A group of four people was rapidly closing upon a lonely youth wearing a long black hooded robe.
The group moved in an arrow formation, with the first three already covered in tyrannical red flames of Life Energy and tightly grappling with both hands their long white harpoon-like spears.
The frontliners were all two meters high and wore very peculiar armors: a mix of white leather and pelts, put together with a few bronze plates.
Their features were covered by large iron helmets with large recurved horns adorning them from the sides. The only thing that one could see under that protection were the eyes, blue cold eyes, and long brown hair woven into a many braids small braid.
The last one didn't look like the giant warriors in the front. He was way smaller in size, had short green hair and wore simple leather armor.
Between his hands, there was a large emerald bow with an arrow already knocked in.
Their objective didn't seem to have noticed anything at all yet. He was standing in front of the river that cut the cavern in two and was throwing stones inside the rapid waters, lost in his thoughts.
Only when the group was at less than 50 meters than him he finally seemed to notice something. He turned around and saw a group of ferocious looking Fighters running towards him.
One of the spear-wielding warriors couldn't help but giggle at the sight of his panicked face. They moved around him, surrounding him in a few breaths.
The youth looked at them from behind the darkness of his hood. "What do you want?"
The group of warriors didn't even respond. One of the frontliners simply attacked with a powerful stab towards the youth.
- BAM -
His weapon was stopped by an invisible wall, making his entire arm tremble under the shock. Yet, the man didn't seem hurt at all.
"You d-dare?" the youth in black stuttered his world and waved his arm, letting a small piece of metal fly out of his sleeve.
In a vortex of light a white bat, big as a large dog, emerge from thin air, growling aggressively.
"Spread out, deal with the familiar without letting him escape! Imarai, you deal with that scum!" exclaimed the green haired man in the back of the attacking group, giving a hateful glance toward the hooded Summoner.
Two of the warriors immediately darted towards the beast in front of them. The flame around them covered also the spears in their hands, as they both stabbed towards the white bat.
The archer also focused his attention on Luna. He pointed his arrow toward the beast and got ready to immediately release the shot if she managed to dodge and tried to counter-attack.
On the side, the last warrior was dealing with the black robed Summoner. The group knew from the information they had received on the youth that he had only a single familiar.
With three of them dealing with said Familiar, the last one could attack the Summoner, slowly grinding away his Energy Shield.
Sure, the Fighters' blows were completely neutralized by the Energy Shield at the moment. However, if he kept attacking, the Summoner's energy reserves would eventually start going down, untill he wouldn't be able to maintain his Energy Shield.
This was a strategy that the group had slowly refined in the battlefield. In fact, the group had become famous for their ability to take down several bronze ranked summoners without having a single Great Fighter between their mists.
"Wait, we can reach a deal! I will pay you!" exclaimed the Summoner under the constant attacks of the Fighter's spear. "Ten bronze coins!"
The warrior could feel that the Shield that he was bashing was growing weaker and weaker with each attack he stroke it with.
He snickered. "Whatever you want to give us, Master Stone Hurricane would give more for your head."
He attacked again, striking with force the invisible shield that stood between him and the Summoner. "Plus, we will take away anything you own when you die hahaha"
He glanced towards the other side of the fight: his tree companions were still engrossed with the fight with the white beast.
The bat was incredibly nimble, avoiding all the sniping fire from the archer and managing to fight to a standstill with the two spear wielding Fighters.
The trio was even using their Fighter Skills and they still couldn't touch the beast! It was definitly a late stage bronze beast specialized in speed.
Although the three Fighters were suppressing the beast at the moment, their stamina was way less developed than a bronze ranked magic beast.
If the fight continued like that, they would end up loosing! The man understood that he had to rapidly end the Summoner and go to help his team defeat the bat.
He moved his eyes back towards the retreating hooded youth.
"It's time to end the games kid, it's time to die" The flame around the Fighter suddenly started to burn stronger than before and rapidly concentrated into the spear that he had in his hands.
Strong fluctuation started to propagate from the weapon, causing a small typhoon around the warrior.
"Die? Do you dare kill a Summoner? And Master Stone Hurricane? Why? I never did anything to him! There must be a mistake!" the Summoner seemed on the verge of crying, continuously retreating towards the river.
