"Magic knights!"
"We're saved!"
Using fire spells to destroy the descending icicles, Grim and Magna stood front and center in front of the surprised villagers.
"What's going on here?" Magna turned to look at them while Grim kept an eye out.
"*Sob* They came pops *Sob* they're here just like you said they'd be." Kneeling down next to an unconscious old man, a young boy cried his eyes out while burying his head in the old man's chest.
"This old man..." Seeing the unresponsive old man seemed to cause a reaction in Magna as he lost his cool for a second.
While Magna was busy looking at the clearly deceased old man, Grim's focus was squarely on the scar faced man and his hooded companions who had been watching the events unfold in front of them without a care in the world.
"Is this your doing?"
Looking up from his pocket watch, the scar faced man sighed and opened up his grimoire.
*Sigh* "I guess everyone will die 3 seconds later than they were supposed to... No matter."
"So is that a yes?"
Instead of responding, the scar faced man raised his right hand and fired a giant icicle at Grim and the others.
'Ice magic... Breath of Flames should be enough to deal with this guy.'
Before he had a chance to react, Asta blitz passed him with his sword in hand and slashed the icicle in half causing the two pieces to change the directions they were heading in and avoid hitting Grim and the villagers.
"Hmm?" The scarred man raised his eyebrow.
"Who the hell are you guys!" Asta yelled.
Ignoring him, the scar faced man started muttering to himself quietly. "No one said there'd be a group of magic knights here today... Did our spy network fail? No, it must be an unsanctioned expedition on their part."
Magna who had just run out of mana ran his eyes over the scarred man and his companions.
'They don't look like spies from another country or run of the mill thieves... Just who are they?'
While this was going on, the scar faced man kept muttering to himself.
"How did they get through the barrier that we set up? It doesn't look like they got here through spacial magic." Taking a look at them properly, he finally noticed the emblem on their robes. "The Black Bulls... Amongst the known magic knight squads, they're infamous for being a bunch of weirdos that do whatever they want..." Looking back down at his pocket watch, a weird glint flashed through his eyes.
"5 minutes... In 5 minutes I'll destroy this village and resume my search."
"Bored now!" Switching to Breath of the Beast, Grim sped passed Asta and appeared in front of the scar faced man with an uncomfortable smile spreading across his lips.
"GRIM!" Asta and the rest shouted after seeing his actions.
Reacting to Grim's sudden assault, one of the hooded figures behind the scarred man raised their hand.
[Mist Magic: Illusion Swirl]
'Oh fuck!'
*BANG!*
Getting hit squarely in the chest by the sprial shaped mist attack, Grim was sent flying backwards and collided with one of the nearby bulidings.
"GRIM!!" Everyone screamed when they saw him get hit by the magic spell.
"Heheheheh. A sneak attack? Really?" Pushing the rubble off himself, Grim was seriously thankful that his body was reinforced when using Breath of the Beast.
Dusting himself off, he stepped through the destroyed wall with a giant grin on his face.
"Bitch move bro, bitch move."
"You're still standing... How annoying." The scar faced man frowned.
"What can I say, a good fight just can't keep me down."
"This idiot." Noelle muttered while Magna smiled.
Seeing that he was alright, Asta breathed a sigh of relief and turned his attention back onto the scarred man and his companions.
"Hey you! Why the hell are you trying to kill everyone from this village!"
Standing there in silence, the scar faced man decided to explain his reasoning. But before he could, he was interrupted once again.
"Sorry Asta, but all I need to know is that they're the bad guys." Charging at the scar faced man again, Grim had prepared a countermeasure to deal with any outside interference.
Seeing Grim charge them again, the hooded henchman that used mist magic raised his hand again.
"Fool."
[Mist Magic: Illusion Swirl]
Blasting another spiral shaped attack at him, Grim grinned as he remembered one of the Breath of the Beast spells that he had previously found ridiculous.
[Eleventh Fang: Sudden Throwing Strike]
While his swords couldn't negate magic like Asta's, it was still useful when he needed to cut through something magic based.
Throwing both swords at the mist attack in a rotating fashion, the blades easily passed through the mist splitting it in half and creating a long passage wide enough that Grim blitzed through it before the mist could reformed.
"What the h-
Jumping in the air, he switched from Breath of the Beast to Breath of Thunder.
[Third Form: Thunder Swarm]
"Shields!" The scar faced man yelled when he saw the speed of the attack.
Opening their grimoires, the hooded men used compound magic to create various ice shields.
*BANG!!*
*BANG!!*
*BANG!!*
"YOU GUYS ARE WILD!!" Falling through the air, Grim laughed with an unsettling amount of glee in his voice.
"Oh no... He's lost it." Magna muttered.
[Breath of Flames- 9th Form: Rengoku]
Slashing down with his flaming katana, a beam of concentrate fire shot down from the sky and towards the scarred man and his companions.
"BURN!"
"SHIELDS!!"
*BOOM!!*
Creating a loud explosion upon contact, a devastating shockwave shook the village while a large cloud of steam spread from the attack's epicentre and encapsulated Asta and the rest of the villagers.
"Woah, steam." Regrouping with Asta and the rest, Grim couldn't help but admire his work.
"You went overboard idiot!" Noelle chastised.
"How dare you delay me... HOW DARE YOU!!"
"Huh?" Hearing the scar faced man's voice errupt from the cloud of steam, Grim and the others were quite surprised when it all cleared away and the scarred man stood before them with several burn marks on his face and body. His companions weren't much better off as their robes had been burnt and several ice shards were sticking out of their bodies.
"Wow... You guys look like shit." Grim commented after seeing them.
"ARRRGHHHH! KILL HIM!" The scarred man screamed venomously.
With anger and hate flashing through their eyes, the previously hooded henchmen raised their hands and performed another compound magic spell.
[Compound Magic: Cage of Infinite Hail]
'I... don't think I can block that many.'
Combining multiple ice and mist based magic spells, the scarred faced man and his companions created countless icicles that surrounded Grim and everyone else from all directions.
'Well shit.'
Looking and the near endless amount of icicles ranging from all sides, Grim couldn't help but swear. If it was him alone, he was confident that he could potentially protect himself by using Thunder Swarm. Unfortunatley for him, he couldn't guarantee that the villagers wouldn't get caught in the crossfire and be electrocuted to death.
With no other choice, he chose to keep using Breath of Flames.
"Any bright ideas senpai?" He raised his sword and asked Magna.
"You wouldn't happen to have an ice sword wouldya?"
"Not at the moment."
"Then we'll do it the old fashion way."
"Which is?"
Pushing his glasses up on his face, Magna grinned.
"Bulldozing our way to the finish line."