Meanwhile, Astine was having a rough fight with her opponent. She had yet to even damage him and all she could manage was to push him away for a while.

She was using physical enhancement, so even if her opponent was muscular, she should be able to overwhelm him. But that was not the case at all. To Astine's dismay, he was capable of pushing her spear back at every contact of their weapons.

In fact, her opponent was plenty skilled with the sword and he dodged her strikes pretty well, which annoyed her greatly.

As she swung her spear from above, her opponent parried it forcefully, pushing her attack away. Then, at the same time, her opponent struck down his sword. Thankfully, Astine was able to block it with the pole of her weapon in time.

They glared at each other down, and the man pushed down on his weapon. Astine’s eyes went wide at the sheer strength her enemy was showing. Was he using a technique more powerful than hers?

This couldn’t be. Astine was one of the most impressive within the church order, and this was damaging to her pride.

Her arm slowly folded as she was being pushed back, the blade of her opponent closing in to her. She gritted her teeth and gave it her all to push back against him, pouring more mana into her muscles at the same time to where she felt pain.

“Hah!”

After pushing his weapon away, she lifted her leg and kicked the belly of her opponent with the heel of her boots.

“!”

But to her shock, it did not blow away her opponent as she expected, but only slid back a little. She was in disbelief. Even so, she didn’t let her shock distract her, and she instantly conjured a short sword made up of light in her other hand.

But before she could thrust, her opponent grabbed her leg and threw her away. She ricocheted on the ground a few times, but she immediately regained her footing and rebalanced.

“Ugh, annoying.”

Annoying indeed, why did she have to be wounded so? Their uniform should be able to protect them, however, with the strength her opponent exerted, she had minor scratches on her body, even a little on her face.

The wounds may only be scratches, but they were bleeding a little, and it was already bothersome — another person could have tolerated the minor scratches, but not Astine. Getting wounded in any way was bothersome already. And she just had to be assigned as a leader by that old man. She would have been content to be just a plain fighter.

More than that, her opponent had proven to be stronger than she wanted. Everything would have been easier if everything went easily.

Taking a deep breath, she glared at her opponent. Time to stop with the conventional method of fighting.

White mist emanated from her feet, and frost began to cover the soil. Her hands were now holding two spears of light, at the same time, the surrounding ground began to be covered in ice and were spreading and growing.

Her opponent realized she was about to do something drastic and he immediately charged towards her. But in a second, as though an explosion, weapons made up of ice erected from the ground and slanted, aimed towards the man.

The numerous weapons all consisted of spears, some of normal size, and others were twice as big. Then, they all shot forward like a slingshot towards the target. The man instantly swung his sword to break others while dodging some, however a few still managed to hit him.

The attacks which landed wounded him, but they didn’t go in that deep that would be fatal for him. Then, amidst the weapons of ice, a spear of light suddenly came shooting towards him, thrown by Astine.

He parried and managed to change its course barely, but to his annoyance, his sword broke in half. Without delay, another spear of light followed. Leaving with no choice, he let go of his broken sword and caught the spear with his own hand.

However, they were not normal hands.

Astine’s eyes went wide in shock and confusion as she witnessed what just happened.

“What are you?”

The man’s hands suddenly turned from human to beast-like. Dark fur covered them and they had become larger. Then sharp claws appeared at the edges of his fingers. His hood was undrawn and what revealed was something as strange.

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On his head were ears like those you would see on wolves. His hair covered the side of his face, so Astine couldn’t determine whether he had human ears, but this guy wasn’t completely human. No, was he even human?

The man’s hands bled as the spear of light vanished from his grasp and his eyes turned towards Astine.

Astine tried to piece together this mystery, trying to answer the question in her mind.

What is he?

“Are you a demon?”

She had never seen a demon before, but maybe he was one?

No, none of the demons were described like him, none that she knew of, at least.

“Demon? Don’t even try to compare me to them, human.”

He sounded repulsed.

“Graaaaa!”

Suddenly, they heard a loud, violent roar. Everyone’s eyes shifted towards a creature — a beast. There was a beast walking on two feet. It still wore human clothing, but they seemed too tight as its fur made it bigger. It was mostly colored orange, and its face was feline… like a tiger.

It had sharp claws as the three priests and one priestess battling it could barely keep up.

“I’ll kill you!”

The beast bellowed. Then Astine saw Tina trying to keep her distance as the beast tried to get to her, but the priests were getting in his way.

