I teleported with Zahariel, Mittens, and Shraaizar back to the permanent anchor atop Willow Hill and was almost knocked unconscious by the flood of information. The status of my tame monsters, the input from the sentry wards and of my own presence detection.

Kochurearc and the goblins are badly hurt. There is a lot of pemadras spread in the east side near the palisade and I am sure some of them are from our monsters. There are around a hundred monsters and unidentified creatures.

"Zahariel, fly up and turn off your aura. See if you can scout something. Shraaizar, Mittens, retreat all our troops back into the palisade, I am going there to fight."

I also contact my minions, "Kochurearc and goblins, retreat all troops. what the hell are you fighting against?"

What the gorilla leader told me made me shudder, "Demons, boss. A lot of them. We got some scouts during the day, but they massed an attack when night fell."

I replied, "I am here now, Fall back everyone. Get to Shraaizar's location, she will heal the critically wounded. Shraaizar, don't overdo it and faint."

Also to the Mantis, "Mittens, see if the bees are safe and protect Shraaizar. If any enemies come inside the palisade, fight them but don't advance outside."

We all go to do our things. Dragon-wings, do your job too. I am going straight into the heart of the battle. I was very lucky my sentry wards were not detected. But first I need to increase my war potential.

My first destination is the jail. "Cloude, Cloude, wake up!"

"Beowulf? I am awake, what is going out there? It seems all hell broke loose, are you monsters finally slaughtering each other?"

I use light magic to illuminate his cell and the corridor, and stare into his eyes,

"Your whole life you thought monsters were the enemies of humanity, but the real enemies were just lurking in the mana-rich areas you avoided for millennia! Demons. We are under attack from demons! I have a request for you. Please help me. Lend me your sword. Fight alongside me and witness it for yourself."

"You ask for my help? I am nothing but a maggot to you! Even those elementals you can summon are stronger than me! What use do I have for you?"

"Silly boy! Don't undersell you like that! You are as weak as your lack of determination made you! You were defeated by me, yes! But that is nonsense! There is no shame in defeat so long the spirit is unbroken!" I did it! I nailed one more bucket list quote!

"What the hell is this pep talk? And why are you making that low grunting voice for?"

"An elemental is dumb. You have your wits, they are just being applied in the wrong direction. Come to fight for me tonight and you will see your true enemy. Our true enemy!"

Fuck. Zahariel is already afflicted with encroaching darkness. And suddenly the whole ground shakes.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

I am pretty sure that was one of his Comets.

"Fine! I am fighting for you, but you will release me after this. I'll be free to go away!"

"Sure. I swear on both my title as lord of Willow Hill and as Viscount of Mirfield. By the way, I took over the town and the guild. Without killing anyone, I might add."

"In a single day?"

"Yeah, the king's knights were all dead or on the run through the snow, the civil servants recognized Helen as the heir to Julius and me because we were together, the guild master was turned to villager just like you before this shit even started. The townsfolk happily received me with open arms and the adventurers didn't oppose me when I promised to reinstate the guild at once. And we held the winter festival. At this very moment, people should be dancing in the central square. You are free to go there or beyond."

"I still know your secrets."

"I don't care anymore. I'm past that right now. Send a throng of S-ranked adventurers for all I care. I don't even know if I can be killed anymore. Now, here is your coveted sword, Shining Blade. And here is a new guild card. Smear some blood on it and change jobs to magician. Follow me when you are done."

"You are giving me the Shining Blade?" He asks timidly.

"Fuck, Cloude, stop with this beta attitude and man the fuck up. Take what you are given, earn what you are worth, seize what you desire. Fight for your justice. At least be more worthy of this sword than its two former users. Follow me and I can even make you into some sort of champion that can slay me. But first, you will see what the demons can do."

"Hell yeah. Where do I bleed on this card?"

"Anywhere," I answer while unlocking his cell.

"Job change! Magician!" There is a faint flash of light from his bootleg guild card that indicates his job-change.

