Witness

"It's all my fault! My fault! I'm sorry!"

Mika and Ophelia were witnessing how Judi was breaking down in their carriage.

Sitting on the floor balled up with her hands grabbing her head roughly, she was crying.

"Judi, calm down!"

Mika got on a knee as he touched her by her shoulders.

"Mika, I'm sorry!" she screamed.

"It's fine, just take some deep breaths for now!"

Soon, her yelling and crying just turned into quiet sobbing.

"Are you okay now?"

"Yeah, I think so..."

Judi was sniffing as she wiped off her tears with her arms.

"We're departing now!" someone in the front announced.

Thus, Ophelia also entered the carriage and immediately sat down with her legs and arms crossed.

"It will be a long trip so take your time and explain what you meant, Judi Rein." Ophelia said sternly with her eyes closed.

Judi nodded her head.

"It was on the day, we tried to clear our quest..."

Then, she recollected the events of said day.

Approximately two weeks ago.

"Hmm, there are quite a few monsters here... But with this team, this should be doable!" Gerard stated confidently with a smirk.

"It will be tough though." Ron remarked a bit taken aback.

"I just see lizard-like monsters here." Adin said as he observed the situation with squinted eyes.

"Normally, a lizard monster would be classified as a mere C-rank threat, however, due to the numbers I can understand why this quest was for a B-rank team." Judi explained pensively.

Gerard's team was currently standing on the wall, which served as the border between Malnor and Rostanta.

"But I wonder... Aren't you all capable of dealing with them on your own?" she asked as she turned her face to the knights standing beside them.

"As ashamed as we are, we're only stationed here to observe and report any kind of changes around the border. In combat, we would just be a liability to you, after all, we can't use magic..." one of the knights answered clumsily.

"No big deal! We will handle this!" Gerard meddled in as he pointed with the thumb to himself.

The monsters were currently walking aimlessly on the wasteland.

They had the appearance of a human-sized lizard.

Those lizards were walking on two legs and were holding a weapon in their hands.

Some had spears, swords or even axes.

"So what's the plan?" Judi asked.

"Plan? No need for that." Gerard replied with a wide smile.

"Adin. Ron. After me! You can stay here and support us for now, Judi!"

Gerard was the first one to jump off.

The wall was fortunately not so high, but if someone with no magic support jumped off, then that person could get injured.

Judi sighed.

"I should have known..." she muttered.

Adin and Ron followed up and also got down.

Thus, the fight between them and the monsters broke out.

At first, everything seemed good.

Everyone stood their ground against the lizards.

Only Ron had a few problems as he was a D rank, but with Judi supporting the team from the back, the front fighters did not face any critical situations.

After a while, the exhaustion was noticeable amongst them.

Only two lizards were still standing.

"..."

Judi bit her lips and squinted her eyes slightly as she watched the others, who were all bruised up and covered with dirt, rushing towards the remaining enemies.

One of the lizards took its stance and prepared to launch a pierce attack with its spear.

Gerard sensed it and summoned roots from the ground in order to stop the pierce attack.

"I'm sorry..."

With regret and guilt, Judi slightly changed her aim, when she fired off a fire arrow.

The fire arrow did not hit the enemy.

"?!"

Surprised, Gerard looked at the ground.

The spot, where the roots emerged from, was ablaze.

Quickly, he turned his attention back to the lizard with the spear.

"Shit!"

The roots, which were about to wrap themselves around the spear, were completely burned off.

It was too late to evade the attack, but he still tried to shift his body to avoid a fatal injury.

"Argh!"

"Gerard!" Adina and Ron shouted in unison.

With nothing protecting him from the attack, Gerad was pierced through his right side.

The other two did not hesitate and finished off the lizard as fast as possible.

"Gerard! Are you alright?!" Ron asked concerned.

"I-I'm fine..."

In the meantime, Adin was handling the last lizard.

