94 Heroes and monsters

Part 1

The state of the southern kingdom was becoming worse by the minute.

The demons continued to rampage left and right and chasing after the invaders who barged into their home carrying piles of blessed metal to slay them.

Chaos was taking over the scenery as buildings were crumbling down anywhere the beasts tried run by. Or at least it used to be until many of the invaders started to be dealt with one after another.

The group of originally six slayers armed with silver armor were divided into three groups of two and were spread out throughout the map of the city. Two of these slayers had been defeated by a lady covered in silver armor and bearing a striking resemblance to a harpy monster.

Two others had also been dealt with by the crossbow magician after she finally managed to wake from her deep sleep prison, and were now in no condition to fight as well.

The only two slayers left, a double gauntlet user named Orion and his boss Clayton, a spear master, were the only ones left to take care of the demons menace. But even though they were short in numbers, the two continued to clean up the kingdom of the monsters that had taken over it.

Even now, the two were battling for their lives while being surrounded by enemies who were trying to bite their heads off.

"How many more left??"

"I don't know... They just keep coming and coming... Keep your senses sharp Orion!"

Clayton was empaling every demon that approached him while Orion was smacking the creatures one against the other without stopping.

Thanks to their equipment, they had a lot of stamina and power to use, much more than they ever did before. They could probably keep fighting for the entire day if they needed it.

"Should we try to reunite with lady Mia?"

"No need to... Our mission is to clean the city and find the crossbow girl. Lady Mia would probably scold us for interrupting her fun."

"Understood! Let's just finish these guys and get a move on then!"

"That's the spirit!"

The warriors kept fighting the horde of demons. They suddenly got flashbacks from the time they first met with Mia. They were also facing a huge number of monstrous enemies and were about to die until that black-haired little girl showed up with her silver swords and saved them.

Realizing that they were facing the same situation but handling it much better than before, the two became fired up with pride after realizing how much they had grown and started to shrink down the number of enemies even faster.

"They're running away!! After then!!"

"On it!!"

AS the two continued to follow the beasts, they ended up being lead towards the big castle located in the heart of the city. They were surprised to see such an old construction still managing to stand despite having so many fissures in it. But even more impressive was the dark aura surrounding it and preventing the two from further chasing after the demons.

"Tsk!! It's a barrier... We can't get inside..."

"What do we do then...?"

"Let's leave them for now... There must still be a lot of demons around the city..."

"Very well... Let's- Huh...!?"

"What's wrong...?"

"There is someone lying on the snow over there..."

"...?"

"Oh, no... I think that's Kairon!! And look!! That's Sebastian!!"

"You're right!!!"

The slayers recognized their fallen comrades and rushed towards their side to help them.

Clayton was trying to help Sebastian who was missing a hand while Orion was with Kairon who had two huge holes on his leg and arm. Both of the slayers were also covered in several wounds that seemed to have been made by the slashes of a sword. Clayton tried to find out what happened to his teammates.

"Kairon!! Sebastian!! Who did this to you???"

Sebastian didn't have any strength left to speak but Kairon still managed to whisper a few words towards his boss.

"The... Woman..."

"Woman?? What woman?? The crossbow mage?? Did you two found her?? Did she do this to you??"

Clayton tried to assume who the culprit was but he saw Kairon shaking his head left and right in denial.

"Her... Friend... The one that rescued her... That night..."

"Ah!! That sword user!! She did this to you??"

Kairon nodded this time.

"Very well... You can rest now my friend... Leave the rest to us..."

Clayton and Orion helped their friends by placing their bodies against a wall and stood up with determination in their eyes.

"Orion... We have a new target..."

"Understood sir..."

They picked up Kairon's bow and Sebastian's claymore and added to their own arsenal to increase the power of their blessed energy.

"Time for payback!"

Part 2

A red woman with wings under her arms wearing silver armor and a black muscular man covered in black fur with a lion face were dashing through the city in chaos and trying to reunite with their lost comrades.

The two kept passing by a large number of demons and monsters, but since the two right now were looking like creatures themselves, none of the beasts tried to attack them.

The black lion tried to speak with the woman while she continued to run with bloodlust in her eyes.

"Lilith! Can you sense anything?"

"Nothing... The dead zone Marcus creates became even stronger not too long ago... I can't see a thing with my future sight!"

Not too long ago, the two were in the company of the demon leader and observing the progress of the war from the castle's balcony. But the leader himself decided to suddenly join the fight by going after the tempest magician that was keeping their leader, Evlin, imprisoned in her sleep.

So now this was their only chance to take action and actually move forward with their plan.

