The line was crossed.

The spear-wielding demon in the squadron mindlessly drafted ahead, aided by a gust of wind coming from behind. Three of his fellows ran after him with their weapons ready for combat.

"Shit, run!" Commanded the one leading the bandits, seconds after his wings emerged from his back. A single flap allowed him to outrun his pursuers, leaving them behind easily. 

Of course, that's what he thought before a pillar of hardened ground emerged from the ground and collided head-on with his face. 

That's going to hurt a bit.

The spear-wielding guard from earlier reached the closest bandit. "Die!" He screamed with all his might, flinging the spear forward.

"!!"

The bandit, feeling the incoming danger, managed to turn around and deflect the spear away. At the cost of his speed, that is.

"Attack!" 

The last bandit focused on running away. Even with the guard behind him hot on his tail, his eyes wandered towards the battlefield he was leaving behind. Alongside his teammates. 

He had no idea, but he was bound to meet a certain someone due to the path he had chosen. A hidden presence.

A magic hexagon activated, and a small cloud of pollen was blown from it just as the demon passed in front of the hiding spot.

"Wh-!"

The hidden figure ran off, although the bandit got a glimpse of its brown hair. 

An attack coming from its right flank forced his blinded body to react. 

Burnt brown and red particles congregated rather quickly on his light-toned hand, and quickly shaped into a two-handed hammer with a red head.

He deflected the attack with relative ease. However, that left him rather open to an unexpected strike.

"Guh-" 

A wind blade moved towards his shoulder blade. Moments later, blood gushed out the opening. 

The lone bandit gritted his teeth. "You!"

The spear and the hammer clashed one last time, snapping the former in two. The bandit exploited that and kicked the guard in the stomach, then went for the kill.

… or at least tried. The mage put up a bit of a wind wall between his partner and his enemy, which exploded not even a second later. 

Just as the brown one clashed with it.

"!!"

That blew him back a few meters. 

He landed on the grass. His first instincts were to roll away, and he did that.

But that wounded body of his… It wasn't fast enough.

The blade of a broken spear pierced one of his legs, while fresh black blood spurted out of another wound made by a wind blade.

"Ugh… Not like th-"

A single attack coming from the now weapon-less guard put him down for good.

"The others needs help, let's go!"

The duo ran towards the other battlefield, where yet another conflict was taking place.

Two demons engaged in an aerial conflict, while the other three stayed on the ground.

A whip kept striking at the two claws of the uniformed fighter. Needless to say, every attack pushed him back greatly. 

"Tch, strong…" he muttered.

"I can't believe I got scared over this. Even for someone in the Bone Refinement realm, you're nothing short of pathetic."

The attacks of the bandit leader kept raining down on him, though not even one landed on his wings.

He kept a cool face. But a look downwards did nothing but irk him greatly.

His subordinate had been cornered by two of the flies escorting the bigger nuisance. One of his opponents was missing some fingers, along with parts of claws, but that was it.

The brown one barely had his wits with him. 

"Tsk, die already!" yelled the flying bandit, who kept trying to attack his opponent's wings. Similarly, the Shepherd captain did his best to defend them. 

The whip, mostly vine green in appearance, tore apart parts of two more claws. The captain grunted in pain, almost glancing at the broken blue spear on the far-away surface.

Yet, that glance also allowed him to spot two of his allies.

One ran up to the wounded townspeople and quickly tended to their wounds by using his own (newly torn) uniform to create pressure on them, while the other assisted the busy duo.

Holding a saw, the subordinate bandit kept his opponents at bay… Though, he despaired upon seeing two more of them.

"Favian, go help Cap!"

"Got it!"

Wings sprouted from Favian's back, allowing him to quickly reach the aerial battlefield.

"At last."

"Tch."

The whip from the bandit leader almost hit the Shepherd leader, who barely managed to pull off a timely dodge by flying back a few meters. The bandit smirked, a frown appeared in the captain's face, and…

A rough-looking hexagon appeared by his side, alongside an emerging fireball directed towards Favian.

"Watch out!"

He stared at the incoming magic attack. His expression showed a concerning degree of hesitation, until his right claws appeared.

To fearlessly clash with it.

Swosh-

He grunted, his partially claw-less, charred hand almost dandling in the air. With his remaining hand holding on to his blue spear, the feather-made black wings carried him closer to the aerial field. 

The captain took notice of Favian's wound, and went on the offensive.

"Oh, so now you're going to stop acting like a cowardly rat?"

Mockery filled the lone bandit's tone, just as a few hexagons appeared. From those, more whirling yet weak flames emerged.

"Showoff," commented the captain.

The two dodged the flames and attacked the bandit in synchrony. 

The claws from a hand clashed against a spear, while the other arm moved towards the weaker guard's face.

The formless, deep blue colera surrounding the captain's main hand soon took on the shape of a blade-like instrument. Its user performed an upwards swing.

"Gah!"

The targeted arm soon fell from the sky.

The bandit demon did his best to search for an exit route, like he had been doing since the beginning of the battle, to no avail. With his ally on the ground almost facing certain death, he resigned and created a magic hexagon.

