Xaren clicked his tongue in annoya quickly devoured the soul he had just cimed, then utilized his gravity magic to enhance his speed, propelling himself forward with renewed urgency.

  They emerged from the abandoned path and into the main halls of the fortress, meeting fierce elvea seemed that the fight with the Serpent below had alerted the elves so they were already waiting for the demons at the exit.

  Xaren and the demons forced their way through, their g bdes and flying spells quickly lighting up the walls of the fortress.

  Despite the resistand their injuries, the demons pushed onward, carving a bloody path through until they arrived at a tall hallway that stretched before them.

  Carack poio the door that was at the end of the hallway and yelled.

  “We just have to get past that door!”

  Hearing this, Xare onto the stone wall, his body lightehanks to his gravity manipution. Using his Attra teique, he anchored his feet to the surface, propelling himself horizontally along the fortress wall.

  He swung his sword in a deadly arc, fmes trailing behind as he decapitated a trio of elves who had attempted to block their advaheir bodies colpsed in unison, clearing a path for the demons to charge forward unimpeded.

  Xaren didn’t pause. He jumped back to the ground and sprioward the tall door at the end of the hallway, Carack beside him.

  Together, they smmed into it, pushing it open with force. As the heavy metal door creaked, they quickly turned back to their panions.

  “Hurry! Get inside!” Carack yelled, his voice urgent.

  The other demons dashed through the opening, leaving the elven soldiers chasing them behind.

  The door was a sliding door and was heavy, but one of the demons was a Straga type known for their strength, so with his aid, the door was closed in seds.

  One of the elven soldiers had their legs caught in the door and cried out in pain, but the demons ig and focused on sughtering the elves ihe room.

  As the st of the elves fell, their cries fading into the silence of death, Xaren lowered his sword, breathing heavily. He wiped the sweat from his brow, finally able to take in his surroundings.

  The room was as wide as a small hall and as high as a two-storey building. At the tre of the room stood three stone pilrs, each arranged on a raised ptform.

  “Is this the trol room?”

  Xaren asked, his voice rough from exertion, and Caraodded, stepping forward as his sharp gaze swept over the room.

  “Yeah, this is it. We o move fast to minimize the damage our forces take.”

  He reached into a small ste pouch at his waist, pulling out an aged part. Without wasting time, Carack approached the meisms set in the far wall, refereng the part as he worked.

  First, he removed the elven sword stabbed into the meisms, an a taken by an elf who didn’t want them to take trol of the room.

  Unfortunately, during the time the demons temporarily held this fortress, they had discovered the backup trols and Carack’s part held the instrus for them.

  He pressed a series of buttons, turning levers and making adjustments to the trols. His hands moved with ease, as though he'd studied this fortress’s yout extensively.

  Ohe meisms were in pce, Carack moved to the ptform in the tre of the room. His hand hovered over the orb restiweehree stone pilrs, he i with magic power.

  As the orb pulsed, growing brighter with each passing sed, the runes on the walls around them fred to life.

  The system was ready.

  Returning to the trol board, Carack grabbed a rge lever and pulled it down with force. A distant rumble echoed through the walls as the meisms outside engaged, all the fortress’s gates began to rise.

  “Task pleted. Now we just have to protect this ptil our side quers the fortress.”

  If they left and the elves came in and closed the gates again, it’d be troublesome. Also, to get out of this pce, they had to fight through the elves waiting for them outside the door.

  Though the demons outside had little in the way of experiehey outnumbered the elves by a lot. Now that the gates had opehe fortress wouldn’t be able to serve as one, so they shouldn’t have to wait for too long.

  After making sure the sliding door roperly sealed, the demons sat on the floor and began chatting amongst themselves.

  “Damn, today was the same as always, huh?”

  “I got stabbed in the leg! Whaddya mean ‘the same’?!”

  The demons burst into ughter when they heard the words of the one ing a torn cloth around his bleeding leg, and Xaren couldn’t help but ugh along with them.

