Chapter Eleven

"Seriously, what's wrong with you?" The baby-faced man bent down to pick his sword.

He inspected the blade closely and sighed in relief after finding that it wasn't damaged.

"You've been acting weird today, even forgetting the reason for your lack of Authority."

Kyle quietly stood as Karan swung his blade in order to get the blood off from it. As blood splattered on the ground, a ball of flame was thrown in their direction.

Without any words, they dashed away from their original position. Following this, they instantly swung their heads towards the origin of the flame.

At the receiving end of their glare, a red humanoid creature with horns on its head glared at them. Its mouth was sloppily smiling, just like a child's when they found a new toy.

Its hands were stained with blood. The viscous liquid dripped down to the still-warm body underneath.

When they were about to rush to it, a crack suddenly appeared on the middle of its body—separating his upper and lower body. Its blood was fiery-red, and it squirted from both of his now severed body.

Even when its torso had fallen to the ground, the smile was still plastered on its face.

The arrogant youth instantly became alert and scanned his surroundings furiously. But all he could see were people busy fighting against creatures everywhere. Some managed to overpower the creatures while the majority were desperately holding their enemies back.

Kyle gulped as he witnessed this, he searched everywhere but couldn't found anything that could've attacked the red creature. Soon after, he glanced at Karan and found that his hands were shaking slightly.

"What are you doing there?! Get moving!"

Thankfully, his fears didn't come true. They were scolded by a stern melodious voice, coming from the woman that led them earlier.

Her black ponytail and the red clothing wrapped over her elbows flailed with the wind. On her hand was a long sword covered with different colors, but one reminiscent of a flame slid down her blade.

Seeing this, Kyle relaxed his body and tapped Karan's shoulder. His shoulders jumped at contact and he almost dropped his sword.

"Y-yes, mam!"

Clenching the sword in his hands, Karan quickly darted off to a nearby enemy. On the sole of his shoes, flashes of light burst out occasionally.

Kyle was surprised to see his desperate attempt to flee. It wasn't until Karan had engaged another enemy that he turned back to the leader of their group.

However, only a streak of light was left in her position. Kyle sighed upon seeing this, and he scanned through his surroundings.

Yell and screams were everywhere, and various tints of blood covered the ground. The sky was still dark-red, perhaps reflecting the grim sight below it. The adolescent "outsider" took this chance to observe this battlefield.

In his lifetime, he has never participated nor seen the scene of war first-hand. All he had was stories and records from the books at the academy. Although he was disgusted by the scattered gore, he still wanted to observe this occasion.

And now that the disruption has left, he took the chance to view the scene of war.

The ground was littered with corpses, and the human side began to push back the creatures. But the creature fighting against them didn't lose spirit. Instead, they began to attack blindly with ecstasy dyed on their faces.

He still felt sick seeing this, but his curiosity surpassed his reluctance.

Kyle ignored those who seemed insignificant and searched for individuals bearing clothes on their elbows. If that stern woman earlier was their leader, then the red cloth on her right elbow should be a mark of leadership.

"But this battle…can it truly be called as a war?" Kyle said as the corners of his mouth rose.

All over the horizon, many battles are waged. But all of them were individual battles, not a war as a whole.

There was no trace of intricate tactics except the occasional team fights. Other than that, almost all of them are fighting blindly against the creatures.

Although he has no knowledge of war tactics, he was sane enough to figure out how inefficient and damaging this kind of battle would be.

Perhaps the major reason for the massive number of human corpses was the lack of thinking from the human side.

"Idiots," retracting his gaze, he once again scoured the battlefield for something eye-catching.

It took him five seconds to spot something unusual.

Far away from him, a medium-sized man was facing a humanoid creature with three heads. The strange occasion was that no one was willing to fight near them. Anyone that came close to them would step back and avoid both of them.

'Even the creatures aren't willing to approach them,' Kyle tapped his chin.

It would've been hard to spot them instantly, but the blue cloth swaying on the man's elbow was enough to instantly attract his gaze.

