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Ervas glanced at the mercenary boss as he saw that Ivy was having a hard time killing it. The guy seemed more resilient than the others, and it constantly ran around while blocking her needles with its shield.
She had tried to approach him, but he would defend himself with a sword set in flames by pouring the blade with alcohol and setting it ablaze with a small magic artifact that seemed to be capable of generating small fires to create torches and other things.
"Just as I thought, Fire is still the weakness of my plants… well, I am there to help them out," said Ervas, flying above the bandit… mercenary boss in an instant!
"Hello,"
"Ah! The demon!" shouted the bald and scarred man, opening his eyes wide open due to the surprise and fear.
"Mana Cannonball"
In a mere second, Ervas created a large cannonball-sized Mana Bullet and launched it towards the Mercenary Boss.
"Shit!"
Raising his shield made out of thin iron, he tried to block the Mana Cannonball with it, imitating a Shield Technique and using his small amount of Mana to increase the endurance of the item.
Clash!
The Mana Cannonball destroyed the thin shield into pieces, but the shield managed to offset most of the impact, only sending the Mercenary Boss flying several meters across the air.
"Shaaa!" roared Ivy, using this opportunity to strike him, entangling her body around the Mercenary Boss, and seeping her paralyzing poison into its flesh.
"Aaaggggghh! Get off! Gyaaa!"
The Mercenary Boss struggled in pain; his flame sword was being held by Ervas Telekinesis Spell.
"You're looking for this? Here, have it back," said Ervas, turning off the fire of the blade with a breeze of pure mana and then sending the sword flying towards the mercenary stomach, piercing him deeply. Ivy was of course untattered as Ervas made sure not to hit her.
"Boogeehh…!"
The Mercenary Boss vomited mouthfuls of blood as Ivy enjoyed her meal, entangling its head and munching its skull.
"Shaaa!"
"Gggaaaahh…!"
"Enjoy the meal, Ivy. Hopefully, you can get to Rank 3 with this… And about the rest… Dad is doing fine, he is now launching fireballs and burning alive some mercenaries… and Gwendolyn and her sisters are killing more mercenaries by using their own bodies… meanwhile, Ainsley and Alder (the tree sprout twins) are already feeding on the nutrients of the mercenaries they fought… ouch, one has a sword stuck on its trunk…" analyzed Ervas, taking out the blades with Telekinesis and then healing them back with Life Attribute magic.
As Ervas was observing everything, a mercenary appeared behind him, the only one possessing the 'Stealth' and 'Silent Steps' Skills, wielding a dagger coated in some kind of poison.
"Watch out! Aqua, now!" shouted the voice of a young woman in her early twenties.
"Guuu!"
A rocket punch made out of a blue and slimy liquid wielding a dark and scarlet gauntlet was fired towards the mercenary's head, smashing it into pieces.
"Oof, he was weaker than I thought, what a mess…" muttered the slim woman, wearing a dark and red gothic-themed armor, which was oddly tight to the body.
"Guu…" muttered the slime inside of her armor.
Ervas immediately knew who this person was.
"You're finally here. And you didn't have to worry, I had sensed this guy but I was deliberately letting him approach me, I was about to blast it with Telekinesis, but thanks," he said.
"Ah? You immediately recognized me… we are truly two halves, aren't we?" asked Veronica, the armored woman.
"Indeed, though we seem to have developed differently. Also, you are a Living Armor, I never expected that," said Ervas, showing a mild smile.
"And you're a half-demon, I thought you were going to be a human… and what with that Mana?" asked Veronica, finally embracing Ervas in a tight hug.
"Your entire body is armor, and your hug is immensely strong, stop… And the Mana, I will explain it later," muttered Ervas.
"Ah, sorry," apologized Veronica.
"For now, let's finish these Experience Points bags, we can do introductions later," said Ervas, floating around the battlefield.
"We are really two halves, I thought the same thing!" said Veronica, rushing towards the nearest mercenary and smashing their bodies into pieces of flesh with four punches of her gauntlets.
"They're weak…" muttered Veronica, cleaning her gauntlets from the blood and flesh.
"Aqua, Charlotte, you can go wild, but spare the villagers,"
"Guuu!"
"Gishiii!"
Aqua and Charlotte jumped out of Veronica's hollow body as they began to slaughter the mercenaries on their own.
"So these are bandits or what?" wondered Veronica, slashing them with her soul claws.
"No, these are mercenaries sent for my head. However, instead of coming straight for me, they began to storm the village and tried to assault the women and steal the people, just like bandits. I decided to kill them," said Ervas, telepathically.
"Good choice," said Veronica, giving Ervas a thumbs up with her Soul Claw.
"What are these monsters?!" shouted a mercenary, glancing at Aqua and Charlotte
"More and more strange things are happening, just run for your lives- GAH!" said another, trying to run away, however, he was shot down by Aqua's water bullets.
"My arm!" shouted another, who had its arm completely bitten off by Charlotte's strong bite, poison seeping inside of his flesh, slowly melting his insides.
"This woman… is she a knight, a tamer?!"
"If you came from the duchy you should be helping us!" shouted a mercenary that had its legs broken by Veronica's Soul Claw.
"Duchy? Ah no, I am not from there, sorry" said Veronica, crushing the mercenary's head with her foot, his eyes flying through the air.
Jason finally regrouped with Ervas, after killing many mercenaries, his Job maxed in the level immediately.
"Ah! A knight and… a slime and a giant spider! Ervas, run!" shouted Jason.
Ervas appeared from behind Jason and patted his shoulder.
"Calm down, father. They're my friends," said Ervas.
"Y-Your friends?! Since when?! I have never seen them!"