"Follow me. Don this armor too."

While Cloude is donning the armor, I wonder why the fuck I came here to get this idiot instead of rushing the front lines. Zahariel is there fighting. Shraaizar is there fighting and so is Mittens. Kochurearc is being healed right now, but he almost bit it if it weren't for my tamer boost. Speaking of which, monster taming level 10, 19 SP gogo.

Monster taming technique learned!

{Life Channel} learned.

Toggleable. Cost: 100 stamina & 100 MP per minute.

Allows the tamer to channel MP into his tame monsters. While tamer is channeling, increases stats of all tame monsters in a x 100 feet range by half the stats of tamer. The tamer loses that many stats while the channel lasts.

This is interesting but I won't be putting my people on the line. Not my style. I'll toggle it right now so the retreat gets a boost.

"Kochurearc, let me know when the retreat ends. I'm powering you up right now but it costs a lot of MP."

"Like this, we can win, master! Let me pound these invaders to dust!"

"No can do big gorilla. Your job is to keep the tribe alive, these invaders will soon feel my wrath. Retreat!"

On the ward input I can see that the boost for my tame monsters made the invaders lose momentum. Five demons just vanished in front of Shraaizar and the goblins' javelins became awfully deadlier.

"Now, there is a gap and they are hesitating, command every one of our monsters to retreat."

Good. The retreat is going well. Cloude is done but he can tell I am busy. He is just waiting.

"I am ready, Beowulf. But are you sure I should go as a magician?"

"Yeah. I am power leveling you. Move! Party Invite!"

Cloude (3-Magician) has joined your party!

We are flying to the battlefield. It will be awkward to fly carrying you. So you are carrying me." Friendly Possession.

Dragon wings and out into the sky Cloude-me goes. Shadow stealth on as well.

Now that I know what the enemies are, I can distinguish them through the sentry ward.

"They are down there!" We can see some demons going over the crater Zahariel created. He is on the south front. The demons came from the east, I'm heading there.

"Yeah, but I am getting their rearguard." I fly over the battlefield for a little longer and find a cluster of demons at the back. The Shining Blade is sheathed, I'll use a staff.

I'll chant what has become my favorite spell. twenty-one seconds later... "Lava bomb!"

Fuck. The size of the basalt crust filled with pressurized tephra is almost twice as big as what I used on the knight barracks. Freaking shaman status. And down it goes.

KA-THOOOM!

Skill Assassinate level 8. Skill Pyroclasm Magic level 3. {Pyroclastic Flow} learned. Skill Fire Potency level 6. Skill Staff Mastery level 7. Cloude (3-magician) has gained 15 levels (12 > 27). +75 SP Beowulf (3-Super Villager) has gained 19+3 levels (racial: 1 > 20 / Job: 54 > 57). +138 SP Cloude has been awarded the Skill Point Collector title! +75 SP retroactively added. Cloude has become a [4] Magic Swordsman! Skills Elemental Blade, Spell Parry, Magic Conductivity, Max MP Increase, MP Recovery, Staff-Blade, awakened!

And just like this, he unlocked his dream job. And don't fuck with me, assassinate with AOE? What am I now, a terrorist? Of course not. They are all combatants and they are invading my territory.

I go down and around the crater storing anything that fancies my eye in the item box. There is no time to search in detail.

"What the fuck was that? I've never seen this many levels at once!"

"That is what happens when someone is on my team. Mercy capped a tier 4 on a single night from zero, but this Exp was too little... I expected to be more of them. But none survived, that is enough. Now stay quiet while I spend your SP. I'll just raise all of them to 6."

"Can't I even do this?"

"Once I'm done with you, you will waste a whole day fiddling with hundreds of skill points. Now shut up and let me see if this Shining Blade is the real deal."

Cloude has learned Flame blade, Ice blade, Wind blade, and Thunder Blade. Magic Conductivity allows me to spend MP on an attack for extra damage or cast a spell into the blade. Staff-Blade grants staff-like bonuses to spells cast through a blade.

