"You stupid Nitwit! Get back here!"
"KYAAAAH!!"
As soon as his words left his lips, his hand lashed out and grabbed Rosseweisse's nape and forcibly dragged her towards him, narrowly avoiding a large magical ball of lightning that glassed the ground as it crackled pass. Moving Rosseweisse to ride on his back violently while he was at it.
"What the hell is wrong with you?! Stay here and-OH FUCKING HELL!! THAT'S A GRENADE YOU OLD HAG!!!"
Not even giving him a chance to chastise the clueless Saint, he sees Jackie in the corner of his vision catch something that was lobbed deliberately into her hands and immediately, a sense of de ja vu hit him prompting him to shout.
"Eh?"
*BOOM!*
However, though Jackie had somehow managed to unconsciously put up a magical barrier to shield herself from the point-blank blast, she was still blown away and knocked unconscious. Again.
"DAMN IT! Shieldgirl! go and drag that pathetic old hag back here while I go and retrieve the brainless moron stuck over there!"
"As you wish!"
Such was the chaotic scene that played out before Ashen as he and Kyrie struggled to keep themselves alive in the middle of a rather equally chaotic battlefield. Both had their hands full trying to watch out for their other companions.
Kyrie, with her shield, rushes towards a group of goblins that approached Jackie. Ashen, in utter exasperation and fury, mowed down any that blocked his path towards Maria who was being held down by a couple of minotaurs as Rosseweisse clung onto his back for dear life.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!!"
His furious roar echoed in the air as he grasped his sword ever so tightly.
Now, how did they find themselves in this situation?
The answer lies in a certain time not too long ago...
*****
Exactly 20 minutes ago...somewhere in the city of London, right below the floating tower...
"Uhuh...like hell we can just enter that damned structure from the front..."
Ashen grumbled as he looked up towards the tower.
It was at least a hundred meters above them by his estimation, but he really cannot be sure as somehow, something magical was severely disrupting his senses. He already felt this back when he beat-up the Saint's Guard trio, but now that they're basically right under the floating tower, the disruption has gotten very strong. Strong enough to cause him to lose balance should he even lose focus for a second.
"Uh...how are we supposed to get up there then boy? It does not seem like there is a magical means to ascend.", Jackie wondered.
"No shit dumbass. Do you seriously think a group of terrorists toting around a bunch of wyverns would use magical means of transportation?", Ashen said in a disparaging tone.
Their little group-a couple of hours after deciding to go together, had finally reached their destination. However, strange as it may be, from when they joined together until reaching this rather spacious clearing that seemed to have been a plaza previously, they have not encountered even a single enemy.
'My senses are a little disrupted but even then, I should still sense any presence within a a certain range. How come I have yet to actually feel anything else besides us...is it because of the magic that seemed to surround us?'
Ashen thought. His eyes drifting towards his surroundings inspecting whatever it was that no one could see.
"Tsk. I really hate having to deal with magic."
He grimaced with utter annoyance.
"Would it not be possible for you to dispel whatever magic it is you are sensing Mr. Ashen?", Rosseweisse suddenly inquires from beside Ashen.
Ashen on the other hand could only glare at her in complete annoyance,
"If that was possible for me, then I would've done so already, Nitwit. That should have been obvious to you already!"
To his response, Rosseweisse made a gesture of complete confusion, "How is it not possible for you?", she asked.
Ashen felt a vein pop in his temple as his so-called 'annoyance meter' has started to rise up once more, "Isn't it friggin obvious that I can't use magic?!"
"Eh?"x4
To his exasperated retort, not only Rosseweisse, but the also the Saint's Guard trio reacted in surprise.
"Mr. Ashen...", Jackie suddenly called out to him nervously, "Is what you said true?", she asked. Her voice shaking for some reason unknown to Ashen.
"You 3 should have been the ones to notice it from the damned start! Why the heck did you think I even allowed you to accompany us?", Ashen replied in annoyance.
A long an uncomfortable silence followed as the trio stared at Ashen with their mouths agape as they stared at him blankly.
"What?"
Ashen felt a little uncomfortable as he felt their eyes focus on him. Their gazes indiscernible to him, felt off. Normally, he gets looks of disgust, malice or anything else that was negative but these gazes of theirs in particular were different. Not that he cared but then again, they were still unpleasant enough.
"Um...uh...what do you mean by 'cannot use magic'?", Maria sheepishly asked.
"Hah? It's just as I said-!", Ashen was now even more annoyed and crossed his arms as he scowled, "-I can't use magi-!"
Before he could finish, a bright light flashed from underneath their feet. Easily enveloping the entire area in a radiant purple light.
"This feeling! Teleportation magic!", Kyrie cries out in surprise and immediately, she swings her shield towards Rosseweisse and pushes her towards Ashen who then caught her in surprise.
