Chapter 111: Devils Everywhere

As the next morning arrived, so did Helga, she'd been off scouting the rest of the forest that she could not only use to train Raven's party but also to clear up the path that led to the next kingdom. However, even if they made it out, there was fear of running into a monster tribe that inhabited the land between Athenia and the next kingdom over.

However, that was something she wasn't too worried about since she wouldn't be going there with them anyway.

"First things fir-"

"No! First, you're gonna tell us why you sold this demonic equipment to Reina!" Yelling at Helga after she'd just gathered everyone, Aria demanded an answer with her fists ready to punch her.

A bit confused by her question, Helga glanced her up and down, and although at first, she didn't notice anything, the second time over she finally recognized the gauntlets.

"Gauntlet of bloodlust...Been a while since I'd seen them," thinking back to her time in the holy war against the demon lord, she was reminded of how she used those very gloves to shatter the skulls of countless enemies.

'Murdock, how far did you foresee?' Rushed with a strange chill all over her skin, every goosebump in her body prickled up.

"Answer me!" Aria demanded again, her anger visibly getting worse by the moment.

"A god told me to pass them down, I waited for a while for someone to seem worth-"

'What's happening to me?!' Panicking internally, she tried to keep up her contour even though the pain in her chest kept getting worse and worse.

"Archer, mage, do you see anything?" Calling out Mel and Raven, while also grabbing Amedith by the arm and shoving him forward with his shield, Helga stood still with her hands folded and her eyes scanning their surroundings.

"N-nothing yet?" Mel replied, but Raven decided to look more closely with his dark vision.

Looking around the area he didn't notice much at first, but then as a pair of silver eyes flickered and then quickly shut, he conjured a spear made of darkness and hurled it at the horror. Stabbing through its skin and pinning it into a tree's branch, Raven didn't want to take any chances with its survival so he even shot a basic fireball in its direction.

With an ear-piercing squeal, the horror's entire body burned to a crisp, and to even Helga's surprise, the spear didn't disappear even when the horror's body did.

"That's a start, but don't get too cocky alright?" Turning to face Mel with her hands on her hips, Helga's tone quickly changed from encouraging to severely mad. "You're a woodland elf, right? Did you not hear what I said before entering the forest? We use everything we've got! And when the cost is the life of your friends, do you really want to hold back on using your woodland magic?

Inside a forest of all places! You should be invincible here you slug!"

Caught off guard by the sudden lecture, Mel didn't know what to say. But every word from Helga's mouth rang true in everyone's ears. The ability to fly with wind magic, use the trees, the roots, and vines to her advantage, if she was just half as willing the horrors with physical attributes barely stood any chance against her abilities.

"I-I'll do better," finally replying to Helga, she looked her in the eye and nodded.

"You better, because they won't show you any mercy or hesitate to use every possible thing on your body to mangle you in body, mind, and soul," and with those words by Helga the training continued.