Going through the forest in the direction of Firewood Town, the density of mana changed the moment they stepped out of the Empire's borders. The five friends, sensing this shift, adopted more serious stances. Syn tightened his grip on Snow's hand as he sensed the presence of three hundred high-ranked monsters.
Before they could fully comprehend the situation, half of the monsters had already been beheaded.
"He's slightly faster than me," Rhys observed.
Syn turned around, and when he didn't see Ray in the group, he realized that Ray had already engaged the monsters. Despite knowing Ray's capabilities, Syn felt uneasy. Syn felt a twinge of unease, recognizing that he had been trusting them a lot, as he hadn't even sensed Ray's movement, even though he should have been able to.
After a few seconds, the high-ranked monsters became corpses on the ground. The group immediately began retrieving magic stones, knowing they would need them for their journey. While they were preoccupied and somewhat careless, the density of mana around them suddenly increased by six levels, prompting them to adopt defensive positions.
As everyone gripped their weapons, three unknown people came running out of the woods, screaming at the group to run. Just as they emerged from the bushes, a seven-headed snake appeared. The snake had two heads in the front, two in the back, and three in the middle, with the four exterior heads arranged in what looked like a coordinated attack formation.
"Mythical creature?" Rhys questioned.
"Why would such a monster live here in the forest?" Snow wondered aloud.
"Mana's density," Syn replied, drawing his curved blade from its sheath.
"Alpha," he intoned, vanishing from his spot and reappearing in front of the creature. With tremendous force, he slashed through its two front heads, leaving a crack in the air. Snow, witnessing this, remembered her own fight with Syn, recalling how he left similar cracks even without a sword.
"Beta," Syn continued, slashing the snake's two back heads and creating another crack that intersected with the first. Before he could execute a third attack, the four severed heads regenerated, closing in on Syn and trapping him.
With no hesitation, Syn invoked, "Gamma," leaving a third crack and cutting through two of the four heads approaching him. As the remaining two heads lunged at him, he swiftly responded, "Delta," slicing them cleanly. Finally, with "Epsilon," he slashed through the three remaining heads, though he refrained from completing the combination with the final attack due to its high stamina cost.
As Syn was about to sheath his blade, the seven heads regenerated simultaneously, leaving him no choice but to finish his sequence. While everyone watched in awe, Snow felt a pang of worry.
"No worries, here he goes," Ray said, his voice calm and confident.
"Primary combination," Syn intoned, and in an instant, his final attack blinded everything within its range. Unlike before, this strike didn't leave a simple crack in the air but an intense horizontal white line.
For a moment, the friends thought it was over. Then, the space beneath the white line shattered like broken glass, and the snake's body disintegrated into small parts. The sheer power of the attack left the group in awe.
As Syn returned to his friends' side, Rhys and Ray couldn't help but question him about that last attack.
"That was incredible" Rhys informed, still amazed.
Syn took a deep breath before replying, "It's like the secondary combination i used against ray in the S-rank exam but for close range. The primary combination is far stronger than the secondary as it costs a lot of stamina."
Ray nodded, intrigued. "So, the primary is more powerful but more draining."
"Exactly," Syn confirmed. "What you know about the ancient letters is just basic knowledge. When you use them as martial arts techniques or sword skills, they can be much swifter and stronger than normal movements. The primary and secondary combinations are actually parts of a full combination."
He paused, catching his breath, and continued, "I don't have the necessary stamina and agility to keep up with the full combination's strength and speed, so I divided it into parts to match my current capabilities."
"You know that monster you just killed, how could I explain it... do you even know its danger level?" Rhys questioned, probing Syn's knowledge.
"Just a mythical monster?" Syn replied, though it sounded more like a question than a statement.
Laughing, Rhys responded, "That monster you just killed destroyed both the East and North Kingdoms united, 500 years ago."
Snow watched them, marveling at their nonchalance after facing something as formidable as the seven-headed snake,a creature that once terrified the four kingdoms. She realized that these three friends, excluding luna, possessed an extraordinary level of power, enough to potentially massacre the world. This realization cemented her decision to stay close to them, and more precisely, to Syn.
As they resumed their journey after facing the mythical monster, Snow clung to Syn's arm, her worry evident. The fear of being abandoned to the organization that had sent her to kill him gnawed at her. She didn't want to be left alone.
Sensing her anxiety, Syn looked down at her with a reassuring smile promising her safety.Rhys, walking slightly ahead, overheard their conversation and turned to Ray. As they argued about the two of them, Luna felt excluded from the group. Everyone else was walking in pairs, leaving her to walk alone. Sensing her loneliness, Ray signaled to Rhys. They teleported next to her, walking together ahead of Snow and Syn, occasionally glancing back at them.
Though they could have traversed the distance to Firewood Town in less than five minutes, they chose to enjoy the warm, familiar feeling of companionship they had all been missing. Syn and Snow soon caught up with the others, and the group continued walking until nightfall. They set up tents, deciding to resume their journey in the morning.
As they were settling in, more than fifty figures emerged from the dark parts of the forest.
"Bandits?" Luna questioned.
As the figures stepped into the moonlight, it became clear that they were indeed bandits lurking in the shadows.
"A problem after another," Rhys exclaimed.
With swift movements, Luna raised her staff and cast a wide-range spell. "Wind Blades!" she shouted, unleashing a torrent of slicing wind toward the bandits. However, they blocked it with little effort. Just then, a counterattack in the form of wind slashes was directed at Luna. Rhys intervened in the nick of time, blocking the slashes with his scythe.
Without hesitation, Rhys engaged the bandits in close combat. His movements were a blur, his scythe slicing through the air with deadly precision. Within moments, all fifty bandits lay dead at his feet.
As Luna felt bad about not being able to defeat the bandits, rhys reassured her that there was more to the situation than met the eye.as there was a mage using an artifact able to recoil all magic under level six.Luna understood the situation and left rhys to guard the tents in her place at his request.