After Ray finished gathering mana it was already morning and it was time for them to depart to their next destination this time it was finally the Fraux Academy.
'Fuck! I feel like I'm gonna pass out at any second.'
Ray was barely keeping his eyes open on the carriage as he didnt get any sleep due to him being too focused on gathering mana.
"Master Ray are you okay?" Lance asked worriedly.
"I'm fine, and didnt I tell you to speak casually to me?"
"Oh my apologies, Ray."
"Good I'll go to sleep for a while."
And as Ray went to sleep they passed multiple hurdles without him even waking up as he was too tired and Lance protected the carriage and Ray from bandits, beasts, and even monsters.
As they passed by flowery fields until they had to stop at a village as the people within it look as if they haven't gotten any sleep and food for days.
And as Lance got out of the carriage to check as to what happened to this village he was told by the people that.
"Every night there are swarms of monsters destroying our village and even taking our food and they only attack certain people like they have intelligence." The village chief said as Lance carefully listened to his words.
And while they were talking Ray woke up from a sudden noise surrounding him these noice were like howls of wolves and the growling of monsters Ray instinctively ran out of the carriage and used his sun Element to bring light to the area as it was covered with fog and when the fog slightly dissipated he saw multiple figures hiding within it.
'What was that sound? And what did I just see? There's something wrong going on here and where's Lance?' And as Ray heard talking further within the fog he saw Lance talking with the village chief.
"Lance!"
"Oh Ray."
'He actually said my name casually.'
"There are monsters nearby I'm sure of it."
"You saw them?"
"Yes, I already out up a sun barrier around the carriage they won't get through that."
"Everyone!! Get inside your houses now! They're coming!" The village chief shouted as he overheard Lance and Ray's conversation.
And while everyone hurriedly ran to their house the village chief and the soldiers in the village stayed ready to fight off the monsters instead of running.
'He's quick witted.'
"Village chief, state your name." Ray said.
"Tard, and may I ask for your name as well good sir?"
"Ray Grandfell."
"Ray Grandfell? I feel like I've heard of it before, wait THE RAY GRANDFELL??"
"Yes, and please refrain from shouting as it will reveal to the monsters our location, and you may go back to your houses now as me and Lance can take it from here." Ray reassured them.
And Tard along with his soldiers reluctantly went back to houses and spectated both Lance and Ray's battle from their windows.
"Lance get ready I sense more than a hundred low ranked monsters coming our way and at least 10 mid rank and 1 high-mid rank."
Like humans monsters and demons have their own power ranking as well:
Null rank
God rank
Deity rank
Heavenly rank
Supreme rank
Elite rank
High rank
Mid rank
Low rank
These ranks also have sub ranks which are normal, mid, high, peak, 5 low rank monsters are equivalent to 1 mid rank and 5 mid rank are equivalent to 1 high rank and so on and each sub ranks are 1.5x stronger than the last, a mid-high monster is 50% stronger than a normal high monster.
And as the footsteps and the screams of the unknown monsters kept getting closer and closer and due to the fog blocking Lance and Ray's sight it was even more dangerous for them to fight.
"Lance, I'll use a bit of my mana to make a tiny version of the sun."
'Make a tiny version of the sun!? He said like it was normal and come to think of it most of his mana was sealed by several grandmages and one demi God and yet I still haven't seen him run out of mana.'
And just as Ray said he made a sun although it was millions of times smaller than the actual sun he still did it, it was a sun that was around the size of an average human.
'I'll use this sun as a light source for now and when they're all grouped up I'll smash it onto them, but something's weird even though I only sense 1 high-mid rank monster my Heavenly eyes senses at least 10 of them.'
Ray warned Lance about the unknown danger lurking within the fog and as the fog dissipated they saw something more terrifying than they had ever seen their entire life, there was no 100 low ranked or 10 mid ranked it was 5 high ranked monsters that scattered their energy to make it seem like there was that many monsters.
"Oh? It seems we have some humans here that want to die, and I sense quite a lot of mana from that kid, this will be a great feast."
Lizardmen came out of the fog as they slowly walked towards Ray and Lance and the ground beneath them became barren.
'We can't take on these guys right now, we're not strong enough but this sun was made by about 50% of my mana and my mana capacity currently is equivalent to at least 5 grandmages.'
"Master Ray this is bad, these guys are stronger than we thought."
"Don't hesitate Lance even if we might die at least we'll hold back these guys to buy enough time for the villagers to evacuate."
"Master Ray! If you die it will have a bigger impact than the entire empire than those people's lives."
"No, don't have a mindset like that Lance, tens of people's lives are obviously more valuable than one." Ray said as he readied himself for the 5 disasters that were heading their way.
"Hm, you humans are quite brave to not run away after just seeing us." A lizardman who seemed to be the leader of their group said ss he looked down on Both Lance and Ray.
Instead of the normal green skin of the lizardmen this one has red skin as he was either a tilted monster or a named one.
'No! This guys isn't a high rank he's at least on the level of peak-high rank we'll definitely die here.' Lance thought to himself as he looked towards Ray still with hopeful eyes and a fiery aura ready to fend off the lizardmen.
"Oi, we'll give you the chance to attack first, lowly humans."
'This is good he's very arrogant if we just hide our Strength and reveal it at the end we might have a chance to make them retreat at best.' Ray thought to himself as multiple molten spikes came out of the ground almost hitting the red lizardman.
"You're quite good...for a human!" Then he punched Ray with a strike both of them couldn't even see causing Ray to fly off to one of the nearby houses.
"Master Ray-!" While Lance was about to go towards Ray he was also punched by the red lizardman causing damage and extreme pain but he didn't get flung instead he just coughed blood at where he was and screamed at the amount of pain he was feeling.
"Gah!" Ray coughed blood as he stood up from the rubble around him.
"I'm not done yet!"
Ray then formed a sun spear and threw it at one of the lizard man behind their leader and unbeknownst to the 4 lizardmen behind their leader they would die in just one strike as their blood gushed out around them and as their heads went flying with Ray's one strike only then did their leader notice it.
"You!! How dare you kill my brothers!" The lizardman said as he ran towards Ray and picked him up.
"Human!! You're definitely strong, and for that I'll tell you my name the future king of monsters, Garld.
"I knew it you weren't just a named monster you also had a title and for it to have "king" in it as well, we already lost from the start."
Ray said as he grinned and he finally used his sun as it came down aiming for Garld and when he noticed it, it was already to late.
"Human!! Are you trying to kill yourself as well!"
"Heh, as long as I can save the people here.
'When I stood up after he punched I put barriers around the houses in the village so it wouldn't get destroyed by the impact of this sun.'
'And I want to save them as I failed to save the entire human race before this is the least I have to do prevent a future disaster to destroy this world.'
Ray then closed his eyes ready to die with the Garld as he ran out of mana to protect himself with.
And when Lance got back to his senses he saw Ray at the state he was in and what he was about to do but when he tried to save him Ray's sun already reached the ground and the impact caused Lance to be flung towards one of the houses and he closed his eyes as an instinct he heard a loud bang in the distance.
"No!! Master Ray!" He shouted as he opened his eyes to find the body of Garld dead on the ground or so he thought.
And Lance ran towards where Ray and Garld was when the sun hit them only to find Ray unconscious.
"Is he dead!?" Lance asked himself as he put his hand over Ray's chest to find out if his heart was still beating.
TO BE CONTINUED