In the presence of pure evil, My heart was throbbing in my ears, loud and irregular, but I barely heard it, for my mind was clouded with fear.

"D-Demon!" I uttered as I took two small steps backward. I tried to calm myself down but it was for naught because what in front of us was death itself. I wanted to run for safety, but my feet would not allow me to do so.

My teammates were also paralyzed to their respective spot, not moving at all. It seemed like the menacing aura was holding them in a tightening grip.

"YAAAAAHHH!" I heard a high pitched scream. Looking back, I saw Rika, the color was already drained from her face as she stumbled down on the ground in fear.

I was also shock looking at the scene.

Five of the members of Harvi's team was lying unconscious on the ground. They were already covered in blood and we didn't even know if they were alive. They were the one closest to the point of impact so they received the most damage.

"IT'S MY PLEASURE TO MEET YOU, LITTLE HEROES! MY NAME IS AL'ZAEB. I AM HERE TO TAKE YOUR PUNY AND INSIGNIFICANT LIVES BUT DON'T WORRY, I WILL KILL YOU SLOWLY IN MY DELIGHT! KAKAKAKAKA!" The demon named Al'zaeb cackled in a low, sinister and dreadful glee. He stared at us like we were some kind of insignificant ants.

"What did you DO TO MY FRIENDS!!!?" Upon seeing his friends in the pool of blood, Harvi roared hatefully with bloodshot eyes.

Despite Harvi having a loathesome attitude, He was considerate and kind to his friends. He's so different towards them and cared for them like brothers w/c made me thought why does he hate me so much.

Harvi simultaneously bombarded the demon with a series of fire magic. It made a loud ear-piercing sound every time it hit the target.

"Help me bring the injured away from here!"

Realizing the opening that Harvi unconsciously created, I ordered the rest to bring Harvi's team to safety. My mind and body just moved on its own as I carry one of Harvi's teammate.

'Maybe I dont want to abandon them even though I can just run away with my team and leave them'

My team immidiately heeded my call and help me bring their bodies to safety. Being aware that we were evacuating his teammates, Harvi continued to cast spells buying us time to safety.

'He really cared for them' I thought, seeing him exhausting himself to protect his team.

After placing their body behind a huge rock, I went back to call Harvi.

A temporary truce I guess.

It was good news that all five of them were only unconscious so I told Rika to heal their wounds to stop their bleeding.

"Harvi, retreat now!" I shouted informing him to retreat and regroup.

"Shut the fuck up! Why did you come back! Just run away, you Weakling! "

Damn this prideful punk! Even in the face of death he was still keeping that lordy attitude of his.

After consecutive use of magic spells, Harvi became worn-out. He stopped casting and and greedily grasped for air.

The demon's location was already covered in a thick cloud of smoke and dust and the ground beneath it was already puffing red hot from the continuous bombardment of fire magic.

"Did I finish it?" Harvi asked still grasping for air.

"I dont know!" i said while I focused my eyes on the dispersing smoke.

"KAKAKAKAKAKA! IS THAT ALL THAT YOU'VE GOT LITTLE HEROES! I DIDN'T EVEN FEEL YOUR ATTACKS!! HIT ME MORE!!" A figure came out from the smoke unscathed. The demon stared at us with a ecstatic expression on its face, enjoying every moment of our retaliation.

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'We are being played like a bunch of disposable toys. He wants to kill us in his leisure. To despair and lose hope!'

'Damn it! We are still too weak to face this kind of Monster! No, I was too weak for this kind of thing!'

'Are we really going to die here?"

The feeling of despair crept and tangled in his heart. It was so heavy that he was going to be crushed by his own emotions.

'But if I die now without even trying, Isn't that betraying my own efforts! my blood and sweat would be for naught! ..... I should die trying something, anything! So I can proudly say that I've done everything I could in the afterlife' I thought as I came to realization that I was so foolish, succumbing to despair.

When I saw Harvi w/c still fighting the demon, my will became stronger.

'This is not the time for me to despair yet because there is still a person who was fighting! I've done nothing yet!'

"YOU BASTARD!!!" Harvi once again chanted. This time he was creating a huge ball of light.

"Take this! PULSE RAY!!" It was the same light magic Instructor Eve used. 'It was an advance magic that form a beam of light and damaging all things in its way'.

