A female knight stood on top of a rooftop, facing the direction where the center of the operation was taking place. She sported a white Wisterian gold and purple armor, so noble and beautiful. In her arm was her helm, which she had removed so she could see more of her surroundings and take in the fresh air.

The knight, Ayana, narrowed her eyes, watching and waiting. She ought not to be lax in this mission. This was the largest and most important mission that she had experienced to date, nor had she ever heard something like this happen in the middle of the city in her lifetime.

Plenty of the knights took this as an opportunity to distinguish themselves, while the rest, well they only took this as another job to be done. Ayana was one of the former. As from a family of nobles, she wanted to rise. Although she was often assigned as a leader of a squad, she was not yet a lieutenant or a commander of a whole unit. She wanted more.

She wanted to be more than her family ever would be.

And most of all, she disliked stagnancy.

This made her form some kind of resentment to her current situation, she was stuck. Nothing seemed to change, it was all the same. Same morning, same activities, same problems. There was nothing thrilling, nor different.

Because of this, in the past she considered leaving the Order. However, being a knight was way more enjoyable than staying home.

If she were to become special, something great, she knew she would become and wanted to be someone memorable. And thus, she will and must rise. That was why she was willing to go to great lengths just to be better. She even resorted to becoming a torturer, answering only directly to the crown. None of the knights even knew that she was personally performing tortures to others, despite being known to meet sometimes with the official torturer.

For all they knew, she was just there as someone to manage and a channel to the crown.

But despite that, she was not satisfied. It was never enough. To her, it was no different to being a foot soldier.

She had to work harder if she wanted to be treated or be seen like one of the highest elites in the Order. Perhaps, one of the signs that she had really risen to a degree she found satisfying, even for a little, was for her working personally with one of the royals.

But that has yet to happen to her. It did happen to one of her close friends though. And truth be told, it made her feel a bit bitter, and it stung like a needle. Namely, it was Rogan. Why did it happen to him and not her? Why to him who didn’t even seem to take anything seriously? One so carefree and casual to all things?

Why not to her, who was so eager and determined to do her job? One who was willing to work hard just to get up there.

It was unfair.

She had nothing against Rogan. She was aware he was not the problem, but it was herself. It was her that was feeling this negatively, and it was uncalled for. But she couldn’t help it.

In any case, despite the fact that there were many knights here, she could at least contribute something big.

A trail of light suddenly flew up in the air.

One got through the line…

An enemy got through the forces deployed in that area that were supposed to block and capture running enemies. However, that was within expectations.

The golden light signals to the rest of the men that an enemy or more have broken through that particular part of the line. That way, the next line can prepare for interception. Their forces were formed into something called the four ring formation.

The first ring was the point where the enemy were based in, or in other words, from their hideout. The forces of Wisteria would then surround that point in all directions, so they could watch for enemies from a vantage point and intercept them. Once an enemy was found, they would signal the rest with magic that emits white light. They were, in particular, ordered not to use the golden color to avoid confusion.

In any case, breaches were to be expected as the enemies were not to be trifled with. Furthermore, the farther one was from the central point, the wider the circle would be. This may result in complications or weakening of the line. But that was why there were four circles in total, and the wider the circle, the more men would need to be allocated to that part. However, this meant that they would need to prevent enemies from breaching through as much as possible, and also making the enemies go in different directions, splitting them up.

It was ideal for the enemies to separate. As a group, they would be too difficult to handle. Capturing them would be nigh impossible.

If the enemies, however, get through the last ring, that would be problematic. However, the church bishop was assigned to handle that.

Ayana was on the third ring from the central point, along with seven knights, and six church members. They were spread out of course, but she could see a few standing on other rooftops.

Another light rose in their direction. With a stern expression, Ayana slid her head into her helm and placed a hand on the hilt of her sword. She looked closely and cautiously. She couldn’t see anyone yet.

Then, a light lit up from one of the knights on a rooftop. Looking at each other, him and Ayana nodded before making their move. The latter followed the knight, jumping across rooftop to rooftop. Then two masked church members in black robes appeared beside her. All four here were the ones assigned to watch and intercept an enemy if found as a team. One target per team.