"What the-"
"Mr. Ashen! Please keep the Saint close to you!", Kyrie then requested just as the purple light swallowed them whole.
"What the hell is this?!"
Ashen could not see anything else besides the purple radiance that seemed to fill his entire vision. All he could feel was the weight of Rosseweisse who was knocked towards him by Kyrie and that she was also just as lost as him based on her mumbling.
His eyes were blinded by the radiance, making him curse curse himself internally for stupidly keeping them wide-open during the whole ordeal.
But he had no extra time to further regret his actions for when he was about to blink his eyes to get them to recover from the temporary blindness,
'Sword at the ready fool...'
A voice echoes in his mind.
Quicker than his mind could process, his body moved on its own and in a literal instant, his arm had drawn his sword and raised it high above his head.
In the next moment-
*Clang!*
-something heavy and presumably made of metal clashed against his raised sword.
"Kuh! Damn!"
Ashen grimaced as he felt his grip upon his sword easily give under the pressure and in an effort to resist, he tilts his sword down and lets the attack slide down the length of his sword.
"What the hell?!"
He could not see what it was due to his eyes having yet to recover. Because of that, he was unaware that something had just attacked him and with a weapon at that.
'But I sensed nothing! From the force I just deflected just now, I am pretty sure it did not come from some piece of debris. That was a bonafide physical strike!'
"Mr. Ashen!"
He then hears the voice of Kyrie from the side followed by the dull sound of metal hitting something large just in front of him.
"Mr. Ashen! Are you alright?! Why are you just sitting there in a daze?! Please! I need your help!"
Ashen heard Kyrie plead. Her voice completely filled with anxiety and urgency. However-
"Shut up!"
"Uge!"
-Ashen did not care and simply swung his sword to the side, hoping to hit Kyrie with the flat of his blade which fortunately, did hit her.
"I can't see because of the damned light. Let me recover for a bit.", he grumbled in annoyance while blinking his eyes.
"Heh! We do not need the help of this mongrel to deal with these monsters! Lady Jackie! Let us go and slay these foul beasts before the mongrel can even lift a finger!"
So Ashen heard Maria declare. He did not hear Jackie reply but since he heard the sounds of fighting, he assumed that both had gone to fight whatever it was that were attacking them. Though it sounded reckless he really did not mind this time because he needed time to recover his sight.
After a few more blinks, his vision started to gradually return to normal and as soon as it did,
"Get off me!"
"Kya!"
He shoves away Rosseweisse who was clinging onto him like a monkey.
"Lady Rosseweisse!", Kyrie steps forward and catches Rosseweisse before she could fall to the ground.
"Tsk!", ignoring that, Ashen takes a look around them and sees that they have changed locations;
The scene of ruined buildings and streets were replaced by a large hall-like room with walls that seemed to connect to make a hexagonal shape and seemed to be made of metal. Under his feet, flooring made of smooth and clear metal with intricate arabesque designs similar to a temple's decorated the floor.
"Where the hell?"
The sight completely baffled him causing him to just look around in confusion.
"Get them out of the tower immediately you fools! These intruders must not disturb the ritual!!"
Suddenly, a shrill voice echoed in the air followed by the sounds of hurried footsteps.
Ashen turned towards the source and was surprised to see a large group of creatures charging towards him. Upon closer inspection, he recognized the said creatures;
"Satyrs and Minotaurs? And are those Empusai? What the heck are Greek monsters doing here?!"
He exclaimed.
"I do not know Mr. Ashen but please ready yourself! We seemed to have found ourselves right in the heart of the enemy base!", replied as she readied her shield and her sword.
'Why is everything being so damned difficult?! I just wanted to live my life in goddamned peace! Damn it!'
Ashen grimaced as he brandished his sword towards the oncoming horde of monsters.
*****
7 minutes later...they end up in their current situation;
"Damn! This is endless!"
"Lady Jackie! please wake-up!"
The two are in the middle of a predicament beyond the scope of their expectations.
Ashen, with his one arm, continued to cut down each and every monster that approached. However, whenever he killed one, another would quickly take its place almost like an inexhaustible wave of zombies charging straight at him.
Kyrie on the other hand, has her hands full protecting Rosseweisse and both the injured Maria and unconscious Jackie with her shield in one corner of the hall. Apparently, Ashen had ordered her to get herself and the other 3 in one corner of the hall.
Normally, it would be a pretty bad idea considering the number of their enemies, however-
"Don't take your eyes of me you damned monster!"
-whenever the monsters tried to target Kyrie and the others, Ashen would suddenly appear behind the monsters and immediately kill them.
This caused the monsters to focus mostly on Ashen who to their surprise, had quite the physical prowess to keep them occupied.
Not that their awe was something Ashen cared about, all he needed was to cut down the number of enemies as much as he possibly can. Regardless of the injuries he might sustain as he did not want to die.