The bandit poured in a good chunk of miasma. His face paled considerably, but he did his best to hold on.

Far more violent flames emerged from it, fully obstructing the duo's vision. 

He prepared to fly away, in hopes that the flames would buy enough time…

Yet, a wind blade coming from below shot down that dream, akin to a rock hitting a pigeon. It slipped through the wildfire and tore the flesh from the bandit leader's left wing.

Thus, the demon fell and crashed.

The fighting demons landed and approached the body. Favian handed over the healthy part of his spear to the captain.

Soon enough, the bandit's head had a new hole on it, and the bloodied spear went back to Favian's hands.

Afterwards, they reunited with the rest of the team. His partially torn and blood-stained clothes only warned him that his performance in battle wasn't good enough, but the state of his opponent served as a better reminder of something else…

He had survived. That's all that mattered.

Back to his team, they carried the two wounded back to a building surrounded by flowers. Their pleasant smell penetrated the demons' bodies, though they lacked the time to enjoy it.

"Arian, come out!"

A tall, bulky demoness emerged from a room in the back. One of the present demons managed to get a look into that bloodied room, but the rest couldn't. 

Then again, they didn't need it. A look at the titan's clothes told them all they needed to know.

"Ah, Norbert." The demon's warm smile greeted the crowd momentarily, until her brain noticed the wounded youngster lying on the makeshift rock-bed along with his missing arm. The burns created by one of the guards managed to stop the bleeding early, but it still looked bad.

She didn't hesitate in pushing everyone aside to reach the patient. 

Hesitation took over for a moment. A deep breath, and most of her emotions all went away as quickly as they arrived. Her hands, both flowing with a creamy, pallid energy, came in contact with the boy's arm. 

Underneath the white veil of alkahest, the two separate pieces of flesh started to… mend together. 

Sliced bones fused back into the solid shape they had formerly. All traces of the original tear almost disappeared, except for the blood loss.

Arian let out a relaxed sigh. "That is controlled. Now, blood."

The nurse grabbed a blade, a bucket, and went to the back. Half a minute later, she returned with a clean blade and a bucket. Within, a crimson liquid moved slightly alongside the steel container.

"Turning a beast's blood into something we can use… Whoever came up with this idea is nothing short of a genius," muttered one of the blue-wearing guards.

"Yeah. I bet even outsiders must have copied our method."

Ignoring anything spouted by he5r fellows, Arian kept her almost obsessive focus on the resting lad, whose body had been mostly fixed.

For the last step, the needle took in some of the dark substance. And the modified blood went straight into Demian's body.

"That should be it. I'll take care of him and Matt, you all should go and report this."

The guards accepted the nurse's suggestion, and they all went towards the Town Hall.

…

On the eleventh noon of Septembre, the inhabitants of Fernbedie, one of Teutonia's most isolated towns, gathered near the town hall to hear a certain announcement. 

What they didn't expect, was hearing news extreme enough to shake even the toughest people of this settlement… to their core. 

A demoness wearing a vest stood on top of a two-floored building with a red roof, surrounded by a big field. A few thousand demons gathered around it. 

The space surrounding said hall had no buildings nearby due to moments like this.

Jack and the outsider duo stood a couple meters outside the edge. 

"I didn't think this place was this populated," muttered Randall.

"Well, it is." Jack's answer came rather fast, in spite of his stare and focus both being directed at the red roof.

The mayoress called for everyone's attention, and absolutely no one continued talking. Anne and Jack showed basically no reaction, but the same couldn't be said for Randall.

He made a mental note and put a big, red pin on it. 

This was not a small matter, after all.

Indifferent to his analysis, or anyone's, the blue skinned mayor spoke up.

"Demian Spectre, one of the town's youngest alchemists, was assaulted by a bunch of land-usurping snakes… He's alive, but currently unconscious. As always, Arian put all of her efforts in restoring his body back to what it was."

The announcer took a moment to analyze the crowd's reactions.

Sadness.

Concern.

But most importantly, anger.

"This heinous act won't NOT go unpunished! The full weight of our guardians' divine justice will crush their blasphemous shoulders!!" 

After that particular yell, the people also cheered. The mayor's gaze fell on a group of six individuals, all dressed in some extravagant blue attires. 

Among this group, one could notice Oliver's figure perfectly blending in with his fellows.

All of the demons in the crowd made some sort of vocal war declaration, with vigor pouring out of their throats akin to water in a broken dam. 

Randall and the group, who left the nearby area in preference of a more concealed spot, still watched from a distance. 

"As expected. They're not planning to let them go lightly after that last stunt…"

"Last? So this isn't the first time they've done something?" 

"Of course not," voiced Jack. "Before you two arrived, we had to deal with another syndicate trying to take over the town… The battle was tough."

Randall gave some thought to his words.

But that's about it.

"Will it be possible for the town to resist another war?" Asked Anne, crossing her arms across her chest.

Jack shook his head. Both outsiders frowned, with Anne's expression being far more expressive in this particular instance.

"... This isn't going to be easy," she commented.

"Tell me about it," replied the purple skinned titan.