Chapter 1915. Out of Drowsiness  

Red Death was again the first to act when Belphegor's clones started advancing. She had activated her dagger's Demonize Weapon. It would be a waste if she didn't use it to fight.

Each of Belphegor clones grabbed an ice weapon floating around the devil. The one that came at Red Death was equipped with fist weapons. This clone didn't possess the same ice aura as Belphegor, so Red Death's speed wasn't affected when it got near. Daggers and fists soon clashed.

The strength and speed of this clone didn't lose to Red Death. It might even be slightly stronger. Red Death's hands hurt each time they clashed. But thanks to her martial expertise, she was able to get the upper hand. The clone received hits while it failed to land any attack on her.

Grace and Nameless had the same situation. Grace's martial arts weren't as good as Red Death, but she was not bad either. Combined with the excellent defense from her legendary-grade set armor, she had no trouble fighting Belphegor's clone.

Nameless' martial arts were nothing to speak of. He only started learning after hanging out with Jack's group. However, he was a veteran player. His expertise in using skills was not shallow. He refrained from using his pinnacle class skills, though. He only used basic and advanced skills against the clone.

Badass went into a kiting game when the clone came at him. He summoned a lesser demon to take the clone's attention while he shot ranged attacks from a safe distance. His standard range attacks packed a punch. This was due to Hell Ruler's passive ability. All his standard ranged attacks inflicted an additional 10% chaos damage.

Belphegor originally planned to go back to sleep after sending his clones to deal with these outworlders, but he noticed his clones were not enough to deal with the four.

"Hm…," he again massaged his chin. He then pointed at Badass' lesser demon. When he wanted to assume control over the lesser demon, he was surprised that he couldn't.

Among the twenty-four elite classes, Warlocks were the most vulnerable to devils. This was because the demonic creatures they summoned could easily be controlled by the devil. Badass' class, Hell Ruler, was not the case. It was a pinnacle class. All the creatures the Hell Ruler summoned were immune to mind control. They were also immune to skills or spells that could normally dispel summoned creatures.

Displeased by his failure to take control of the lesser demon, he vomited another fleshy ball. This fifth clone grabbed an ice axe and ran toward Badass.

Badass saw the second clone. "F*ck! Why does he send two of these things to me? It's Red who has offended him. Why is it me who gets the brunt of his frustration?"

Unlike the others, he was not a melee class and was not a martial artist. He would be in trouble if that clone got to him. He resorted to casting Hell Ruler's beginning spell, Hell's Minions.

An ominous gate much like the one conjured by Hell Gate came out of the ground, but this gate was much wider. This gate opened upward instead of sideways. Out of this wide gate, a blaze of hellfire shot out. The hellfire washed over Belphegor's second clone. Following this hellfire, ten demons and ten hellhounds came charging out of the gate.

Half of these hell minions swarmed the second clone, while the other half went to fight the first clone. Badass' lesser demon was almost defeated. It was no match for Belphegor's clone.

These demons and hellhounds were still no match for the clones. But seeing his clones get swarmed like that, Belphegor sent the five floating ice weapons to aid those two clones. The ice weapons started slashing and smacking. With the clones, they seemed to have no problem making short work of the demons and hellhounds.

Seeing that, Badass upped the ante. He cast Hell Ruler's level 70 spell, Summon High Demon Lord. The High Demon Lord burst out of the ground with an eruption of fire geyser. The High Demon Lord was a stronger version of the High Demon and had more spells at its disposal.

The High Demon Lord started casting a spell with one hand while its other hand held a fiery sword. It swung this sword. The blade of this sword broke mid-swing. It split into many smaller parts connected by a string. This turned the fiery sword into a fiery whip that hit enemies from a range.

As its fiery whip assailed Belphegor's clones, its spell was completed. A firestorm descended upon the area, hitting Belphegor's clones, the ice weapons, and Badass' hell minions. The lesser demon died amidst the chaos.

"Hm…," Belphegor massaged his chin again. He then vomited another fleshy ball. His belly was less than half his original size by now.

'Damn it! Stop calling out more summons!' Nameless messaged Badass. 'Do you want him to get into his true form while his clones are still around?!'

'Easy for you to say! He is targeting me, man,' Badass returned.

'I will protect you. Leave your last summon for later,' Grace said. She intercepted the sixth clone while still fighting the first one that engaged her.

The fallen apostle's mace in her hands was like her previous long mace. It could split into two and gave her two short maces to fight with. Using her martial arts, Phantom Beating Stick, she kept the two clones busy.

Without using any buff, it was too difficult to fight against two. She got hit several times. If not for the excellent defense and high natural recovery from her legendary set armor, her HP would have fallen below half already.

As she received damage, an orb of light materialized above her. This orb of light became larger every time she suffered damage. This orb of light came from Divine Knight's passive ability. Half of the damage she suffered filled this orb. She could then use this orb to heal either herself or her allies, much like a Reaver's soul orb.

The Divine Knight's passive ability also granted Grace very high resistance. This let her endure the hits. The clones attacked using Belphegor's ice weapons. Each hit caused a cold affliction that slowed the target. Repeated hits in a short period could even result in a frozen status. If not for her high resistance, she would have fallen into this status.

Even with her high protection, Grace knew she couldn't just play defense. She took a chance when the clones lunged at her at the same time. Her mace recombined into one. She used its long reach to smack one of the clone's heads, before using Spinning Crane Kick to kick the other one.

While the clones were staggered, she thrust two fingers into one of the clones. Her thrust conjured a spiraling black energy that drilled into the clone's head. The clone's head burst from the shredding force.

The martial art Grace used was the Nine Yin Abyssal Finger. Out of everyone, only Grace had learned more than one technique from the Nine Yin Scripture. Even Murong still failed to learn the two arts other than the Nine Yin Abyssal Finger.

After taking out the head from one of the clones, Grace shifted her attention to the other clone. She was about to attack when she felt an incoming attack. The attack was too close. She received a slam in her chest. The force sent her staggering back and she almost fell. She was surprised to find the attack came from the ice hammer held by the headless clone.

While it was common for beings in this game world to survive a blow to the head, an attack that caused a wound that took out the head would still kill the target. Grace looked at the headless clone in disbelief. It was still moving normally. Although it lost a lot of HP from the loss of its head, its HP was still around half.

"Hehe."

Belphegor chuckled from the scene. He originally wanted to just go back to sleep and let his clones deal with these outworlders, but he felt entertained watching them fight. He also felt rather fired up. These outworlders were good, especially the two females. He was still debating if he should join the battle.

Belphegor's eagerness was due to the weight loss after discharging six clones. His drowsiness was gone, but his indolence was still there. He wanted to join but didn't feel like moving.

He took a deep breath. His chest bulged.

"Shit! He is throwing out another clone!" Nameless exclaimed when he noticed what Belphegor was doing.

However, unlike previous, the bulging stayed in Belphegor's chest. It didn't go up to his neck. His head jerked forward while opening his mouth. Something small and fast flew out from that mouth.

Belphegor's target was Grace, who was the closest. Grace was looking at Belphegor due to Nameless' yell, so she was aware of what the devil was doing. Still, she hardly had the time to put her mace before her. Whatever Belphegor spat out hit her mace. The force was so strong that Grace's parry only managed to alter its trajectory. The thing then slammed into her shoulder. She yelped in pain as she was sent tumbling back.