As soon as Xadi was defeated, Evlin would wake up and the state of the war could finally change in their favor. The two were trying to charge to rejoin with their team so they could regroup and organize their strategy when they suddenly received a message inside their heads.

[Daren!! Lilith!! Are you two there!!??]

[Gustav?? Yeah, we are here. What's wrong?]

[Evlin just woke up not too long ago!!]

[What!!??] x 2

This was the best news these two had received in a long time. Evlin waking up meant that they finally had a fighting chance and could stop pretending to be friends with the demons.

[Where is she?? Is she going after Ashley?]

[It's actually the opposite... Ashley is going to go towards her... And she will bring the demon leader with her!]

[... What? What are you talking about?]

[Ashley regained control of her body!]

[!!!] x 2

[She somehow managed to get the dryad to give up control for a short time.]

[Wait... So you mean...]

[I mean that Ashley right now is going to face the demon leader alone!! You two need to help her!!]

[!!!]

Lilith had no words. For a moment it felt as if everything was going to be fine, but now, she just received the news that the one she was trying to save is going to be in even more danger than before.

Ashley was safe until now because the dryad was keeping her inside her mind. But now that she's out, and for some reason she was trying to deal with the leader on her own, if she made a mistake he could kill her.

[What the hell is she thinking?? Gustav, I'm going after her right now! Don't worry!!]

[Please hurry!!]

Lilith finished her conversation and turned towards Daren.

"We need to move faster!!"

"On it!!"

The red harpy and the black lion started to gather more power into their legs and began to rush with all their speed towards the location of where they last saw the leader was heading into. They knew they couldn't defeat the leader on their own, but they could at least knock some sense into Ashley and take her away from him. Not only that, they needed to take her to either Gustav or Evlin so either of them could bring Ashley back to normal.

"I can't believe Ashley would do something this stupid!! What is she thinking??"

Daren seemed really angry with Ashley but Lilith had a sudden realization.

"...!! It's my fault!!"

"...?"

"I provoked the demon leader into joining the fight... He probably didn't just defeat Xadi, he must have killed him!! And he is keeping Ashley by his side all the time now, so he must have done it right in front of her!!"

"Oh! That's right... Ashley didn't know about our plan to wake up Evlin! Oh... No..."

The two were so focused on finding a way to survive this war by getting rid of Xadi that Lilith and Daren completely forgot that he was Ashley's brother.

"That girl is trying to get revenge?"

"Probably... Gahh!! I'm so stupid!!! I can't believe I just told the demon leader to kill Ashley's brother right in front of her!!"

"What's done is done... We need to focus on how to fix this situation right now!"

"R- Right!! The mission is the same as always! Keep Ashley saf- Watch out!!!!"

The two werw continuing to run their way back to the location of the demon leader when a silver arrow suddenly flew by them and almost pierced Lilith's head.

The scare was enough to make them fall on the ground and bury themselves in the snow.

"What... Was that...??"

Daren was starring at the arrow and then tried to look at where it came from. He saw a pair of men in trenchcoats, one carrying a spear in one arm and a claymore on the other, while the second man was wearing silver gauntlets and aiming a silver arrow at Lilith with a metal bow.

"Demon-slayers..."

"Ugh!!! We don't have time for this!!"

"This is bad... These weapons... They must have found their friends and are here for revenge."

"I'll deal with them... Daren, you go help Ashley!!"

"Are you crazy?? You can't face them alone!! You're still hurt from your last battle! Plus, we are still inside the dead zone Marcus created! You won't have your future sight!"

"Then what do you suggest??"

"You go after Ashley!! I'll handle them!"

"Have you lost your mind?? Look at all that silver metal they have!! That stuff touches you and you will go up in flames!!"

"Would you just trust me?? I can't let you fight this alone!!"

"Well, I can't let you fight this alone either!!"

As the two continued to argue over who would face the slayers and who would save Ashley, another arrow came flying by, followed by Clayton swinging his claymore while jumping on top of them.

The two leaped back as Clayton landed and managed to avoid both his attack and the incoming arrow. The slayers looked at the lion on his left and at the harpy on his right, with one weapon in each arm and pointing at them.

"No one is going anywhere..."

Daren looked at his partner.

"Lilith... Let's just deal with these guys together and save Ashley after."

Lilith felt Daren was right. There is no way either of them could survive a fight with the two slayers alone. Sadly, Ashley would have to wait once again.

Lilith assumed her samurai stance and engaged in battle with Clayton while Daren sharpened his claws and glared at Orion, followed by charging towards him.

The two slayers then started their battle for revenge while the two monsters started their battle to protect their lost friend.