Magma Giants

"Hyaap!" Lonz's spear skillfully struck a monster, killing it in one strike. As it turned into ashes, he heard someone call him from behind. 

"Leader... It's going to be over soon." A knight walked towards Lonz and called out after finishing a monster with his sword.

When Lonz turned around and faced the knight, he could see the battle was about to come to an end. There were still some monsters grouping up and attacking, but the knights were also teaming up with each other to kill them efficiently.

His eyes darted around the battlefield before it landed on the three cadets. Observing them for some time, he nodded his head in amazement. "They're young but skilled." He blurted out.

"Huh?" The knight who called him turned his head around in confusion and followed his leader's gaze. What he saw next also amazed him.

Valentina, Cadell and Ouida were working together perfectly to kill the monsters surrounding them. Their choices of different weapons perfectly complemented one another while they watched each other's backs. But what amazed them was the skills, confidence and the level of teamwork they displayed.

The knight was stunned. "What are they teaching the cadets in the academy nowadays? Even we were not this confident while fighting monsters during our first mission."

"Haha.." Lonz chuckled. While he and the knight had been conversing, Valentina, Cadell and Ouida had successfully killed off the last of the monsters. Looking around once again, Lonz found the knights had also finished their battles.

Fortunately, as the monsters were weak, there were no major injuries and they didn't lose any more knights than the ones who had turned into monsters. The battle came to an end just as quickly as it had started. "Yeah!!!" One after the other, the knights began rejoicing their victory, holding up their weapons for their fallen brothers. 

"The weather sure is gloomy today huh..." With a smile, Lonz raised his head towards the sky. As soon as he saw the sky, his eyes widened and his smile faded. 'What the hell!' He thought. "Knights! Stay on guard! The battle is not over!" He cried out.

'How could I be so stupid!' Lonz thought. 'I should have been more observant of the changes in the surrounding.' He blamed himself. Ever since he had come back from fighting the cultists, he felt he was not fit to be a leader. That's when he started to become self-critical of any mistakes he made, even if they were small.

But the truth was, no one had noticed the swirling ball of ashes floating in the sky because they had been so absorbed in their battles. The monsters were weak but outnumbered them greatly, that they couldn't even spare any time to look up.

What was surprising was this was happening all over the city. The skies above mid and low-level were also occupied with spheres of ashes, swirling around itself. If one looked through a bird's eye, they would see there were six spheres perfectly divided across the city in a circle, with a monstrous entity in the center.

At this moment, the entity, who was the Saint of Mayhem, raised his right arm up to the sky. He pinched his index finger and thumb together for a moment before separating the fingers again. When he opened the two fingers, a tiny concentrated sphere of red hot flame, the size of a ladybug, floated between them.

A maniacal laughter echoed across the city as the flame divided into six parts and shot towards the spheres of ashes. The spheres then began to glow with a fiery red hue and they began to swirl even faster. 

The ash spheres condensed into themselves in an instant, then three thick lines of light flashed down from each sphere, causing the whole city to quake.

*BOOM*

The city was in turmoil as buildings collapsed, glasses shattered and clouds of dust rose from the ground due to the impact. "Steady..." Lonz calmed his knights down as they waited in fear. The presence within the cloud of dust was enough to make their hair stand on their end.

As the dust slowly dissipated, three towering creatures were slowly revealed. The giant's form shimmered with the flickering infernal flames, radiating waves of oppressive heat which warped the air around it. It's facial features, made with hardened ash, looked straight out from a beast encyclopedia with it's shaped horns, sharp teeth and jaws. It's hollow eyes flickered with flames as it scanned the knights. 

BOOM

The ground tremored when it took a step forward, which made drops of lava fall from the cracks of its jagged plates of hardened ash armor. The lava which dropped into the ground burnt the earth, releasing acrid smoke which hung heavy in the air, stinging the nostrils of the knights and making their eyes water.

Fear and horror overtook the knights as they watched the giants move towards them. They were completely frozen, their legs shaking, as they could only point their weapons towards the horrifying monsters.