Reincarnated with a lucky draw system

Chapter 449: HANDICAP BATTLE II

That fleeting moment of distraction gave Aaron the perfect opening.

His gaze snapped upward, locking onto the fresh arrow the elf had just loosed from his high perch.

The projectile cut the air with a vicious whistle, silver fletching flashing like a falling star.

In the same heartbeat, one of the black spheres orbiting Aaron shimmered and reshaped.

It stretched and hardened into the sleek, matte form of a handgun, simple, brutal, perfectly balanced in his palm.

He raised it without flourish and squeezed the trigger.

A rapid staccato cracked through the clearing.

Mana bullets erupted in brilliant azure streaks, six of them streaking straight for the elf’s forehead in a tight, lethal cluster.

The elf moved like liquid shadow. He twisted mid-perch, body bending at an impossible angle, and flipped backward off the branch.

The bullets punched through empty air, splintering bark and sending wood chips spiraling downward.

The rest of the group, dragon, devil, gods, shifted with casual arrogance, sidestepping or batting the shots aside with bursts of their own power.

None connected.

But Aaron’s lips curled. The shots had never been meant to hit.

They were bait. A split-second fracture in their focus.

He exploded forward.

His speed turned him into a blur, air screaming past his ears, ground blurring beneath his boots.

The demon barely had time to snarl before Aaron closed the distance.

The black sphere and the returning white one fused in twin pulses of light.

They reshaped around his fists, hardening into sleek, obsidian gauntlets that drank in the ambient glow and gave nothing back. Knuckles gleamed with faint destructive runes.

The demon lunged first.

Demonic energy roared to life around his arms crimson-black flames licking up to his elbows.

He swung a haymaker heavy enough to crater stone.

Aaron tilted his head left.

The fist whistled past his cheek, close enough to stir the fine hairs on his skin. Heat scorched the air, the smell of brimstone sharp in his nostrils.

He countered instantly.

An uppercut rocketed upward from his core, gauntlet trailing dark afterimages. The blow connected clean against the demon’s chin with a wet crack of bone and cartilage.

The demon’s head snapped back.

His body lifted off the ground, airborne for a stunned instant, eyes wide with shock.

Aaron didn’t let gravity reclaim him.

He launched upward in pursuit, boots kicking off nothing but sheer momentum.

Mid-flight he seized the demon’s head in an iron grip, fingers digging into horn and scalp alike.

The demon’s panicked thrashing only made Aaron’s smile sharpen.

Cruelty etched every line of his face as he twisted and hurled the larger figure downward with bone-rattling force.

The demon slammed into the earth. A thunderous thud rolled outward, followed by the wet crunch of impact.

Dirt and grass exploded in a radial burst. Blood sprayed from the demon’s mouth in a dark arc, staining the soil black.

Aaron descended like judgment.

He landed boots-first on the demon’s abdomen, full weight, no mercy.

A sickening groan tore from the demon’s throat, ribs creaking under the pressure.

The air whooshed from his lungs in a ragged wheeze.

Before Aaron could drive the heel deeper, a blinding lance of light stabbed toward him.

The angel had moved, wings flaring wide, holy radiance pouring from his outstretched hand.

The ray traveled faster than sound, pure and piercing, carrying more concentrated destructive force than a dozen ultraviolet beams combined.

It burned the air white-hot in its passage.

Aaron leaped skyward.

The ray scorched the space he’d occupied a fraction of a second earlier, leaving a smoking trench that glowed at the edges.

He used the momentum.

Twisting mid-air, he planted one foot against the lingering beam like it was solid ground.

The light scorched his boot sole, heat biting through leather, but he pushed off harder, rocketing straight toward the angel.

The angel anticipated it.

Wings snapped forward.

A storm of feathers detached and launched, each one edged in searing light energy, whistling through the air at wildly different angles.

A deadly net closing in.

Aaron moved like water through fire.

He twisted, spun, ducked, body flowing in perfect rhythm.

Feathers grazed past: one nicked his sleeve, another singed a lock of hair.

The scent of ozone and scorched fabric filled his lungs. But none drew blood.

He appeared before the angel in a blink.

The angel’s eyes widened.

Aaron’s open palm cracked across the flawless face, backhand, full force.

The sound echoed like a thunderclap.

The angel’s head whipped sideways; he hurtled through the air, wings flailing uselessly.

"And where do you think you’re going?" Aaron mocked, voice dripping lazy contempt.

The white sphere detached again.

It lengthened and coiled into a long, flexible whip, gleaming silver-black, tip barbed with faint destructive energy.

With a casual flick, the whip lashed out. It wrapped twice around the angel’s torso, pinning wings and arms alike. Aaron yanked hard.

The angel jerked backward like a marionette on strings, crashing into range once more.

What followed was deliberate humiliation.

Aaron’s hand blurred.

Open-palmed slaps rained down.

Left cheek, right cheek, left again, each one ringing out with humiliating clarity.

The angel’s perfect features reddened, head snapping back and forth.

He couldn’t raise a hand to block; the whip held him fast. Golden blood trickled from a split lip.

The fallen angel finally intervened.

A length of dark chain erupted from his palm, writhing with black-purple energy, links clinking like bones.

It snaked through the air in erratic, unpredictable loops, aimed to ensnare Aaron mid-motion.

Aaron didn’t even blink.

His mystic eyes traced every twist, every feint.

The chain’s path unfolded before him like an open book.

He reached out, calm, almost bored, and caught the chain in one gauntleted fist.

Metal bit into his palm, dark energy sizzling against his skin.

He felt the cold burn, welcomed it.

With a single, contemptuous yank, he hauled the fallen angel forward, dragging him straight into the angel’s path until the two collided shoulder-to-shoulder.

"Two heads are better than one, after all," Aaron said, tone mocking and light, as though commenting on the weather.