you believe me if I say I came to boast a little? I've gotten pretty strong lately, you know."

Leila's brow rose as she regarded the daeben with a knowing gaze. "Were you the type to boast? How come I do not recall?"

"Heh, you caught me," Kashi acceded with a short laugh. "I found a solution to the problem in Serisis. But more importantly, I needed to see you for something much more pressing." Kashi's gaze turned serious as he continued, "The battle at Drakase. We have just over a month until the day."

"Yes," Leila confirmed. "After this hunt, I was planning on traveling north with our guildmembers. We should make it in time to use the skyboat as planned."

"That was indeed the plan, but because of the skyboat's size, the total number of troops would have been dismally small. " Kashi said as he a painting scroll appeared in his hand. "I've got a better one now. We can even rope in Serisis while we're at it."

Leila looked at the scroll in Kashi's hand and instantly came to a conclusion. "It has something to do with your Dimension Skill doesn't it."

"Together with my inner world, yes," Kashi confirmed. The daeben ears perked up as the sounds of metal clashes dwindled to a halt. "Seems they've wrapped up over there." He looked at the door and said, "I'll explain later. Let's clear this boss first."

Leila glanced at Shadow and Larsial, then back at Kashi. "Just us?"

Kashi clasped his hands together and bowed his head as he begged, "I promise to share the final boss with the guild. Just let me have this one, please?"

Leila glanced at the pleading daeben with gentle humor in her gaze. 'When I see you like this, it's hard to believe you are truly different people.' Razznik was the same. After a particularly tough battle, he would enter a frenzied battle state, where he search for as many fights as possible to soothe his hyper-state. Leila still had no clue how fighting was supposed to be the cure to adrenaline from another fight, but since it made sense to Razznik, and now Kashi, she decided to follow along. "Fine, you can have this one, but this is a training exercise for the guild. You must leave the final boss to them."

Kashi hurriedly nodded, reassuring Leila, who finally pushed the doors open.

The entrance opened to massive hall about the size of a football field. The hall was poorly lit by hanging lanterns, causing most of it to be drowned in darkness. However, despite this, Kashi and Leila could make out hundreds of cambion generals stood in a neat formation in front of a giant 3-meter (10 ft.) chain devil.

Chain devils were the infamous 'jailers of the Netherworld.' These humanoid demons had blood-hued skin that evoked the image of rivers of blood. Their muscular frames were wrapped in several chains that ended in sharp hooks used for capturing their prey. The chains after absorbing so much of the chain devil's own blood, became like one of its limbs and could thus be controlled at the devils' command.

Leila took one look at the enemy composition, and immediately ordered out of habit, "Kashi draw their aggro. Shadow and Larsial, hide in the shadows and go for one-hit kills. Do not attempt drawn out battles. Hogosha, you will assist Kashi. Ensure he doesn't get ambushed from behind."

"What about you?" Kashi asked.

"I'll provide cover for you without drawing attention to myself," Leila replied.

If it were someone else, Kashi would have wondered if they were afraid, and were instead, hoping to send him to his death. However, Leila's clear gaze revealed the truth. She wasn't afraid. This was simply the best strategy she came up with after considering both the enemy and her own forces.

"That's perfect," Kashi said as he began to walk toward the cambion forces. "Now, a way to draw all the aggro onto myself..." muttered the daeben, as he gazed at the Chain devil at the center. "Guess there's only one way."

The chain devil spotted the approaching humanoid dragon and growled, "Draconian, why have you come here? Turn back now and I may spare your life."

An evil smirk curled up Kashi's lips as he walked toward the cambion army. "What a cliché villain line," the daeben muttered as a giant mandala appeared above him. Thousands of rapidly-rotating arrows slowly revealed themselves at the mouth of the mandala. The daeben stretched his hand toward the army. "Let's make this quick. [Gilgamesh]."

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The cambions screamed as thousands of arrows descended upon them. The arrows tore through armor and flesh, some exploding upon impact. The chain devil roared in rage as it watched the rampant destruction and immediately sent its chains flying to intercept the falling arrows.

However, the damage had already been done. By the time the mandala finally disappeared, over half of the cambion forces had been decimated.

