A massive horde of demons, beasts, and monsters was engaging in battle with a group of six men dressed in trenchcoats carrying each a weapon drenched in a metallic silver color.
The number of creatures far outweighed the number of human combatants, but at no moment it seemed like they were in a disadvantageous situation.
Each warrior possessed incredible speed and power on their attacks. The beasts would stand no chance of survival once they came into contact with the weapons they were carrying. This was, after all, the famous blessed metal, a material created by the gods to give aid in a battle against evil and to help bring forth world peace. It was the greatest weakness of the demons.
The six warriors kept fighting with all their might reducing the number of enemies more and more as time kept passing, but still, the number of demons still was too large to be handled by themselves.
The warriors were powerful and ferocious, but they were still just humans. Fatigue slowly started to take over their bodies and slowly but surely, the demons began to get the upper hand.
One of them received a fatal wound in the chest and was knocked out cold. Another tried to come to his aid but the creatures used this opportunity to strike him as well and leave a deep wound on his leg.
The process kept repeating and the warrior found themselves surrounded by a sea of monsters who were carefully observing their movements while trying not to get hit by their silver weapons.
Of the former six trenchcoat fighters, only two still remained standing despite showing difficulty in breathing and carrying many open wounds on several parts of their bodies.
"So this is the end huh...?"
"Seems that way..."
"Can't believe this is as far as we managed to go... This is so frustrating..."
"It's been an honor fighting by your side brother..."
"Same here... Let's go out with a bang and take out as many as we can!!"
"Right behind you!"
The two remaining combatants, one carrying a pair of silver gauntlets and another with a silver dagger in each hand, began to ready themselves to face their final fight, but just as they were about to charge ahead they heard the sound of someone yelling from above.
"Incomiiiiiiing!!!!"
The two men moved their eyes to see the source of the sound and noticed a small child dropping from the sky carrying a pair of swords in each hand, and landing on top of one of the creatures, stabbing it right on its neck and easily killing it.
The creature tried to move, but the wound was too deep and it ended up dropping dead on the ground with the small child still on top of it. The kid removed the swords from the monster's neck and gave a look around its surroundings.
"Wow!!!! So many!!! You two mind if I join the fun? Please!!??"
The two men were looking at the child with eyes of astonishment without not knowing what to say.
"Huh... Sure...?" x 2
The child screamed with joy and started to hop around with happiness. She was a small girl with black hair tied by two ponytails and dark skin. Her face was revealing a huge smile that would come from ear to ear as she charged into the massive sea of demons and started to tear them apart like a tornado of death.
She seemed to be around twelve years old but moved like the wind and would strike like a lion. Her blades moved so fast that it almost seemed to be alive. Anywhere she passed, a pool of blood would be formed by her defeated enemies. What was most impressive was that none of the opponents seemed to be able to land a hit on her. Her body was just too small and quick while the monsters were too big and slow. The two men could not stop staring at her.
"Who in the world is that...?"
"Her swords... She has silver metal as well..."
The girl suddenly turned around while drenched in blood and meet eyes with the two men. She started to raise her arm and threw one of her swords in their direction. Before they could react, a massive creature that was about to eat them from behind was stabbed by the sword in the mouth. The child pounced on the creature to grab her weapon and started to slash the monster in half.
She moved so fast that the warriors could barely follow her movements. After finishing the monster she met eyes with them again.
"You guys ok if I just kill them all? Won't you two be bored just waiting around?"
The two finally returned to their senses.
"Sh- She's right!! We can't let a kid take this horde of monsters on her own!! Let's help her!!"
"Ri- Right!! I'm on it!!"
"That's the spirit!! It's not fair if I'm the only one having fun!!"
The girl turned around and continued to tear the creatures apart. The men looked at each other reacting to her words.
"Did she said she was having fun...?"
"No time to think now! Charge!!"
"Y- Yes!!"
The group continued to fight until the remaining monsters started to become scared of them and decided to retreat in fear, leaving the two men really relieved but the little girl very unsatisfied.
"Hey no fair!!! I still want to play more!!!"
"Thank the gods... We survived..."
"Arf... Arf... I really thought we were done for this time... Thank you little miss... You saved us!"
"Eh...? Oh, right! Sure, no big deal! Just doing my job and helping those in need, haha!"
"May we ask what is the name of our savior?"
"I'm Mia... Mia, the demon slayer!!"
"Nice to meet you... No... It's an honor to meet you! We also re demon slayers. My name is Clayton, and this is Orion."
"Pleasure to meet you miss."
"Ah!! Fellow demons slayers!! How nice!! Not many people share the joy of watching these pitiful creatures fall in a pool of carnage!! It's good to find someone that shares my feelings!!"
"... ... Right... Anyway... You really were amazing in there... You must have gone through some really hard training to become so skilled."
"Yes!!! Indeed!! Good job noticing that!! I received training from my beloved one who taught me how to become the best at demolishing monsters with my beautiful sharp blades!"
"Your beloved...? He must be a very skilled swordsman!"
"You could say that, hehe. Sometimes he even looks like he is one with the sword, hehehe."
Clayton and Orion were confused by her laugh but didn't pay too much thought to it. They started to help their fallen comrades who were still on the ground and began to carry then.
"I wish we could do something to repay you for your aid. Is there anything we can offer you?"
"... ... ... Anything...?"
"Of course! You just saved our lives! We are in your debt!"
"... ... Is that so...?"
Mia started to smile with a pair of scary eyes as if looking at a small prey she was considering to hunt.
"Huh... Y- Yes... Anything we can give you, just need to ask..."
"Mmmm... Let's see, how about you pay me a nice meal? I'm kinda low on money right now..."
"Sure, we will take you to the best restaurant we can afford."
