Not waiting any longer, Zayne lunged forward to attack Kalen, raising his sword in a vertical attack.
Kalen positioned himself in the best position to receive the attack, but as Zayne was halfway through the attack, the wall next to him suddenly exploded, sending him flying.
Zayne reacted quickly, rolling to the ground before getting up.
Kalen covered his face to protect himself from the dust, and seconds later, as the dust cloud dissipated, he could see someone slowly getting up.
The person inside the dust cloud waved his arm, trying to disperse the dust, and then looked around.
'…What?'
The person who had destroyed the wall was Jeanne Siljard, whom they had not seen since the second day.
Kalen honestly thought that she and the brothers were long dead. He could see no way that such small groups could survive.
But much to his surprise, she was not only alive, but in perfect condition... or so it seemed. After all, she had just broken through a wall.
Undeterred by her presence, Kalen ran toward the unsuspecting Zayne.
The young man saw Kalen approaching and blocked his attack with his sword.
Kalen smiled macabrely.
"Do not look away, your neck may be in danger"
Zayne tightened his bite and pushed Kalen away with a thrust of his sword.
As they exchanged blows, Jeanne looked at them curiously, but quickly turned her gaze back to the hole she had made in the wall.
From there, something rushed at her, forcing her to dodge.
A creature from the abyss, identical to the others but larger, lost its balance as Jeanne dodged, and before it could get up, an arrow lodged in its hind leg.
A howl of pain came from its snout, and soon two more appeared through the hole in the wall.
"Hmmm?"
Sarah Lincoln looked around as she saw that they had just arrived uninvited to a somewhat... unexpected encounter.
"Wow... I never imagined this"
Beside her, her brother stood silently as he picked up another bone arrow.
Taking advantage of the fact that the creature was wounded by the arrow, Jeanne plunged her greatsword into its chest, ending its life.
The other creatures of the abyss had not yet arrived, so the group saw the arrival of the three people perfectly.
"...You" Elisabeth whispered.
Sarah looked at them and raised her hand.
"Long time no see"
Elisabeth somehow felt slightly offended by Sarah's tone, but she ignored it, knowing that this was not the time for it.
Meanwhile, at the back of the cave, Kalen and Zayne were still exchanging attacks without pausing for breath.
Zayne was surprised, as he hadn't expected to have to waste his time in useless fights, but somehow the first person he faced was not someone he could easily defeat.
They both backed up a few steps and Zayne watched as Kalen's anger began to rise.
"Who are you?"
Kalen raised his sword to his shoulder and looked at Zayne smugly.
"A nobody"
Zayne frowned and decided to get serious...many variables had come into play and his plan was beginning to be compromised.
His veins began to pulsate and swell. Kalen waited for a burst of strength from his opponent and decided to do the same.
He didn't know exactly what Zayne was doing, but in the next instant he had to quickly block the attack coming at him from the side.
'Fast!'
Zayne's speed had increased considerably, but so had his strength, forcing Kalen to take a few steps back to keep his balance.
But Zayne did not wait for Kalen to react against him and began to attack him repeatedly, giving him no room to escape.
Gradually, Kalen was backed into a corner and several superficial wounds began to appear on his skin.
At Zayne's next attack, Kalen deflected his sword, using more force than usual to give him an opening, and releasing the grip on one hand of his sword, he gathered elemental energy in the palm of his hand and placed it in front of Zayne's bare chest.
A gust of air pushed Zayne back a few feet, and he buried his sword in the ground to stop quickly.
He looked up at Kalen and watched as Kalen waved his hand in pain.
Several thoughts crossed his mind as Kalen grabbed the sword with both hands again.
'…That's demonic energy'
There was no doubt about it, somehow Zayne had found a way to obtain a demonic energy core. Not only that, but he seemed to be able to use it better than Kalen could use elemental energy.
Kalen himself could not use that energy to enhance his body, so he had no way to match his speed and strength. He could only use the elemental energy externally, as he had just done.
As they continued to fight, at some point, the creatures of the abyss had appeared, forcing the group to start fighting.
On the side of Jeanne and the brothers, no creatures had appeared, so they just stood still and watched the three fights that took place.
The most important and impressive was undoubtedly the one between the elemental and the monster.