I need to help her! No…

No, she had priests by her side, so she should be fine.

“You have pushed us this far, overwhelmed. But you humans cannot hope to defeat all of us.” he took a deep breath. “Destroy all the humans! Don’t hold back and show your true power if you must!”

The next moment, the man she was fighting transformed. He turned bigger and fur covered his body. His entire head changed into something that resembled a wolf — no, it was a wolf. His eyes were filled with the fearsome gaze of a predator. A wolf creature standing on two feet stood before her.

Then a third person changed into something like a dog, not the pet ones but fierce looking ones with sharp ears. Then there was another who didn’t have ears like others but rather had long, pointy ears.

“... So none of you are humans…”

The bishop mentioned preparing for any surprises, but Astine never thought it would be this kind of surprise.

Then, with no warning, her opponent pounced towards her with frightening speed. She grew ice spears and blocked his path which held him back for a moment. Shortly after, he broke the wall of weapons, leaving a few wounds on him, and attempted to claw her, but she barely managed to block him.

She conjured a sword in her free hand and parried a claw. At the same time, she also switched to a sword, discarding her spear. It would be difficult to fight off someone this close and striking subsequently.

She swung her sword and parried, then she felt a slash above her torso, although shallow. This fight was pushing her back hard.

“Aaaah!”

Then she heard a frightened scream, at the same time, she conjured a vast amount of ice spears below her opponent, burning a lot of her mana. This managed to immobilize him while a few struck him.

But Astine paid no more attention to him as she shifted her gaze towards that scream. It was a priestess, not Tina, but the other supporting priestess. The dog-like beast held her with both hands as it leaped away.

“No!”

“Stop it!”

“Save her!”

As the priests rushed towards it, the beast opened its jaw, revealing its sharp fangs and teeth. Astine knew exactly what was going to happen, but she was far. She couldn’t help her teammate from here in time.

Was someone going to die?

She would have preferred if none, but was someone truly going to die here? It was hard to process.

As she thought that, a silhouette crossed her eyes from afar. And the next thing everyone watching saw was blood spilling out as both the beast’s wrists were sliced off, and the priestess falling to the ground along with the beast’s wrists.

The beast cried in shock as it witnessed a body part of his was severed.

Then someone caught the priestess and brought her away. The one who arrived was an old man wearing the same outfit as the other church members.

Astine smirked as she recognized the one who saved the priestess. Of course, he wouldn’t let someone die that easily if he was around.

The one who arrived was no other than the High Bishop himself. The bishop let down the priestess and the other priest expressed their joy upon his arrival.

“Who—?”

She heard her opponent ask that, but as it happened, a pair of spears appeared in both the bishop’s hands.

He moved with great swiftness and the next thing everyone saw was a streak of golden light arcing through the injured beast’s leg, prompting him to drop to the ground instantly.

“Gaaaaaaaah!”

The beast yelled in agony as its blood spilled to the soil.

“Stay there for a while,” he turned to the group of priests. “Keep watch of him, don’t let it kill itself.

Astine turned her eyes towards her opponent, who was in shock. Seeing that he was distracted, she sent weapons against him. He realized it and immediately shielded himself, but it still caused wounds all over him.

At that moment, she moved away from him. It was hard for her to admit it, but it was hard for her to beat her current opponent. Thus, the best option was to let the strongest handle him to end things quicker.

She rushed towards the bishop’s side.

“High Bishop, may I ask you to deal with him?”

The bishop grinned broadly, his eyes glinted with anticipation as he stared at the beast. Astine could already see that he was looking forward to fighting him.

“You dealt with him impressively. You have promising power. However, these are a bunch of surprises themselves. I’ll deal with him, you help the others.”

“Understood.”

“Now then beast, prepare yourself for I bring the blades of penance blessed by our lord and lady.”

“Your gods are nothing.”

“Those who disturb the peace of humanity shall be met with the wrath of those who longs for peace. By my words, along with your strength, the world shall be purified through our enemy’s blood. United, we shall face tribulations, and united shall our enemies fall. Only when everything is done, shall we attain serenity and offer profound compassion to our fellows in the era of peace.”

The bishop muttered loudly, quoting the scriptures with reverence.

“Freedom is deserved to all free from sins and those who heartedly repent.”

Dozens of weapons made up of golden light appeared in thin air all around him. They floated as they were pointed towards the beast.

“You who threaten the peace of our home shall pay the price.”

With no gestures, the weapons shot forward as they whizzed loudly through the air.