Garin and his comrades were seasoned warriors even among slayers albeit he was one of a much longer history in the world of slayers than the other two.

Earning a nickname in a world where everyone had a guardian wielding otherworldly abilities was not an easy feat, and yet, here Garin was… The Sound Knight.

His abilities were renowned throughout Valeria for their potent destructive capabilities. It was the sole reason an entire swarm of demons stood no chance against him.

All that considered, facing off against a mob of ruffians, he found himself filled with anxiety. Demons were a lot less insidious compared to humans. The concept of who was stronger in a battle shifted drastically in a battle against a human, simply because of one thing: Intelligence.

The battle-crazed maniac rushing towards him wasn’t the least bit bothered by his fame or skill. If anything, he was excited. Garin’s stomach turned.

Not even calling the bluff of the skill he possessed in the stories had made the bandit hesitate.

Unfortunately, that could also mean he too was a slayer of a high calibre.

Hailing from the Flame Vipers, a group stationed in the far South of Valeria, the monster in front of him had most likely turned to a life of shady crimes, using his sinister abilities to perform tasks besides protecting the continent from the demons that plagued them.

Garin was no expert in dark magic… but he’d felt it when the world turned just a bit colder with the emergence of the ominous black scythe.

The long curved blade whistled through the air, colliding with his sword at least three times in every second and with pinpoint precision.

The sword, however, had collided with two other weapons. At the same time, it clashed with the scythe, whipping around Garin in serpentine paths that met each of his attacker’s weapons with calculated force.

It was a fight of one against three… and yet the knight stood his ground.

Garin’s speed kept him moving like a blur in the triangle of hateful bandits.

A forced chuckle filled the air, “You’re even more fierce in person.”

Garin’s sword didn’t stop for the chatter though. In the next moment, he deflected the scythe to one of the villains, sidestepped a downward slash from the third and drove the tip of his blade into the gut of the bandit.

It had all happened within a fraction of a second and even then, Garin was already moving on to the other two. There was no time to tend to their fallen comrade as the Sound Knight’s focus on them quickly doubled.

A black arrow whistled through the air only to be cut down by the black scythe…

Thunder rumbled through the sky, the air hummed in the resonance with magic coming from the dark clouds.

Then, right after a short moment of silence, dark jagged arcs of lightning rained down on the battlefield in a mess of chaos, painting the battlefield in bright blue light.

Flying guardians that were unlucky dropped from the sky, their wings stunned by the electric shock and their bodies charred by the black lightning.

The flame-wielding slayer struck his opponents down just as well, unleashing the destructive power of the fire augmenting his fists. The whole battle seemed to be moving faster than Garin thought it would be.

Of course, this was to be expected considering half of the mercenary force had already got away and seemed to be going in the direction of the children.

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They didn’t seem to know the exact direction and were simply spreading out… but that in and of itself worried Garin.

Guardians had a wide range of abilities, some even specialised in searching.

It was only a matter of time… so Garin and his comrades had to work fast if they wanted to return to the children.

A few minutes later, the only bandit left was the Scythe-user, who also seemed to be the boss of this mercenary group.

Out of the fifteen rogues they’d battled with, enduring the vicious cycle of downing them as they replaced each other in a heartbeat, Garin deduced that this ‘leader’ was the most skilled out of all of them.

…and yet, something still felt off about him.

“I’m disappointed,” Garin grunted as he exchanged blows with the man.

“Oh! And why is that?” the man asked with a grin on his face.

Despite his friends being struck down, he seemed happy with himself.

In fact, he continued to fight with no regard for his comrades, “Aren’t you worried about your friends?”

“Friends?” the man asked… then burst into laughter and with the loud burst of laughter, his strikes grew more erratic.

He struck with more vigour and speed and a deranged look graced his features as he hit the knight’s sword.

Each time their weapons struck each other, the world around them shuddered in recoil only for them to collide yet again.

Garin’s palms yelled out as the force behind the mercenary’s strikes grew even heavier. ‘Is it just me… or is he stronger…’

At the same time, Garin caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of his eyes. The Sound Knight vanished in a super-fast backstep…

Time seemed to slow as he watched a chipped blade strike the spot he’d just been standing in.

The scene before Garin gave him pause.

Not only was the person that had just attacked him steaming and stinking of burning flesh but he also looked vaguely disfigured. His bones were broken in several places and yet he was still moving.

The man that had attacked him was in no condition to fight at all… and yet, he’d attacked with the speed and agility of a healthy person.

Before Garin had the time to decipher what was happening, the man’s frame bubbled and turned into a moving mass of black goop which flowed into the dark villain’s palm.

The mercenary group’s leader cracked his neck with glee, his aura growing a lot more potent and intimidating, “You said something about me letting my friends die.”

It was only now that Garin noticed something wrong with the battlefield. There was not a single body in sight…

“Figured my Ability out yet, Sound Knight?” the man grinned…

An arrow of black lightning streaked through the air at blinding speed.

For the first time since the start of this battle, however, the lightning-infused arrow was stopped.

The movement of the man’s hand was imperceptible as he caught the sizzling arrow by the shaft.

“Careful where you aim these things… They tickle,” the man chuckled to himself.

“Darth, the Copy Viper,” one of the Alaric’s guards, Gunther whispered.

“Now that’s a name I haven’t heard… in a very long time,” the dark man grinned.

Garin’s senses suddenly went into overdrive and time slowed down. He’d heard of this man before… albeit only through rumours and stories. Stories of a man that could split his body into many.

It didn’t take a genius to realise the man had used magic to change the appearance of his copies. It seemed the ability also made his power decrease… which meant that now that many of his copies had rejoined him, he was a lot stronger.

In the next moment, the villain was upon him, having crossed a distance greater than five metres in a fraction of a second, time that Garin had only used to grip his sword tighter.

The stingray rider drew vast pools of aether into his system in time to deflect the descending scythe.

Unfazed, the scythe spun behind the mercenary’s back, switching hands only to come down on Garin’s frame once more in the time one would take to blink.

Garin’s sword was up as well, parrying the next attack just in time.

An arrow whizzed, only to be caught by the madman. Without hesitating, the bandit drove that sharp crackling tip into Garin’s shoulder.

A buzz of lightning stormed through Garin’s body, but he gritted his teeth and stayed standing. Slayers of his calibre had more robust bodies than the average human… or even slayer…

This was just a scratch.

“Ah, not Glass Temper Rank, I see. I wonder which one it is, Wood Temper Rank?” the man grinned.

Garin did his best to ignore his taunts. In a battle such as this one, even a little hesitation could mean the difference between life and death.

While Body Temper Ranks were indeed important in battles, this one had already began and fighting to figure out his opponent’s rank was just bound to get him killed.

Fighting through the pain of being electrocuted, Garin drove his sword into the man’s torso. The sharp blade sank into his flesh like butter…

What should have been a fatal wound only made the madman before him grin like a fool.

It took Garin longer than he would have liked to realise why it was so easy to stab the abnormally powerful anomaly.

The flesh at his sword had already turned black, a grin forming on the man’s lips… “Ah, I have good news, Sound Knight. We found the kids.”