"What a shabby establishment." Padding away the dust off of his robe, one of the demons commented.
"You know when everything was still solidly built together. There's some charm in the architecture Four." Another commented in a more feminine tone.
"Charm? In the human sense sure, but who cares about that. Three, you're eyes must have gone blind, this cruddy cityscape must have changed your outlook." With a scornful tone, the demon known as Four retorted.
"I have better taste than you, damn brat."
"Old wrench!"
The bickering of the two was a rather light-hearted scene when observed from afar. It was like watching one of those runs in the mill argument between two siblings. To the demons who had entered the cafe, it was like that, as for the other occupants it couldn't be said to be the same.
"Aghhh, to think that these demons would send one of their elite shadow squads here. We're doomed. Doomed!" Despairingly one of the men tasked with patronizing at the bar muttered in madness.
'Elite shadow squad? There's more than one of these?' Luon wondered how powerful could Lemegeton be to have multiple forces of level 80 and higher combatants scattered across their domain. Curious, he asked, "Isn't it rare to have a force like this? I can't imagine how they could have so many high-level combatants divide them into groups."
"I don't know how much intel you have about other forces, but I can tell you this..." Shade, the man who assured Luon of his safety, that is, until trouble came knocking down their doorstep, replied in a nervous tone. He continued, "Among the most powerful solar systems they could have about a hundred level 80 combatants and a small handful in the 90s. Those old folks are holed up somewhere trying to break into the next level, so it's rare to meet a level 90."
Luon nodded after hearing his remark. A hundred level 80s seemed like a reasonable number for a place like Dragon's Valley as he could remember that Valerie, the dragon princess at such a young age was that strong due to her powerful bloodline and training. It wasn't that surprising to find that either demons or angels had a similar amount of high-level combatants due to their racial properties. As for humans and other races, they were more numerous rather than individually strong. Luon knew that there was probably half of the amount divided within their military ranks.
"Then do you have any level 80s coming to aid us?" Luon was sceptical. If his allies already knew that their enemies had a powerful backer, why would they send a small squad of level 70s to aid them? Just this Elite shadow squad was enough to wipe them out.
'Did they value us to little? Or did they not anticipate this situation? More importantly, what do we have to do to survive?' A turbulent wave of thoughts flooded Luon's mind, his worries, and anxiety became more apparent due to the dire circumstances. He hoped for a beacon of light to shine within the chaos.
However, the face that Shade made wasn't the best, his expression grimace as he coldly responded, "Alpha Hideout is special, you see… we don't have that many high-level combatants. It would already be surprising to find a single level 80 in this city that is currently active. We suffer from a lack of resources, the best we could muster is a bunch of level 70s, but that ain't going to help much, by the time they rally up we would be long dead, and that's if they notice our predicament."
The revelation enlightened Luon on the situation at Alpha Hideout. Why would a high-level combatant bother staying at Alpha Hideout when other forces would welcome them with open arms? The only contradictory part was that despite their lack of forces nobody still bothered to takeover Alpha Hideout for centuries despite knowing this. Was it out of respect for the founder? Was there a secret pact among solar systems? Why are they demons attacking now? The more mysteries piled up but their predicament hadn't changed. The only way out Luon reasoned was to fight. Hopefully, more of Alpha Hideout's forces would come to their rescue if they delayed it long enough.
Suddenly, a surge of energy washed over every single being within the vicinity. The awful feeling was familiar to Luon. It was the signs of barrier going up.
"Cease your chatter Three, Four, let's finish this mission quickly. Eight how is the barrier?" The leading demon said he stared at Luon.
"Stable, the sound and the visuals have been distorted, we got maybe about 15 minutes until somebody finds something off about the region."
"I see… One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six. You guys go and finish this up quickly. Seven, support Eight. Don't forget that the ambassador is also in on this, so we only got 30 minutes to do this."
""Yes Lord Zero!"" They all chimed.
Six figures steadily walked a few steps inwards, the area was small, and with them walking side by side, a good portion of the room was occupied by these intruders. As for the ones Luon thought to be Seven, Eight, and their Leader Zero, they casually walked outside of the faculty.
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'It's going to be hard to battle in such a small area' Luon thought. The demons also knew that. Reducing the number of fighters to give themselves more room. One of them, small in stature, eager for achievements, happily said, "Let's make this a quickie. Here I go!"
"Fast!" Vanishing from the spot from the eyes of almost everyone at the scene, Luon found himself staring at the dagger of a super-fast attack that was nearly centimetres away from him. Luon could see the grin on his foes face, and if it weren't for his specialty in observation skills and techniques, he would think that he had teleported. Unfortunately for the demon, his attack was thwarted, not by Luon who could only match the speed with his eyes, but by someone else.
