The deathly stillness of the night was occasionally broken down by the creaking sound of insects and rustling of leaves.
Through the dense dark forest filled with innumerable dangers, a girl with a haggard look dragged her wounded body carrying over an unconscious boy whose hands were wrapped around her neck.
Taking each step lightly, the little girl put down the boy after finding a small hollow space near the trunk of two overlapped trees.
Heaving deeply, she sniffed for an odd smell of beasts and then squinted her eyes to look for any sign of beast nearby.
Seeing no plausible dangers, she tore a portion of her skirt from her knees and made small masses of clothes with which she cleaned the wound she tied around the boy's grievous wounds to prevent infection.
A small ray of moonlight shone over the face, and the boy who had a pained expression suddenly wriggled and murmured.
"R...Rose..."
As is searching for her presence, the boy swung her hand.
"Frederick, I am here."
Rose answered and then held the hands extended towards her.
Frederick and Rose's fingers intertwined and as if finding relief due to the presence, Frederick's expression turned normal and his breathing stabilised.
Seeing the scene, a beautiful smile bloomed over Rose's cold face.
"This might be the first and last time I can see you in such a vulnerable state so I should use this opportunity to imprint this in my memory."
With a playful smile, Rose extended her other hand and caressed Frederick's face thinking that it was quite cute.
This event had always been unforgettable for Rose.
After becoming friends with Frederick, both of them often went sightseeing but unfortunately, this time they were attacked by an assassin from her distant relatives who wanted to get rid of her.
She didn't have any brother to inherit the title so as long as she died, her distant relatives could inherit the title.
Frederick didn't have any guards during this time and Rose just bought a few who were unable to fend off the deadly assassin.
During the fight, the horses pulling the carriage went into a frenzy and took a long turn on a narrow road over a highland, their carriage overturned.
The coachman acted quickly and managed to save them but he died in the fall as he was a normal person.
Though they lived, she and Frederick were badly injured. While venturing into the unknown forest, a snake attacked and the 8-year-old Frederick tried to protect her but he was bitten by the snake and was poisoned after which she carried Frederick searching for help.
But after a day or two, she collapsed due to exhaustion and thought both of them would die. However, when she woke up, she saw Frederick carrying her, was astonished cause Frederick was poisoned and was in a bad state before she became unconscious. However, when she opened her eyes, Frederick looked fit and fine.
"Now, that I think, you changed entirely after this event."Rose stared at Frederick with a loving gaze, feeling the closeness.
Frederick was a bit timid and afraid during childhood but after this event, his entire personality changed. He became bold, brave and straightforward.
His talent for fighting also surpassed everyone's imagination. She always thought that this was due to encountering a deadly situation but at the same time, she felt there was something more.
She looked at her quest to get out of her while saving Frederick and felt quite happy for getting such a trial.
"There is no need to hurry. I should just spend time with you and make some memories."Rose tucked her hair behind her ear and with a sweet smile, bent down and kissed Frederick's forehead.
Though a noble like Rose had many friends she didn't like to interact with people because people often hide their motives and true thoughts. That's why she always had that cold, unapproachable aura.
These superficial emotions, fake flatteries, greetings and useless talks in fake friendship disgust her. Out of all the girls, it was only Helena who was able to get close to her due to her straight-speaking personality.
What she craves for was real people who don't put on masks and take advantage of others.
Except for Helena, the only one to whom she could open her heart to was this big block of wood who though had feelings for her but never speaks aloud.
Though she didn't look like, she was obsessed with Frederick and wanted to spend her life with him.
And who will not love a guy, who would jump with you in the face of danger?
Frederick had been like this whether it was in the past when he was weak or in the present when he had grown stronger.
Rose puckered her lips and then kissed Frederick's cheeks. She wanted to kiss his lips but felt that it was wrong to do this without Frederick's consent.
Moreover, kissing there would become her first kiss so she should wait and make it worthwhile instead of taking advantage of him.
"I should make a move after the tournament otherwise if I leave things to this guy, I have to spend my life unmarried."
If Lucas knew about Rose engaged in pursuing her sweet time and Frederick was facing a god strike, he would have gone mad wondering why the hell this couple trail is so different from the plot.
...
A heavy stillness flowed through the battlefield.
The silence was common to both the human and demons who just stood rooted in the place.
The place where the gaze of all living beings in a deathly atmosphere was fixed was the path created in the middle of the army of demons that stretched beyond the canyon to the horizon.
As if a hero in a legend splits the sea, the path was created with just a single slash.
The creatures who were in their path vanished into nothingness as if they never existed.
If not for the small rift with dried blood serving as the witness, they would have thought that this was just an illusion.
On that road.
TAP! TAP!TAP!
Cladoc Frostblade, no, Lucas who made the path began to walk slowly.
Lucas's pace gradually accelerated and resonated with the lost voice emanating from the countless people from behind who shrieked in disbelief.
With such steps, the new image of Lucas that had become brightened soon turned into a single stream of wind.
KRNGG!KRNG!KRNG!
Only then did the surrounding demonic spirits come to their senses and start roaring as if they had gone out of their minds just by witnessing the human and rushed towards Lucas who was running towards them.
Demonic monsters, each with a force equal to that of an elite knight approached Lucas in an instant and they were about to pounce on Lucas's body when a step completely different from before unfolded from Lucas's right foot.
