-Alicia's perspective.
It was at the moment that I shouted and the whole group began to move. Quickly, my daggers, which were particularly long, put me at a disadvantage in case a knight or someone using the sword as a weapon confronted me.
"Burst!"
Then, the group reached the monsters. I could see two races of monsters coming from everywhere, but something was very strange.
"Why are these two monster races together?"
Stone Bear and Earthtree were the names of both monster races that shouldn't be together.
"Someone is behind this, but who could it be?"
Although they are grade 9 monsters, the weakest, the problem is their numbers. There are too many of them and our group is barely made up of four people. That's why I sent Aurora to the town of Nortil to ask for help from the imperial knight army; this situation can't just involve one town.
One of the five most important cities on the continent is not that far from Nortil Town, and not only that, there are also food trading towns. That's why the imperial army must reach this place, but the problem is that it will take them an hour.
Fortunately, they have teleport gates, and that would advance the reinforcements.
"Starburst!"
Then, a rumble echoed in the distance. That's when I looked over at Asher fighting with the Tree Terrans, the tree monsters whose size is considerably large. I only watched him for a few seconds, but he was incredible. His strength seemed to be increasing more and more.
"He's barely a kid, but... he's that strong and he's also a mage."
I can't wait any longer until that child is an adult; he will definitely be someone very powerful in the next few years.
"Maybe in twenty... no, in ten years he could be someone that strong."
He didn't even flinch after killing the saint church father at that time. He is someone strange, but....
"Boom!!!"
I left the thoughts when an explosion resounded. It was when Clara started casting her spells. Then, a smile etched itself on my face and then I started to move.
"Swhoss!"
Holding my daggers that pointed backwards, I quickly moved to the monsters' sides as my dagger danced close to their necks. As I moved my daggers swiftly, blood spurted from the monsters' necks. I quickly infused mana into a yellow colored ring I had on my middle finger, and a glow emerged from the small yellow stone. That's when a very beautiful bow came out of the ring.
The shape of the bow was made from the branches of the elven tree. On the bow were green leaves and roots that held and twirled around the bow. Then, a mana arrow appeared in the bow.
"Swiss!"
That's when the arrow shot out, but the longer it flew, the bigger it got, until it reached the size of a five-meter spear with a thickness much thicker than a fat person's arm. Then, the oversized arrow reached the monsters.
"Boom!!!"
The arrow made such a huge explosion. The "winged bow" is the name of my bow, made from the material of the elven tree, a material that is very flexible and strong, especially because of its great ability to hold mana. Like the arrows, these are made of mana, but with the mana of nature, a mana so pure that only elves can have.
"Hrrrnnng-AAAAAAAAAARRR!"
Then, more monsters ran in my direction and again arrows shot out of my bow.
"Boom!!!"
"Boom!!!"
The monsters wouldn't even stop. The explosions caused by my arrows were huge, but still, the monsters kept appearing one after another, non-stop.
"There are... too many..."
"I gasp."
My breathing began to increase and sweat began to pour all over my body. Although I had plenty of mana, my physique prevented me from continuing to fight, but still, I decided to keep going until the situation would end. I could not stop; I must go on.
Only one word kept repeating itself.
Don't give up.
Don't give up.
Don't give up.
Don't give up...
Every time my vision got blurry, that word would pop into my head and make me wake up again and again. Hours had passed, but still, I did not give up.
Even though sweat was already soaking my whole body and my clothes, which were made of very strong leather, started to stick to me, my breathing got worse, but I kept going. I could not stop.
Every arrow I shot and every time I changed my way of fighting with the daggers and moved with all my speed and strength, I felt my bones crack and the tendons of my muscles burn from the continuous effort.
"Burst!"
Then I finally stopped, but as I looked at the monsters that kept coming out, I thought of only one thing.
"Damn it, when does this all end?"
It was just a sight of hundreds of monsters. I had killed hundreds of monsters for a long time, but....
"Why aren't the imperial knights arriving?"
That's when I realized the three hours that had passed, but the imperial knights simply weren't arriving.
Did something happen to Aurora?
Did the imperial knights refuse help?
It was a series of questions that popped into my head. The situation was not easy; they are weak monsters, but their numbers are the main problem, such a large number of monsters.
One of the questions I kept asking myself was.
"Who the hell caused this horde of monsters?"
These monsters are enemies with each other, and seeing them together and not even stopping at a situation where they were dying meant that someone was using these monsters. But who could it be?
Who the hell caused all this trouble?
Maintaining balance at this point was difficult, but why did more monsters keep appearing?
Also, who the hell caused these giant craters? There were explosions in this very place before and we found the bodies of grade 8, 7 and 6 monsters everywhere.
Who helped us? I only remembered explosions, but also something very dark.
"Shit!"
