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A Forgotten Soul
Chapter 17: Quantity vs Quality

Chapter 17: Quantity vs Quality

Everyone was exhausted, but by absorbing mana their fatigue gradually disappeared. Azule watched as everyone caught their breath before saying, “Since,  everyone's still exhausted why don't we you show you an example of live combat. I've talk about strategies, and how you should fight but reading about it and seeing it is an entirely different thing. Though it would be better if you'd experience it, after all there's nothing better than that.But by observing, you should have at least have a  clearer picture for when the time comes.”

Azule turned to Tristan and nodded. Tristan teleported every from the class room straight to a red hill. Satou looked around and noticed that behind them was the castle he was in about 3 kilometers away. And about 2 kilometers from them there was a village.  The hill looked down on a plain filled with red grass. Nevil was currently standing there waiting.

Garius leaped of the hill onto the plain, and made his way over to Nevil. He stood a few dozen meters away from Nevil, and looked at Azule. Azule nodded and said with a loud voice, “Nevil we’re ready!”

Nevil looked up at the cliff and nodded. He immediately summoned five skeletons from thin air. Each skeletons had a different set of weapons and armor equipped. In the front three skeletons stood forming a triangle. One of the skeletons wore light armor and wielded a longsword and shield, another skeleton wore heavy armor and held a large tower shield and axe, while the last skeleton wore heavy armor and held a two handed great sword.

In the back were the two other skeletons. One of the skeletons moved farther back and knelled down. This skeleton wore light armor and had a bow and a large amount of quivers each holding about twenty arrows inside of them. The last skeleton was a mage who wore a grey robe, and held a wooden staff.

The skeleton mage raised his arms up and summoned two large skulls on fire ,Fiery Skulls while the skeleton archer nocked an arrow into his bow. The heavy skeleton knight with the tower shield stood in front in the triangle formation, with the other two skeletons standing to his side and stood ready for battle.

Garius stood still waiting, Azule explained, “Garius is a High-Demon while those five skeletons are all at the Lower Demon level. Naturally he’s far stronger than these five skeletons combined. But by relying on each other they should be able to survive for a time. One day you should you encounter someone whose strength far surpasses your own, and even as a group all of you aren't able to even put a scratch on him remember this. Even if fighting alone doesn't do anything if you fight together, with each person fulfilling each of their respective roles you may be able to increase the odds of survival even by a little.”

Tristan loudly shouted, “Begin!”

The battle started and Garius ran forwards and quickly closed the gap between the skeletons. The archer skeleton rained arrows on him, whilst the Skeleton mage ordered the Fiery Skulls to attack from a range with fire. The fiery skulls flew forwards, but kept their distance as they circle Garius. Their jaws dropped and from their mouths fire spewed slowing Garius down.

The skeleton mage began chanting a spell a three balls of fire appear above him. Garius looked at him and charged. As the three skeleton warriors stepped in front of Garius in an attempt to block him, the Fiery Skulls stopped shooting fire and moved towards the archer who grabbed a bunch of quivers and was running to the left. Both skulls put a quiver in their mouth and followed him.

One of the skeletons slammed his large tower shield down onto the ground and let out a large screech. The two skeletons beside him moved behind him.

Garius clicked his tongue, and punched the shield putting a large dent in it, and causing the skeleton to be launched backwards. The skeletons behind him shot to the sides getting away fast so they weren’t caught in the strike. One skeleton moved to the left and the other to the right, they each swung their swords to towards Garius’s arm.  

The skeleton with the long sword made several attacks before jumping back, holding his shield up. But the strikes didn’t even scratched Garius. While the skeleton with the great sword made one heavy slash that put a small scratch on his arm.

Garius was about to punch the skeleton with the great sword, who was a bit slower in his retreat when an arrow moved towards his eyes. He easily caught the arrows, but the time it took him to do so allowed the other skeleton to get away.

The skulls who were helping out the archer flew towards Garius, and opened their mouths. This time however fire didn’t spew out instead several red hot chains shot out as the archer began bombarding him with more arrows. If those chains were used on a normal person they would definitely been in great anguish, however when they wrapped around Garius they had absolute no effect. And Garius just shrugged of the bombardment.

Amidst all this the skeleton mage who was busy chanting had created three massive fireballs. The whole time he was charging his spell fueling it with more and more mana until it reached its size. The skeleton warriors got back into formation as the skeleton archers ran back to his stash of arrows. It was just like in before, but the distance between them and Garius was far smaller.

Garius grabbed the searing hot chains and pulled them, he grabbed the Fiery Skulls in each hand and crushed them. He looked at the fireball's and began his charge once more with a greater speed than before. With no Fiery Skulls in the way hindering him it became much easier to advance.

The three skeletons upfront charged forward as well. Garius punched the skeleton with the tower shield, but this time he didn’t receive it. Instead the three skeletons each dodged to the side, and the skeleton mage launched the three large fireballs. As the large fireballs launched flew towards Garius, the skeleton archer the nocked an arrow into his bow and held it there. As the skeleton mage began chanting once more, the arrow on his bow began to shine.

