The four demons stayed at the edge of the crater, unmoving. They observed the situation and had planned to take action at an appropriate time. Or so they thought. But to Altrock, this was nothing more than entertainment.

“Hey, you three. Go take care of the hero’s buddies. Let the hero fight the boy. “

Altrock ordered them, his face gleeful. He stood there, with his arms crossed, and looked down on the entire fight that was about to evolve.

By this time, the hero party had already discussed their path.

“Hero Itsuki, use your holy sword to kill that demon! The rest of them, we’ll hold them off, somehow”

“Don’t die, you guys!?”

Ssral waves his hand at Itsuki and moves, towards the intimidating demons. Towards the prey they were created to kill. They darted out, with Ssral and Ssriel as the vanguard with Sstia as the support.

Their aim was the four demons that were standing beside the crater. They skirted around the crater, avoiding the boy. They sent concerned glances towards him, cautious in case he tried to attack them. For some reason, he did no such thing, and just stood there, in the center of the swirling miasma.

When they neared the demons, they felt their breaths catch, when they noticed the man standing in between the demons. His presence was like that of a mountain’s, one that could annihilate them.

“I’m not sure how long we can hold them off… I hope Hero Itsuki can do the job”

Ssral muttered to his comrades, worried. Sstia smiled, and Ssriel chuckled.

“If we’re to die today, then so be it!”

With the fires burning in their hearts, an undying fire of fighting to their deaths, they dashed in, to defeat the demons.

Itsuki slowly walked towards the boy, taking deep breaths. Step by step, he moved towards him. The boy’s head was bowed down, as if he were in a deep sleep.

*Sssss* He drew the sword that was on his back, slowly, as he moved closer and closer to the boy.

After he drew the silver bastard sword, the inscriptions on its blade glowed, and frost spread across the blade, covering it in its icy embrace. The holy sword, Gjaltrosia. He swung the sword, flexing his wrist, and brought it to his side, ready for the fight.

The moment he stepped into the crater, sword in hand, the boy stirred. The miasma that was near his feet, moved ever so slightly, upwards. The boy raised his head, to see its new prey.

Itsuki gasped, as he looked at the boy’s face.

A young boy, with a fairly handsome face, befitting that of a noble’s. His long hair was in bangs, covering his face, reaching his shoulders. Through the gaps of his hair, peered out a pair of eyes, one that was like a blazing fire, and the other a ruby in the middle of darkness.

Then, suddenly, the boy roared, his voice resounding in the forest. Itsuki flinched, and took the roar as the beginning of the fight.

He moved, running towards him, moving in from the left. The boy stayed as he was, and raised his arms.

The miasma shot out, in droves of spikes, filled with the intent to kill. Itsuki skidded to a stop, and then moved in, directly towards the boy, ducking to avoid the sea of spikes. The boy then beckoned Itsuki, and the miasma turned in midair, going towards Itsuki from the back.

“Speed boost”

Itsuki casted the enhancement magic he had chanted, and a pale green aura surrounded him. Then, under the effect of the enhancement, he shot forward like a bullet, outrunning the spikes. He raised his sword, in order to kill the boy in one strike.

The moment he got within 2 m of the boy, the surrounding miasma rose like a steel trap, covering Itsuki. Unperturbed, he changed his trajectory and swung his sword, moving it in arc from below.

The huge miasma wave that was about to envelop him got hit with the full brunt of the blow, as it froze. It was quite a terrible sight, seeing the frozen wave of darkness. In the same motion, Itsuki changed his plan of attack, and switched to long ranged attacks. He thrust his sword forwards, aiming towards the boy.

A wave of ice spikes rose from the ground, and moved towards the boy, cutting through the ground.

The thickest part of the miasma rose, and formed a shell before him, completely blocking the attack. The shell froze, but the boy paid no heed to it, as he swung his arms around, sending waves of spikes at Itsuki.

‘Humph. He’s not exactly a tough opponent. An attack magic and a defense magic. There’s not much variation in his attacks, and tactics are non-existent.’

Itsuki observed the battle style of his opponents and made effective counter plans to stop them. That was Itsuki’s specialty, his unique skill, . The reason why Itsuki was chosen was because of this ability, which gave him an edge against other fighters.

He swung his sword twice, immediately freezing the spikes. The swings consumed a bit of his mana, but such a trivial amount was nothing to Itsuki. He thought his opponent was weak, since the elementary level Freeze effect could easily stop the attacks of the boy. But, Itsuki noticed a bit too late.

“Wh-What?!”

Four walls of pitch black darkness rose from the black ground, completely cutting off any escape route. They moved down, with spikes on their surfaces. Itsuki swung his sword once again and froze a wall.

The boy immediately closed his fist, and the wall shattered into bits, allowing another wall to immediately replace the broken wall. But what surprised Itsuki was not the trap, nor the regenerative capabilities of it. What surprised him was the fact that the miasma was being recovered. Then, Itsuki noticed the cause.

The frozen miasma.

A layer of ice had covered it, but now, he could see spots of black appearing all over the ice.

“Corruption huh? Doesn’t matter! I’ll break through this trap of yours!”

He roared, and plunged his sword into the ground.

“Freeze it all, Freeze wave!”

He used the skill of the Gjaltrosia, Freeze wave. Just like the name, a huge wave of icy wind rose in a circle around him, and moved, completely freezing the trap. He burst through the trap, and without a moment’s delay, moved to kill the boy.

It was the first time Itsuki’s unique skill had failed, and it was because he had assumed the boy was a magician. He realized his mistake when he felt the fist bury itself in his stomach.

“Gufu!”

