Cliché Tragedy

Uncle and dad slowly closed in on the noble demon with a high-level stealth skill.

The horrible-looking demon followed a circular path so for some time, it was away from the other undead beasts.

Mom and I stood at the very back of the first group of zombies.

As dad and uncle got close to the demon noble, it flinched in the mid-air.

Turning back its skull face, it opened it and 'smiled'.

"Oh? We have some great ingredients for my new home, huh?

Getting to this place was tough but now that we have such amazing things, it will be very easy~.

Hello puny ants, consider yourself fortunate to gaze upon the mighty form of baron Beolagh!

Now! Die and be nourishments for my new home!"

He laughed maniacally and extended his hand forward.

A red ball of fire materialized in front of them.

The demon raised his hand and threw the fireball at them.

Dad just raised his wand and created a dark blue shield.

It was a shield of water attribute but I could see wind attribute on its surface with my [Mystic eyes].

The most I could maintain my skill was one minute for now and after that, it would get canceled automatically.

But it used almost no Mana so I can use it as many times as I wanted.

As the large fireball collided with dad's shield it...

-BOOOOOOM!

An explosion rang out in the area and white vapor spread out in the surroundings.

As the smoke cleared up, the 'smiling' face of the demon slowly became visible.

"Oh? It looks like you are a somewhat strong ant, huh? Well! It doesn't matter. An ant is an ant!"

It raised its hand and snapped its long fingers.

-SNAP!

The sound spread out in the surroundings and all the other undead demons in the area raised their heads.

"Kill these ants!"

At the demon noble's command, all the demon undead started running towards them.

This was also the signal for us.

"Huuu..." with a calm mind, I took a deep breath.

Picking up my (Magic bow) and stretched the bowstring.

This bow was a little heavy and the bowstring required more strength to pull backward but, it was manageable.

It was difficult but, I could get far better results from using it.

Gathering the light element Mana on my fingers of both hands, I closed my eyes.

The white patterns on the bow started glowing a bright yellow color.

I closed my eye and materialized two arrows of light.

(Light arrow)

A simple materialized light elemental Mana shaped in a form of an arrow.

I had tried it before but I couldn't simply process the Mana of a certain higher element on my own.

On top of that, the (Light) element was the rarest of the main elements.

And, it was most lethal to undead-type creatures.

Now that I had this bow, things were much easier than before.

The magic bow, just as any magician's wand, increased the Mana conductivity of the body, helped in processing natural Mana in the surroundings, and increased the Mana pool.

It was a very good thing so, having a good wand was really necessary.

As the two arrows of light materialized, I aimed them at the mage-like demon among the ones running towards dad.

-SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH!

The arrows pierced the bodies of the undead like a laser.

A painful scream echoed in the mountain area as two zombies fell to the ground.

The arrows had passed through their head so it was a perfect bullseye.

Some of the zombies looked at their fallen colleagues as they stopped marching forward.

"So we had more ants," The demon said in an intrigued tone but it looked like it did not care much about us.

"Huuu... get rid of that little one first then. It will be annoying if he keeps this up," it ordered with a small hand gesture.

Demon's voice was heavy and now there was some seriousness in his red eye-like dot inside his skull.

The zombies changed their direction and charged forward in our direction.

But, they were stopped by a pair of burning horses.

-Hyehyehyehyehye

Two red-colored horses with burning body blocked their paths and prevented all of them from coming at us all at once.

Some of them, however, managed to pass through them and ran straight towards us.

The speed and coordination they showed were not like anything I thought.

'Aren't they zombies? Why are they so fast?!' I was genuinely shocked.

In my previous world, zombies like them were brain-dead undead creatures who only walked around with their arms stretched out.

But, this bunch in front of me is nothing like them...

They are clever, fast and more impotently, they seem strong.

The only thing that made them weak right now was my light magic.

Thanks to my bow, I was able to shoot two arrows every few seconds.

Mana wasn't being used much but the mental power consumption was real fast.

If not for mom handing me potions every once in a while, I might have fainted in a few minutes.

It was really interesting to see just how many things could be there in that unique bracelet-like artifact of hers.

Not only does she have many other artifacts for the battle for herself ready but also all types of potions.

The fight was long and tiring, mom and I were doing good at the back and dad was doing good with the noble demon.

At first, he acted very arrogant and strong as if he was the strongest thing in the world.

But then, as time passed and he faced dad's heavy water and ice attacks, his expression turned grim.

Dad wasn't giving his all right now and only using (tier-4) spells.

But the fight couldn't go too long or else dad will exhaust his M.P. and that... might be dangerous.

On top of that, it looked like dad was using up too much of his Mana.

It was strange as if his Mana was being burned unnaturally.

The fight continued with screams and explosions.

A large number of zombies were already dead and there were only six of them alive.

They were mage-like zombies with weird marks around their bodies.

Unlike the first ones, they couldn't be caught off guard.