Swish!
An enormous wave of light started from that single step and engulfed in all directions, ripping apart all the demonic monsters without any mercy.
A huge arc was created and the leftover lower body started to fall on the ground with a thud.
At that moment a gap appeared, and Lucas immediately pushed his body into that space.
The soldiers and knights behind him who were gawking at the sight of their general marching into the battlefield alone were now filled with valour.
They took the opportunity to break through the demons and started pushing back making their formation falter as they pierced their army forming an arrow-shaped formation with Lucas taking the role of head.
Lucas didn't know anything about commanding and his orders may have a negative effect so leaving to that Lieutenant Knight, he decides to do his best and fight to his heart's content to gain experience and broaden his horizon.
Most of the demonic soldiers are untrained and fight with their instinct so if you are a trained person or graduated from Horizon, you can take on many demons at once if you can get through their killing intent.
Besides Lucas, the lieutenant was the second strongest man in their troop and was in the realm of the peak of 7-Star. Beside him, there were 300 7-Star warriors in their army.
As per the other side, though Lucas didn't know the exact number of forces, he could feel that though the other party had many 8-Star, they can't compare to him.
Except for Black Dragon, only if they ganged upon him, they can be of some threat.
However, with bloodline ability and weird skills, Lucas was like a slippery fish that was difficult to get caught. Moreover, his swordsmanship was quite deadly and was especially useful in destroying a huge fray.
There was no coordination among the troops on the Demon side and the commander wasn't even interested at all so if he shook things and gained momentum, he could easily tilt the scale which is better than standing and defending walls passively.
"Stop that guy!"
"Kill him!"
"Kill him."
"Don't let him dwell inside further."
"Use some brain, you shithead."
Along with shouts of demons filled with hatred and anger, a new wave of demonic monsters filled the rest of space and rushed towards Lucas.
But the waves didn't reach Lucas, the Knights swords split apart all the enemies.
"Protect Sir Cladoc."
"Kill these filthy creatures"
Lucas smiled and decided to try something.
His fingers twirled and his body ascended upwards. His hair fluttered and a smile hung on his lips.
He raised his hand in the sky and his eyes gleamed.
He clenched his fist which was followed by large-scale movements in the surroundings.
Before anyone could react, the portion top of the canyon on both sides within a length of 100 Metres exploded and a large mass of debris slid down and piled upon them.
Shrills of agony and scream erupted from the other side of the Demons as they ran frantically to protect themselves from getting dumped by rubbles.
Demons who were feeling the world was turned upside down soon found out that the horror was yet to be over.
KRUNG!KRUNG!KRUNG!CRUNG
The weapons of both sides that had been on the ground suddenly rose into the sky.
Mana swirled around them and all swords glowed up.
Lucas then swung his hand and then rushed forward.
Following his notion, thousands of blades poured out from the sky that cut through the waves.
As Lucas rampaged, his killing intent increased and the sky that was dyed with blood burst out.
Each of Lucas's swings was now followed by many swords that blasted the enemies.
It was then the sky was dyed black a huge shadow fell over the ground.
It wasn't because of the miasma spewed out from demons but rather a huge body as big as a hill that stood in front of him.
It was a mountain demon who belongs to a Sloth family who lazes around most of the time but once they move, they are quite terrifying to deal with due to their large size.
With a cry so loud that it almost caused an earthquake, a huge bulky stone among the debris created by Lucas was lifted and was thrown towards Lucas.
Seeing the huge mass, Lucas raised his fist pointing at the incoming boulder. Mana swirled over his finger and his eyes locked onto the boulder.
"Split apart!"Lucas shouted and clenched his fist tightly.
BOOM!
The descending stone was split into pieces and countless mini rocks shot around.
A layer of dust covered his vision that was swept away by a huge hand.
The atmosphere of the huge hand descending was akin to the falling of a meteorite. It was enough to destroy a small city without leaving a trace.
And at the moment, when such a hand was about to crush Lucas's whole body.
A scratching sound was heard.
Compared to the sound that created a quake across the place and emanated a huge pressure, the sound was so weak that it was almost negligible.
However, the sight that was created by sound can't be called negligible. Because the palm that was descending down was split vertically but this wasn't the end.
A solid thin line that started from the mountain demon palms went up to the shoulder.
As if he didn't understand what had happened, the Mountain demon stared at his hand falling down with a stupid look and then let out a hoarse stupid groan scratching everyone's eardrum.
On darting his eyes, he found the man missing and before he could search for it something went past his body and after that he was split wide from the top of its head to the toes with the sound of a metal cutter grinding a stone.
Similar to the sound of hundred bombs exploding all at once, the body of the Mountain Demon crashed to the floor with a loud roar.
Without a single hesitation, Lucas proceeded through the wreckage of Mountain Demon.
"Attack him with curses."
"Weaken him first. He is too strong."
Under the command of high-ranking demons who were silent at the moment at the unusual sight, thousands of demonic curses in black dots shot at Lucas.
Even with the power of a dragon, the curses of such a large scale were enough to rip apart but Lucas didn't dodge them nor did he strike him.
Rather he laughed and sneering at them, he activated Cladoc Frostblade bloodline ability.
[Refraction]
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m