"I will explain later, here, I got the Job Changing Crystal, use it," said Ervas, carrying a large green crystal with Telekinesis and showing it to Jason.
"What? You stole it from…! Sigh, alright"
Jason touched the mystical crystal and changed Jobs, resuming his slaughter.
"Stop, I surrender! I surrender!" shouted a mercenary.
"Well… if you surrender…" muttered Jason, giving some hope to a mercenary.
"No, kill it, I already captured one to take information out of it,"
"Oops, my son says that I shouldn't, so goodbye," said Jason, with an apologetic smile as he burned the mercenary, whose legs were broken by Jason's club techniques, with a fireball conjured with the Fire Attribute Magic Skill.
"Gyyaaaa!"
As time went by, the entire mercenary group, which was made of over twenty members, was completely exterminated except a lucky one who would have its death delayed until Ervas extracts info out of him.
Charlotte, Aqua, and the plants quickly ate the corpses without leaving any trails, while Ervas and Veronica began to assess the items carried by the mercenary, and if anything could possibly have any value.
The houses that were set ablaze were turn off by Aqua's Water Attribute Magic and the villagers were trembling inside of their houses, they couldn't dare go out and confront such strong people capable of slaughtering a massive group of mercenaries like nothing.
"Oh, they ate all the mercenaries… I wanted to try one out" said Ervas.
"I wouldn't recommend it, they must taste awful, right Aqua, Charlotte?" asked Veronica.
"Geehhh…" muttered Aqua, trying to show her disgust.
"Gisha…" muttered Charlotte, trying to do as well.
"Even though they were disgusted, they ate them all rather energetically… And Ervas, do not eat humans, your dad is a human you know?" said Jason, whipping the sweat out of his forehead.
"Oops, sorry for the thought," apologized Ervas.
"What a man, is this your father?" asked Veronica, glancing at Jason's attractive figure.
"He is, he's quite handsome, isn't it? I'm proud of being his son, his name is Jason," said Ervas.
"H-Handsome?! C-Can I get some introduction from this lady over here at the very least…?" asked Jason.
"Ah, I'm Veronica, nice to meet you, Jason. Anyways, I am not actually a human you know?" laughed Veronica as she took off her helmet, revealing nothing inside of her armor.
"A-A Living Armor!" shouted Jason, falling over his butt.
"Calm down, she's my… split soul. Now she is more like my elder sister," said Ervas.
"You mean… you two used to be one?!" shouted Jason.
"More or less," said Veronica.
"Yeah, more or less," said Ervas.
"Wait, Veronica, weren't you siblings?!" shouted Shade, coming out of Veronica's armor.
"Well I kind of changed the story because I didn't want to go into details, but I will explain it to you later, Shade," said Veronica.
"What?! I… sigh… okay. Ah, I am Shade, a Spirit of Light," said Shade, introducing himself.
"I can tell. You can talk and all… This is my Gaia, she's rather young" said Ervas, presenting Gaia to Shade.
"Ervas! Friend?" she asked.
"Yes, friend," said Ervas.
"I see, nice to meet you, Gaia," said Shade.
"Friend!" said Gaia.
"Ahh… I guess… I should introduce my Gnome. Come here buddy" said Jason, as a small spherical gray rock appeared.
"Pokuu…" said Gnome, shily.
"Oh, it's cute… Aqua, present Sylphid as well!" said Veronica, as Aqua called Sylphid, a small white cloud.
"Foo, foo," it said.
"Impressive, so we have four spirits with our entire party… This might work," said Ervas.
The four spirits interacted with each other, three of them were rather young, while Shade was the eldest one, and already saw the three as his adoptive children or little siblings.
"Let's all get well together," said Shade.
"Foo, foo," said Sylphid, happily.
"Friend!" said Gaia, energetically.
"Pokuu…" said Gnome, happy but still a bit shy.
After the small talk, everyone packed various things, Jason revealed that he had a small Item Pouch gifted by Ervas's mother, and Veronica as well. With them, they saved all the money the mercenaries carried, alongside some of their provisions, weapons, and armor in a good state.
They also 'borrowed' a lot of things from the villagers who left their homes abandoned as payment for saving their lives.
When the whole group finally disappeared from the village without even saying goodbye, the villagers came out… trembling.
"Just… what was all of that…?" muttered the old chief, his weak and frail body almost falling to his knees.
"I don't know chief… but I think we were truly lucky this time…" said a young villager.
"So the demon boy had more allies… and his magic abilities were… insane, to say the least," said an old man.
"Are mages even capable of doing all he did?" wondered a mature woman.
"Those mercenaries… completely disappeared, what will we do now?"
"What if… the duchy sends knights to apprehend us for killing them, even if we didn't do it?!"
"That cursed demon!"
"Shut up, if it wasn't for him, he would have been slaughtered and violated by those barbaric mercenaries…" muttered a young girl, one of the ones that were about to be assaulted.
"It's true… he was a demon, yet he protected us all from the bandits…" said a young girl.
"Demons have never been naturally bad people… it's the church that makes them see as monsters… Jason was a good man, he would never raise a monster," said a young man.
"Silence! These thieves! They dared to steal the Job changing Crystal from the shrine! The gift from the gods that we had saved for generations! Gaaaahhh!" shouted the chief, falling unconscious out of pure rage.
"Ah! Chief hang in there!" said a young man, carrying the chief to his house.
"Hey, they looted the houses we left open!"
"My things!"
"Eh?! My crops, they were all stolen!"
"Mine too!"
"They stole all of them!"
"Perhaps they were rather malicious…?" muttered a little girl, baffled.
"Sigh… it's not like we don't deserve this," said her father.
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