The World of Adventure

Meanwhile, back in the Nigati Forest, there was a party of four adventurers wandering around the forest— the party consists of four elves, each of them held the title of "Demon" threat. Despite having four great fighters in the party, they are not well known since it was a relatively new party. The party is trying to make names for themselves by hunting strong monsters, and since the Nigati Forest is known for its monsters they decided to do a quest there.

The Nigati Forest is, without a doubt, an unsafe place for all who tread too deep. The monsters that wander it, and the danger of losing yourself in its tangled, uneven terrain, make most sane adventurers think twice before even crossing its shores. There are even some rumours that the woods themselves are sentient, which would make any sane adventurer's hair stand on end.

But of course, these specific four elves were not sane. They were reckless, and perhaps even foolish. The sound of bushes rustles as they walked through the forest, a daring way to travel through the forest, leaving them exposed to dangers.

It was proven when a (low demon) monster suddenly ambushed them from above. Although, they were all unfazed as they dodged the attack; each party member is stronger than the monster.

One of them (Elfy) looked annoyed, and yelled, "Idiot, shouldn't have come here in the first place,"

She drew her sword and stands before the monster. Elfy looked tiny compared to the monster standing in front of her. The monster with claws and sharp teeth that looked like a giant bear charged at her but she effortlessly beheaded the monster. Elfy lands, proudly.

The other party member (Eilyf) then says to the rest, "I think we should go back. We've been looking for hours and haven't found anything stronger than the bottom feeder," he complains.

Elfives, the leader of the party then says, "Agreed, this is just a waste of time."

Elfy looked annoyed that everyone ignored her; everyone then agreed to leave the forest.

Before they could leave the other member (Elify) sensed something, "Wait… I think there is something there." he smell some distinctive smell.

Curiously, they all checked the place Elify pointed at. But what they saw, shocked them.

"No way," Elfives murmured, "It can't be."

They believe there was a strong monster roaming around the forest when they see a (high demon) monster's corpse lying on the ground.

They all looked at each other in surprise.

"See? I told you this place is filled with crazy strong monsters!" said Elfy.

They immediately follow the scent. The excitement in their chest was growing as they got closer and closer to the scent

However, they all got confused when they found themselves out of the forest as they followed the scent.

"What? We already out…" Elify muttered.

They looked around to find nothing but a grass field stretched wide in front of them.

"The scent is still leading out even further?" Elfives said in confusion.

"It's already dawn, should we continue?" Elfy asked.

"Agreed, we'll just come back tomorrow," Elify said, "The monster can't be too far from here."

Suddenly from the distance, their attention was drawn to a man in white and a girl in the midst of the grass field. From out of the blue Elfives pull out one of his arrows, and aims his bow at the girl, he wanted to see the man's reaction. His party member just smiles and laughs at his action, supporting it.

Elfives align his bow at Dahlia before he shot the arrow, "Die," he murmured.

But to their surprise, the man moved so fast that he had time to draw his katana and slashed the arrow in half— the whole party were shocked.

"How in the world?!"

"That's impossible! How did he move so fast?!" they murmured.

They can feel chills down their spine as that man stares them dead in the eyes from the distance.

"Such pressure," Elfives whispers.

Elfives tried to take another shot, but when he reached for another arrow in his quiver he realises that the man had already gone.

"Wha…" he murmured nervously. Confused, Elfives looked in every direction, "Where… where is he?" as they looked around for him, they realised that the man was already behind them. It was Izz.

Panicked, they all drew their sword and started to blindly attack him. Izz easily dodged the attacks and grabbed Elfives' sword by the blade. His grip breaks the sword.

Elfives gasped before Izz hit them with his bare hand. Each blow feels so painful that the four of them dropped to the ground. It feels as if they couldn't breathe for a few seconds after the blow in each of their solar plexus.

As they were all on the ground Izz walked to Elfives and stabbed both of his hands together— pinning him on the ground. Elfives screams in agony begging Izz for mercy.