  “Leaving this idiot aside.”

  “OY!”

  Carack ighe injured demon and tinued speaking.

  “We made quite the achievements. We should get a lot of merits from this.

  Also, the day we bee Low-Ranked demons isn’t that far.”

  Hearing his words, the other demons nodded in affirmation, and one raised his damaged Warhammer and spoke.

  “My hammer is cracked. I want a new one.”

  While they talked, Xarehe shirt of one of the dead elves as a rag to the blood of his sword. It was then that the subject of versation suddenly shifted to him.

  “Yo! Xaren, right? What’s with that magic that let you run on the wall?”

  Carack threw this question to him and hearing it, the other demons’ eyes gleamed and they turowards him with anticipation.

  Xaren had a short moment of silent ption before speaking.

  “It’s actually a skill, not magic.

  I trol the force that keeps our feet on the ground, so I ged the dire of the force to keep my feet on the wall instead.”

  “Oh, I’ve heard of something like that before. I think the higher demons called it ‘guravity’?”

  “It’s ‘gravity’, you dolt. Now focus on your wound.”

  Carack shut the wounded demon up and tossed him a small healing potion vial, before returning his gaze to Xaren.

  “Is that how you were able to make us faster earlier?”

  He referred to when they were about to ehe fortress and Xaren nodded in affirmation before sheathing his sword.

  “And you use bck fire magic too. How long have you been around?”

  Xaren was about to answer Carack’s question when a sudden loud noise reverberated through the room.

  The loud noise came from beyond the door and the demons reflexively stood up, their hands gripping their ons as the pounding tinued, growing louder and more forceful.

  “Prepare for battle!”

  Carack barked, and the demons rushed to the sides of the door.

  Then, with a deafening explosion, the door was blown off its hinges, ks of stone and iron scattering across the room. But sihe demons had moved away from the doors, none were wounded by this.

  Dust and debris filled the air, but through the haze, a massive figure stepped forward, wielding a Warhammer that seemed te for any normal creature to carry.

  A Lesser Giant had burst through.

  Its long hair hung wild around its face, and its eyes burned a deep, seething red, glowing like embers in the dim light of the trol room.

  Even though it was sidered "small" for its kind, the giant still stood nearly 20 feet tall, t over the demons. Its muscles bulged beh its skin, each step shaking the grouh it as it swung the massive hammer with ease, sending a rush of air through the room.

  “Demon rats!!”

  The giant's roar reverberated through the room, shaking the walls as he stormed in with heavy, thunderous steps.

  “I will tear you all up! I will break your bones and…… GACK?!”

  His threat was cut short by a pained gasp as one of the demons, seizing a fallen elf's crossbow, unleashed a barrage of bolts at the giant’s knees.

  Carack followed with a bzing fireball, and another demon struck with a surge of lightning, causing a violent explosion that destabilized the giant’s stance.

  “You cowardly demons!”

  The giant screamed out, but the demons ignored him and titag. There was o listen to the oppo’s speech.

  ‘This giant must be stupid if he thought we’d stand bad listen to him talk.’

  Xaren thought this as he joihe demons in attag, throwing balls of fme at the giant’s face to obscure his vision.

  Some of the demons attacked the elves who charged in along with the giant, while the others focused on the giant, with Xaren and Cara the lead.

  The giant roared and charged forward. With his rge strides, he only needed a few steps to reach the demons’ positions and force them to split up.

  Raising his hammer, he swung it down with ford the on carved a tere-wide crater in the tre of the room with just one swing.

  The elves tried to tell the giant not to destroy the room, but he didn’t listen and swung his hammer once more, aiming for Carack.

  Xaretra to try and divert the hammer, but the sheer weight only made Xaren able to shift it by a few inches before he hit his limit.

  ‘And he’s lifting that thing so casually!’

  Giants were known for their high base physical strength, so this wasn’t something that came as a surprise.