Shi, as he saw his father charge in, gritted his teeth. Even though he wanted to help him out, he fully understood how much a distraction it was to have your loved ones faced with danger during a battle. While he watched his father fight, he was inwardly impressed. Even though he trained with his father every day, he had never seen him go all out.
The difference in Byrael's speed at the moment, compared to when he fought with Shi, was as wide as Heaven and Earth. From just a glance he could tell that his father had a lot of experience in warfare as he used his experience and the terrain to overcome the numerical difference.
Even with the numerical difference, Byrael was able to repress the Soldiers with just his strength as an Emperor Rank alone. The difference in skill was simply too much for them to handle. At that moment, however, the mage sprang into the fight and immobilized Byrael.
With his movement sealed, Byrael fought with desperation as he defended himself from the enemy's continuous attacks in all directions. At first, none of the Soldier's attacks could penetrate through his defense. As time went on, however, the continuous attacks took a toll on Byrael and slowly, but surely, cracks appeared and wounds began to open on his body.
At the sight of the wounds, Shi's face contorted. He had been training for years now so that he could protect the ones he loved. Even though he had trained with all of his being, he was still a seven-year-old child so he didn't have enough strength to help fight without casting magic. As he tried to hold himself back, memories of his past life flashed through his mind.
A ceremony was being held near a lake. As they faced each other, a demon and elf glazed into the other's eyes with affection. While he looked into his love's eyes, Shi began to think of his experiences with the person in front of him: Chrystal.
Shi and Chrystal had met each other six months ago. While he led his company on a patrol, his unit had been ambushed. With the element of surprise and superiority in numbers, one by one, his Soldiers began to fall.
As he watched his Soldiers be killed, Shi became furious and fought with renewed vigor. With his strength and use of magic, he was able to kill the ambush party. Sprawled throughout the area, were bodies of demons and humans. Blood began to soak the road, staining the gravel with a sinister red.
Even though Shi was able to survive, he had severe injuries throughout his body. Barely conscious, he began to stumble forward. For gods know how long, Shi focused only on his next step, determined to survive the ordeal and revenge his fallen comrades. After what seemed like an eternity to him, his body could no longer support him and he fell to the ground unconscious.
The next time that Shi opened his eyes, what greeted his view was a wooden roof. Surprised, he immediately stood up, only to be greeted by his body protesting with sharp pains throughout his body. Notified that her patient had awakened by his painful yell, a girl rushed into the room.
When he saw the rush into room, Shi stared in shock. She had short blonde hair that went down to her shoulder. With a slim figure that stood at about five foot six inches, she had wide hips and curves in all of the desirable locations. She also had a slender face, pointy chin, and blue eyes so bright they reminded you of the sky. What stood out about her, however, were the pointy ears that extended out of her hair. She was an elf.
At the sight of Shi awake, the elf girl breathed out a sigh of relief. With the brightest smile in the world, she walked toward Shi to check up on his wounds. As he saw her approach, Shi snapped out of his trance and went on guard. Surprised by the sudden movement, the girl stopped her forward movement.
She stood where she was for a few moments. After a while, as if she figured out the problem, she showed a dazzling smile. After that, she explained to him the recent chain of events.
Chrystal, the name of the female elf, had been out in the forest to retrieve edibles for herself. She was traveling on her usual route to gather vegetables and fruits when she had come onto the figure of Shi passed out with numerous wounds throughout his body.
Not even hesitating, she rushed forward to help. Upon reaching him, she checked his breath and vitals and found that he was alive. Relieved, with much effort and time, she carried the much larger Shi back to her cottage and started to treat his wounds. This had been one week ago.
Now that she had seen Shi finally wake up, she was truly relieved. She told him that she would continue to treat his wounds and that he could stay until he had fully healed. shi, however, was cautious as it was too weird for an elf to treat him so well.
All the other races in their world had always discriminated against demons because of their appearance. Parents taught their children to fear demons from a young age with bedtime stories which caused them to grow with a bias.
Because of that, even though he reluctantly agreed to let her treat him, he was on guard at all times. As time passed, however, Shi began to relax as Chrystal continued to engage him in talk as she tended to him. Her merry nature and kind personality soon won him over.
As he let go of his caution, Shi soon started having feelings for her. Soon after that, they began to become very close. During their talks, he found out that Chrystal had no parents and had been living in this cottage for the past hundred years by herself.
After five months, Shi had fully recovered. During the past five months, the feelings between Shi and Chrystal had grown to the point where Shi regretted that his wounds had healed so soon.
With the thought that he didn't want to leave her ever again, he had asked Chrystal if she would become his wife. While tears flowed down her face, Chrystal nodded her head and immediately said yes. So happy that he felt as if he could fly, he had hugged her and twirled her around in joy. Chrystal, on the other, simply giggled and lightly tapped him in the shoulder in weak protest.
After they had traveled for a month, the two finally reached Shi's home. When his parents saw him, they were filled with joy as they had thought their son had died. At the sight of Chrystal, however, they became confused. While he held in the laughter that was building up due to his parent's face inside, Shi took everyone inside
Once they had heard what had happened, his parents were in shock. Like Shi, all their lives they had grown weary of the other races because of the prejudice they received, but there was an elf that had treated and cared for their son!
