Orsen who was casually watching the fight unfold from a faraway tree, he sat on a sturdy branch as he watched Lysander who was bleeding profusely been beaten to a pulp. He was beyond exhausted as he barely managed to stand on his two feet.
The world for him was spinning fast, as a monstrous figure stood right in front of him with a devilish smile.
*BAM*
A punch to the gut jolted him back to the fight. He coughed a mouthful of blood before landing several feet away from the demon's figure. "That's it! I refuse to watch from the sidelines! I have to help Lysander!"
Cormic said in anger as he charged towards the demon only to be blocked by one of the tier three demonic experts. "It would seem that you are so eager to die! Let me help you." The tier three demon said as he showed off his presence.
'He is on the third array? This is even more problematic!' Cormic analyzed his situation. Not only were they surrounded by numerous tier one demons and those on the second tier, but also they were confronted by tier three demons along with a tier four monster.
"This is where you die wor-"
*Splat*
The head of the tier three was immediately popped like a pimple. The source was unknown which made everyone apprehensive.
*Splat-Splat-Splat*
The heads of numerous tier one demons popped in quick succession which baffled everyone present. "What is this?" The tier four demon exclaimed in fury as his head surveyed the perimeters. He couldn't sense anyone which added a layer of worry.
*Splat-Splat-Splat*
More heads popped further angering him. "Now is our chance!" Juskar exclaimed as he saw an opening. "No!!! Kill them!!" The demon's voice boomed in anger as it saw its prey slowly escaping its grasp.
Numerous demons rushed towards them however they would either die unexplainably or the group would take care of them.
Orsen looked at the source towards where the attacks to pick off these demons came from. 'A tier four expert along others. They are here to investigate the caravan's whereabouts it would seem. Naturally it this is to be expected as it has delayed for some time and troops were going to be sent in search of it.'
However he didn't leave as he continued to watch the fight unfold with a hint of amusement. "Over here! This way!!" A voice came from deep within the foliage and upon stepping out, it was a tier four expert.
Members of the group were relieved as they saw more people come out to rescue them. 'Wait! Lysander!' Hilda recalled as she suddenly turned back to get him.
"Hilda! Where are you going?!" Juskar exclaimed in shock but soon he realized what she was trying to accomplish. The tier four demon went to assault the dainty lady approaching her however before he could deliver the attack, his figure came to a grinding halt.
'What! What is this?' He felt an indescribable pain in his heart as he found his movements brought to a halt. He couldn't move however Hilda was able to successfully recover Lysander before returning to the brigade that saved their lives.
More demons continued to perish and by now the number of demons had already been halved, the only ones remaining were several tier two and two tier three demons. Four tier three demons came out of hiding to help aid the members to get to safety.
The tier four expert was left behind as the rest had already vacated the premises as he looked at the tier four demons. Several beams of light emanated from his palm which connected with the tier two demons ending their lives in an instant.
The tier one demons were mostly killed and those who were left alive quickly left the premises. They could detect that their lives would be brought to an end thus they left leaving the stage for two tier three demons and the tier four demon.
A battle ensued between the tier four expert and the two tier three demons. The demons coated their fists with their own blood before rushing towards the human, however Noah quickly retreated as he preferred long ranged attacks.
He quickly understood what these demons were planning and chose to maintain his distance. It wasn't that he want good at close combat given that he was a mage however with two opponents, it would be problematic.
He would launch rays of light which were invisible to the naked eye towards them riddling the two demons with injuries. In a last ditch effort, they both decided to take him down with them as they knew that if this kept on going then they would undoubtedly lose.
Noah who saw the two demons launching themselves at him, immediately backed away as he applied a coating barrier all over his body to negate the damage.
*Splat*
The two demons were immediately turned into paste as their black blood splattered everywhere. As it came into contact with the vegetation around it, it would immediately turn into a black oozy paste.
As for Noah, he remained unharmed as his barrier showed signs of corroding however he was able to counter this by infusing more mana into the weaker parts of it. Finally he could confront this beast, a tier four demon was clearly no easy feat to take down as he readied himself.
To his surprise, the demon didn't seem to have any intention of attacking as it seemed plagued by a strange problem however that didn't mean that he would let his guard down for a second.
"HAAARRGGGHHH!!!" The demon seemed to be choking on something as it struggled to move, let alone attack. 'I should utilize this opportunity to kill it.' Noah thought as he charged a beam aiming his palm at the beast.
His attack was a grade three spell having unique perks which greatly benefited the user and in this circumstance was that his beams were invincible to the eye with the only one able to perceive them being him alone.