He spat out blood as he slammed into the ground, and rolled on to his side. Without a moment’s delay, he sprang up, and swung his sword blindly in front of him, to cut off any attacks. But again, he failed to consider the possibility that the boy had moved along with him, and was behind him.

“Gyaaa!”

He screamed, as a spike buried itself in his left shoulder blade, rendering it useless. He looked back, and felt horror, seeing the dozens of spikes that were covering the air.

The special ability of his armor, Divine protection, had created a barrier to defend against all attacks, but one of the spikes had gotten through. The rest were suspended in the air, stopped by the invisible barrier.

“Heal”

Itsuki used one of the precious scrolls he had been given, crumpling it. A blue aura covered the scroll, and it burned to a crisp. Golden rays rose from the scroll and covered him, restoring the damage to his shoulder.

The boy kept firing spikes, in an attempt to pierce through the barrier, but it was in vain. Healed, Itsuki finally got ready to fight.

“Demon, Forgive me, for I have underestimated you. Now, I shall fight you with my all!”

“Tch! Annoying!”

The man, or beast muttered, blocking the sharp attacks of the draconian with the pair of Katars he wore on each hand. The man, Orthius, was a man who looked like a carnivorous raccoon. He had, like the others, clear blue eyes. His teeth were not teeth, but fangs. With a burly figure second to Altrock’s, he was quite the nimble fighter, as he didn’t take even a single blow from the blows Ssral was giving with his scimitar like sword.

Orthius, in a fluid motion, bent his arm, forcing the scimitar to slide down the surface of his katar’s blade. Then, he abruptly withdrew his hand, sending Ssral off balance. He twisted around, aiming for a direct hit to the throat.

Then, in an unpredictable move, Ssral’s thick tail, which was covered with red scales, whipped around, wrapping itself around Orthius’s hand. Ssral bent down, and lifted his tail, pulling Orthius’s hand up. With a back kick, he attempted to knock out Orthius’s breath, but the demon caught Ssral’s leg with his free hand, and kicked off of Ssral’s back, to escape from his tail’s tight grip.

“Quite good, kid”

“Orthius the beast. Whatever happens, today, I shall kill you.”

In his heart, Ssral was relieved, because the real monster hadn’t moved yet. Altrock stayed behind, surveying the situation. Ssral was determined to kill at least one demon, even if it is at the cost of his life.

‘I hope the others are fine’

“Hiyaaah!”

Sstia yelled, as she deployed her barrier against the barrage of knives from the man with jade green hair. It successfully repelled all the knives, and Sstia immediately began chanting a defense spell. Augustus smiled, as he walked towards the female draconian. Behind him, several knives floated, pointed at her.

“More! Show me more of your magic, draconian!”

Motivated by his research, he played around with his opponent. In the end, Sstia was a support based magician, and alone, she could barely hold her own against such powerful opponents.

Her mana was long from gone, and she had plenty in reserve, with mana recovery equipment, and recovery medicines.

But, the battle style of magicians was more on speed based battles, since they cannot improvise with their magic mid battle. The number of cards they can show off are limited, and if all of them are countered, a typical magician would have died already. The continuous attacks from Augustus was forcing her to reveal her cards one by one, and without doubt, she was exasperated by it.

Whenever she began chanting, he would send an appropriate number of knives to interfere. Even if they didn’t stop her from chanting, the sheer amount would shatter her barrier, and she would be forced to stop, in order to recast her defense magic.

She couldn’t get a gap huge enough to use her attack magic, even with the abilities she had learnt, and .

Augustus’s attacks were simply too fast, and she couldn’t counter it fast enough, forcing her to stay on the defensive. Against another mage, she might’ve already won, with her superior abilities as a magician. But a opponent like Augustus, who excelled in fast and powerful attacks, was definitely not a good thing for her.

She still had some magic to counter Augustus, and possibly, possibly, gain the advantage and go on the offensive. The reason she didn’t use it yet was because she was worried whether it would be countered. But, waiting a lot wasn’t good too, and she knew it, since there would be a chance that she would be worn out too much, unable to begin attacking even if she gains her much needed gap.

‘This… isn’t good’

*CLANG!* *CLANG!*

Metal clashed against metal, as the curved metal blade in the hands of the blonde parried and clashed against the spear of Ssriel.

Compared to the other two, Ssriel’s state was much better, as he had gotten the best opponent he could fight against. A short ranged opponent.

He swung the spear, blocking the energy blades the woman sent against him. He dashed in, spear at his side, and thrust in, aiming for her side, She rotates, and brings her blade towards Ssriel’s head, but he uses the special ability of his spear, ducking.

“, Tiorist!”

He yells, and the spear glows. It bends around, and attacks the woman’s side, piercing through her side, wounding her.

“Tch! Get away from me, you draconic piece of shit!”

She yells, and kicks at Ssriel’s chest. The blow barely hurt, since the damage was mostly absorbed as he stepped back, and his armor was no ordinary armor. Albion himself had crafted it, a set of armor that could easily surpass the set an elite knight possessed.

He rotated his spear, and a huge burst of wind moved towards the woman. Enhanced by his mana, the tornado tore apart the ground as it moved, intent on tearing her apart like the ground.

‘All right. I’ll finish this up quickly, and help Sstia. She’s in bad shape’

Ssriel made up his mind, since Ssral was pretty much evenly matched against his opponent, and still had several tricks on hand, in case the battle situation turned for the worse. Even the hero was getting serious, so, there was no trouble there.

‘Today, we shall drench the ground with your blood, foul demons!’

(There'll be at least two or more chapters for this part to end, and a bit of warning. The next part of the story will have pretty much no fights, but the progression of the story. I hope you all like this series, and continue to support me! :D Lest you shall meet with NExus the BErserker!!!!)