Ner appeared in front of Luon instantly repelling the attack with his hands before sliding pass the outreached arm, placing his hands on the latter's stomach.
Energy coarse through his body and gathered at his palm. Instantly it all shot out in a burst of light, causing his foe to fly away from the impact crashing into several chairs and tables before shattering the wall. Despite the result Ner appeared dissatisfied, he had intended to end his life right there but from what he could tell the demon was still alive. Ner turned and yelled at Luon, "Sword!"
Luon quickly responded by accessing his interspatial bag and tossing a massive greatsword, which wasn't suitable for such close quarters, to Ner as he could use any weapons with ease. The reason why Luon gave him such a weapon was so he could deal with multiple foes at the same time. That and the destruction caused by his large swings could cause some havoc and hopefully attract the attention of others, that is if the barrier was down.
Luon knew that they wouldn't be able to handle the demons by themselves; they needed to get reinforcements. While Ner was holding them back, he turned towards the others and said, "We need to disable the barrier!"
"It's not going to be easy; the only way to do so is to remove the caster. That person had already left the building and is being guarded by the other two demons," Shade replied, his fearful expression turned better after seeing how Ner quickly wiped one of the demons out.
"Ner how many of them can you handle?" Luon asked. He knew he was strong, but the demons aren't that easy to handle. The latter shrugged as he jokingly said, "These wimps? Probably four of them wouldn't be my match."
"Don't get so cocky, do you honestly think you can handle even one of us?" One of the demons spat.
Ner pointed towards the demon that he sent away and replied, "Easily?"
His lack of confidence, the tone of his remark, his actions, and the simple gesture he made as if he had swat a fly offended the demons.
"Let's beat this arrogant guy up. If he thinks he could handle four of us, then let's see if he could do just that." The demon known as Three said.
"The old wrench is right. Let's beat this arrogant prick down and tear off his limbs." Four eagerly replied.
Four of the demons stepped forward, leaving one behind to observe the battle. From what Luon could tell from the way the demon readied themselves, they were superior to the one taken out. Once the fight started, it would be challenging to avoid being hit by Ner with his strength, taking the opportunity while he still could Luon grabbed his swords from the storage and slashed several times at the wall beside him.
The path opened, and he bellowed at the bartender, Shade, and the others, "Go! Figure out a way to get some help!"
Dumbstruck by his actions, they woke up from their surprises and burst out through the opening. By the time Luon turned around to observe the battle it had already started.
Ner gave several horizontal swings of the greatsword; the force and speed behind it was powerful enough to disturb the air around it. He was not kidding when he said he could handle four of them, seeing the displeasure on their faces.
"What's wrong?! Weren't you guys going to beat me down?! Are you afraid?" Ner laughed as he swung.
"Keep swinging fool and tire yourself out! Did you honestly think you can swing like this all day! I'd eat garbage for a week if you can!" Four replied as he desperately avoided the blows.
'I can't tell if things are going well...' thought Luon as he watched the battle. Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, he saw something flash, its body was tightly against the ground avoiding the blows the Ner made and entered his blindside.
'It's that speed one from earlier!' Luon couldn't warn Ner fast enough, by the time he yells out his warning it would have been too late.
The dagger locked onto Ner's leg, the small demon laughed as he thought, 'You dare knock me out? The suffering that I had just witnessed, the price for it is your leg!'
"What the-" As the knife made contact with Ner's armour, a dense amount of mana covered the region, and the attack slid off causing the small demon to lose his posture, crashing on the ground before Ner.
Before he could get up, he was slammed onto the ground by Ner's foot which stomped on him several times before pressing down on him.
"You!" The other four demons stopped their approach as they noticed the changes in the battle. They saw the quick demon aim at his leg, but what happened next was beyond their expectations. It was as if he had eyes on his feet, not only blocking the attack he had also pinned their ally against the floor, his response was as if he expected this.
Watching the dumbfounded faces of his foes, Ner said, "You said I couldn't even handle one huh. Well, why don't I give you guys the head of one?"
Swirling the blade around he cleanly handled the pinned demon as if he had worked at a butcher shop that dealt with meat.
The demon's head flew up, and Ner sadistically batted it with the flat end of his sword towards the others as it landed right in the middle of them. Shocked expressions appeared on their faces before a variety of emotions quickly replaced them. Anger, sadness, and fear became apparent from Ner's cruel actions.
The demon that oversaw the battle was also affected. His kin had just been slaughtered like pigs in the slaughterhouse. Stepping forward, he bellowed at his clansman, "Back off, this guys mine."
An intimidating aura shot out of him, suppressing those at the scene. If it weren't for the fact that Ner was in front of Luon, he too would be affected.
"O-One," Four couldn't help but say as the pressure bore that on him to the point where he couldn't bear.
Fueled by fury, none of the words reached him.