TidalWave hummed in disappointment as Alaric handed the staff back to its master, Maple. It was only for an instant, but the boy had felt the destructive might of the staff’s Ice Magic.

  Had it not been for Byron, Alaric would have unleashed it.

  ‘I need to get stronger,’ the boy sighed.

  [ You’re stronger than many boys your age… but I understand where you’re coming from. Let’s hope that brute is not all talk. ] Alia’s voice mumbled.

  Maple stared at him a little longer, as though frozen in place. It took Alaric a second to realise his Face Mask was still off.

  He blinked, then backed away, “Maple…”

  “Oh… right! Defensive magic,” the woman fumbled, her face turning a light shade of red as she turned her attention to the staff in her hands.

  TidalWave’s magic took hold, spreading around Maple and Lucy before starting to build something made entirely of ice.

  Surrounding the two, a spherical wall of ice rose until a crystal ball surrounded them. To test its durability, Alaric walked up to it and gave it a tap with his knuckles.

  The ice quickly gripped his knuckles in an instant, burning him hotter than fire ever had. Had he kept his hand there for more than a fraction of a second, the cold would have claimed his hand.

  The boy massaged his throbbing hand with a slight groan, “Y-Yeah… That’s good work.”

  “You okay?” Leon asked the boy with a smirk.

  Alaric nodded feverishly, “Yup… I’m fine. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

  ‘Except for the frostbite…’ he added.

  In truth, his hand was killing him. It would take some time for the mix of pain and numbness to wear off… but he would not be touching that crystal shield again anytime soon.

  Turning away from Leon, Alaric spotted Scarlett sitting alone closer to the Shimmering Creek than the rest. She brandished her knives but remained quiet, ready to defend herself should something go wrong. Alaric approached her and gave her a slight bow.

  “Can I borrow…”

  “No…” the girl responded without allowing him to finish his words… then she stood up and walked away to stand closer to the crystal sphere protecting Maple and Lucy.

  Alaric looked at her retreating form with a neutral expression… or at least that’s what he thought his expression looked like. He wanted to apologise to her for lying about his identity… but when he thought of what to say, nothing came to mind.

  Her coldness stung more than the ice.

  LionHeart, who’d made his way to Alaric without the boy noticing, squeezed his shoulder, “Hey. Don’t sweat it! She’ll come around.”

  “Does this also have to do with your famous advice on how to court females?” Alaric responded.

  LionHeart was confused for a bit before turning white as a sheet, “Oh… Forget what I said back then. I’m a reformed man now.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  “Wise decision.”

  “Mm-hmm,” the boy chuckled inwardly.

  The Naiad rested at the shore of the river, watching Alaric’s every movement with a burning curiosity in its eyes. When Alaric thought the water nymph was only interested in watching, she yelled at Byron, “Hey, Mister Buzzkill! Let the Protector show that Tainted One why they all flee in his presence…”

  Alaric looked between the naiad and Byron. The man ignored the naiad and kept his attention on the lumbering demon. The slippery ice was a true obstacle to its movement… but it was making progress.

  The Naiad clicked her tongue in annoyance, “Tch! What a prick!”

  Byron drew his sword from its sheath and unleashed the full power of his aether, an oppressive aura that warred with the still air caused by Alaric’s presence.

  To the man’s surprise, however, Alaric’s influence on the world was a malleable kind that enhanced his own aura instead of fighting it.

  Byron’s sword glowed a furious yellow colour. In response to the power he was feeding it, aether from the surroundings poured into it, enhancing the already powerful offensive enchantment. ‘Hmm… Not bad,’ he acknowledged the boon, then turned his attention back to the enemy.

  Alaric watched with curiosity… The demon was still stumbling in the distance, struggling relentlessly on the slippery ground it was trying to traverse. Byron had time to charge his attack.

  Attacking it was also a double-edged sword. A poorly calculated attack would most likely leave the beast unscathed… but it would also shatter the even slippery ice and give it enough leverage to cross the distance and attack them.

  Byron’s attack would have to be perfect for them to make the most out of this opportunity. If he didn’t finish the demon off in that attack, however, well… let’s say Alaric had already practised how to summon his Bone Chain Sword almost instantly.

  The boy inched closer to Sariah and whispered gently into her ear, “What is Byron’s Inborn Ability?”

  “Byron?” Sariah thought to herself, “He can read his enemy’s attacks seconds before they hit.”

  Alaric pulled back, wide-eyed, “How many seconds?”

  “Three… Sometimes two. It depends on the speed of the opponent,” the woman shrugged.

  The boy nodded, impressed, “And his guardian?”