The Fighter laughed outloud. "Mph, when you kidnapped, raped of and then sold Master Stone Hurrican's wife, you really thought that you would get away with it?"
Hearing those words, the man in black robes stopped retreating. His scared expression left the place to a completely surprised look.
"Wait, what?"
Imrai's eyes narrowed. "Don't lose your time trying to defend yourself. We have all see the recording where you confess your sins!" The flame on his spear transformed his weapon in something that looked like a trident.
"This is the speciality from my Devil King Village! Death Trident!" He stroke down towards the Summoner without any fear.
- BAM -
The Life Energy in his flame exploded around the Energy Shield, without even cracking it. This time the invisible wall seemed even stronger than the one he felt the first time he attacked!
Not only his assault was blocked, the Fighter also felt his entire arm go numb.
Blood started to drip from the skin between his fingers, making the handle of his weapon begin to slide away.
"Dammit!"
Imrai was an experienced Fighter. He immediately understood that he had been tricked. That bastard was hiding the true power of his Shield!
He looked towards the Summoners: there was no fear on his face anymore. He was looking at him with a placid smile.
"That's quite an accusation... I would really love to see those recordings..."
At the same time that the man spoke, a strong pressure started to emanate from his body. Green crackling power flashed in the air around him and his Energy Shield started to become visible.
It was an emerald-colored sphere, with four dark figures swimming around it.
The spear-wielding man's survival instinct started tingling when he saw four pairs of red eyes pointing their attention to him.
'What are those things?'
This time he was the one retreating a couple of steps, pointing his spear in a defensive poise while gathering back a Fighting Aura.
Loud growls echoed in the air as the black shadows with red eyes left the Energy Shield and darted towards the shocked fighter one after the other.
On the other side of the fight, the green haired archer narrowed his eyes at the scene. "More away Imrai! He's summoning his Guardians, don't move close to his shield and you'll be fine!
The blue-eyes of Imrai shined with a flash of comprehension, as the man let out a low scream accumulating all his Fighting Aura towards his feet.
A moment before the Summoner's Guardians fell up him, he jumped back with all the power he had.
The black shadows tried to follow him, but as the first three shadows moved a few meters away from the shield, a green chain connected to the latter appeared around their body, blocking them from moving further away.
Their bodies started to take the shape of small black colored bats, that growled furiously towards the escaping Fighters.
The archer smiled. Laughing towards Imrai. "See? they cannot move away fro-"
The green haired words stopped in his own throat when he saw a fourth shadow moving towards his companion without anything to stop it.
"Impossible!"
The man had a very bad premonition about this.
Imrai on the other hand, snorted, his eyes filling with pride. Only one?
He retreated because he knew that he couldn't fight against four of them all alone, but only one? He didn't even feel any strong fluctuation from the shadow coming his way.
He moved his spear to meet the coming attack, powering it with his red Life Energy.
- Bang -
The black shadow struck the Fighter's spear, immediately breaking it into two pieces that started falling down to the ground.
At the same time, the motion of the red-eyed shadow didn't stop: it continued moving, bashing in the astonished man.
What followed made the group of Fighters on the ground feel their blood freeze inside their veins.
First, a loud popping sound echoed in all the cave, then from the sky came down a literal shower of blood and flesh pieces that dripped them in red.
The biggest chunk of Imrai remaining was his head, held tightly in the talons of a black crow with two small horns on the side of its head that was flying in the air.
- CRAAAA -
A strong caw echoed all around the cave, followed by an aura that shook all the Fighters to their core.
"Silver... silver ranked!"
However, even before they could recover from that, the white beast that they had been fighting with also exploded with a savage aura that was many times stronger than before.
It wasn't as strong as the crow, but it was way stronger than a common late bronze ranked beast.
With a single move of its tail, the bat sent the two spear-wielding warriors crashing to the ground. Then its eyes moved to the green haired archer. The creature growled, showing two rows of sharp white teeth.
"Stop Luna, I need them alive..." commanded the Summoner. Then he moved the hood back from his face, displaying a very friendly smile towards the ground of warriors.
"Let's start this again... Hi, I'm Sif. Can you please tell me more about this recording that you have all seen?"