"Also, once your friends are recovered, I would like to request a small match to test your skills."
"S- Sure... We will ask our best warrior to engage in-"
"All six."
"... E- Excuse me?"
"I want to fight all six of you at once..."
"Y- Young miss... Do you realize what you're asking for?"
"You told me you would grant me any request right? I want you to give me food, and I want to have more fun. And I think fighting all six of you at once will be really fun!!"
Clayton seemed unsure but Orion came to his side and agreed with her request.
"Clayton, you saw the way she was fighting... Maybe she is much stronger than her appearance gives out."
"But, she's a kid!!!"
"A kid that did in a few seconds what all six of us couldn't accomplish in hours... She is not a normal child..."
Mia came closer to the two.
"You know... If you manage to give me a good fight... I can ask my boyfriend to give you two more silver metal!"
Those words suddenly caught their attention.
"Are you... Being serious?"
"Of course!! But only if you all prove yourselves worthy! My beloved is very strict with who he decides to trust."
"This... We can't let an opportunity like this pass... Very well!"
After that, they all returned to the nearest city and proceeded to heal their wounds and fill their bellies. Mia ate so much that almost forced Clayton to empty his wallet.
Once the two started to explain the situation to the rest of their comrades they began to look at him as if he was suffering brain damage. "You want us to attack this little girl??" is what they were saying. But their complaints stopped once Clayton revealed that she would lend them more metal to them if they managed to entertain her.
"She may look young but her skill is no lie. She's the reason we are all alive right now. Don't go easy on her."
The rest of them were still unsure about this but more metal was always welcome.
After being completely recovered, the six demon slayers moved to a deserted location to avoid curious eyes and prepared themselves to fight against Mia in a six versus one duel. Mia was smiling.
"This will be fun!"
The battle went on exactly as Mia imagined it would be. Clayton and Orion charged towards her with all their might while the remaining four still were doubtful about how to proceed. Those doubts were erased the moment Mia parried the two charging men with extreme ease and sent them flying like ragdolls.
The rest of the slayers could not believe their eyes as they watched their teammates fall so easily and started to prepare to fight for real.
The fight took a total of five minutes. Not because that was the amount of time Mia needed to handle these men, but because the was the amount of time it took her to get bored with the fight.
All that remained was a group of six men laying on the ground full of bruises and wounds while the small girl stood tall in the center while yawing.
"Man... And here I thought I had found someone that could provide a challenge. Guess my beloved won't need to be bothered after all..."
Mia gave another look around to the pile of defeated men and started to prepare to leave.
"Thanks for the food guys... And thanks for the fight too, I guess... Cya"
"Wait!!!"
Clayton started to shout while crawling towards her.
"Please!! We need this metal!! It's our only hope of entering the demon kingdom!!"
"Eh...? You guys are going to the demon kingdom...?"
"Yes!! Please come with us as well!! We need your power if we hope to survive!"
"Ugh... Sounds like a pain... You are all kinda weak... Maybe you should just give up this idea..."
"Please!! We will give you anything!!"
"I'm pretty sure there is nothing you have that I could possibly want..."
Clayton started to have flashbacks. This was the second time a young girl with a lot of power and strength refused his offer to join their side. However this gave him an idea.
"We can give you our most valuable item!"
"That would be...?"
"A wooden gauntlet!! Made of the same material as the channeling tree!! There is none like this anywhere and we can give it to you if you join us!!"
"Do I look like I know how to perform magic? Why would I want that?"
"You said you had money problems right? This gauntlet is very rare, it used to belong to the crossbow magician known as Evlin. If you sell it, you can secure a small fortune!!"
Mia's expression turned cold as she started to smile with the same scary eyes as before.
"How do you guys know Evlin...? Are you her friends?"
Clayton didn't know what Mia's relationship with Evlin was but he was sure that she would never ally herself with a small psycho like Mia. Which means there was a small chance that she and Evlin were enemies.
"N- No...? We tried to recruit her to our group but she simply refused and destroyed our old base... We still managed to steal her wood gauntlet and a metal gauntlet. She's our enemy!"
"Is... That... So...? Hmpf... Boring... If you guys were friends I could kill you all just to torment her..."
Clayton heard that and started to thank the gods for his luck. If he had pretended to be Evlin's friend he would be a dead man right now.
"Still... You guys hate Evlin... And you want to reach the demon kingdom... Mmm... Maybe this might work after all..."
At that moment Mia started to hear a voice inside of her head speaking to her.
[Mia... There is someone watching us...]
Mia started to look around trying to find a presence but didn't see anything.
[Someone...? Like who darling?]
[Behind Clayton, there is someone trying to steal his bag.]
[Mmm...?]
Mia started to walk towards Clayton's bag but didn't see anything. She noticed that there was something moving inside of it, some kind of small animal.
"What do we have here...?"
She opened the bag and saw the animal trying to grab the wooden gauntlet that Clayton was talking about with no success. Mia captured it with her hand and started to analyze it.
"What's the matter little guy? Do you want to be a mage too? Why were you going after this piece of wood?"
The animal on her hand was a small green frog trying desperately to free himself from Mia and reach the gauntlet.
"Clayton is this your pet or something?"
"Er... No... It's from Orion... For some reason, he keeps following us trying to grab the wooden gauntlet, and Orion decided to adopt him..."
Mia stared at the small frog for a little while and received more information from the voice inside her head.
"This isn't a frog... This is a human..."
Clayton widened his eyes.
"E- Excuse me???"
"This is a human that got transformed into a frog by the crossbow mage... She tried to do the same to my boyfriend..."
"W- What??"
"Say, little guy... How would you like to become human again and get a little bit of revenge?"
Xadi stopped to panic inside Mia's hand and nodded in agreement.
"My, my, this really might work well after all..."