"SO IT WAS LIGHT MAGIC! EVEN THOUGH IT CAN KILL A LESSER DEMON, A HIGH DEMON LIKE ME WILL JUST FEEL SLIGHT PAIN TAKING THAT PATHETIC MAGIC" The demon declared without any care as the beam of light came after him.

"BUT SINCE I DONT WANT TO FEEL ANY PAIN. THis WOULD SUFFICE! REPEL!" the demon wave its monstrous arm deflecting the beam of light and sending it back to where it came from. Harvi was standing dumbfounded seeing his strongest attack send coming back to him.

'That moron is in danger! He will be hit by that magic in point blank range' Putting all the force to the soles of my feet, I jumped pushing away Harvi.

BOOOOOOOM!

We landed rolling on the ground barely surviving in the process.

"Ouch! That hurts!" I complained, feeling all the pain in my body.

Seeing the huge crater beside us, i sighed in my heart.

'Thanks God I wasn't hit by that'

"Get off me! You Weakling!" Harvi pushed me back glaring at me like was saying "Why did you save me? I don't even need your help"

" My body just move on its own" I said.

What an ungrateful bastard! I just saved his life.

"Tch! " Harvi just clicked his tongue showing his ungratefulness

"There's no time for your childish tantrum! Lets form a temporary truce, first!"

"Why would I do that!"

'Why can this prideful jerk wont understand a simple situation' I tried to remain calm thinking about the safety of everyone.

"Because we will all die if that thing started to attack us! Even your friends!"

"tch! Damn it! Okay but only this time! " He cursed unwillingly.

Finally, He understood what I wanted to say. I offered my hand to him as a symbol of truce and he also offered his with a regretful look on his face.

'Do you think I want this too! Heck no! '

"ARE YOU TOO DONE CHITCHATTING? LETS CONTINUE THE GAME!" the demon nagged impatiently.

"Mark! do it now!" After I got Harvi's approval, I called out at the top of my lungs. Straight away, the earth trembled quickly producing huge cloud of dust it almost covered the whole area around us. It was Mark's skill Earth manipulation. I told him to create a diversion of cloud dust when he hear my call.

" Nice, Lets go! Just follow me and dont raise your voice" I told Harvi in a low tone. Even though he was unwilling, He could only click his tongue and followed me.

"HOH! A DIVERSION? VERY NICE PLAN OF YOURS. LET ME SEE HOW LONG CAN IT KEEP YOU HIDDEN!" The demon's voice echoed. We didn't know where the demon was but if these was effective the demon can't also see us.

After a while, We got to where the whole group was. It was protected by a barrier so the dust wont come in.

"Are they fully heal?" I asked Rika.

"Yes but still unconscious" Rika said in a low voice

"We need to wake them up if we want to escape. It's hard to escape while carrying so many people" Mark suggested.

"Hey Harvi, wake them up! It's your team" Fatty said in an annoyed tone. Fatty hated Harvi the same way as I am but right now we need to act as a group so he can only play along.

"Tch, Acting high and mighty you damned pig!"

One by one, Harvi gave his team a cruchy slap on the face.

"W-what are you doing!? They just recovered" Rika was shocked immediately reprimanding Harvi but what Harvi did was effective.

Harvi's team woke up one by one.

"Ouch boss! That hurts! " one of the lackey growled in pain. Seeing this, I quickly diversed a plan how to escape from here. Time was the essence here so every minute counts.

"Okay lets discuss about how can we escape" I stated.

"why do we need to listen to you!" one of Harvi's lackey retorted in dissatisfaction.

"Andre always made the best decisions so its appropriate to let him make the plan. And also if not because of him, you five will already be lifeless corpses so show a bit of gratefullness" Rika leered at them. Harvi immediately reprimanded by giving his lackey a knuckle blow in the head.

"Ouch! Boss!"

"Dont make any noise, Just listen!" Harvi glared at his teammates seriously. I sighed in relief seeing Harvi was cooperating. 'The lives of his friends really was more important to him than his pride. Well, I guess he's not as bad as we think he is'

"Okay! First of all, this is a plan I devise in order to escape the demon. I will explain it all to you in detail but if you have a better plan than what I have I am willing listen to yours. You can also give suggestions if there is any. Do you understand?" Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Okay the first thing we will do is... "