"Stop! Please… Arg!"

Pissed, Izz asked the adventurers, "Stop? Why?" Izz pushes his katana deeper. The other was terrified, no one dares to speak. "Who is the leader?" slowly shoving his katana deeper.

Elfives shouted in agony, "It was me! Please stop!"

It makes Izz furious, glaring at them with his magic eyes (glance master). Everyone was shocked to see a pair of magic eyes as it was their first time seeing it in person— only a handful of people have a pair of magic eyes and they were deemed as a god as all of them showed exceptional fighting ability.

Izz looked at Elfives as he cried in agony, he intended to stop his misery by killing him— weirdly, he acts rather emotionlessly as he was in the war.

Before he could do anything, he was stopped by the crying voice from distance. Izz turns to see Dahlia sprinting toward them. Dahlia looked as if she was scared by him. Looking at Dahlia, reminded him of someone from the past, he can see Dahlia resembling a figure he sees in his mind— Izz regained his senses back and realised what he did. His eyes shine because of the tears, he wipes them off. Slowly he pulls out his katana and inserts it back in his saya.

Before they left, Izz advised the elves, "Do not underestimate anyone in the world of adventures," he gave them a cold stare.

They nodded, clearly nervous, as Izz and Dahlia turned and walked away. Dahlia seemed to be startled by all that happened, still nervous as they both walked away.

***

Night in a bar inside Meral Town, the party that Izz and Dahlia had crossed paths with earlier were now all drinking the night away as they talked with loud laughs and jeering voices.

Elfives chug a mug of beer, "Urrg, I should've just killed that bastard."

Drunken Elfy sarcastically says. "Really? I'm sure you looked terrified just now." They were all laughing.

"Yeah, you screamed like a little girl you know. " Eilyf laughed.

"He just gets lucky, he gets me by surprise, if I'm ready he sure been dead by now."

The bar was loud, with loud and boisterous laughter from their table, loud gulping and guzzling of beer and alcohol by the four of them!

Any group that made so much as the slightest noise was immediately shut down by the four of them. No one would dare try to interrupt them or their good time. It seemed as though the four of them were basically running their own private party at the bar.

Before they left the bar, after having quite a few drinks, Elfives accidentally bumped into a man.

"Hey! Look where you're going!"

Terrified, the man then apologised. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."

Elfives was not having it, though, and decided to teach the man a lesson by punching him in the stomach.

Elfives hold the man by his head, the man crying asking him to stop. Everyone in the bar looked terrified as the party cheered up Elfives.

"Hah! What was that?! I can't hear you!"

He continues hitting the man until he was satisfied.

"This is what happens if anyone messed with me."

From the corner of his eye, Elfives could see that there was a person sitting at a table way back in the bar with his hood pulled up, staring right at him with a cold, dead gaze while everyone else around was afraid to even glance at them

"What you're looking at? You want the smoke?"

The man in the hood simply ignored Elfives and kept up sipping his drink as if there was nothing out of the ordinary happening at all.

Irritated, Elfives walked right up to the man in the hood, glaring at him with a scowl, he demanded "What's your name?!"

The man looked up with a cold stare, taking another sip of his tea before speaking "Don't get cocky, idiot."

Elfives charged towards the man with his fist raised—it seemed like he was finally going to take out his frustrations, but then unexpectedly he was suddenly stopped. The man grabbed his wrist, stopping his fists inches from the man's face.

The man pulls Elfives's arm bringing his face closer to the man's. The others try to attack the man but they were all easily overpowered by the man. With all the party members on the ground, the man broke Elfives's arm, leaving the bone exposed.

The man sips the last drop of his tea before tossing a gold coin on the table for the damages, leaving the elve with severe injury.

It would take some time for the elves to recover from this, both physically and mentally—but this was definitely the kind of situation they would remember for years to come.

"...Who was that man…?"

***