His plan was simply to let the majority of the troublesome enemies focus on him and then rush at those who let down their guard and turn their attention elsewhere(which in this particular case, is towards Kyrie.) and then kill them if possible. All for the sake of making sure every enemy would be killed in one fell swoop.
A simple but effective plan. However-
'I can't use magic to quickly dispose of these numbskulls! The enemy is just damned numerous! I would actually believe Shieldgirl's comment about this being the heart of enemy lines!'
-he grimaces as he cuts down a satyr that lunged at him. The enemy was just too numerous.
'And the idiotic couple over there got done in like a bunch of noobs! What the hell?! Why did I even bother bringing them along?! There's hundreds of monsters here! How the hell did they even get themselves done in like that?! It makes no fucking sense!!!'
Just as he had stated, the enemy was not a simple couple dozen nor are they the common mob one could relate to slime in a video game. This time, compared to the enemies he had encountered back in the city, his opponents are well-armed creatures;
The satyrs wore matching light plate armor and wielded spathas, the minotaurs were clad in metal from head to hoof and held axes, greatswords and even tower shields that matched their large bull-like physiques, and finally, the empusai were wearing leather armor and wielded an ensemble of bows, spears and even wicked looking metal claws that screamed 'I'll skin you!'.
They painted an image that not only annoyed Ashen, but also gave him a headache as he had no idea how to deal with them other than to blow them all up if possible.
"Kill that man first! He is using some kind of sorcery to target those who turn their eyes away from him!", one of the creatures ordered.
'Oh shit!'
Ashen felt like he had just found himself in yet another trouble as his enemies finally decided to just overwhelm him with numbers much to his chagrin.
"Mr. Ashen!", the voice of Kyrie cried out.
"Kill him!", one of the monsters bellowed.
"FUCK YOU!", Ashen retorted, his sword at the ready.
And just as everyone was getting ready to kill each other, another came crashing into their midst in a ball of black energy.
*BOOM!*
The hall shook as the black mass planted itself right between Ashen and the oncoming horde.
"You sure have a very foul mouth there. No wonder everyone hates you."
"Brother. You are no different from him."
Voices suddenly came from within the swirling black mass.
Both Ashen and the monster horde was stupefied. They did not expect something like that appearing and to be perfectly frank, Ashen was utterly left in further confusion.
"What the hell?"
That was all he could mutter as he stared at the black mass.
"Stay back and let us deal with this, useless Jin."
A male voice muttered.
The voice felt rather familiar to Ashen and he quickly snapped out from his stupor.
"That voice and that annoying name! Don't fucking tell me-"
Just as he said, the black mass dispersed. Revealing a couple of people-a young man wearing a set of black lamellar armor with a sheathed jian-a chinese sword, in hand and a young woman wearing a black cheongsam dress, holding an open fan on one hand and a ji-a chinese halberd, on the other.
"Brother, to call him with such a name is wrong. Please call him with his proper name.", the young woman retorted, "A pleasure to see you again after so long, Beiwu."
"THAT'S WORSE YOU LITTLE SHIT!!"
Ashen retorted.
However, the young woman only bowed towards him causing Ashen to even feel more annoyed.
"DON'T BOW TO ME LIKE IT'S NO BIG DEAL!! WANT ME TO KILL YOU?!"
At his annoyed shout, the armored young man tapped the young woman on the shoulder, "Daiyu, you handle this side. I shall go and head to the ones at the corner.", he commanded somberly.
"As you wish brother Heng.", the young woman-Daiyu, assented and then approached the fuming Ashen.
"What do you waAAA!"
As soon as she was near him, she swung her halberd's bladeless end at Ashen's feet, knocking him down on his rear much to his surprise.
"What the hell was that for?!"
He demanded.
"Keep still there. You have yet to actually recover so let me deal with this.", Daiyu muttered softly before waving her fan at Ashen, "[Zai qingrou de feng zhong yongbao ni xin'ai de ren], Feng Miansha!", she cast a spell on him much to his surprise.
"Eh?", Ashen somehow felt many of his wounds start healing causing him to fall into confusion once more.
'Didn't this brat hate me for the longest time already? Why is she healing me? Eh?'
He thought so in confusion as he looked on his now healing body. He could feel his body grow lighter and his mind become clearer. It was as if a cumbersome burden was lifted off of his shoulders.
"Good. Now watch me deal with these rabble, Beiwu. It shall not take long.", bowing to him once more, Daiyu then proceeds to face the stupefied horde before her. Her brother, Heng, now nowhere to be seen.
"Wait a sec-"
"K-Kill that woman!"
"UWOOOOOOO!!"
Before Ashen could even comment on the matter, the monsters decided to attack.
'This shit is just becoming confusing as time passes! What the hell?!'
His confusion somehow showed no signs of even being remotely explained as he watches Daiyu-a dainty looking lady, massacre a horde of monsters with a swing of her weapon.