The elemental raised stone barriers that stopped the monster's tentacles, while the monster kept changing its expression.
None of the three had ever seen such strange creatures fight in their lives. Which made it all the more remarkable.
Sarah looked at Jeanne, who was still admiring the fight between the monster and the elemental.
"Is it okay if we don't do anything?"
Jeanne stopped watching the fight and looked back at her.
"Well... I guess we can help"
They had no reason to let the others die, but they also had no reason to help them. Still, they were not heartless people, and for some reason, Jeanne seemed to want to help them.
On the other side of the cave, Kalen stepped back as his cheek had a wound that showed no intention of stopping bleeding.
'This is annoying...'
Kalen was losing, he just couldn't find a way to defeat Zayne. Their skill levels were the same, but in different areas.
As an assassin, Kalen specialized in single, stealthy attacks, but Zayne was a natural swordsman, which was preferable in a one-on-one fight.
In addition, Zayne's control of demonic energy was superior to Kalen's control of elemental energy.
At times, he was able to push Zayne as he had done before with wind, but he needed some time to gather energy, time that Zayne obviously did not want to give him.
Kalen sighed deeply and pulled out three blades he had hidden in his shirt. But Zayne didn't give him time to think and attacked again.
This time, Kalen did not defend with his sword, but began to dodge the weaker attacks and divert the stronger ones. Meanwhile, a thin layer of wind began to cover the surface of the blades.
Not letting Kalen continue as he had planned, Zayne launched a powerful blow, forcing Kalen to defend himself. But instead of defending himself, Kalen used the wind on himself and pushed back a few meters.
This time Zayne was not hindered by the wind, nor did he intend to give Kalen more space, so he pushed forward.
Kalen smiled inwardly and as he moved backward and Zayne moved forward, he threw all three knives at once.
Zayne scoffed, thinking it was stupid what he had just done, but he never expected the knives to be so fast that he wouldn't be able to deflect them in time.
With a thin layer of wind covering them, the knives were able to cut through the air, making them faster than normal.
One of the bone knives dug a few inches into Zayne's abdomen, not deep enough to seriously injure him, but deep enough to hinder him a bit.
Zayne grunted slightly as he removed the knife from his abdomen and covered the hole in his skin with demonic energy to stop the bleeding.
'I didn't know he could do that' Kalen thought in surprise.
Anyway, it wouldn't heal the wound, it would only stop the bleeding.
Gripping the sword with both hands again, Zayne glared at Kalen angrily.
"Why can't you just be obedient and get out of the way?"
Kalen smiled and tightened his grip on the sword as well.
"Force me"
At that moment, Zayne froze, his eyes widening in surprise as he felt a sting in his back. Turning his head, he watched as Jaume Che plunged a sword through his body.
"You!"
Jaume Che pulled the sword out of Zayne's body and took a few steps away, his breathing labored and his hands shaking.
Zayne tried to cover his wound with more demonic energy, but the damage was already so severe that he spat blood without being able to stop the bleeding.
Kalen watched in surprise as Zayne was stabbed in the back, he had seen Jaume coming but did not give it any importance.
It would be easy to get rid of him if he came to join Zayne, what he never expected was that Zayne would stab him.
Kalen smiled at the surprise but didn't let his guard down. Not when he saw the demonic energy begin to smoke from Zayne's eyes.
Zayne tightened his bite and looked at Jaume Che with framed hatred.
"How dare you!"
Zayne sighed and more demonic energy began to seep from his mouth.
"KILL HIM"
As if in response to Zayne's scream, the monster still fighting the older elemental screamed into the air.
This time the scream was much louder than the previous ones, so much so that even the larger elemental was forced to retreat a few meters as a precaution.
But in an instant, without warning, several black spikes emerged from the ground.
The older elemental, already weakened as he used the last of his life energy to keep the monster at bay. Was unable to dodge all of the spikes that were embedded in his body.
Even though his body was ethereal and made of energy, he was only immune to physical attacks, not attacks of other energies.
When Kalen saw the older elemental being impaled, he cursed and didn't stop, knowing that he would soon be in trouble.
'Shit!'
Kalen ran towards Zayne and slashed at him with his sword.