The only way I was able to kill the other three was because mom used her Authority to freeze them for a moment.

It was difficult and even mom knew that, but she continued.

From all this unexpected and long use of her power, mom was on the verge of falling.

In the end, even with that many artifacts to increase her concentration and stamina, she was at her limits.

I was at my limit too.

I had killed 36 zombies already and after killing them I realized this was my first time killing something.

Though technically, they weren't alive, to begin with.

But still, my emotions were very stable and my mind was unnaturally calm.

And my heart... that bastard was the only one acting weird.

But right now wasn't the time to think about unnecessary stuff.

I was tired, mom was exhausted, uncle was the same as mom and dad... he was furious.

I didn't know what was going on over there but it was definitely a bad situation.

"You freaking son of a bitch! This is enough!"

Dad shouted in a very angry voice and pointed his wand straight at the demon.

The fight was strangely easier than expected for it and it wasn't that bad of a situation before.

But...

Demon's face turned grim when he felt the tremendous killing intent coming out of dad.

It turned his body abruptly to fly away from here but before it could do that, a sky blue barrier covered him entirely.

It pushed it and slammed at it, horrified to even think of anything.

When nothing happened demon covered its large, razor-sharp claws in a strange purple fire and attacked the barrier with all his might.

The barrier bumped and reacted to it and then... a ripple spread out from that part like a stone falling in the water.

Fortunately, the barrier didn't break but the last remaining hope in the demon's eyes vanished.

Three, two-fold dark blue magic circles appeared inside the barrier and started rotating like a fan at a very fast speed and a small screeching noise rang out.

After that, a blue light shot out from one of the circles.

It pierced the demon's skin like my magic arrows and then, all three of the magic circles shot these water rays.

This wasn't a magic spell but the strangest water attribute skill dad had.

{Aqua Lazer}

A (Green) ranked skill that focused on attacking the tired or immobile opponent.

The demon had no way of breaking the (tier-5) barrier dad put before him.

Water pierced its body and multiple holes appeared in its already disgusting body.

Black blood splashed out of its body but didn't leave the barrier.

After a minute, the unrecognizable remains of the demon's body parts slowly landed on the ground.

The barrier popped like a bubble and black blood splashed out around a hole they had dug themselves.

Dad fell to his knees, exhausted from the long tiring fighting.

It was still strange that he was that exhausted.

There was also some kind of backslash from using the skill.

I also focused my attention on the zombies.

We finished the remaining six zombies that were in utter chaos now that their master was dead.

But there was a very dangerous thing about this situation.

Technically, the demon wasn't dead yet.

We had to remove the core from its body before the noble demon could regenerate.

But, after those fatal injuries, it would take quite some time to recover fully.

It was as good as dead...

That's what we thought until the 'body' of the demon slid into the hole and a black light appeared out of it.

It was a sinister black light that had much more power than the demon itself.

A round portal suddenly opened right before our eyes.

Behind it, was a huge green forest with giant trees.

I felt something very strange for a moment.

It was as if someone was looking down on me.

I had a very bad feeling about this as my body moved on its own after a moment of confusion.

Everyone was still staring at the forest as if mesmerized by its brilliance.

But I didn't have time to even look that way.

As soon as I reached dad's side, black tentacle-like hands came out of the hole.

I didn't know what these things were and there was no way this was from the half-dead demon.

The black tentacles wanted to grab dad but I threw him to another side with some (Strong wind) but... it grabbed me.

This unexpected situation could have been more dangerous.

A strange illusion, some strange tentacles, and the strange draining of Mana I was feeling right now were unreal.

All of this had happened in a matter of 9 seconds and in the 10th second, everyone came back to their senses.

A horrified expression clouded everyone's eyes as they looked at me.

They were confused and chaotic about what just happened.

It could have been a skill of that damn demon that somehow didn't affect me that much as I only stayed still for three seconds.

"Eon!!!"

Mom shouted and dad tried to grab the tentacles to release me.

But, it wasn't of any use as his legs gave up because of the skill's backlash.

On the gray mountain roads, only the screams of three people echoed.

A devastated mother, a helpless father, and a horrified middle-aged man.

I was being slowly dragged into that portal and everyone was already exhausted.

The only thing they could possibly do was scream and cry.

For dad, taking even a step was difficult.

This was one of the worst-case scenarios and I couldn't even say anything in this matter.

This whole ordeal had turned into a cringe, cliche story.

And... the last thing that came to mind was even more cliché.

Looking at mom with my somewhat assuring smile, I requested her in tear-filled cracking words.

"Mom, I... will come back. Take care... of dad and baby, by then..."

With those last words, he was dragged away into that portal which closed in an instant behind me.

This all happened in a mere thirty seconds and... they were utterly helpless.

Nolen and Brian screamed, cried, and shouted in agony.

They couldn't do anything when their son was taken away from them...