Chapter 187 186. Damian.

"Haa...haa...haaa...." Max breathed heavily after competing against Seo Hana for hours.

"You...haa... you're g..haa..good." Max said while breathing heavily while Seo Hana stood in front of him with her hands on her waist and a "I won" face, but she too had beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

"This... was the second-best time I had in my life." Seo Hana said with a bright smile on her face, which made her even cuter than she already was.

"Hahahaha, well, I now know that I'm not the first to compete against Seo Hana." Max said without thinking much, but Seo Hana flinched at his words, and a wry smile appeared on her face.

"Max." Faye walked towards Max and cupped his face, forcing him to look at her beautiful face because she was feeling insecure about Seo Hana, and then something unexpected happened as Max stopped moving.

"Max?" Faye tilted her head in confusion, and as if he knew about the sort of thoughts Faye carried,

"Whoa.... you're a ton more beautiful up close." Max mumbled, seemingly in daze.

"Wha... Mmphf!" Faye blushed and wanted to ask what nonsense he was speaking, since he saw her like that the whole day, but was cut short by Max who leaned forward and gave her short kiss which erased all the insecure feeling she had.

"The hobgoblin mage, few normal hobgoblins, goblins and three Orcs are left." Max said.

"A-alright." Seo Hana blushed slightly and replied to his words, instantly.

"Max..... can I help?" Faye asked in a dejected tone because she wasn't able fight next to him and that feeling.... somehow stung her heart.

'I am not able be of any help to him.....' Faye thought and slouched her shoulders forward as she looked down at the ground.

"I can understand your feelings, but you do know that the hobgoblin mage is the cause for the orcs and goblins going berserk, right?" Max placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned forward towards her face before hugging her head on his chest slightly stronger than he had ever done before. That hug felt like he was worried about her safety, and she felt like he was a bit more possessive than she had thought.

"...haaa." Faye took a deep breath of his scent and hugged him back, since she knew it would be a bit more dangerous from now on and she didn't want to be too unreasonable; if she wasn't satisfied with this, she just had to go to another gate with him next time. But as she was about to let go, she noticed that his heartbeat was normal and his body wasn't even covered in sweat, everything indicating that he wasn't tired, not even a bit.

'He....was so tired just now though? Ah! His sweat must have evaporated due to the heat his fire produces. Of course, even though I wasn't next to him, I was still able to feel hot just by being near him, so he won't be any different.' Faye concluded.

"Kekekiruke!!" A weird voice sounded and snapped everybody out of their trance. Max gently pushed Faye back and stood in front of her with reddish orange fire covering his forearms; they even began to burn the clothes he wore.

'Hot' Faye thought, but continued to stand behind him since he was doing that for her, and she felt that it would be disrespectful to Max if she moved away.

"9 normal hobgoblins, 30 goblins, 3 Orcs and a hobgoblin mage incoming!!" Max roared and a spear made of his fire materialized in his right hand; it produced so much heat that everything around him was being lit on fire without them even doing anything while also causing ripples around him, but none of them affected Faye.

It was a skill he hadn't used from the time they had entered the gate, but him using that strong strength means that the enemy is stronger for him to bring out his techniques, everybody understood the situation without anybody even talking, they stood on their guards.

RUMBLE (4x)

The ground started to tremble the more the monsters moved closer, and though they weren't that heavy, the ground still trembled for unknown reasons. And soon, the monster hoard was in sight. Max wasted no time; he leaned back, holding the fire spear in the middle, and threw it towards the monster hoard with full force.

BOOM (5x)

The spear was shot out towards the monsters, leaving behind five black, circular wind pressures as it pierced through the wind with a thick line of black smoke.

The spear moved so fast that it seemed like teleportation, if not for the trial and area which burned after the spear had already arrived in front of monsters, they would have thought that it really did teleport.

BANG!

A loud 'bang' resounded upon impact and a ripple which was strong enough to push back everybody shot out from the impact and huge black clouded mushroom formed in a distance and that....cleared everything in the area, including monsters.....

Or so they thought.

BOOM!

WHOOOSMM

A big silhouette zoomed through the thick muddy cloud that covered their sights and....

BAM!! (8x)

SPLURT

THUMP (4x)

"...." Everything turned silent after the sound of something splattering sounded inside the thick veil of muddy cloud.

"Tsk." Max clicked his tongue and disappeared from the sights of Seo Hana, Elise Ryan, Alex Turner, and Faye, who stood close to him, and....

BOOOOOMMM!!

A loudest 'boom' they had ever heard resounded and everything turned silent once again, but then something ball shaped flew into the sky and.....

WHOOOSH

Another huge ripple shot out from the spot where Max had disappeared to and cleared the thick veil of muddy cloud in front of them, revealing a gruesome sight of slaughter where Max and Alvin were visible.

All the goons Alvin had brought had died with their bodies exploding. Alvin was slumped down on the ground with a puddle of piss beneath him, covering his ears in fear and trembling with his eyes dilated, while Max stood like a heroic figure; he stood in front of a headless hobgoblin's huge body. It had dozens of necklaces hanging on its shoulders and dozens of bracelets around its wrists and ankles, and its body was covered in red maze-like patterns, the same patterns that were normally only seen on Orc warriors.

THUD!!

A loud 'thud' resounded seconds later, and when they all turned to face the source, they saw a six-eyed hobgoblin's head, which was the ball that was shot up into the sky previously; it had three pairs of eyes, above and below the eyes that are normally placed, with two lower fangs protruding out from the corner of its mouth, and a dark purple hair bun on the top of its head; it looked... ancient.

"Damian." Max's mumbled words sounded, but nobody could understand what he said since he was a bit far away from them.

"Max?"