Cursing at this whole situation, I felt that a small part of my memories had been erased. Besides, the question of who the hell caused these monsters to be together remained unanswered.
"Starburst!"
That's when I looked over to where Asher was. I saw his white mask; I couldn't see his face or know what his look was like, but he was only moving faster and faster and his strength was increasing, though he was also destroying himself. He was straining himself far beyond the limit his body can withstand.
It is dangerous for him to continue in that state.
***
-Scene change.
-Clara's perspective.
"Panting" "Panting."
My breathing, as usual, was on edge. Not only that, I was almost out of mana, but I had made it to the third circle and I was happy about that. However, my mana was almost depleted. I couldn't go on any longer and my vision was blurred.
"Starburst!"
Then I looked around; everyone was fighting to the last drop of sweat. That spurred me on.
I shouldn't stop fighting just because of my tiredness and my nearly depleted mana.
My spells had improved a lot after reaching the third circle, but my mana consumption also increased.
I could only cast short distance spells.
"Hrrrnnng-AAAAAAAAAARRR"
Then, more monsters approached me.
I quickly ran around and prepared several spells. Curse spells are not suitable for combat, but several threads spread around the monsters. Purple threads as the ground began to turn green.
Then, the threads pulled back, holding the monsters, and finally the ground bubbled and the monsters began to sink. I quickly looked in another direction and more monsters approached me; these were the Terran monsters.
Their sizes were a problem for me, but quickly a sphere began to emerge behind me. A green sphere appeared and then spiky tentacles began to emerge from the sphere, which quickly made their way to the Earthtree and began to strike it hard.
"Starburst!"
Pieces of wood fell from the monster as the spiky tentacles struck it, and finally a tentacle that made a very thin, spear-like tip shot out in the direction of the monster's eye.
"Hrrrnnng-AAAAAAAAAARRR!"
The monster's roars of pain echoed loudly as it fell to the ground.
"Starburst!"
Then, the green colored sphere began to disappear and the tentacles did the same; finally, everything disappeared.
"When will this end?" I thought.
"Clara, are you okay?"
A very familiar voice spoke in the distance. I looked at Alicia; she was so exhausted that she even had some scratches on her hunter suit, but other than that, she was fine.
"Yes, I'm fine,"
I yelled back. Then, she smiled at me and quickly started attacking the monsters that came at her. One after another they fell to the ground dead, but Alice's face showed frustration; the monsters were too many, a large number of them kept appearing.
"Shit... If the situation continues like this, only death awaits us."
I gritted my teeth at the thought, but then looked in another direction. I looked at Asher.
"What the hell?"
That's when I saw his state. He seemed to have lost his reasoning and was simply moving his body and swinging his sword while the blood of the monsters kept falling around him. He seemed to be in a trance-like state where he could not control his body.
I had to wake him up and stop him, but I couldn't; he was far away and I had to deal with the hundreds of monsters approaching one after another.
"Hrrrnnng-AAAAAAAAAARRR"
The monsters again reached my position and I activated my spells again, the same ones as before since those were the only ones I could use at the moment because of the little mana I currently had.
Then, the green colored tentacles with spines emerged again, coming out of the oversized green colored sphere behind me. Their sole function is to create different forms of weapons that reached ten meters, but they were strong enough to kill several dozen monsters that came within their range.
"Starburst!"
Explosions echoed everywhere as I looked for a second at Dik, who was fighting nonstop just like Asher. Then I gritted my teeth and kept fighting nonstop, killing more monsters with each passing second.
Their numbers were simply overwhelming, but fortunately our resistances and skills were enough to hold out for four hours. It was only a matter of time before we all reached our limit and fell to the ground unable to move.
"Damn, when will reinforcements arrive?"
They never came. The imperial knights should have arrived a long time ago, so what the hell happened? Something was hard to understand, but I wasn't supposed to give up at a time like this. I was to think about not giving up and just keep fighting to my limit, waiting for the knights to arrive in time.
It was only a matter of time before the knights arrived, but I couldn't go on any longer.
"Burst"
"Whistling."
Then, I finally looked in another direction. Hundreds of armored soldiers, riding on horses and holding the flags of the continent, began to rush toward our position. Hundreds of arrows rained down from the sky, killing hundreds of monsters. The knights got off their horses and started running towards the monsters, but one person stood out the most.
A woman with silver hair and blood-red eyes, wearing all-black armor and carrying a large sword, got off her horse. After looking in the direction she was looking, I noticed that this woman was watching Asher with a smile.
Did they know each other? Then, that woman disappeared from my sight and reappeared right behind Asher. Her hand went to Asher's neck and hit him hard enough to make him faint. Then, she looked up at me and smiled.
"Who...is she?" was all I thought at the time. Finally, the Imperial Knights had arrived....