I quickly checked their equipment. There were those who used swords, others spears, and some even something similar to pistols or rifles. There were also some who seemed to specialize in magic.
"Seriously, why so many? So many of you just to kill a defenseless girl? You are just trash!"
I did not wait for them to arrive but went head-on against them. The first one I came across, a guy with a long sword, attacked me with a simple slash from above, a predictable attack that was easy to dodge. I only needed to move a little to the side and turn my body a bit so that the sword passed in front of me without doing anything at all. His arms were completely exposed after the failed attack, so I took the opportunity to cut them off. The sound of the sword falling to the ground could not be heard because of his terrible cry of pain. I did not want to hear him screaming, so I silenced him by thrusting my sword through his mouth.
"Don't yell, I'm not deaf."
Two more tried to flank me in an even stupider pincer attack than the attempt to surround me of the three guys from before. All I needed to do was jump to avoid the blades, which whistled through the air just below me. Unable to completely halt their movement, they got close enough to each other to let me land right on top of their heads simply by slightly spreading my legs.
"How are you doing down here? Everything fine?"
"You!" One of them yelled, annoyed at having my shoe on his forehead.
I didn't give them time to try to get away. Using the same method for shooting the dark energy from my finger, I launched the ray from my feet. Their heads exploded into a thousand pieces under the strong attack of concentrated dark energy. I landed easily between both bodies that fell backwards to the ground.
"Three less."
After seeing how easy those two died, the others changed to a more defensive attitude. I did not pretend to wait for their attacks anyway.
"If you don't come closer, I will come instead."
I put my sword on my shoulder and walked toward them. Four seemed to swallow their fear and rushed at me screaming. A simple horizontal cut was enough to have two more lying on the ground. The other two were able to react in time and avoided being cut with them.
"Five less… All of you are no more than trash. Are there no stronger soldiers?"
I had no idea how their troops were made up, but it was clear that those in front of me were the worst as soldiers.
"What are you?" One of them whispered in a thin voice.
"Nothing… I'm nothing," I answered annoyed.
"Damn monster… Listen, don't be afraid of him! We are going to attack with everything we have!" The one who seemed to be the leader of the reinforcements came forward.
The whole group began to shine with great intensity. Apparently, they really planned to go with everything they had.
'They are definitely a group of morons. They waited for five of them to die before fighting seriously. No doubt, a first-rate strategy.'
The group decided to keep their distance and start attacking with their magic. Lots of white beams were fired. At that moment, I also had to get a little more serious. I deflected some of their attacks with my own dark energy shots, blocked others with my sword, and avoided some out of sheer chance. However, all they had was a numerical advantage. If they had been less, I would have not even needed to sweat a bit.
They weren't coming to me and not letting me approach them, so I understood that I should respond to the fire in the same way. I weighed a few ideas as I shook the sword moving my wrist up and down.
'Let's see if this works.'
Instead of concentrating the energy in my hand, I made it flow towards Vurtalis. I created a thin layer around its edge and then shot it with a quick horizontal cut-up. A black blade flew straight at one of the Katrydes located approximately ten meters from me.
'Uhm, well it did.'
That Katryde was completely focused on attacking and did not seem to even consider that I would be able to fight back while avoiding their attacks. The blade hit him squarely, taking his life in an instant. I took the opportunity to repeat the action in the opposite direction to the previous one and another of them died just like him.
"Seven less… There are five left."
I advanced a little. The sound of wet footsteps reached my ears. I looked down. The ground was being painted in red, and the nauseating smell of death filled my nostrils. It didn't matter much to me, but it wasn't something that could be called sense-pleasing either.
"This is impossible! I don't want to die!" One of the Katrydes yelled, completely terrified.
"Keep calm, soldier," the leader tried to reassure him.
"Sir, don't you see it? We can't do anything against that thing!" Another soldier added.
"I'm not staying here. I'm leaving right now!" one more followed.
And so, the morale of the entire group was completely broken. Except for the leader, who was holding out probably just to maintain his pride, the other soldiers were literally terrified.
"Okay… Retreat! Leave at max speed and return to the ship to inform the general!" The leader gave up when he saw that his group was unable to fight anymore.
They all run away as if they were real rays of light. I couldn't allow them to escape. It was more than probable that if they succeeded in their escape they would call more reinforcements that would arrive in a few minutes. I, for my part, was already reaching my limit. So I filled my entire body with what was left of my power and followed them. No, I did not follow them, rather I overtook them and blocked their escape.
"What?! This is impossible, there is nothing that can run faster than light!" One of them yelled when he saw me blocking their way.
"No matter how fast the light is, the darkness will always arrive first." I smiled at them as I gathered the dark power in my hand.
***
I went back to Raidha. Since I got the attention of all the soldiers to be focused solely on me, she had not been hurt, but she looked terrified as them. Her tears did not stop falling like rivers and the closed I got the more scared she looked. I had no clue how I should act before her.
"Calm down, I have no intention of doing anything to you…"
Raidha clenched her fist and after swallowing heavily she controlled her trembling body and opened her mouth.
"Drayd? No… you are not him… Who are you really?" She said with a voice that mixed fear and anger in it.
"I'm not that moron, and who I really am isn't something I can tell you… I don't even know myself. I am nothing, I am nobody."
She closed her trembling lips and lightly bit them. Having regained some of her courage, she got up and ran to me. She held me tightly by my neck, never stopping shaking and shedding tears.
"What about Drayd?! Is him okay or… Wait, are you bleeding?"
I ran my hand under my nose and my index finger turned red.
'This is troublesome…'
I also noticed that my conscience was numbing. I had completely reached my limit. Only standing in front of her becomes difficult.
"Looks like it's time for that moron to come back."
"Eh?"
Apart from the drowsiness, I could notice that my whole body ached. The smoke-like shadows also stopped coming out of my body. Apparently, this body was not able to withstand this power.
'If I keep adding burden to this body, he may die. I can't stay in control for more time… Although I don't have any energy left for it either…'
"What do you mean?" Raidha asked.
"Just that. For the moment I'm leaving… Hi is all yours…"
"Wait, at least tell me what's going on!" Raidha yelled at me.
I was unable to maintain my consciousness and I lost control of the body, which fell like a dead weight into Raidha's arms.
'From now on, you will have to manage alone, I won't be able to help you for a while…'
I raised my eyes slightly with blurry vision and stared into Raidha's eyes.
"Asure not to die…" I managed to whisper before losing my consciousness, trying not to make Raidha hear me.