For the moment, both sides seemed to be conversing calmly. They were standing in a hostile manner, but their mouths were moving slowly.

Kyle waited for any of them to take action, but none of them appeared like they were willing to attack first.

After a while, he clicked his tongue impatiently. It was fine if both of them were conversing in a restaurant, but this was the battlefield—why would they play around like this?

Kyle was about to search for another pair, but the man dashed to the creature without notice. Simultaneously, the three-headed creature ripped one of its heads from its shoulder, spraying blood everywhere.

The annoyance in his mind instantly vanished, and he focused on their battle.

Unfortunately, he felt a slight disturbance on the ground he was standing at. Looking down calmly, he saw that his feet were shaking slightly—along with the earth below it.

Squinting his eyes, Kyle focused his energy on the ball in his hands. He raised it above his head while scrutinizing the rocky surface below.

[Crack!]

The ground near his foot split open, and a pair of eyes appeared behind it. And when they made eye contact, Kyle threw the artifact on his hands to it as quick as possible.

The pair of red eyes contracted, as the red ball approached its head. It tried to return from where it came from, but the ball suddenly bursts into flames.

[Boom!]

From the gap, a small but deadly flame rose. Kyle launched it with such a force that he created a loud noise around him.

Chuckling, he crouched and picked the still hot ball from the ground. Below it was a creature with a mole's head, burnt to crisps by the arrogant youth's flame.

After making sure that the creature was fully dead, he lifted his head in order to continue spectating the battle between the two figures.

But what came to his sight was another humanoid creature, bolting towards him. Its mouth was wide open as screeches came out of it. It appeared that he made a little commotion while taking care of the mole below.

Although it was a shame, Kyle retracted any attention from the pair he had spotted and paid full attention to the enemy in front of him.

Its body was almost identical to a human, but its eyes were blood-red and its fingernails looked like claws instead.

He felt oddly familiar to the creature, but couldn't remember where he had seen it before. The creature with long nails quickly approached Kyle, until it finally came close to him.

Without any doubt or hesitation, Kyle quickly thrust his right arm in order to grab its head. But with a smacking sound, it threw itself to the left, much faster than its previous speed.

[Kack!]

Alongside a cracking noise, the creature twisted its upper body in a flash while it was still moving to the left. His head faced Kyle and his arms plunged towards him, while his lower body finally stopped.

Under this terrifying spectacle, Kyle felt surprised, but he didn't let it affect his performance. He quickly threw the red ball on his left hand towards the swift creature.

Perhaps it has seen what its companion has gone through, as it twisted its body in order to avoid the incoming artifact.

Using this chance, Kyle moved away from the creature while severing the energy thread between him and the red ball. He couldn't control the artifact from this far, anyway.

As the ball-shaped artifact flew further away, Kyle prayed silently that he would be able to recover it later. Because for now, the creature in front of him was his priority.

He smirked and said with a chuckle.

"How would you compensate me for that?"

The red-eyed creature didn't pay any attention to his banters and lunged forward once more. As if expecting this, Kyle clenched his right fist and threw it at its temple.

[Crack!]

With another twist, the creature twisted its upper body at an impossible angle—dodging his jab. And in response, it directed its sharp nails toward Kyle's chin.

Circulating his energy to the fullest, he directed his energy towards his shoes. But now—instead of a sharp edge—the shoes launched him to the air.

While smiling, he somersaulted in the air and tried to grab the creature's head—only to have his palm nearly pierced by those sharp claws.

It didn't stand still when Kyle moved in the air. This time, it twisted its lower body to position its claws to meet Kyle's palm.

In a fluster, he retracted his arms and flipped in the air, swinging his shoes to face its claws.

[Clank!]

When both edges collide, sparks flew in the air, but none of them managed to overpower each other. Realizing this, the arrogant man used the claws to launch himself away from the creature.

With another somersault, he landed perfectly on the ground. Staring at his opponent's claw, Kyle bit his lower lip and muttered softly.

"This wouldn't be easy," he said with his body still exercising his energy.