I was still currently injured and was recovering from the previous tear on my shoulder, which honestly should’ve healed by now due to my demonic properties.

Although I felt strangely mortal here, as if I was a human yet again, forced to withstand everything presented to me with mortal intelligence, strength, speed, magic, and endurance… everything seemed to have been powered down.

I took a quick glance at my status, which appeared in front of me, and fortunately, everything was normal besides my race.

Race: Temporary Human (Demon)

“ALRIGHT, BOY! SHOW ME WHAT YOU’RE MADE OF! FIGHT AND SCREAM FOR YOUR LIFE AS YOU ATTACK ME!” The man’s voice boomed before I took a heavier stance, getting ready to unleash my best attack yet.𝗈𝗏𝓁xt.𝗇𝓔t

It will be obvious if I activate any buffing skill… so I guess I’m forced to use as much momentum as possible in this next attack.

SWOOSH… SWOOSH… SWOOSH… SWOOSH…

My spear was like a winding tornado above my head as I turned and flung it around, carrying more momentum than my fingers could soon catch up with.

But, there was a skill that seemed to have no physical appearance, and if I had to guess… this is what might give me the advantage.

Heroic Persuasion

“Can’t you just let me hit you? That would make this much easier,” I smiled, but the man’s cold expression was unwavering, and my magic almost seemed to deflect off of him as my words traveled into his ears.

“Come at me, boy,” The man gestured with his hand, and so I couldn’t help but chuckle lightly before running towards the flying general, his overwhelming presence beginning to reveal itself.

FWOOSH… SHING

All the momentum I had built up was for nothing as the man effortlessly redirected my spear instead of blocking it, sending me tripping and tumbling into the ground beneath him.

I attempted to put my spear out of the thick rock below, but Lu Bu soon brought up his knee and kicked his leg out, breaking the spear in half.

Heroic Persuasion

“Tch… Why don’t you try and block the next one? Isn’t redirecting it too harsh on me,” I lightly chuckled once more, stepping over to the rack of weapons and selecting the next strongest spear that I could identify.

Once again, I twirled my spear above my head, building up momentum, but this time went with a different plan of attack.

Instead of facing him head-on, I would take a different approach, one safer than the last but not yet as reckless as my last resort.

FWOOSH… SHING

I swung, feeling the tip of my spear’s power get redirected away, but I swiftly kicked my leg forward, stomping down to create a powerful and sturdy stance that kept me upright.

All the muscles in my body flexed, keeping the spear from sinking into the ground from all the momentum, allowing me to do a sharp turn back up where the man had thought he had already won.

Everything in my body began to strain due to the unnatural movements, but it wasn’t long before I just barely managed to clip his hair.

A few strands of his black hair dispersed in the air upon being sliced by me, slowly drifting down like a strand of excess feathers fluttering off a flying bird.

“Does that count?” I asked, grabbing the pieces of hair, but feeling my shoulder seemingly collapse physically, shooting so much pain down the injured side of my body that my body froze up for just a second.

It wasn’t just the injured pieces of my body that had cramped, but every single muscle that I had just used to pull off that attack.

“I hope you know I let you have that… you’re such a great fighter that it would be a waste to kill you,” The man smiled before a swift chop came to the back of my neck, and I felt my eyes roll into the back of my head.

I had absolutely no control over that situation since he was so fast and strong that his hand just looked like a blur… meaning he had been holding back that entire time.

The first round was a test to see if I was worthy of living and still being in his army, while the second was to show the rest of the army not to mess with me now… although I highly doubt that will happen.

In fact… this entire thing might’ve been an act to convince not only the other soldiers but himself that I could still fight with them.

“Shit… can’t-“

…

Slowly and relaxed, my eyes opened before being greeted by a beautiful woman who was checking the bruise around the left side of my chest.

“Who-?”

“I’m a doctor. Do not worry. I won’t let you die,” She muttered, still focused on inspecting my injuries rather than just talking to me.

But I didn’t have the time to just sit around and have my injuries constantly checked since I needed to test something out quickly… before I ended up losing my chance of impressing Lu Bu.

This was supposed to be a teacher quest, meaning he was supposed to be teaching me things, but from what I’ve seen, the only thing he’s taught me is the difference in our power despite him not even having a status to grow exponentially.

“Woah, woah, woah… lay back down,” The woman sternly said, her hand pressing back on my chest, but she was too weak to resist as I fully lay up.

But, she then wormed her way over to my injured shoulder, where she pressed down, only receiving a reaction opposite to what she had thought would happen.

I continued to stay up and moved her to the side, seeing I was in a public tent filled with injured men being attended to by doctors.

“*sigh*… Where is the general?” I asked the woman, and she froze up just a bit before helping me up.

“He is it as his office in the very center of the camp. If you feel like you’re about to collapse, then please come back and receive more treatment. If it gets infected… well, you’re gonna die,”