4 03: Hero this, Hero that

The holy saintess, the great mage, the paladin, and the ranger nodded in agreement. They had been waiting for so long, for the end of the darkness. It seemed like it was time to end it all. They immediately got into their fighting stances, preparing to fight.

The demon king glanced at them and shook his head. "How boring. I have no use of you. Even in a hundred years, you cannot defeat me. I won't fight you." Then he looked back at the hero. "But you there, are different. Since you're that eager to fight me, then fight shall we have. Let's see how much of an opponent you are."

"Nonsense!" Neale interrupted. "We have come so far with only one goal, and that is to kill you."

The demon king coldly said, "And so what? If I don't feel like fighting you then I'm not going to. Blame yourself for being too weak."

"You demon—!"

Waving his hand, the demon king ordered his minions, "Take the irrelevant people out of here. If they resist, kill them."

The demons saluted and were ready to adhere to their king. The four "irrelevant people" widened their eyes in disbelief but that didn't stop them from fighting back. However, before they could do anything, the hero stepped forward.

"No," he spoke up. "Do not hurt my comrades."

"And why should I listen to you?"

"Because I want to have a fair fight with you. If you kill any of my comrades, I will be too grief-stricken to fight."

"..."

"Am I not right? If I cannot fight, then what is the point of this all?"

The demon king lowered his eyelids, seemingly to be thinking. "You are indeed right… Very well."

Then he commanded, "Throw them out, do whatever it takes as long as they don't die."

The demons complied and grabbed the unwanted people.

"No! Get your yucky hands off me!" the holy priestess yelled out. "Hero, hero!"

"Hero! I will take action!"

The hero shook his head. "No, please. Leave with no fight."

The holy knight widened his eyes in shock. "What do you mean, Hero? We can still fight!"

"I am sorry and thank you for all your help and kindness until now. I will be fine, don't you believe in me?"

"Hero…."

"Leave and come back another time with backup if you don't hear from me after seven days."

Neale, with a bitter and unwilling face, reluctantly listened to the hero. Shelara and Kasper were both understanding and didn't make a scene and followed Neale. However, the holy priestess was another thing. She refused to leave the hero alone in the nest of their enemies. How could she have the heart to do that? Of course, the others felt the same but sometimes life was unfair and they had to bite the bullet. The holy priestess was quickly put to sleep by Shelara and was carried by Neale.

"We wish you good luck, Hero."

Then the next moment, they were outside of the demon's territory. No demons attacked them on their way back. They all felt despair and defeated. They could only pray for the hero's victory.

Seeing them gone, the hero sighed in relief. He could finally drop his heroic act. Since he had never met the demon king before, nor had he been with the demons as a person, it didn't matter how he acted.

"Now, shall we begin?" The demon king descended from the sky to the ground, folding his wings.

He was interested in what the legendary hero planned to do. He could feel the powerful aura coming from his body, just from that, he knew the hero was a worthy opponent. At last, after thousands of years, he could finally fight someone to his content. His boredom could completely end. The demon king felt excited and happy. No one could understand how long he had waited for this day to come.

But contrasted to what he expected, the hero unhesitantly let go off his sword and stretched. This left the demon king bewildered.

"What… What are you doing?"

"Hm? I'm stretching my body."

Was this a thing where the hero would stretch before he fights? The demon king didn't think too deeply about it and only waited.

But the longer he waited, the more he felt like something was off.

"Enough. Let's fight."

The hero heard this and cocked his head. "Fight? What fight are you talking about? I don't want to fight."

"What?"

"Like I said," the hero began as he sat down and calmly lay on the ground, "I don't want to fight."

The hero frowned, feeling uncomfortable on the ground. He stood up from the ground and started to take off his armour. They were heavy to wear, anyways. Then he lay down on the ground once again. And this time, he let out a comfortable breath. He could finally rest after riding on a horse for so long.

The demon king narrowed his eyes dangerously. "How daring. You trespass my territory with the ulterior motive of defeating me, and now you're telling me you don't want to fight? Is this how a hero should act? Do your people know how their hero is like? Such an unsightly sight."

The hero rolled his eyes before closing them. "Hero this, hero that. Sick and tired of hearing it. I want to rest!"

This was a lot different from what the demon king expected the legendary hero to be. He was shocked, to say the least. This was his potential opponent? No, that wasn't what he wanted. He could feel how powerful his enemy was but why was he acting ridiculous?

Frowning, the demon king said, "Get up."

No response.

"I said, get up!"

Still no response. Displeased, the demon king instantly attacked the hero with his dark magic. Right before it was about to hit him, the hero swiftly avoided it, but that had made him get up. Now, the hero was also as displeased.

"Why did you attack me?"

"Less talk, more action. We are going to fight," the demon king exclaimed as he sent another attack at the hero.

The hero knitted his eyebrows and avoided the attack once again. "You are such a stubborn demon king."

The demon king didn't care and carried on with attacking but the hero kept dodging, which ticked him off. Just as he thought he would deliver a blow on him, the hero suddenly fell flat to the ground. The demon king stopped his action and coldly looked at what the hero was doing.