The knight leading them was a muscular man judging from the size of the armor he was wearing, on each side of his waist were swords. He was one of the elites. He jumped to the ground, leaving a small crater under his boots. On the other hand, Ayana landed lightly and with grace, and then the two knights drew their swords.

The two church members remained on the rooftops, each one on the left and right.

And at the center, in front of them all, was a beast. Its fur was brown, and its limbs were bulky with muscles, its face seemed so similar to a bull. The beast growled, glaring at the people blocking its way.

“Humans, you have prepared beautifully for this day, to fight us. But know this, you shall regret facing me today.” His glaring eyes shifted to each one of its enemies, then its fists curled. With a powerful voice, it declared. “I will reduce you to a pitiable smear on the stone cold floor.”

It roared deafeningly. Ayana slowly formed her stance and breathed in. The double wielder beside her charged first, swinging down both his blades at it. But the beast met them with its arm, the blades causing it to bleed. Strangely though, the wound was too shallow despite the power behind those swings, might as well call it a scratch.

The beast pulled back its other arm, about to strike. And thus, Ayana charged forward, lightning engulfed her blade, and she slashed down through the air, sending an arc of lightning at it, hitting its arm. But that attack, as the same as the strikes before it, merely made a scratch.

Making her way behind it with impressive swiftness, she slashed its back multiple times.

She flinched a little, surprised at the hardness of its skin, or muscles to be precise. Indeed, it was fleshy, but almost as hard as stone. All she could do was inflict shallow cuts. The beast lashed its thin tail, given the toughness of its body, Ayana decided to dodge it.

Quick as the tail was, Ayana used physical enhancement to make her body stronger and faster, and dodged by stepping back. However, the beast abruptly thrust its free fist towards her. In immediate response, Ayana cast her barrier, but upon contact, it quickly shattered from the sheer power of that single punch from the beast. She had no choice but to use her arms as cover, and she was sent flying to a wall, dust spread out. The metal plating on her gauntlet dented.

At the same time, the dual wielder relentlessly swung his blades in quick succession, dodging the fists of the beast when it came. The beast slammed its hands into the ground while roaring in rage, sending debris shooting everywhere.

The dual wielder leaped back to safety. At the same time, a church priest jumped down, wielding a large golden hammer, and slammed it down to the beast’s head with as much strength as he could muster. It appeared to have done some damage to it as it staggered. Ayana took this chance to send a pair of lightning slashes towards it.

Annoyed, the beast turned back to attack her. But Ayana was already before him and she jumped up, her body enhanced, and punched the beast in the chin. The beast, stunned, lost its balance for a moment.

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It was about to counterattack, but golden chains suddenly wrapped around its arm. Then at the same, the dual wielder fired a pair of arcs of light at its back, making it kneel to the ground as wounds formed — but far from fatal.

“Damn you!”

Another chain wrapped around its torso as the other priest jumped down from the roof. The two priests began running in circles, wrapping the chain around its body. The beast roared and pulled, struggling, but it couldn’t break free.

Even so, it was strong, so Ayana needed to weaken it. She sheathed her blade and went at it with her fists. She punched its torso, its back, its face. And she kept hitting while it kept struggling. If it struggles, it still has the strength to fight, and she had no intention of stopping if that was still ever the case.

The priests stopped when it was enough, and pulled the chains tighter. But the beast kept on writhing. Thus, Ayana punched it some more, causing small booms to mildly echo in the area.

“Ggghh.”

The beast groaned as blood leaked out of its mouth, both his knees on the ground.

Everyone and everything quieted down but the heaving breath of the beast.

We should be able to drag him this way. But…

Ayana approached.

“Return to your humanoid form.” She said with a forceful tone.

If it remained a beast, the shackles wouldn’t be able to suppress it completely, considering that it fought with its raw strength.

The tired eyes of the beast lifted to look at her. “Not yet… I’m not done. If I fall or captured today, I will drag you down with me — even if I am stripped of my sanity.”

Ayana, disturbed, narrowed her eyes. Then with a fearsome growl, the beast’s muscles suddenly expanded. It slowly stood up, slowly dragging the priests with it. While confused, the priests strained their magically enhanced muscles to keep the beast bound in chains, but those very chains began to creak.

Ayana glanced at the other knight, indirectly asking what to do now. Something more dangerous was going to happen, it was certain. But they were ordered not to kill the beastmen, and because of that, their power was quite restrained.

