SwiftWind’s body had engorged to an impossible size, the stingray’s thick azure skin turning light and leathery. The gentle hum of aether grew chaotic in Alaric’s ears as the creature bottled up immense amounts of energy.

The seats on the guardian’s back had been well-designed to accommodate this transformation.

Interlocking chains and contraptions allowed each seat to come apart on its own and glide over the expanding surface of the stingray’s back instead of restricting it allowing the already large stingray to balloon up to insane proportions.

When it seemed like the leather-metallic chains would snap, however, the expansion stopped.

There was a short moment during which Alaric’s eyes nearly popped from their sockets in shock, then, a great SONIC BOOM shook the world.

The stingray let out a tyrannical cry, unlike anything Alaric had ever heard before.

Even situated behind the Stingray, Alaric was forced to cover his ears as the stingray unleashed its powers on the black swarm of demons.

The two Slayers that had come to protect Alaric had already flown past the stingray, leaving only demons behind them.

The two guards had drawn their bows and hovered behind the stingray, letting arrows loose at the creatures that managed to escape the scope of the Sonic Blast.

With his ears covered, Alaric noticed something odd. All the other aspirants had their ears covered, gritting their teeth under the tyrannical assault of the stingray’s cry.

Meanwhile, the adult slayers seemed unbothered by the screeching sound coming from the engorged stingray.

Since SwiftWind had turned to face the demons, Alaric had no vision of what was happening, so he missed the gruesome part of watching the demons get ripped apart by the Sonic attack.

But then, that became irrelevant as Garin approached the six aspirants with an inscrutable expression.

The man twirled his hands and uttered some inaudible words. A dome of silence formed around the aspirants.

Despite the relative silence, Garin’s voice came strained and louder than it should have been, “Alaric, you’ve concealed your guardian well before… Are you able to conceal your friends as well?”

Alaric frowned at the question but then nodded.

“Then the six of you are to dismount and head for the woods,” the man argued.

“And go where?” Alaric yelled back.

Garin pointed to the far north, “North... About ten kilometres from here. You’ll find an outpost. At the outpost, you’ll have food, drinks and a Gateway that can take you as far as Jack’s Fall, which is where Aiden and his friends are from.”

“What about you?” Alaric asked.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“You don’t worry about us. Without holy magic, demons can’t be truly defeated, so we’ll have to subdue them.

We’ll meet you at the Gateway. If not, then we’ll meet you at Jack’s Fall. Rub that bracelet if you get into trouble… And protect them well,” Garin replied, “Now go… we don’t have much time before SwiftWind runs out of breath.”

It was only then that Alaric noticed the strangeness of this situation. While their conversation hadn’t been long.

In fact, it had been hurried, giving him far too little information… and yet, SwiftWind’s attack was still going.

The engorged stingray was still shooting a perilous scream of sound waves, berating the swarm of demons. The boy doubted this powerful attack would be enough to end the fiends.

Which meant the three Slayers were getting ready for combat. At most, SwiftWind was keeping the demons at bay.

Having received instructions, Alaric lifted his palms and summoned more of his aether. It was time to perform another spell.

“It will work better if you take down the barrier around SwiftWind,” Garin chuckled.

“You knew?” Alaric’s expression paled.

“The demons would have attacked us a long time ago if nothing was keeping them back.

You must think yourself a hotshot to think we didn’t notice,” a guard chuckled loudly.

Alaric chuckled nervously, then followed Garin’s instructions and stopped the supply of aether to a spell he’d cast in secret.

With more room to focus on the concealment of his comrades, the six aspirants vanished from view within a few seconds.

One of the guards snapped his fingers and static mirages of the six children appeared on SwiftWind’s back. They weren’t perfect and didn’t move much… but they were convincing enough to play the part of decoy.

With that, Alaric added one more modification to his spell, allowing the other aspirants to gain knowledge of that which had been concealed.

They could all see each other now, albeit a bit greyed out as though the world remembered them as mere phantoms.

Without wasting more time, the six aspirants disembarked and dashed for the forest. Once they were safely under the cover of the trees, the guards shifted their attention to the enemies behind them…

It took a few more seconds for the engorged stingray to return to his normal size.

By this point, Garin had drawn a brilliant steel sword enchanted to keep its sharp edge and unreasonable durability.

The other two Slayers had drawn similar weapons.

The world before them had been levelled, the grass gone, the ground overturned with dust everywhere. Dark fetid blood coated the stone and dirt that had been overturned as mangled pieces of limbs, bones and splattered innards littered the area of SwiftWind’s attack.

“You’re still as frightening as ever Garin,” the man on the two-horned black unicorn commented.

“Right back at you, Gunther,” Garin replied with a smirk.

The giant stingray gently lowered itself to the ground before vanishing in a swirl of mist. Garin now stood between the unicorn and the flying lion, wielding only a blade.

His guardian’s attack might have sent most of the demons to their deaths—or rather placed them in a state of subdual— but three creatures still stood in the mess that remained, towering at least four metres high.

Their bodies were bloodied with cuts and bruises but even those injuries were quickly closing. The beasts that attacked them bore a faint resemblance to bats.

Completely black with leather wings attached to the front muscled limbs which had a talon each touching the ground. Their grotesque maws featured tusks that dripped with drool and growls that sent chills down the spines of the experienced slayers.

It was one thing to face a demon… but another to face one that had just survived a sonic attack powerful enough to dig a metre deep into the ground.

“They heal fast…” LionHeart, the man on the lion spoke.

Garin walked forward with his sword ready, “Then we’ll have to take them down fast as well.”

A shrill scream escaped one of the three menacing beasts before they locked their red eyes on the approaching targets… and barrelled straight for them.

Abandoning previous restraint, Garin dashed forward just as well, bursting forth with so much speed that he left dust in his wake and blurred from view.

The man on the unicorn nocked an arrow into his bow and as he pulled on the string, a crackle of black electricity flickered on the tip of the arrow.

The third man held out his hands and two balls of flame roared to life… The battle was on.