Through the tale, Shi parent's faces changed from shock, to doubt, and finally to gratitude toward Chrystal. When he told his parents about their engagement, they wholeheartedly agreed to it and set up for a quiet wedding on the lake.
As all those memories flowed through his mind, Shi couldn't help but let out a smile. He had just finished recalling all of the past events as his father finished the vows.
"And thus... I pronounce thee husband and wife"
While Shi and Chrystal looked at each other, they slowly closed in on each other and shared a passionate kiss before they reluctantly parted. As Shi turned to look at his father, he saw his dad give the largest smile that he had ever seen on his face. While he had never been happier in his life, thus tragedy fell. With the sound of an object ripping through the wind, an arrow suddenly protruded from his father's throat. With a face of disbelief, his father scratched at the strange object while looking at his son.
"FATTTHHHHEERRR!!!!!!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
As the scene of his past life father's death and his dad began to converge, Shi couldn't take it and let loose a wail of deepest anguish. His mana's aura exploded out and filled the whole area with a silvery light.
'Yo...You lowly creatures... DARE ATTEMPT TO TAKE AWAY ONE OF MY PRECIOUS
PEOPLE?!?!'
With a final look at the Soldiers who had stopped at the sudden outburst and stared at him with fear, he said one word that sealed their fates.
"Die"
With that one word, Azrael poured mana into his muscles and exploded forward. At the sight of him approaching and the oppressive aura that he released, the Soldiers from Raxim began to panic and retreated backward. Paying no heed to them, he began to channel an image of darkness so sinister that it swallowed all the light in the area where the Soldiers and mage were to Samjoko and poured mana to him. Samjoko, who immediately understood his master's intent, released a darkness spell in a quarter-mile radius around the Soldiers that denied any light entry in the area.
The reason that the majority of mages in Xiosu used incantations were that they needed them to concentrate on understanding the nature of the spell. Say, for example, someone wanted to create a fireball, the mage would have to fully understand that fire was created in an area where molecules rapidly increased in speed due to friction. Since most mages didn't fully understand the concept, they needed to use incantations to cover for what they didn't know.
Shi, however, with his decades of research and use of magic in his previous life, he understood the process for the elemental phenomenon. Even though elementals did not exist in his previous life, the majority of magic spells dealt with the elements. Using his prior knowledge, all he had to do was think of the process and channel the image to his elementals and them mana to cast the spell.
While the Soldiers panicked at the sudden loss of their vision, Shi continued to rush forward. His target wasn't the Soldiers but the mage in the back. Panicked by the sudden darkness spell, the mage stuttered as he attempted to cast a defensive earth spell. The delay, however, proved to be his downfall as a silent figure that looked a wraith passed by and with a flash of silver, slashed his throat, which was now open from one end to the other. Without the chance to make a cry of alert, the mage fell to the ground and clutched at his throat before his body became still.
After he had taken care of the biggest threat, the mage, Shi began to prepare his next spell. In his mind, Shi created an image of the area that surrounded him for one-quarter of a mile becoming moist and soft. Once the image had been completed, he sent it toward Chunyong who cast the spell with Shi's mana supply. The moisture deep within the earth slowly rose and gathered on the surface. With the sudden increase in water, the ground's surface became soft and muddy.
Due to the sudden change in the ground's texture, the Soldiers began to start lose their balance. As he heard their movements, Shi rushed toward the closest Soldier. Before Shi could reach him though, Cries of pain began to echo through the clearing. At the sound, signs of a grin reached the edges of his lips.
One of the reasons that he had softened the ground was so that he could hear and detect where the enemy Soldier was when they moved. The bigger reason, however, was that it would give his dad the chance to release himself from inside the earth. Now that the mage was taken care of and his dad was released, Shi stopped channeling magic toward Samjoko and the black smoke finally disappeared.
Now that the area was void of the smoke, the results from Shid's action became clear. Out of the previous ten people, three of the Soldiers laid on the ground with eyes opened in disbelief as they died. Farther off, the figure of a still person in a robe clutching his throat could be seen.
The Soldiers' faces began to pale at the sight. Even when they had combined their efforts, the nine of them could barely fight against the older man, let alone the child that had joined the battle. Now that three of them had died along with the mage, they knew that they had no chance to win. With a quick decision that befitted a veteran, the Soldiers immediately dropped their weapons and raised their arms in defeat. Byrael, however, paid them no heed as he continued to stare at his son.
"Shi...yo....you."
As he saw his father's reaction, Shi attempted to come up with an excuse when the voice of Samjoko rang through his mind.
'Master... the aura of a very strong person is heading this way...'
At the news, Shi immediately went into a defensive stance. Seeing his son sudden movements, Byrael also became alert readied himself in a stance. For a few moments, the area was silent while as they awaited the approaching figure.
When Shi felt the aura as the figure approached, he couldn't help but shiver. The mana that was resonating from the approaching figure was very large and oppressive. He couldn't help but feel as if he was standing in front of a tsunami that prepared to descend on him.
Azrael couldn't help but feel hopeless and no hope at escape, he could only wait.