That's right! This Demoness is so powerful that she has become unable to directly attack nimble and weak creatures like that. If she does attack, she might end up, accidentally, overkilling it and cause ma.s.sive collateral damage as well as loss of life. The reason I decided this card was the best to use in this battle was because of how she decided she'd give me a quick death after learning about my sacrifice. She might be a demon, but that doesn't mean she's plain evil, and that act of compa.s.sion was the perfect proof for it. Therefore, she wouldn't go so far as to kill a lot of citizens and/or destroy their properties just to complete her own mission. If she were a demon like that, I, Roswaisa and Irium would have been killed by now.

Well, that's my hope at the very least.

"Tsk!" She clicks her tongue in annoyance and shakes in anger at the mythical creature with the body of lion, using its claws to jump from here to there so quick that she can't do anything against it. Of course, this Demoness is ridiculously fast, so much so that a human being, no matter how much magic or physical strength they have, can't even try to compete. However, that is not the case for a mythical creature like that.

"Hah!" I sigh as I slowly and steadily get further and further from their battle, in order to create a chance for me to escape with my life. Since that Sphinx is a mythical creature that has the upper part of a human, it can think clearly enough to keep doing what it is doing. I don't need to stay and keep giving it commands. Therefore, I would at least try to get away from here with my life, if at all possible, not that I'll go back on the promise of giving them time to escape … or should I say, execute their 'plan.'

As I say that in my mind, I unknowingly smirk. It's funny how I am thinking exactly like many beloved characters with tragic ending in anime thought before they met their tragic fate. It's not the type of character death that is used in most shows, but it is used many a times. But whatever the case, if that means that I am going to die, well, it's not like I didn't know of the possibility of that happening before. I am ready for it if it comes down to it. However, as said before, definitely won't go down easy.

Currently, I am on a road that is not exactly devoid of life, in fact, it's filled with people coming and going everywhere. None of them, unless there is mage in the crowd, can see this fight. I am the only one who cans see it and therefore, I look like a weirdo as I keep stepping backwards while looking up where, to them, it would look there's nothing. Well, if I didn't look like a weirdo, I would probably look like a dancer trying to display his back-stepping skills. I'm surprised n.o.body threw any change here till now. How heartless!

"Hah!" after seeing how playing around with that Sphinx is only making her lose more time and nothing new is happening, Aknin Vielos decides to fly higher to the point where the Sphinx may not be able to reach. Sorry though, Demoness-sama, I calculated at least this far ahead before sending it out. This Sphinx is fully capable of flying up to thermosphere. And so, you might have a hard time succeeding with that strategy.

I say to her all that, only in my mind, and smirk at my own thoughts. I soon see an annoyed black-winged Demoness flying back downwards, followed by a particular Sphinx. Well, it looks like she gave up on that idea real quick.

"Now, just as a safety measure, I should send out another card." I say as I realize that while it may have worked well till now, this Sphinx might not last much longer as the Demoness obviously would have much more stamina than it and her next strategy probably would be to make it lose that stamina. As I wonder that, I take a look at the battle and Aknin Vielos is indeed trying to run around as much as she can, in the most excessive ways she can, to make the Sphinx chase her in the exact same path and consequently, lose its stamina.

"Well then," I put my hand in my pocket to take out the deck of cards, close my eyes and then open it, and start wondering, "The best card to send out at this moment is …"

"A card that will make your guesses more accurate." A malicious, female voice comes from behind, a voice whose familiarity makes me freeze in my place. "You aren't an idiot, surprisingly, but maybe you should start considering more than one angle to every problem."

"A doppelganger technique?" I ask with a forced smirk on my lips while still having the nervousness on my face.

"Yep!" she says with a voice that, yet again, gives me chills.

I see. I get it now. While I was seeing her do as per my prediction and got overexcited thinking that she was falling in my trap, I didn't realize that was only a doppelganger. The real one was trying to creep up behind me and as she is now, hold me at the end of my life.

"Now, you have two choices, kid." She says and I try my best to not close me ears in fright, "Choice 1, continue to come in my way and get killed. Choice 2, retreat and let me get on with my business."

I gulp and keep listening as it feels like she hasn't said everything she wants to.

"If you chose 2, I might as well leave you alive as an appreciation for the tiny speck of strength you have shown to possess in the form of that deck of cards." She says in an enticing voice so as to sway me towards that choice, "So now, what you are going to choose?"

"Choice 3, get out of here alive and have an actual girlfriend for once in his life." All of sudden, a voice comes, the voice of a man I have come to know quite well in the last one year of being in the same cla.s.s.

"Irium!?"

*****