But this was no time to be idling, and so Ayana promptly rushed towards the beast while it was still bound. With her enhanced left arm, she slammed her fist to the side of its face.

“!”

However, the impact she made was not the same as before, it merely pushed its head a little. Furthermore, its face was harder, firmer. She was sure that it should have done some damage, based on the feeling of the punch. But it would seem the beast simply endured it.

Ayana quickly backed away, just in time for the beast's jaws to slam shut where she had been standing. If she had moved a little later, she would have been trapped in its jaws.

She and the beast locked eyes, and she took in a sharp breath. The beast’s eyes were different from before, now they were more fierce, like one would see from rabid beasts, or wild monsters. She quickly drew her sword, but in that same moment, the beast opened its arms. Pieces of the golden chains scattered in the air before subsequently evaporating. With those broken, the beast was now free.

Then it roared with profound power.

There was no info about this!

The princess mentioned preparing for surprises, but no one said anything about this precisely.

With a violent slam on the ground, the beast charged towards one of the priests with fearsome power and speed. The priest frantically erected a barrier to defend himself, but he was still pushed through the wall. The double wielder immediately slashed his blades against the beast’s arm before it could crush the priest, then followed by a few more slashes in quick succession. Cuts formed all around the beast’s body, and thus it began swinging its fists at the knight, giving the priest a chance to slip away.

The beast’s fist slammed into the ground, leaving a crater. A direct hit from those fists would certainly cause severe damage. But thankfully, the knight was able to dodge. Annoyed, the beast let out a howl.

However, it quickly proved to be no normal howl when it blew away the knight and destroyed the houses in front of it, as if a powerful tidal wave had crashed through them. The sheer strength of the howl caused Ayana to cover her ears while glaring at the beast.

She was able to cover her ears in time before the deafening sound could damage her ears. But it was not the same for one of the priests, who seemed stunned as he leaned against the wall, hands over his ears.

Ayana returned her gaze to the beast.

It has lost its mind.

“You priests!” she shouted. “Focus on making it immobile, do whatever you need to! Just make that thing stop swinging its fists!”

The priests sprang into action, with one enduring the pain, and conjured golden chains. They spread out, and one priest successfully wrapped a chain around one of the beast’s arms. However, the second chain failed to connect when the beast stepped back and with the chain wrapped around its arm, swiftly pulled it and swung the priest through the chain and slammed him into the other priest. The chain vanished.

Its movements were stronger and faster than before.

The double wielding knight promptly fired several magical slashes at it, which the beast managed to dodge only a couple. But the hits it took seemed to have no effect, despite the wounds. Ayana swiftly slashed the side of its body before twisting and delivering a powerful kick.

The beast growled and brought down its fists at her, but Ayana was able to dodge. Then for some reason, the beast took a deep breath. It only took a moment for Ayana to realize what it was about to do.

While facing Ayana, it let out a fearsome howl.

But it was a predictable move, and so Ayana, just in time, leaped to the side to avoid its howling force. In the process, however, she crashed into a wall, but that was a small price to pay. Even so, her ears were not spared and they rang terribly.

It was then she noticed, the moment the beast stopped its howl, it coughed and spat out blood from its mouth.

It can’t do it constantly.

The beast seemed to have felt that pain indeed as it lowered its head, breathing hard. It was an opportunity.

Ayana turned to the priests. “Now!” she shouted while bearing the pain in her bleeding and ringing ears.

The priests followed and moved into action. One conjured a large hammer and ran to hit the beast's head while the other wrapped golden chains around the beast, even restraining one arm. The root of the chain was linked to a spear, which the priest stabbed deeply into the ground.

Ayana quickly drop-kicked the beast on the back before the other priest conjured and wrapped chains around its other arm. The priest pulled hard, making the beast spread its arm, and it groaned.

In that moment, a pair of bright slashes shot out in the air and crashed against its torso, spilling blood. The beast fell to both knees, breathing heavily. The double wielder then quickly approached, his blades already sheathed, and large shackles in his hand, which he wrapped around the beast’s wrist.

The beast writhed, and he punched it in the gut and face. The priest moved the chain, forcing its arm to shift to the back. Its shoulder must have been twisted a little in the process, based on the beast's pained roar, but the knight merely punched it again.

