The group managed to quickly kill off the rest of Leon's summons after figuring out that they needed to get rid of them in one fell swoop. But unknown to them, James had already slipped into the shadow of one of the men there without being noticed.
"What the hell were those? I didn't get a kill notification." A lanky man wearing all black clothes and holding a pair of short swords, complained. He went by Dee, a nickname given to him by his friends.
"Shut up, Dee. Those were probably Spirit Summons. There are other strong people here." A burly man named Hank rumbled with a deep, baritone voice. His eyes were hooded and he looked ready to leap at anything that emerged. He was so alert, yet he completely failed to notice the shadowy being that hid within his shadow.
Beside him was another man with bright orange hair and a scar running along his face. A bow and quiver of arrows hung behind him, and he looked around with a lackadaisical attitude. His name was Aaron.
Together, the three of them were able to clear seven floors on their own, proving that they were a powerful force on their own. They trudged through the halls in silence, with a strange veil of mana enveloping their bodies. This was a concealment skill that Aaron had raised to the Advanced level. As an archer by Class, it was necessary to have a concealment skill so that he could sneak to good vantage points without being noticed by anyone. Even a leaf should not feel his weight when he stepped on it. It was with this mindset that he had gotten to where he was so far.
"Hold on, there is a group of people coming this way." Aaron raised his hand and whispered. After that, he did not speak again, but used hand signals to communicate. The group quickly moved to a corner, with Hank positioned at the front, while Dee took up an ambush position.
A group of people came running with a few dozen shadowy, black monsters chasing after them. Hank immediately recognized the monsters as the same type of Spirit Summons that they had fought. The feel of the mana signature on them was the same thing. He wanted to move forward, by Aaron shook his head, making a signal.
At almost that same time, another group of people, a team composed of six people, came from another connecting hallway. They saw the group running from the monsters and immediately lashed out, attacking the monsters with frightening power. All of them in the group had explosive skills that absolutely decimated the monsters in single hits. The only ones that were harder to kill were the High B rank monsters.
When the monsters had been taken care of, the initial group that had been fleeing stopped, turning back to their saviors to thank them.
"Oh, thank y-!" The man who seemed to be their leader opened his mouth to speak, but paused in the next moment when he saw his 'saviors'. Horns sprouted from the heads of three out of the six people, while one possessed wings. The other two looked more human, but there was something off about them. It only took a moment for the man to see what was wrong, and fear touched his heart. They had no mouths, and their eyes looked dull. They were brainwashed slaves!
There was only one place where these people could have come from, and that was the Demon Continent. It seemed that this group of people had a distaste for the beings that originated from there, but they quickly tried to school their expressions. However, it was noticed by the Demons.
"What? Are you not going to thank us for saving you?" The winged Demon stepped forward with a menacing smile on his face.
"Thank you. We really appreciate it. We must be leaving now." The man who had spoken earlier quickly tried to speak, but the smile on his face looked strained and it faltered.
"Oh, you do not look grateful. Why don't you pay me with something else?" The Demons cackled amongst themselves.
"And what would that be?" The humans gulped.
"Your lives, of course!" That was the signal, as the Demons leaped forward, their claws at the ready and their canines bared.
It was at that moment that...
Whoosh!
An arrow appeared from nowhere, wrapped in air that spun and twisted around it, boosting its speed and strength. The arrow dove through the air, and plunged itself into the leathery wing of the Demon, carrying him back, and pinning him against the wall.
"Argh!" The evil fiend howled in pain.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
More arrows flew wide, aiming for the other Demons as two shadows dashed out of hiding. Hank and Dee were like vengeful guardians as the fire in their eyes burned. They could not stand by and see their kind be killed by the Demons. On a normal day, they might have just let this slide as it was not their business, but seeing the brainwashed slaves had rubbed them the wrong way. The world could do better without these four Demons tainting its surface.
Hank held out his hands and two swords appeared in his grasp. His body spun around, carrying a frightening power within it as the swords glowed purple.
A horn bearing Demon used some sort of transformation to make his body grow black scales all over. The black scales rose his defense level to a much greater point, while also granting him greater strength, but all that power was pushed to the side when Hank's double swords clashed against his raised arms.
"Vile Demons!" Hank growled loudly. His eyes burned with might as he channeled his mana to fuel his skills. The purple glow around his sword was a manifestation of Gravity magic. It was because he had multiplied the weight of the swords and his body to countless times to increase him momentum that he had been able to so easily blow aside the Demon.
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