-" Just wait here for a bit." Orlando patted the boy's head as he sensed a few auras approaching rapidly. " Quite the strong group, isn't it?" He looked over the horizon and let out a confident smile. " Ogrekuth... Algroz." Orlando's shadow wiggled around and split in two, forming two grotesque shadowy creatures. " I want them alive." Since one of his companions had been killed, there was a leftover shadow demon, that his master granted him for this mission,
Orlando was sure that he could even handle the strongest cultivators of the Thule Kingdom with the help of his two demons, and for this reason, he choose to even capture the tournament staffers.
The shadow demons moved as soon as Orlando spoke and lunged toward the approaching group, who were all surprised by the sudden attack.
-" What are those?" The first tournament staffer to notice the monsters let out a cry of surprise and quickly cast a spell, sending a ray of fire toward one of the strange creatures.
The man's spell had lightened the area, and the tournament staffers were finally able to see the creatures clearly, and they were instantly frightened by their hideous looks
-" Are they... demons?" One of the tournament staffers froze with shock, the appearance of demons was never a good sign.
-" Why are they here? Did a portal appear?"
-" Who cares! Call for backup now!"
All of them were filled with astonishment, as demons were no common creatures to find in this world, and their surprise only grew as the demon deflected the ray of fire with a swipe of his hand.
-" They don't look weak either..." The strongest tournament staffer took a deep breath and calmed down. "Let's get in formation!" He quickly jumped out of his eagle and landed face-to-face with one of the demons.
Of the eight people who came, another five followed him and jumped down, completely encircling the demon, while the others two stayed on top of their eagle and prepared to give them cover.
They were all tense, and no one wanted to make the first move as they had no idea what were the powers of the demon.
-" What are you doing here? Who sent you?" One of the tournament staffers finally had enough and tried to communicate with the creature.
The demon's head twisted in an unnatural way, and without even turning his body, he looked back to the man who had just spoken. " Knowing the identity of our lord isn't something that the likes of you should be aware of." The demon smiled as he finished speaking, showing off his hideous teeth.
Another one of the tournament staffers took out his saber, and trusted towards the demon, who now had his head turned the other way; " Insolent!" The man's saber had a lighting coating, giving his thrust quite a powerful look, yet, the saber halted as it made contact with the demon's skin, barely even nicking it.
-" Oh? Insolent?" The demon's head twisted again, returning to its normal position. " Ants that can't even see how high the sky is." The demon continued to smile and was about to grasp the man that attacked him when a fire ray fell on him again.
-" Don't lose your composure!" One of the staffers who remained in the sky shouted. " We need to be careful!"
The staffer who attacked the demon sighed in relief, as he barely had time to dodge the demon's grab. -" This won't be easy." He quickly returned his attention to the creature again and prepared his stance, however, this time he remained still.
-" Won't move?" The demon had a sarcastic grin on his face, and with a swipe of his hands, shadow spikes grew from under all the people present.
The sudden attack caught everyone off guard, some of them narrowly avoided it, while other staffers were even grazed by the shadow pikes. They barely had time to recover when the demon swept his hands once again, and another wave of shadow spikes grew from the ground.
The duo who remained in the sky were already casting spells to help the group on the ground, yet, before they were even able to complete their spells the second demon jumped, and wings sprouted from his back.
The demon sped through the air, and his arms morphed into swords as he approached one of the eagles.
The staffer's face palled as he saw the creature closing on him, and quickly switched the direction of the spell he was casting towards it, but, even with so little distance between them, the demon was still able to maneuver around the air and dodge the spell.
-" Terence!" The second staffer who remained in the air quickly shouted in fear, his spell was already mid-way towards the demon on the ground, and it was too late to try to save his companion.
The demon grinned as he slashed at the eagle's wings, completely severing them, and causing the eagle and the staffer to descend rapidly into the ground.
-" Fuck! Hey Jim! Hang on!" The last remaining staffer in the sky quickly ordered his eagle to dive, trying his best to save his companion.
The group on the ground was all tense as they saw the situation in the sky, they were now without cover, and it was likely that soon enough the second demon would finish his two opponents and join the fight against their group.
Orlando watched the fight with a smile on his face, he was always in awe of the strength of the shadow demons, and it only grew as he watched them dominate the fight against tournament staffers.
" For the elite of the Royal Academy to get so easily dealt with." Orlando patted his belly as he laughed. " I don't even need to join them. do I?" Orlando turned around and faced the boy, who had his face full of anguish. " Oh? You can't watch the spectacle if you keep looking this way." Orlando freed the boy and turned his body towards the fight.
-" Why are you doing this?" The boy bit his lips as he saw the fight, he already didn't have much hope of being saved before, and now that he finally saw the man's strength, he gave up completely.
-" Why? Because is fun... I guess." Orlando looked at the boy with curiosity.
-" Fun? What is fun about going around and kidnapping kids?" The kid snorted at the man.
-" The look of despair and hopelessness on your face." Orlando hit the boy's shoulder and laughed again. " Don't take this personally kid, I was just ordered to do it." Orlando found the boy's calm commendable.
-" Sigh... Ordered?" The boy knew that he had little to no chance to escape, but, he still would try it if the chance arrived. " To even have someone inside the Royal Academy helping you..." The boy looked around and closed his eyes. " It looks like this tournament will be quite the tragedy."
-" You can only blame it on your bad luck." Orlando shook his head and returned to watch the battle who was finally heating up.