He gathered water in his hand as he was about to launch his final attack.

However, something strange happened.

"Hm?"

The lizard dropped his weapon on the ground and took a few steps back.

He looked to the sky fearfully.

Adin looked in the same direction.

He had to squint his eyes to see properly.

"What is that...?" he wondered confused.

Approaching them from the sky were two silhouettes with bat-like wings.

Letting out an anxious screech, the lizard ran away.

Now, everyone's gazes were directed at the sky.

"!"

Suddenly, something dark and beam-like was shot from the direction the silhouettes were coming and passed by Adin.

He felt the air brushing strongly through his hair as the beam passed by right beside his head.

Adin could not even react and just stood still.

Only the death scream of the running lizard was heard from behind him.

"Hey, did you have to kill him?" someone with a womanly voice asked.

"Why is it bothering you? Aren't you as bored as I am?" someone with a boyish and bored voice replied.

Agape, Gerard's team was looking at the two creatures, which were now above them.

One of them was a woman seemingly in her early thirties. She wore a black shoulder-free dress, which was revealing her generous cleavage. Her long hair was slicked back at the front and her right eye was covered by a black eye patch.

The other one was a boy, who seemed the same age as Gerard and the others. He wore loose and wide black pants as well as a tight black singlet. His body was a little bit more trained than the average human in their teenage years and his hair was parted in the middle.

However, those two shared some similarities.

The knights were the first to recognize those as they looked at them in fear.

Black hair, black pupils and bat-like wings.

One of the knights pointed at them with a quivering finger.

"D-d-d-demons!" he shouted with a shaking voice.

For Judi and the others, it was the first time seeing demons.

While it took them to understand the situation, the knights were already running for their lives.

"Hey, Martha. They're getting away." the boy said with an anticipating smile.

The woman sighed.

"Fine, fine... Do what you want, Barnt."

"Yay!"

Then, Barnt stretched his hands up.

A dark ball was gathered there and had the size of a head.

"Now die!" Barnt shouted innocently with a still wide smile.

He threw the ball to the knights, who picked up their pace as they watched the ball approaching them.

Judi, who stood, on the wall with them, turned the other way and enhanced herself with magic to distance herself from the knights.

The shadow lurking over the knights got bigger and bigger until the ball got them.

Silently, the black ball enlarged and enveloped a part of the wall and the ground beneath it.

There was no noise nor were there any remnants of the wall from the wall flying in the air.

Gerard, Adin and Ron were trying to run away, while the two above were distracted.

"Ugh!" Gerard groaned in pain.

They did not make it far yet as Ron was lending Gerard, who was injured, a shoulder.

"Go without me!"

"Don't be stupid!"

"We have to hurry!"

The dark ball faded slowly.

"You're kidding me..." Judi muttered.

In place of the wall, there was now a wide and clean crater.

"This hit the spot~" Barnt said satisfied.

"What a weirdo." Martha remarked.

Shortly after that, their attention shifted towards Gerard and the others.

"Will we kill them, too?"

Barnt was already preparing for an attack, but Martha stopped him.

"No, not yet."

She smirked as she looked down at them.

"They almost escaped from us. Barnt, go and capture them alive." she said sinisterly.

Without hesitation, Barnt flew to them, whereas Martha approached Judi.

"Too bad. If you would have used magic, then maybe you could have escaped. I wonder why you didn't do so..." Martha mocked her as she glanced at Gerard.

"..."

Judi's lips were quivering as she could not make a sound out of her mouth.

She was on the floor staring up at Martha.

"Nothing to say? How boring." Martha stated disappointed.

Then, Barnt appeared behind her.

"Hey, I'm done. What now?"

In his arms were Gerard, Adin and Ron.

They were all unconscious.

"Good. Let's leave." she ordered turning her back on Judi.

They spread their wings and leaped into the air.

"But what about that girl?"

Martha smirked again.

"She will act as our bait."