  “Oh… you haven’t noticed?” the woman’s voice went up in tone. Alaric shook his head, and she pointed, “Look closely at his lower arms and face.”

  As Alaric did that, he noticed how hairy Byron had become. The boy’s heart sank even more. Not only did Byron have an impressive Inborn Ability, but he had also learned to merge with his guardian, pushing himself to the pinnacle of his power.

  However, that also meant his guardian was not too powerful. Powerful guardians were harder to merge with and required their masters to be of much higher Temper Ranks for them to achieve that state.

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  In his current state, Alaric could only make a single vambrace appear on his arm, and even then, he felt like he was going to collapse under Alia’s immense power.

  Sariah’s voice confirmed his suspicions, “His guardian is D-class… but that didn’t stop him from pursuing his goals. On the bright side, a D-class guardian doesn’t need a very high Temper Rank to comfortably merge with its Master. Before any of us knew it, the man was well beyond our abilities. He climbed into the Stone Temper Rank while we struggled and bottlenecked at the Wood Rank… and now, he’s among the strongest people in Melbourne.”

  Sariah’s voice was drowned out by the chaotic sound of explosive fire magic erupting from the tip of Byron’s sword as the man brought the sword down and twisted it into a horizontal slash.

  Trees shattered, and the ground quaked in response to the attack. Mist and dust rose and the ice began to melt and evaporate, obscuring their view of the demon Byron had just been trying to cut down.

  Alaric spread his awareness beyond his normal senses. His aether sprang into action and he gripped the bone-chain sword in his hand tightly, waiting… listening.

  It happened faster than any of their eyes could follow. Well, except for Byron. The man’s sword was above his head before anyone could understand.

  Without warning, the dust overhead tore open — the demon burst through, claws held high for a deadly downward strike.

  BOOM

  The attack was so powerful that Byron’s feet sank into the ground, creating a small crater, while the remaining force of the blow blew all the dust and mist away in a shockwave. Byron’s body groaned before he gained enough leverage to push back and send the beast back a few meters.

  He didn’t wait for the beast to land as he dashed forward, blade singing with flames. His sword came down on the beast’s body just as its foot touched the ground.

  It was only for a split second, but that was enough time for the demon to find enough purchase to completely dodge the adventurer’s blade.

  The blade slid by the demon’s side, completely missing it… only for Byron to change his grip and go for a horizontal slash. This time, the blade struck the demon in the stomach and lit with fire magic hot enough to blow up a small building.

  BOOM

  Alaric’s sense of relief only lasted a fraction of a second before he saw Byron entangled in another high-speed battle against the demon, this time defending himself from a barrage of razor-sharp swipes.

  ‘Fast…’ he gasped.

  Not only was the demon fast… but it was next to uninjured. A few burns could be seen here and there, but the powerful enchanted blade had not managed to give it a fatal wound yet… let alone a serious cut.

  Alaric’s gut feeling sank even more.

  ‘This is not good… Not good at all.’

  The battle continued, becoming more and more otherworldly at it progressed, making Alaric’s face go pale.

  The world shook and the ground shattered with cracks. Dust rose, cleared and rose again in response to the calamitous attacks endured by both demon and human.

  Even knowing of Byron’s strength, Alaric hadn’t imagined this level of destruction. The ice had long since vanished in the wake of their attacks, leaving behind a ravaged land riddled with small craters.

  The man’s sword was a herald of fiery destruction, while the demon responded with brute destructive force, its impenetrable hide proving more protective than anything Alaric had ever seen.

  They traded blows and with each glancing blow, they unleashed forces powerful enough to slightly remodel their surroundings.

  Trees fell in the wake of their battle, freed from their icy prisons only to be shattered by deadly forces.

  The destruction, surprisingly, had not made it to Alaric and his group.

  It seemed, even with his life on the line, that Byron was managing to keep the fight contained away from the party, performing his duty as Lucy’s bodyguard.

  “It’s too strong,” Bumi’s voice echoed, “He won’t be able to hold out. That’s if we don’t help him.”

  Leon snapped at the man, “Help him? He’s of the Stone Rank and he’s struggling. What good will we do?”

  “It’s a shame you made it to the Gold rank without ever understanding the essence of a party and all its different positions,” Bumi shook his head, readying his sword and shield.

  Alaric took a step forward only to get a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Sariah shaking her head, “This is one of those times when you step aside and let the experienced adventurers handle the work.”

  “I can help…” Alaric started only to be cut off.

  “I know, Alaric. I’ve seen you train. But we haven’t had enough time to get acquainted with your fighting style. It’s too dangerous. We used to work with Byron back in the day, so he knows how we fight,” the woman explained. “Leon, you keep Scarlett and Alaric safe. Only jump in when things get out of hand, which I hope it doesn’t come to.”

