"What!" They all shouted in unison.
"This entire time we were with the killer of the baroness!?" Sophie shouted at Lycaon.
"Listen before you act. Antares' past wasn't exactly happy compared to ours. I can assume from a young age that he's been part of the crime syndicate that ordered the death of the baroness.
Crime syndicates are known for taking newborn children and converting them into killing machines. The only order they have engraved into their brain is to follow their master's will. I recently confronted him about this and he's revealed that he was in one and he managed to escape it." Lycaon explained.
"That could be a lie! He could have just created that to get closer to you and kill you without us looking!" Kai chimed in.
While they were arguing, Sebastian was listening in and wasn't surprised by their reactions at all. He wanted to reveal himself to them but he didn't have the conviction to do it. He went missing for two years and committed so much murder that he didn't think he was worthy of their presence.
'As long as I can help them get stronger, I'll be happy. Unfortunately, you guys may have to kill me in the future as Ragnar will order me to kill you…' Sebastian thought. Underneath his mask, he shed a tear and the mask replicated his emotion as Lycaon caught a glimpse of it.
"Get ready! I finished charging the spear up!" Sebastian shouted at them.
He then took a step back and charged forward with the red aura spear in hand. After four steps, he threw the spear and watched it collide against an invisible barrier.
BANG!!!
A big and loud explosion reverberated throughout the caves as the barrier shattered and a large crater was in the center. Upon seeing the destruction, Lycaon started to question Antares' existence.
During the training process, Antares' mask would be destroyed and quickly be covered up by his hand.
'I'm starting to assume you really are him…' Lycaon thought but didn't want it to be true.
"Charge!" Sebastian said as he equipped his Umbral Blade.
Once they heard his words, they all started to cast their magic. Although they wanted to continue their conversation, they had to do something first before confronting Antares.
Within seconds after the barrier had fallen, a ball of black flames had struck the fortress' front gate and started to burn it to the ground.
Crash!
The front gate crashed down and hundreds of orcs started to flood out from the fortress. Soon a barrage of spells came crashing down upon the orcs.
'Not enough big spells.' Sebastian thought, rushing forward. 'Grant me strength, Umbral!'
A streak of black energy started to rise on Sebastian's arm and poked into his skin, absorbing his blood. A second later, a surge of power entered Sebastian's body and the Umbral Blade itself started to glow a red hue.
He then quickly slashed through the air and a black wave of energy shot through the air. The speed behind the attack was too fast for some of the orcs to dodge.
Slash!
Without much resistance, the wave of black energy cut through the orcs like a hot knife cutting through butter. The orcs then saw an opening in Sebastian's stance and lunged for him.
'Fools!'
A longsword appeared by his left side and quickly pulled it out for the defensive enchantment. The orcs, whose fist came in contact with the blade, felt a hundred cuts on their bodies and fell to the ground.
'Weak.' Sebastian thought, disgusted by their feeble strength.
"Antares!" A boy called out.
Hearing a voice, he flash-stepped in their direction and noticed an abundance of orcs near them.
'It's been awhile since I pulled you out.'
The longsword slowly disappeared and was replaced by a giant, black greatsword. He then swung it down and cut down an orc before spinning in a circle and cutting the rest of the orcs nearby down.
"Antares!" Another voice called out.
He flash-stepped again and appeared near the voice and saw another abundance of orcs. Like last time, he cut down an orc and spun in a circle with his greatsword held out.
"Antares!"
'Goddamn it! Jack taught them how to use their weapons so they shouldn't be having much trouble with them!' Sebastian angrily thought.
He repeated this step a couple more times before realizing his energy reserves were half.
"Lycaon! You need to help them! My energy reserves are half and I need to conserve it for the boss!" Sebastian shouted at Lycaon.
Lycaon responded by nodding before cutting down an orc in front of him. He then looked at the incoming orcs and truly saw their numbers.
'Didn't he say sixty percent? That's quite high for this amount of numbers. Wait! Did he mean individually? Or as a group?' Lycaon thought.
He then placed his hand on the ground and spots of purple fire appeared throughout the battlefield.
"Flame Pillars!' He shouted.
Soon, multiple pillars made of purple flames erupted from the ground and burned nearby orcs, though not killing them.
"Kneel!" A loud voice reverberated throughout the cave.
Hundreds of orcs fell to the ground and soon a giant cyclone of wind was hurled toward them. Upon impact, hundreds of orcs flew through the air and slammed into the cave's walls.
"Are you not ashamed!? We've trained underneath the Great Sun Knight, Jack Goldburn! Why are we asking Antares for help?!" Lycaon shouted, attempting to raise morale.
Everyone heard his voice and noticed he was right. Not only were they asking for help but they were struggling against a few weak orcs.
Bang!
A giant suit of armor made of iron and earth had swung its sword down and created a loud noise throughout the cave and battlefield. Everyone was surprised by the appearance of the giant and noticed both Carlos and Baron were on its shoulders.
"Cleave them!' Baron shouted.
The armor did as instructed and cleaved through a horde of orcs. Then it swiped its blade across the ground, killing more orcs
"Hell yeah!" Sebastian shouted, excited. "That's what I'm talking about!"