Ayana then took the other end of the shackle and locked it on the other wrist. It was made from a rare material called Aterite, one that disrupts magic. Although its disruption potency was not that threatening in small amounts, and if being surrounded by it, it never completely sealed off one’s ability to cast magic or manipulate mana.

However, that didn’t mean they could control their mana or cast spells properly. Try as one might, if they cannot properly control the shape of their mana, the spell would be broken, or the casting will fail. Unleash their raw mana, and they won’t be able to focus or channel it properly. Still, it was not something to be relied upon, with enough power, one could still break through it, even an average knight might.

However, the church had been experimenting on such material, to enhance its power. To also focus its disruption on demons. It was an arduous process to imbue holy magic into something that disrupts magic. But with the help of the blue crystal that they used to store magic, called Saerulium, merging it with the black metal, they achieved it. Still, the shackles would need maintenance.

They used the shackles here to prevent enemies from casting magic, but in this case, this was a beast. It was uncertain whether or not it would help.

But the beast was already beaten very much, now weakened.

It took slow breaths. Ayana moved in front of it, but still kept her distance. Its eyes appeared to be going back to normal. And it slowly gazed up at her.

“...What… what is this?” It moved its hand, baffled. It would seem the shackles had some effect. “This metal… I see, you have these... But… but, this metal does not affect us very much… I can still f-fight…”

It said so, but it was already weakened, there was no way it could fight like that again. Ayana approached and dug her fist into its belly, causing it to wheeze and cough. She locked eyes with it.

“You can’t… You lose.”

The beast took in a sharp breath, glaring at her. But it was already so tired, it couldn’t do anything else anymore like break free from the shackles. Gradually, it lost consciousness. At the same time, it slowly shrank. Ayana stepped back, watching it morph into something else.

The fur slowly retracted before disappearing, and its dark brown animal skin turned into a human’s. It was a strange sight to behold. Then the face of a bull disappeared, and what replaced it was the face of a man, now slowly falling to the ground, the body covered only by the remaining fabric of his clothes.

Ayana sighed as she watched it bleed. “I’ll heal it — him before he dies—”

It was then a shadow crawled on the ground, too late did she notice. But the next thing that happened was the explosion of the beastman’s head. What caused it, what killed him, was a ball of wind.

“No!” she involuntarily shouted.

Seeing the blood splatter in the air and on the floor, Ayana’s heart sank. No, perhaps it was broken.

She glared up to see a person, a man with long, pointed ears. He looked down at them from atop.

This bastard!

Rage flared within her heart.

“Elf!” one of the priests shouted.

“Get him! We can’t let him reach the others!”

After Ayana gave the order, all of the four chased after the elf. They ran across rooftops, all of them throwing their magic at him.

The knights sent their magical slashes, while the priests threw their golden spears. Given the number of attacks, it didn’t take long for them to eventually hit his leg, causing him to fall from the roof. They were given an order, when faced with an elf, to prioritize killing them.

However, if given the chance, capture. But it definitely wouldn’t be easy. One can kill themselves with magic with a single gesture of a finger if they wanted. This was unlike slashing one’s neck or drinking poison. Suicide by magic can be instantaneous.

While laying down on the ground, the elf fired wind magic at them, but it was futile of course. And thus he began to point his hand at himself, but a priest threw his spear, impaling him on that hand. Then to prevent him further, the other priest threw his spear into the elf’s other hand.

The elf gritted his teeth in pain, and as the Ayana and the group were only a couple of steps away, a tempest engulfed the elf. Ayana backed away from the strong, raging wind that cuts like knives. It was at that moment there was blood splatter mixed in with the wind. Subsequently, the tempest stopped, revealing a beheaded elf.

Ayana’s eyes widened.

Not surprising…. But…

She sighed deeply. That beastman was her chance to leave a mark. However, she failed.

She fell into distress, clenching her fist. She just wanted to prove herself, but why was it so hard to achieve? It was not like her ambition was unreachable and complex.

She stood before the elf’s corpse, glaring at it with hatred.

It’s because of this thing.

Yes, it was because of this thing before her feet. However, it didn’t mean she was free from blame. She should have seen the elf coming.

She should have done better.

I… should have been better.