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Garius quickly caught the fireball on the left and the fireball on the right and smashed it into the fireball in the middle. As he was preoccupied the skeleton warriors took the opportunity to go behind him each striking at his legs.

Garius crushed the fireballs into little pieces and swung his hand back at the skeletons. The skeleton with the tower shield charged in front screeching. He held the large shield horizontally and a translucent barrier appeared covering the other two skeletons next to him. As Garius’ fist met the shield it destroyed the barrier, and once again the skeleton was sent flying. But the two other skeletons that would should have been knocked back were perfectly fine. They both quickly retreated.

The skeleton archer who was still holding his arrow stood up, and the skeleton mage finished chanting. The arrow nocked into the bow began brightly shining. When the archer released it the arrow flew at an incredible speed before it hit Garius’s head erupting in a bright light.

Azule clapped before loudly saying, “That’s enough.”

Garius silently walked back to where he previously was and the skeletons went back into formation.  Azule continued, “If each skeleton were to fight alone it would have been difficult to last even a minute against Garius, granted he was holding back a good deal, but if the tower shield skeleton fought Garius with the level of strength he was using now he wouldn’t have time to recover from the strikes he received. With his armor, and the weight of his equipment running away and dodging him would have proven difficult and the chances of him survive were extraordinarily low. If the mage didn’t have the warriors stalling he could never have used his spells, and the archer was only able to at best slow him down. None of the skeletons could do anything to Garius, but they were each able to make up for each others flaws, and allow each other to live a little longer. With the help of each other, and excellent teamwork even if you’re up against someone much stronger than yourself you still have a possibility of surviving.”

He lifted his hand and four large circles appeared in the air. Inside these circles were odd characters, but as read them he understood they were the numbers 1 , 100 , 1,000 , and 10,000

“There are several factors that influence the battle, one of which happens to be in regards to who is fighting. This category can be split into many parts like team work, equipment, and the like but to sum it up it's Quantity vs Quality. A one Lower Demon is far stronger than one Lesser Demon this is a difference in quality. But up against a hundred Lesser Demons that qualitative difference doesn’t exactly matter anymore. It is said that a Rank 1: Lower Demon is equivalent to 100 Rank 1: Lesser Demons or 10 Rank 10: Lesser Demons, and a Rank 1: Mid Demon is equivalent to 100 Rank 1: Lower Demons and 10 Rank 10: Lower Demons, and so on and so forth. But this would mean that a Rank 10: Lower Demon is equivalent to 1,000 Rank 1: Lesser Demons. Do you think it’s possible for a Rank 10: Lower Demon to live after fighting a 1.000 Lesser Demons, or a Rank 1 Mid-Demon survive fighting 10,000 Lesser Demons?”

Azule turned to the group and smiled,

“No. In truth these values are just a bunch of bullshit, a false bravado in an attempt to make the the strogner Demons feel stronger than they actually are. Battles, war, they aren’t so clear cut and predictable. It might not even take 10 Rank 10: Lesser Demons to kill a Rank 1: Lower Demon wearing the same equipment and being of the same race. This is one way the the many overcome the one, the weak the strong. But even that is not absolute.”

Azule looked at Garius and nodded. Garius step back to where he previously was and the skeletons began preparing again. The skeleton mage summoned two new Fiery Skulls and Nevil gave the archer more arrows.  

“While a 100 or so Rank 1: Lower Demons might be able to overcome a Rank 1: Mid Demon, a Mid-Demon could just as easily overcome a 100 or more Rank 1: Lower Demons. That is Quality. that is absolute strength. Because In face of absolute strength no amount of Demons, or teamwork, or equipment will save you.”

Tristan looked at Azule and nodded, “Begin!”

The skeletons once again prepared for Garius assault, the mage began chanting creating three fireballs in the air. But this time. was a little different. This time Garius suddenly disappeared leaving behind only an image, and reappearing behind them. He reappeared behind the skeletons with a skull in hand. Garius laughed, “Ah that’s so much better.”

*BOOM*

A loud boom filled the air accompanied by a large amount of dust. The skeletons behind Garius were torn to shreds. The knights armor, swords, and shields were completely blown right through. The mage had a large hole in his chest and all the fiery skulls had a chunk missing. The skeleton archer had his skull missing before he could even fire an arrow. And bits and pieces of broken bone were flung everywhere along with the dust.  

Azule turned around, “For this is the reality of war where Quantity consumes Quality, and Quality annihilates Quantity..”

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Hey guys as promised heres the Saturday chapter, and friend is still at a Wedding so yeah. Anyway point out any mistakes or suggestions. Also the MC didn't have much to do so it wasn't much of a problem but do you guys prefer me calling him Satou in narration or Daemon cause his name might change again so people are gonna call him whatever. Theres also nicknames and the like. So should I call him by the name he's called or stick with Satou, his original name in narration. And besides I did leave that whole thing with the changing loyalties gives you a new name so I can take out the joke name Daemon at one point.

By the way sorry guys for the length, looked way longer in doc. I'd like to post another chapter at some point in the week, but I don't know. That might not be possible with my current schedule. If anything I'll post a sort of make up chapter at one point.