Not wanting to be outdone, Sebastian jumped into a horde of orcs and equipped his scythe before he spun his scythe around.
"Antares! You're supposed to be saving your energy, not spending it!' Lycaon snapped at his sudden outburst of competitiveness
He then jumped back before looking at Lycaon. A few seconds later, red whips made of aura came out of Sebastian's back and lashed out at the nearest orc.
Everyone who saw these red whips, instantly remembered the day they saw them.
'Those red whips… so what Lycaon said was true…' Baron thought.
A horde of orcs surrounded Sebastian and circled around him. A grin appeared on his face as his red whips were best against groups of enemies.
"We iz best!" An orc shouted at him.
"Like hell, you are! You're just a very weak race! Your boss is weak! You're weak!" Sebastian replied.
"How der yousa inzult da boss!" An orc lunged forward.
Before the orc could get within striking distance of Sebastian, a red whip cut through the air at an astounding speed.
Thump!
The orc fell onto its knees and half of its face fell off before the whole body followed. Seeing their dead brethren, the rest of the orcs went into a frenzy as they lunged forward.
Swoosh!
The sound of a whip cutting through the air was heard multiple times as countless orcs attempted to strike him. The noise took the attention of everyone on the battlefield as he nearly wiped an entire quarter of the orcs.
"You guys take it from here! I need to recover my energy!" Sebastian said, jumping back and sitting in a lotus position.
James appeared by his side and created a barrier around. A few others surrounded the barrier to ensure it wouldn't be broken.
"Push!" Lycaon shouted as he transformed his sword back into a bladed whip.
Crack!
A loud crack was soon heard as a few orcs were bisected.
Boom!
Another loud noise was heard not far from Lycaon as a large lightning strike had happened.
"I will not be left behind!" Sophie shouted.
Surrounded, she was slightly cornered by the orcs. From the looks of it, it didn't seem like they were trying to harm her at all but that was because she could turn into lightning, avoiding the attacks.
"Shall we do it then?" A girl came walking beside her.
"Yes!" She replied
A few golden greatswords appeared out of thin air as the girl started to utilize her magic. The blades of the greatswords started to shine blue before arcs of lightning started to appear on the blade.
"Combination: Lightning Blades!" Both Sophie and Katlynn shouted.
The golden lightning greatswords flew through the air at an impressive speed as they cut through the orcs like they were nothing. One orcs even tried to defend but his shield was shattered.
Although it may have looked like they were doing fine but slowly they were running through their mana fast. Only half of the orcs were gone and yet they were already tired.
"Antares! We can't hold them off any longer!" Lycaon shouted.
"Fine, I'll do it myself." Sebastian said as he stood up. "James, put the barrier down."
"I must say, I'm disappointed. I thought Jack's disciples were supposed to be great." Sebastian shook his head.
A black staff appeared in his hand and soon arcs of reddish black lightning started to arc off his body. Those who saw this didn't know what it was but Lycaon did know.
'He has the Emperor's Will skill… What is your true identity?' Lycaon wanted to question Antares even further.
Flash-stepping forward, Sebastian appeared in front of a horde of orcs, then swung his staff with all his might. At impact, a strong energy forced its way into a few orcs.
Bang!
A few orcs from the horde were killed from the attack and the rest flew through the air from the strong gust of wind created from the attack.
"I don't have enough time to be dealing with you guys!" Sebastian shouted.
He then ran into the horde of orcs and swung his staff wildly around. The orcs were sent flying through the air as a result and slammed into the ceiling or the walls.
A few minutes passed and nearly three fourths of the orcs were killed. Lycaon and his friends were baffled by his resilience and stamina. When they stared at the orcs, they noticed they were shaking violently.
"I never thought I would've seen an orc in fear." Lycaon said, bewildered.
"ROAR!!!"
Upon hearing the roar, everyone covered their ears from such a loud noise. Within seconds, a giant red orc walked out of the fortress and stared at Sebastian.
"You're One ugly motherf***er." Sebastian blurted out.
The high-orc stood at an astounding height of eight feet. A scar ran down its eye and another one down his chest. Its face was disfigured and looked like it had been burned badly.
"All of you stand down! I'll be the one to fight this orc!" Sebastian shouted.
He then pulled out a green vial and injected it into his neck. After a few seconds, he fell to one knee and coughed up blood.
"Antares!" Lycaon called out.
"Calm down. This is just an after-effect of trying to boost my power." Sebastian explained.
'Why did this have to happen now?' Sebastian thought.
He then stood up and walked closer to the high-orc, and stared him dead in the eyes. Before he could react, the orc had swung his fist into his jaw.
Bang!
'What!?'
Bewildered, Sebastian didn't even see the orcs move and felt a warm liquid enter his mouth again.
'I have no choice. I have to transform.'
His muscles started to bulge as his height slowly started to increase. Before long, Sebastian was at the orc's chest. His presence felt stronger and sharper.
"You are strong. We are strong. I evolved and became stronger I got." The high-orc spoke in slightly broken language.
Before the orc knew it, Sebastian was in front of it and already had his claws plunged into its forearm. Blood dripped out from its wound and an angered expression appeared on his face.
"Antares! It's a Berserker Orc!" Lycaon called out.