"Damn you!" roared the chain devil as it frantically searched for Kashi amidst the flames and dust. A loud shout drew its attention to the center of its army, where it spotted the draconian with his claws grasping a cambion's throat. "Die!" The chain devil demanded as its chains zipped toward the draconian.

"You first!" Kashi shouted in reply as he threw the cambion in his hand at the incoming chains. The chain devil did not hesitate in the slightest as its chains tore apart the cambion and continued for the draconian. However, Kashi had used that brief moment to slip into a large mass of cambions. He summoned Ferulic's Practice Bow and began decimating the cambion army.

Dozens of arrows tore out of Kashi's bow, turning everything around him into glorified pincushions. The chain devil pursued him in rage, but Kashi always managed to be a step ahead, mowing down the enemy forces with practiced ease. What he lacked in Leila's pin-point accuracy, he made up for with power. Each shot from his bow was akin to the roar from a ballistae, its bolts tearing through three to four cambions before coming to a stop.

However, despite Kashi's dominance, there were too many cambion generals present. Their rapid regeneration meant that unless the daeben's blows were instant-kills, they could persist for an annoyingly long time. If he were alone, this might have been burdensome, but the daeben had dependable back-up.

A cambion took the opportunity when Kashi dodged a sword swipe to spear him from behind. However, a white blur quickly flashed by and a headless body dropped to the ground. Hogosha spat out the devil's head and then issued a loud, bone-chilling roar, which froze most of the cambion's in a 10-metre radius.

Kashi barely had time to consider taking advantage of this when a hail of arrows breezed past him. The arrows accurately stabbed through the eyes of the cambions to their brains. However, even this much could not insta-kill a cambion. Kashi prepared for a follow-up attack, but was once again shocked when those arrows exploded into light-petals. The petals shredded the cambion's brains, and then burst outward, the devils' blood rolling off their smooth surface.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the cambion formation, dozens crumpled to the floor over time, each with a dagger wound on their heads. Shadow and Larsial utilized the shadows to ambush their respective targets, delivering critical blows to their brains to end them in one shot.

This was only possible because of the type of game L.N.E had set out to be from the onset: a mixture of reality and fantasy. In order games, stabbing someone in the head did not mean much, except a larger amount of HP lost. However, L.N.E, in contrast, had 'fatal strikes'. It did not matter how large someone's HP pool was, if they lost their heads, or brains, it was instant K.O.

Similarly, if someone's heart was crushed our pierced through, a massive amount of HP would be lost, followed by major blood loss. If the person's HP regen's rate is fast enough, they may grow a new heart before dying. If not, that would also count as a 'fatal strike'.

The 'fatal strike' system was implemented to prevent gamers from fighting like they did on their computers where they stood in place and hacked at each other. With this system, gamers actually had to carefully dodge, block and try to kill their opponents as swiftly as possible.

The system led to more skilled players, and was the reason there were so many skilled fighters in L.N.E despite the fact that most of these people were students, grocery store owners, etc. in real life. There were even those who joked that if a zombie apocalypse ever broke out, Japan would be fine since most gamers had learned how to fight the hard way.

Anyway, Kashi, Leila and Hogosha were employing full use of the 'fatal strike' system to only aim for headshots or crippling blows, so as to thin out the herd quicker. Meanwhile, the enraged chain demon could only chase in vain, its massive frame making it extremely easy for Kashi to keep track of its location at all times.

Several minutes, and hundreds of dead cambions later, a blood-soaked Kashi faced off against the last boss with a smirk. "Ooh, now that was refreshing," mocked the daeben as he stretched, loosening his tightened muscles. "I've finally gotten that out of my system."

Kashi folded his arms as he regarded the fuming chain devil. "Hey Leila, what's your strongest attack?"

Leila emerged from behind a pillar and glanced at Kashi. 'Well, I guess they really are different after all.' Razznik was not the type to play with his food. "Do you want to see?" she replied as she nocked an arrow onto her bow. "I haven't had a chance to use it in combat yet."

"Heh, that's what happens when you fight with the guild in mind," Kashi joked as he unfurled his arms and cracked his knuckles. "Okay then," he said as he began walking toward the devil. "I'll set him up. Get ready to finish it..."