I search for a group of demons and find one. Gliding silently to their rear, I draw the Shining Blade for a surprise attack.

But the stupid sword must be true to its name, and in the hands of a magic swordsman it...

"Baguwa bugana gabula kaceta!" Heck. They noticed the glowing sword at their back in the dark night woods. Surprised? I'm not.

Skill Demon Language awakened.

Oh, they have their own language. Spend 20 SP until level 6.

"Fucking shit, what are these things?" I can sense Cloude's emotions as we are sharing the same brain. It is not at the same depth as with Marcy where I was beginning to think just like her though.

"Demons. Even their presences feel disgusting, right? These are our real enemies, I've been trying to tell you all this time. Now let's kill some."

There are seven demons. The two at the front are sword-and-board, two at the flanks with spears, and three at the rear that seems flimsy.

Their reaction was faster than mine in Cloude's body, I had to adjust my eyes to the shining shit in front of my face. Seriously? Their swordsman is right-handed. I'll shift the sword to the left hand.

Two dark bolts hit me. The demons reverse their formation and charge. Cloude shouts mentally, "What the hell is that black goo? It burns and chills and feels like it is clawing at my balls!"

I dodge the two spearmen and enter the range of the frontliners. I intentionally place the swordsmen to block line of sight of the casters. "Dark magic. Demon magic. Places a curse that halts HP recovery."

A sword comes at my arm and I intentionally expose the back of my right arm as if I was blocking with a shield. The demon's sword hits my arm and only cuts the thin strip flesh. It fails to sever the bone, courtesy of my shared skills. It leaves the right flank exposed and I attack at his armpit.

"Thunder Blade!" I delay the trigger of the skill until the blade was already digging into his flesh. The charge burns his lungs and probably something else. A trickle of blood comes from his mouth, but it pours out of the wound when I remove the sword. If it were on the left I'd have nailed its heart.

He falls and opens the view to the rear guard. More shadowbolts come at us, but I ignore them and trigger my other skill,

"Acid Breath!"

Stamina converts into corrosive acid as fast as it's spewed out from the mouth. All three demons from the rearguard are badly wounded and out of combat.

But I had to remain still to cast the acid breath. The spearmen skewer me from both flanks. I'm pinned but I could avoid any vitals, the spears hit the ribcage and skid over it, gouging only the skin.

Skill Steel Bones (innate) (A) level 9.

The last swordsman comes for my neck. He doesn't even care to defend himself. He stakes everything on that single blow.

"You are insane! You let the guys hit you!" Cloude screams in our head.

"It's how a troll fights. You can't believe how many openings seasoned warriors give when they think they can kill you in one strike."

I hold the Shining Blade with both hands and do a wide side swing. "Wind Blade!"

Skill Elemental Blade awakened. Skill Sword Mastery level 5.

The defenseless demons are butchered. I even learned something I shouldn't have.

Cloude (4-Magic Swordsman) has gained 9 levels (1 > 10). +79 SP Beowulf (3-Super Villager) has gained 4+1 levels (racial: 20 > 24 / Job: 57 > 58). +31 SP

I yank the spears from my sides and store the bodies.

Cloude is pissed off, "Why the fuck you let them hit you! It is my body, you idiot!"

I answer running to the next group, "I told you already. Because I am a troll. This is how we fight!"

"But I am not! You are going to kill me, is that it? My HP is still down."

"You are wrong. I just stopped sharing my regeneration. I'm cultivating your skills. Shut up and wait."

Cloude has awakened Curse Resistance (B) !!! Cloude has awakened Dark Resistance © !!! Skill Curse Resistance (B) level 5.

"These skills?"

"Yup. Let me put the SP I earned for you on them and your balls will be safe. Let's go kill some more now that your stats don't suck so much."

I need to renew the sentry wards. They are almost expiring.