What truly shocked him, though, was the fact that she seemed to be throwing a spell for every element!

’How the hell! Does she have an affinity for every element or what!?’ The thought seemed impossible since such a thing was unheard of, though he was one to talk with his decent repertoire of affinities.

A thin spear of compressed water shot toward his ankle right as he took a step. A disk of light flashed across his vision just as he tried to track Yaana’s scythe. A pale binding circle bloomed beneath his feet, the exact moment the Arch demon prepared another charge.

She never wasted mana, never throwing spells simply for spectacle. Each one was placed exactly where it needed to be, at the exact moment it would inconvenience him most.

"His armour is reducing impact," the guardian said, eyes narrowing. "Clean hits are not enough." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Then stop trying to kill him with one blow," Maya replied. "Move him. Force him into the big guy’s range."

Elion’s eyes flicked toward her.

Maya noticed and gave him a faint smile. It was convenient that he could hear their plans, but that didn’t necessarily mean he could block or counter them as they came.

He managed to evade plenty, but a few did manage to hit him exactly as Maya had hoped. And so, his injuries began to pile up slowly.

A shallow cut across his cheek from Yaana’s scythe, a burn along his left forearm from a demon’s black flame, a bruise across his ribs from the guardian’s shield, and a deep ache in his right shoulder from blocking the Arch demon’s second punch.

His armour saved him more than once. The lightness allowed him to twist away from attacks that would have otherwise caught him cleanly, the Mana Flow Assistance made it easier to reinforce his body while casting, and the Impact Dispersion reduced several brutal strikes into something survivable.

Without it, he knew at least three of the hits he had taken would have broken bones or torn open his torso.

Still, the unrelenting pressure was becoming suffocating, and the hall itself could not withstand them.

The Archmage demon’s third charge sent Elion crashing through a wall and into an adjoining corridor with a loud bang. Yaana followed immediately, scythe spinning over her head, laughing as though this were the greatest dance of her life.

Elion met her with a burst of water magic, turning the water into razor-thin whips that wrapped around the scythe’s shaft and pulled it aside, then stepped in and drove his knee into her stomach.

Her body was folded at her core from the impact of the blow, and while she was lodged onto his knee, Kurogoroshi came for her neck.

"Yaana!" Uta snapped.

Manfred suddenly appeared out of nowhere and tanked the blow with his shield.

Crack!

A deep line split across the shield’s surface, and his arms trembled under the force. "Too heavy," he gritted his teeth and grunted.

Elion’s eyes narrowed as his muscles rippled down the length of his arm. He doubled down on his strength. For a moment, he almost broke through, but then Maya’s voice sounded softly from the back.

"Bind." A pale chain wrapped around his sword arm; at the same time, Uta’s hands wrapped around his left leg.

"Hold him down," Maya ordered.

"I am trying," Uta hissed.

Two demon warriors lunged from behind.

Elion clicked his tongue again, more irritated than afraid. He flooded the floor with earth mana, spikes erupting beneath the demons and forcing them to break formation, then detonated fire from his palm to burn Uta’s hands away.

The blast threw him and the swordsman apart, but the Arch demon came through the wall like a living battering ram, smashing through stone, chains, and support beams as though the castle itself offended it.

"Now," Maya said.

Its fist slammed down, looking to crash him into the floor. Elion dodged, but the shockwave caught him and threw him upward through the ceiling.

Stone shattered as the floor above caved in and the battle spilled out of the sealed hall entirely.

By the time Elion landed outside, the side of the castle had been blown open beneath the barrage of spells and attacks. Broken walls, shattered pillars, and chunks of ceiling tumbled down into the grim fields below.

The red sky glared above them while distant explosions from the main battlefield continued to shake the horizon. The sealed chamber was now half-exposed behind them, its runed door still glowing mockingly amid the destruction.

Elion stood among the rubble, catching his breath as the ten emerged around him.

Maya hovered lightly above a broken staircase, her cloak fluttering behind her, and her hands glowing with layered spell circles he had never seen before.

He looked at her much more closely than ever before now. Just what kind of magic was that? He certainly had never heard of people who used such an odd formation of spinning circles to cast magic spells.

Was it her staff!?

Was that the reason for her apparent multitude of spells and affinities? Probably. Either way, she was hiding more surprises than he would have ever thought possible.

His gaze moved to the others standing below her.

Uta stood near a shattered wall. Several of his repulsive hands were burned and severed, yet more still grew from behind him, and the many screaming faces with gaping mouths had finally appeared to his back as well.

’Poor souls.’

Yaana dragged her scythe along the stone, blood spilling from the wound on her shoulder, and her delighted expression seemed to have been replaced by a wary glare.

Perhaps she didn’t see his looks as pleasing to the eye as she initially thought.

The swordsman named Manfred placed himself between Elion and the others. His shield was greatly damaged, but his sword was ready. The five demons formed a wider circle, while the Arch demon landed heavily in front of him, cracking the courtyard beneath its feet.

"Do not relax," Maya warned. "He is far from done."

Yaana laughed, though her breathing was rough. "Killing him should not be too difficult now. Look, he’s bleeding, no? "

"So are you," Manfred warned.

Yaana’s smile twitched.

Uta’s burned hands writhed behind him. "I’m sorry, Yaana, I would have healed you, but that sword is interfering with regeneration."

"I know," Maya said quietly. "So don’t get cut again."

Elion exhaled.

This was taking too long, he looked around, using discerning eye to zoom his vision into the distance, he noticed that what he was worried about had come true. A bunch of demons in the distance were making their way to the castle; no doubt they had caught wind of the commotion.

Getting out of here was far more difficult now, assuming he even managed to defeat all of them.

’Should I abort?’ That was certainly the best course of action in this situation. As things stood, this had become nothing but a suicide mission, and his hopes of ever finding that stone had more or less been extinguished by Maya’s own well-informed plans.

Giving up and making a run for it was the obvious choice. But was that what he wanted to do? No, certainly not.

He had not used anywhere near one hundred percent of his capabilities in this short exchange. And the thought of finally testing the depths of what he could possibly do against a group of this strength made him feel an odd thrill well up inside him.

Having the odds stacked against him lit up a blaze of excitement within him.

So no...

He didn’t want to abort. He would fight this battle and win! There was no doubt in his mind now. He was more than capable of that, and when he was done with these weaklings, he would go and find Zenith.

An involuntary, wide grin found its way onto his lips.

His injuries were definitely painful and annoying, but not fatal. Their wounds were worse, but they had numbers. And Maya’s presence at the back was making everything harder than it needed to be.

Fine.

His eyes lowered slightly as the light in them slowly faded into a distant glow.

’I guess it’s time to get serious.’