Clack!
A drop of rain fall from the sky, it hits one of the village house roof, another drops soon followed and in just 15 seconds, the small barely noticeable rain turned into a downpour that washed the earth in its entirety.
"Tch, i had expected it would rain at any moment, but i didn't think it would be right now.." Said the demihuman man.
He ran away from open areas and went into one of the houses in his surrounding to stay away from the rain, since demihumans share a lot of similar traits that a normal beast have, it would make sense that they are also dislike water, although they still take baths from time to time, if they have to choose, most of them would choose to stay away from water.
'Ugh, my tail and ears are all soaked already, it's good that this house seems to be just fine compared with the others..' The man said as he aggressively rubbed his ears and tail to quicken the drying process.
Thankfully he found a house that still have a ceiling big enough for him to take shelter on and not get splashed by the rain drops, otherwise it would've been unpleasant.
'I guess rainy season has started now..'
After waiting for approximately one minute and seeing the rain outside, the man thought whether he should go into the rain or not, although he doesn't like getting soaked in water, he still have mission to do in this village, because that's why he was sent to investigate this place.
"Hm?" The man suddenly noticed a faint sound in the distance.
Shluck!
Shluck!
Shluck!
It sounded like a wet footstep that is walking in a muddy terrain, which is the exact terrain that the village has.
'Someone is coming, one? two? No, there's four!'
"Huh?"
The man looked at the magic crystal he was holding and by some unknown causes, the wobbly line started to move towards another direction, it's as if the line was pointing at a moving object.
'What? why is it changing direction?'
Outside of the house, where the rain is pouring heavily, four robed figure appeared at the doorstep of the house that is being used by that demihuman, the four robed figure stood at the entrance and waited in the rain.
Meanwhile, inside the house..
'Three humans, they're all standing infront of me behind this door..'
There was a crack and crevices in that door, the man used it to vaguely see and checks the outside to gather information about the 3 robed figure, he saw that all of the figures carried two pair of daggers as their weapon, usually someone that uses dagger are known to be an assassin, so they must have a lot of experience at stealth and are able to erase their presence.
'So that's why i can't sense them, then that feeling back then wasn't an illusion, they've been watching me ever since i arrived here.'
SHINGG!
The man pulled out his sword from its sheath and prepares to engage.
BAM!
The door was kicked open, but it wasn't the robed figures doing, the man kicked the door and dashed forward to attack, but when he took a glance at the outside world, he was surprised to find that the three robed figured were all disappeared, leaving only their footprints.
'Tch, they used their stealth— Focus!'
The man closed his eyes and enhanced his focus, among the loud noises of the rain, there was a different tune that came from above the house roof behind him, he felt a vibration, a wave that only he, a demihuman could feel, and that gave him the location of the robed figures.
'THERE!'
SWING!
CLANK!
He swung his sword vertically, and just as he do so, a loud clank was heard, the sword hits the daggers from one of those robed figures, and the figure who realized that its attack have failed immediately retreated by pushing the man's sword blade using its feet.
However that wasn't the end, there were still two other assassin that is lurking somewhere near that man.
CLANK!
CLANK!!
CLANKK!!!
One by one the assassins showed up for themselves, launching an attack to one of the man's vital points, but he managed to dodge all of them and even parried it, the assassins soon grouped together again and they once again stood infront of the man, this time however they were not separated by a creaky wooden door.
"Well, well— You truly live up to the rumors.. Arcsen Riela." Said one of the assassin.
"Do you know me?" Said Arcsen, the demihuman man.
The four of them froze in place and are all stuck in a combat position, they're anticipating for a sudden attack that will either came from Arcsen or the assassins, although both his ears and tail are obviously wet now, Arcsen remained composed and ignored the feeling of his wet fur.
"Who doesn't? your achievement have spread throughout the continent, even to us... The only demihuman member in the Celestial, which many thought to be the next group of heroes, the first demihuman ever recorded to reach a 8-Star mage title with triple-elemental affinity of light, water, and fire, you're also a unique case at that– I heard you mainly use a sword despite being a mage, so im thrilled to experience what it feels like to fight against someone like you."
The three assassins smiled confidently, as if they knew that they can win or escape against Arcsen.
Meanwhile, Arcsen himself, finally dropped the act that he had been putting on from the start.
