Demon King: Hero, don’t run away!

”Very good, Lotena! You just said you would do anything, right?” Yang Yu smiled.

Lotena faintly sensed a mischievous grin from Yang Yu, and spoke with a trembling voice, ”I did say that, but please, sir, consider my abilities. If it’s beyond my limits... I don’t want to trouble you.”

”Then you just protect us for now, and I will give you further tasks one by one. If you do well, you can live in human society even as an enchanting demon.”

”Really?”

Lotena beamed with joy, but after a moment, she shyly put away her smile and twitched her fingers, seeming a little troubled.

Although she inexplicably became stronger and received a lot of professional training here, Lotena still didn’t like fighting and killing.

Combat, does Yang Yu already feel exhausted, or is this a test?

Various thoughts surged in Lotena’s mind, but eventually she nodded and accepted the task.

Patting her black bat wings, Lotena circled around Yang Yu, keeping an eye on the chaotic demons in the sky, ready for battle.

Yang Yu wasted no time, and together with Lotcar and He Meng, searched for companions beneath the ruins.

With Lotcar’s keen sense of smell, Yang Yu quickly found the first companion, cautiously moving aside the stones.

The first to be rescued by Yang Yu was Iyas, who was trapped under layers of slabs, steadfastly bandaging herself in a corner of the ruins.

Upon seeing Yang Yu, Iyas asked, ”Is that guy dead? Is anyone injured? Need my help?”

Following Yang Yu’s assault on Count Blood, Iyas clashed fiercely with the demons to prevent them from following.

When Count Blood triggered a black magic explosion, Iyas had few avenues of escape. Furthermore, the demons believed this was their master’s support attack, doing everything to block Iyas, thus she sustained severe injuries. Fortunately, her luck was good, and when the castle collapsed, she activated Holy Light, creating a safe triangular area overhead, narrowly escaping disaster.

”We’ll talk after we get out!” Yang Yu lent Iyas a hand and rescued her from the ruins.

Lotcar continued to search, quickly finding the scents of Lingshan, Lang Yi, and Slime.

Before Yang Yu and the others could completely clear the debris, Lingshan used water flow to remove the remaining obstacles and climbed out on her own.

Under the protection of the spiritual body Nagasarro, Lingshan wasn’t too badly hurt. Black magic is highly destructive to spiritual entities; Nagasarro realized he couldn’t maintain protection for long and used all his magic power to safeguard Lingshan and the nearby Slime.

After losing all his magic power, he was ultimately consumed by the rampant black magic and dissolved into nothingness.

Nagasarro had planned to vanish from the start; he had been dead for a long time, and having fulfilled his wish after death, he felt it was worthwhile, and had nothing left to tether him.

By leveraging the spiritual body’s abilities, Nagasarro also observed Yang Yu’s recent battle, confident in entrusting the future of this world to these young people.

Due to Lingshan’s minimal injuries, she immediately joined Lang Yi’s excavation team.

With Nagasarro’s protection, Lingshan was luckier than Lang Yi.

Moving aside slabs, the scent of blood grew stronger; Lotcar furrowed his brow. Had it not been for the pervasive odor, he might have detected the bloody scent earlier, prompting Yang Yu and the others to excavate Lang Yi first.

Though unfortunate, there was a silver lining; though Lang Yi’s current condition was uncertain, there was no scent of death on him—he was still alive.

Carefully moving aside bloody fragments, Lang Yi’s bloodied form came into view.

Just joking with Yang Yu earlier, Lingshan paled at Lang Yi’s condition, but she quickly regained her composure, without panic or helplessness. She simply reached out to grip Lang Yi, buried under layers of debris, confirmed his signs of life, and promptly called Iyas for healing.

Lingshan then cautiously cleared the stones off Lang Yi.

When Lingshan lifted the last slab, together with Yang Yu, she furrowed her brow involuntarily.

Lang Yi’s arm was completely shattered, leaving only a pool of blood, no trace of bones or flesh.

If there were remnants of bones or flesh, perhaps magic could restore it, but in the current situation...

As black currents surged, Lang Yi managed to eliminate all supporting demons, and thinking others might need help, he retreated into the hall.

Battered by fierce black magic, Lang Yi struggled to defend himself, ultimately pierced by the magic, losing an arm.

Yang Yu found his emotions difficult to express; he simply gazed silently at an item in his inventory.

If he hadn’t used it so sparingly before, he might now be able to take it out without hesitation.

Lang Yi’s breathing slowly normalized, and Yang Yu ultimately couldn’t bear to take the item out, for he only had one bottle provided by Red Blood Rose.

Leaving Lang Yi under Lingshan and Iyas’s care, Yang Yu and Lotcar unearthed the buried Slime.

Though affected by black magic, they huddled tightly together, minimizing the magic’s impact. Apart from a few Slimes that didn’t react initially, they were largely unharmed.

After rescuing Slime and his companions, Yang Yu gazed into the distance, saw Bai Jin approaching, and continued with Lotcar to aid the demons trapped under the castle ruins.

Yang Yu chose to help the demons partly in hope of encountering demons like Lotena, earning goodwill through a kind act, which might yield valuable intelligence; and partly for the impending need to organize the ruins and search for potential loot—Bai Jin’s magic would be instrumental, and if any uninjured demons secretly carted away treasure or caused trouble, it’d be problematic.

It was better to gather them while trapped, facilitating management.

The battle in the sky gradually resolved; the surrendering demons overwhelmed the aggressive ones.

It’s not that the aggressive demons lacked power, but they were too worried about Yang Yu attacking them, splitting their focus.

After jointly handling several overly aggressive demons, the surrendering demons bound the rest, completely handing them over to Yang Yu.

Yang Yu instructed the surrendering demons to place the aggressive and rescued demons together, all supervised by Lotcar.