  As Bumi and Sariah left to join the calamitous battle, spears of ice formed above the ice dome, protecting Lucy and Maple. Byron was holding his own for now, but a fight like that quickly boiled down to endurance… and the bodyguard had already burned through a lot of aether as it was.

  Byron dashed forward, towering over the demon with his flame-powered sword, then swung down. The blade let out a stream of flames that licked the demon's arms with a sizzling hiss.

  The demon, for once, hadn’t dodged but deflected the blade downwards. Byron groaned through gritted teeth, “Cocky bastard…”

  The demon had seen a weakness in his impeccable fighting style. During the time Byron’s blade ended in a downstroke, there was a fraction of a second during which he was open, fighting the inertia of the enchanted blade.

  The demon darted forward, closing the gap between them in a fraction of a second, then thrust its long, clawed arm forward.

  CLANG went the sound of the demon’s claws, slamming into a heavy shield. Bumi’s shield had made it just in time to shield Byron.

  Byron, however, had already cleared the space, leaving Bumi the Tank skidding with nothing to protect. Bumi scoffed, “Tch! Show off!”

  From Bumi’s right, a woman emerged, her blade flying to meet the surprised demon. She swung… and missed. Alaric drew a sharp breath and balled his fists.

  The demon had cleared the space between them before the sword could meet its skin. It also noticed, however, that Sariah was a lot slower than the man it had been fighting.

  An arrogant, grating gurgle that sounded like a foul laugh reverberated from its throat before it shot forward. A bright red light caught the beast’s attention at the last minute, distracting it from delivering a fatal blow.

  Byron was back, hot sword delivering a litany of attacks that the demon met with its adamantine claws. The woman shot forward as well, driving her blade right into the mess.

  From afar, the move looked stupid and unplanned… but Byron had fought with this bunch before. His fiery blade flashed four times in a choreography that made each strike so fast it might as well have happened at the same time. Each strike parried the demon’s hands, holding them back with enough inertia, exposing its torso to the incoming blade.

  Sariah’s blade bit into the creature’s skin, leaving a long line from which black ooze flowed. Before the demon could retaliate, a sword came down on its head, forcing it to jump back.

  In a flash of a second, the demon had circled around to Byron’s back, gleaming as it leapt in for the attack.

  CLANG went the sound of the demon slamming its claws into a large shield. Sariah’s blade came again… but this time, the demon jumped far and away, taking the time to observe this new combination.

  Byron could breathe at last… and yet, Sariah and Bumi, who had only just joined, were breathing hard, “He’s one tough bastard.”

  “You can sit this one out if it’s too much for you,” Byron chuckled.

  “Not a chance. And next time, use the words ‘Thank you.’”

  “Ha! Not a chance,” Byron replied, “Help me beat this thing and I’ll treat you to a meal. Then we’ll be even.”

  “I want the best Melbourne has to offer. Steak, Booze, Music… A feast worth at least ten gold coins,” the man behind the shield ordered.

  Facing off against what could have been the strongest demon either of them had ever encountered, Byron chuckled, “You haven’t changed one bit. Try to keep up with me, Wood Ranks.”

  With that, Byron shot forward, engaging the demon first in a flurry of attacks. His blade moved faster now, more confidently than before, and he defended himself less.

  This time, when he went for a powerful strike, he didn’t care to protect himself from the demon’s retaliation. A shield was always there to intercept the demon’s blows at the right time.

  A few moments later, Byron managed to land another hit on the demon, sending the beast flying into the woods. Following it, a stream of ice spears slammed into its tough hide, binding it to the ground in a hill of ice.

  Silence filled the woods. The quiet sloshing sound of the water in the Shimmering Creek and singing aether as more ice spears formed above the protective ice globe, ready for the next volley, echoed in the short silence.

  Then, the silence ended with the sound of a thousand shattering icicles as the demon ripped itself out of the binding ice and let out a low growl.

  Alaric wanted to stop worrying… but something inside him didn’t allow it. The demon wasn’t done yet… He knew this but had no idea how to explain it.

  All he could tell was that even after they’d managed to hit the demon with attacks enough to topple towers and shatter concrete walls, the demon was still standing.

  If anything, it was just getting warmed up. They might have been pounding it into the ground and showing it the strength and depth of their teamwork… but all of it would be for nothing if they couldn’t land a decisive blow on the beast.

  “How is it still standing after all of that?” Alaric mumbled in disbelief.

  { Query Incomplete! Please be more specific. }