However if one was proficient in the light path then they would be able to see it if they had a higher tier than him or a higher grade than him in this aspect of field.
*BOOM*
In a blink of an eye, the demon was bathed in unperceivable light which cleanly cut off a huge chunk of his head and his chest. The demon had a huge hole in its head as half of it was gone along with a gigantic hole in its chest, there was no way that it was capable of surviving that.
The mana pools of a demon were broken, lacking a proper core like humans which were near the chest. They had their cores partly in their horns while the other half of it was a small orb which was never transfixed in their body.
They could freely move it in their own bodies and the arduous part of killing a demon was that both cores had to be completely destroyed for them to fully die. If not then they would be able to slowly regenerate overtime and recover their peak state partially.
If one of their cores was shattered, then they would be unable to procced in the tier advancement route and they would be stuck, thus killing a high tier would be a complex procedure and those who would were revered all over.
"Hargh!" In a final reflex of the gut, the demon in in front of Noah managed to cough up a small mass of flesh. Looking closer at it, it was its heart.
Noah was perplexed as he saw this. He had never encountered such a situation where a demon had done such a thing. To his surprise, the demonic aura that was around the demon slowly dissipated as it appeared more and more human.
Its skin color changed from a faint red to a smooth white cream tone which seemed rather soft and tender. The horn remaining on its head lost its color as it became blood red and its tier seemed to fade out.
'What?!' Noah stood in place as he saw this. It was never documented that demons could achieve such a state before. The demon now fully looked like a human except the small horn on its temple making it look odd.
His face was made anew as the hole in his chest rapidly healed stunning Noah. His eyes were charming with a deep tint of red as they scanned his surroundings before firing a dark red beam at a tree which took Noah by surprise.
"Well, let's get this over with." The demon said calmly as he looked at Noah. Before he could stretch his hand out, he heard a soft crunch.
It was his arm, he could see his bones, and they were completely bent in the opposite way. Before he could let out a scream of anguish, a strong grip held his throat and in a swift motion, the demon ripped his throat out and along with it, his lungs and intestines were exposed.
Noah watched the demon take his life, watching the events unfold as if it was all in motion, like a film and yet the stark truth was that his life was claimed so easily. As for the perpetrator, he had a calm smile on his face during the whole incident.
"Hello Orsen." He said calmly as he watched to the sides. Orsen's figure appeared as he looked at the demon in front of him. "Hello Hedon." The demon that he had interacted ever so often was now incarnated into a body.
'Another demon birthed.' He mused as he saw a trail of blood trickling off his scapula. Strange sounds came from his body as bizarre juttings came out of them. He felt his spine was forcefully being extended against his will as white bone parts shot out.
The process was excruciatingly painful however he managed to keep a calm face through it as he looked at Hedon. The noises kept on going as the protrusions got bigger and bigger as they curved and formed two massive wings.
Orsen looked at them before looking back to Hedon. "What is the point of this?" He asked calmly as he inspected them. They were beautiful as they seemed pristinely white, as if never tainted by the filth of the world.
He retracted them back into his back which was just as agonizing. "No reason in particular. Just messing around." Hedon said with a calm smile however Orsen could tell that he did this just to capture the pain that he would feel.
"Very well, what about the group? If they note that Noah isn't back then they will no doubt launch another search party and finding him dead will only raise the guard not only in Rien but also other places as well."
Orsen said as he and Hedon looked at Noah's body. It was mauled beyond recognition. Orsen gave off a light sigh as he saw this before frying the body beyond recognition. However he intentionally left the head unscathed. "We should make our way to Rien."
He said and in the blink of an eye, their figures vanished from sight.
…
"It has been four hours! How is Noah still not back?!" One of the members said as he walked around in frustration. They wanted to help him at the time however Noah had instructed them that he would deal with the matter by himself.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Another said as he took to his feet. "We can't just blindly charge back there. And besides, Noah is a tier four expert, he should be able to defend himself with ease." A soft voice spoke up making the room fall silent.
As of currently, they had already made it back to Rien. It was a bustling kingdom however in terms of Aurorise, it fell short in certain aspects.
The kingdom lacked proper roads, it was prone to all kinds of attacks from wild beasts while lacking manpower in certain fields such as the military. It was substandard in comparison to most kingdoms as it had recently come on the map.
And with that it faced a lot of resistance in growth from more developed kingdoms perceiving it as a competition for resources. But it could still hold its own and was no push over.
The group was currently in a medical inn, all recuperating from the injuries they had endured. "I will go back to search for him." One of them spoke out of the blue.