Healing System

"Well, aren't you funny?" The demon laughed at Michael's response.

However, its laugh quickly faded, replaced with a serious expression, a stark contrast from its easygoing self just mere moments ago.

Now it was just staring at Michael in silence with clear malice in its eyes.

I don't think you need an expert to tell you that you managed to piss off the demon, yes?

'No shit.' Michael did not back down and continued holding eye contact with the demon before him, but he could not quite tell what the system was talking about, it felt like just a stronger imp in all aspects.

Its body looked like it was made out of pure mana, however, there were a few places where there was a bit more mana than normal.

And the system further confirmed his suspicions.

They have a core in their bodies, if you find it and destroy it, the puppet dies. The same applies to demons, but if you manage to destroy a demon's core, you can kill it fully.

'So they are practically immortal until you destroy that core?' Michael asked and backed away from the demon, he could feel the slight rise in mana around him.

It seemed like the fight would begin soon.

Yes, they are immortal until you destroy the core, there are ways of sealing demons to get rid of them as well, but it is not as conventional as just killing them straight up.

'No surprise there, it's less trouble to just destroy the core' Michael thought and suddenly, the demon moved.

Its speed was definitely not fast enough for him to have trouble, so he simply cast a few swords of light, interrupting the demon's momentum.

However, much to his surprise, the demon did not stop, instead, it let the swords pierce through his body all the way through.

But, despite Michael's confusion and confidence, the demon's body immediately began healing up, the fist-sized holes being patched up faster than he could even process.

And before he knew it, the demon's attack connected with his shielders, shattering them.

Michael was sent hurtling backwards, however, he managed to catch himself with the use of his flying capabilities.

There was a little bit of blood trickling down from his mouth, it seemed like the demon's attack managed to hit a vital organ, through his shields no less.

'Did he concentrate all of the mana into a single point?' He thought, the punch was pretty straightforward at a glance, but since he had been focusing a fair deal, he managed to find out that all the mana around the demon's fist condensed itself and shot out the moment its fist connected with his shield.

The system could most likely turn the tides of the battle, but he preferred to get some hands-on experience himself. After all, it would not be very helpful to him if the system parried and blocked most of the demon's attacks.

That's the spirit, but yes, they are pretty tricky foes, especially if they are the same strength as you, often times it would result in a loss.

'Well, I don't plan on losing' Michael stared at the demon, who had a mocking grin on its face.

"Is that all you can muster?" It spoke as it began walking towards him with slow but mana-enhanced steps, as if it could leap at him with full force at any moment.

And it did, before Michael could taunt the demon further, it dashed at him with its full speed once again.

But this time, he was a bit more prepared.

Michael summoned a multilayered shield that would prevent the demon from breaking through all of it at once.

He stacked multiple small shields together, the mana cost was pretty negligent now so he could afford to do that much at the very least.

The outcome? A shield with extremely high durability. Even though it had not been recognized as a system skill, it seemed incredibly powerful.

The demon's attack once again connected with his shield, however, unlike before, when it shattered, this time, the attack was reflected, using the demon's momentum to send it towards the side.

Even without the system's assistance, parrying attacks was not the most difficult thing in the world for him, after all, his INT stat was incredibly high, so high to the point where if he focused hard enough, most attacks seemed like they were in slow motion.

And even if his body could not react to the attacks, his skills could. His casting time was slightly faster than his perception, ensuring that as long as he could sense the attack, his skills would always activate in time.

It even managed to startle the demon right before him, it seemed like it did not expect such a strong shield considering it easily pierced through Michael's first shield.

Michael couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at the sight of the demon before him, it felt oddly satisfying seeing it in disarray.

"What's wrong? Is that all you can muster" Michael taunted and suddenly, he was once again sent hurtling back, the attack this time was much faster than the others, just a tad bit weaker.

"Silence." The demon exclaimed as it once again dashed at him.

But Michael did not even need to cast the multilayered shield, the little amount of mana that it was now using, was not enough to pierce through even his normal shield, let alone the much stronger version.

It did seem like it was trying to concentrate its attack to pierce it, but maybe because of the amount of mana or some other factors entirely, it was not able to.

The onslaught of the fast but weak attacks continued, until eventually, the demon backed away with a frustrated frown on its face.

All this time, Michael was trying to pinpoint the exact location of the demon's core. He could feel that there was more mana in certain areas, but upon closer look, it just turned out to be something else entirely, mostly just massive lumps of mana.

He tried using the Eyes of The Healer, but it proved a bit too effective, once he activated it, the only thing he could see was a murky purple energy, not the demon's body. It would be a bit difficult to fight like that so he decided not to use it.

However, now that they were a few meters apart and neither one of them was attacking, Michael decided to use it once again.

Immediately, a single white light appeared in the very center of the demon's abdomen, it was moving around. The light was slowly moving around across its entire body, the head, the arms, the legs and it kept repeating in that cycle.

'How did I not see it before?' Michael was a bit confused, if the light was so prominent, how did he not spot it earlier?

You were not focused enough, but now you are. If you had used it before the fight even started, you could have easily killed the demon with your first attack.

'But isn't this a bit too simple?' He wondered. If all it took was a single moment of concentration to spot the demon's weak spot, how was this supposed to be a challenge?

It is simple because you have my skill, the All-Seeing Eyes, which you inconveniently named Eyes of The Healer. Also, it was not meant to be a challenge, more like practice, this demon does have peculiar abilities, but maybe because of its arrogance, it refuses to use them.

But as the system's words dawned, the demon's horns began glowing an ominous black color, and the mana it was emitting seemed like it had doubled.

Its body began getting covered in all sorts of engravings, similar to the ones he had seen previously on the magic circle.

Safe to say, whatever the system just said, came back to bite him in the ass.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Michael stared at the transformation with a blank look on his face and facepalmed.

'Nice timing...'