"Alright, fine, you seems to know your stuff, the fact that i couldn't detect your presence means you lot are skilled right? if you're that confident fighting against me, come here assholes." He said with a mocking tone.
The sword that Arcsen had been holding began to spew out white steams, his crimson eyes also shined, creating an intimidating aura that can be felt by the three assassins.
"Heh!"
SWOOSSH!
All three assassins charged forward with rapid speed, their movement were extremely agile and swift, like a flowing current that is as smooth as butter, they moved in a curved line, closening their gap with Arcsen.
< DEVIL'S BOOST >
The three assassins used the same spell, it wasn't aura that they use, but it works almost the same, the magic spell enhances their speed and strength by multiple folds, but there was something strange with their spell, a normal magic spell shouldn't be able to be used for enhancing, in the first place there was never such a thing like a enhancing spell, only holy magic can do that.
'Black magic? So this is why the line from the crystal changed its direction.'
There was a black aura surrounding all of the assassins, and their eyes looked as if they're burning, although they still maintained their sanity, their confidence has been boosted and they've lost their sense of fear.
People mostly know that black magic is a taboo and it should always be avoided, even when the worst situation happened, that's because not only black magic relies heavily on sacrifices as its fuel instead of mana, but it will also slowly corrupt those who use it, by turning them into an emotionless killer that will do anything for a sacrifice to the devils so that they can use black magic again.
However, what the people don't realize is that..
'It is indeed the jack-of-all-trades magic, they can cast any spells without any restriction as long as they have sacrifices, even an enhancing spell that normally only aura users and holy mages were able to use, black magic can use it aswell.' Arcsen thought.
CLANK!
CLANK!!!
The battle continued, Arcsen skillfully parried all of the oncoming attacks from the assassins, as they dance in the middle of the rain, a thunder roared far away in the distance, one of the assassins leaped and tries to attack Arcsen from above, but he once again blocked it, the force that came from the assassin blade shattered the ground and it pushed Arcsen a few centimeters beneath the ground.
BOOM!
'They have a good teamwork, they took turns attacking so that i can't have any time for casting spells.'
CLANK!
"GOT YOU!"
< SHADOW BLADE >
From behind Arcsen, another assassin appeared from the fog and slashed his magic-enhanced dagger towards Arcsen while all of his hands are preoccupied by the other two assassins infront of him, they all had a thought that they will successfully hit Arcsen and injure him.
"A good tactic, i admit—
SWING!
In just a split second of time, Carfeld crouched and kicked the assassin behind him using his leg, he kicked the assassin's weapon, sending it to the air with its black aura still intact.
"WHAT—
THWACK!
After kicking the assassin's weapon, Carfeld swiftly moved to the side, his movement was unexpectedly fast, even the two assassins infront of him couldn't catch up, they lose their balance for a moment due to the sudden loss of force from Arcsen's blade to theirs.
"Y- YOU BASTARD!"
< DEMONIC SHRIEK >
"AAAARRRHHH!!"
One of the assassin used a spell that makes his scream to be ear-piercingly loud, rather than a scream, it sounded more like a monster shriek, Arcsen who naturally have enhanced hearing because of his race, didn't expect the sudden shriek that came from the assassin, his eyes jolted in shock and he quickly covered his ears, Arcsen could feel blood coming from his ears, the scream actually injured him, his hearing was broken, Arcsen couldn't hear anything but a loud ringing noise.
"UGHH.." He grunted.
"Now, ATTACK HIM!"
The three assassins charged again, they thought this time they have secured their wins, it will be easy to defeat Arcsen who had lost his hearing now, and to think they will defeat one of the Celestial member is laughable.
"..."
'Why do i feel uneasy about this?..' One of the assassin thought..
"Huh?"
< SOLAR BURST >
"SHIT—
BOOM!
Arcsen stabbed his sword to the ground and unleashes a magic circle on the ground that covered a large radius, the three assassins were caught up in the magic circle and they didn't have any chance to dodge or escape, it was too quick, soon– a bright shockwave made out of lights comes out from Arcsen, the shockwave moved at the speed of sound, creating an impossible time to react, the three assassins were hit directly by the yellowish shockwave, it caused their body to tremor like an earthquake, their insides were stirred, some of their skin ripped apart, all of the assassins screamed in agony but their resolved remained unchanged.