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“Alright, time to take care of the rest of them.”

My constant provocation had worked, now I had to take care of all the other monsters and demons in case they attempted to attack Karin and the rest. I decided to strike first, flying up into the sky and letting blades of wind rain onto them.

“Wind Fang!”

Wind Fang is a spell one step above Wind Cutter, but still very easy to cast constantly. The spell used blades with the force of a vacuum to cut even through decently strong armor. On top of that, wind is basically invisible, unlike other spells, so that makes dodging even harder. Any time a monster or grinning demon tried to make a move, I would strike them down without pardon.

“Gyah!!”
“Wha-?! Magic?!”
“H-hey, you should shield me while I go!”
“Don’t f̲u̲c̲k̲ with me! You should be my shiel-ghah!”

No matter what they tried to do to hide from me, I would sever them apart together with the trees they had above them. As more trees fell down throughout the forest, all there was left of the demons and monsters were their corpses.

§　§　§

–––Luvias’ viewpoint

“W-what kind of monster is that?!”

Watching half of his subordinates fall in an instant, that demon called Ditoner was unable to hide his shock. Karin and I tried to use that as an opening to attack, swinging our swords at him, but he quickly evaded it.

We imbued our bodies with magic, emitting a soft light. After training for so many days, we had gotten accustomed to controlling magic all the time we fought, enhancing our strength and reflexes many times over compared to our past selves. Still, he easily parried our quick attacks with the great sword he held with both hands. Even if he was our enemy, his skills were commendable and were proof that other strong people still lived in this world.

If I was fighting him alone, I would certainly die, but we were a party of four. We were like a conglomerate of four different consciousnesses acting as a single hero, perfectly coordinating all our attacks on Ditoner.

“Ice Arrow!”
“Tsk! So annoying!”

Ciel kept shooting ice arrow after ice arrow, stopping Ditoner every time he attempted to make a move. Usually, most magicians try to stay afar and build up a strong spell to change the course of battle with a single attack, but Ciel was different.

While she did know a lot of strong spells, in situations like these she would instead shoot a barrage of lower-level spells, prioritizing speed over power and crippling the enemy’s frontline. She had reached the point where she could use low level spells almost instantly without chanting, unleashing them with a single powerful word she could repeat quickly. Thanks to her, Karin and I could fight Ditoner on equal footing.

“You little s̲h̲i̲t̲h̲e̲a̲d̲s̲! I’ll blow you to pieces you’ll see! Fire-”

He looked annoyed that he could not fight the way he wanted, so Ditoner leaped a great distance backward and seemed about to unleash a spell, presumably fire magic. If he did that earlier there was the danger of creating a wildfire that would affect him as well, but Master had destroyed most trees and branches around us, creating a large opening in the forest. He probably noticed that as well, and decided that there was no fear of burning the entire place down, so he tried to attack us with magic.

Seeing how powerful of a demon he already was, his casting speed was probably at the same level as Ciel. She began to chant a protective spell, but it was going to be too late. His hand was already glowing, amassing magic power that turned into flames. But when he raised his hand in an attempt to launch it towards us, an arrow flew straight towards his hand stopping him.

“Guh?!”

At the last possible moment, Ditoner twisted his body and dodged the arrow, but a second and third arrow followed right after the first one, making Ditoner move even faster to evade all of them.

“Good job Diaria!”

Thanks to our new ally, we were once again able to escape from a bad spot. Diaria, unlike me, was not chosen as a hero of her own volition. She told us how she entered a tournament only because she needed some of the prize money, but ended up winning without even trying. At first, I was a bit hesitant to have someone with such a low motivation joining our party, but after being with her for a few days I thought differently.

Even when she belittled herself constantly, she clearly had a lot of talent. As an elf, she was obviously proficient with a bow, and she moved swiftly with her self-defense dagger when we trained. When I tried consulting with Master, she said the only thing Diaria lacked was motivation.

That made sense, I could see how she could become much stronger in a short time if she simply put the time into it. The proof was right in front of our eyes, after being forced to train for a few days, now she was already saving our lives. She was also really hesitant before this fight, but when there was no option to walk away, she had no choice but to do her best. That was a problem with her personality, but at this point, it was best to simply accept it as how she is.

The fight had only lasted a few minutes, but the entire time we had been able to restrain Ditoner. If we continued at this pace and did not lower our guards, we could easily win. Or at least so we naively thought.

“Don’t get ahead of yourselves! Don’t think that’s all I can do!”

Magic power began surging from all over his body. Was that some form of magic strengthening?! We had somehow managed to keep him at bay so far, but did this mean he could get much stronger than that?!

“Kaahhhh!”

He screamed as the aura we felt from him became twice as powerful. Then his figure vanished from where he was standing.

“Khuh?!”

I somehow managed to stop Ditoner’s blade that was headed straight towards me. I had not even been able to see it, but the instincts I had fostered through countless hours of rough training made me hold my blade in front of me, and somehow that was just the right place where his sword appeared.

“Luvias!”

Karin swung her sword against Ditoner to help me, but he barely even turned around, only moving his arm and sword to effortlessly push Karin’s attack aside. It was almost as if he had eyes on the back of his head. I shuddered to see that, remembering how Master also reacted in similar ways when we trained. Could we really win against him?

“So that’s the true difference in our skills?!”
“Watch out!”

Karin had lost her footing, and now was about to be pierced by Ditoner’s blade, but Diaria shot another arrow at an even faster speed than ever before, the arrow burying itself in Ditoner’s shoulder.

“What?!”

His armor had stopped most of the arrow’s momentum, but not enough to completely stop it from going through. A thin stream of blood began flowing down his arm. When he looked at it, Ciel’s magic doubled down on him, sending a single ice arrow that traveled faster than the previous ones she shot. That was the difference when she stopped focusing on casting time but on the power of her spells.

Ditoner twisted his body again, barely evading the ice arrow and jumped back a few steps, holding his sword ready. His face was filled with rage, either because even when using all his power he was unable to take down even one of us, or out of annoyance at himself for letting himself be hit by an arrow. Either way, it was clear he was losing his cool.