Meanwhile, Lux and Guang had already arrived at the other side of the hill when Hikari and David were attacked by two strixes. As they took a look towards the sky, it seems their sudden movements had caught the majority of the strix flock’s attention, including that of the Grand Strix.

“Heh, just as planned,” Guang said. as he chanted again. “An imitation of the sacred flames, burn my enemies dust, create havoc in the name of the lord! !”

Instead of using , Guang chose a more appropriate spell that wouldn’t affect Hikari and David that were fighting below his targets.

The flames surged out from behind him in the form of a dragon, engulfing many strixes. Searing them completely black.

Similarly, Lux also chanted once more, “An imitation of the heavens, tear through my foes, strike fear into their hearts! !”

A dragon-sharped lightning flew towards the strix flock once more, electrocuting various unsuspecting strixes, but as they seemingly understood that they were under attack, many more strixes were able to fly out of the way.

Seeing many of its kins fall, the Grand Strix shrieked out in anger, then suddenly flew upwards into the sky with many strixes following its lead. In the matter of seconds, they disappeared in the clouds.

At the same time, the other strixes dived towards the two exorcists with their sharp talons in order to avenge their fallen kinsmen.

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As Mira unleashed various dark magic spells at the strix horde, she glanced over at the 2 pair of humans. Lux and Guang appeared to be extremely capable, with each of their spells almost instantly taking down several strixes. With the other magician girl, the first barrage of spells they casted had already downed thirty odd strixes, nearly a third of the horde.

However, David wasn’t to be underestimated either. He seemed to have cladded his knives in raw mana to lengthen them and didn’t even let a single strix get near Hikari, completely fulfilling his role as a vanguard. What caught Mira’s attention was the way that David was fighting. His movements were fluent to a degree that seemed he had some sort of military training, which was not something she expected from the way he appeared.

In a way, it reminded her of the one time when she and other succubi were visited by Lady Asmodeus and Prince of Pride Lucifer. David’s method of fighting was reminiscent to the method that His Majesty had displayed to them in a spar with several of their finest warriors. This certainly was something that would be worth finding more about.

With that thought, she snickered and charged up fired several more  spells a the falling strix flock. With these four humans, they would be done with this quest in no time, and even if she could get a fifth of the rewards, that would still be 10 gold coins.

Wait… Where was the Grand Strix and the other half of the strix flock? Weren’t they just flying overhead a while ago?

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In another corner of the battlefield, David was guarding Hikari from several incoming strixes, while she chanted various spells behind him to shoot down the ones flying overhead. Their cooperation could be said as pretty good despite it being their first time partnering up. Both of them kept out of each other’s way as they did their jobs. Thus soon there were only less than ten strix left in their sights. These strixes were the smarter of the bunch and avoided grouping up too closely together, learning that grouping up would be easier for Hikari to shoot them down.

Six of the strixes glided down towards them just as David dispatched one in front of him. Their razor sharp talons aiming straight for him. Since he only noticed at the last moment, he opted to dive onto the ground, causing most of the strixes’ talons only to miss by a tiny margin.

However, he didn’t come out unscathed. One of the strixes caused a large tear across his back. Although it wasn’t very deep, it was deep enough to cause blood to seep through.

“Taking form to protect the heavens, scorch my enemies to ashes in the name of Christ! !” Seeing David get hurt, Hikari immediate released a chain of fire towards the strixes. Since they weren’t flying too closely together, only four of them were hit by Hikari’s spell. The other circled overhead as if looking for another moment to strike.

At that moment, a screech rang out above their head. Hikari and David glanced up in the sky towards the source of the sound, and saw the Grand Strix with the rest of the strix flock, dive down towards the unsuspecting Lux from behind.

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A loud screech rang out over their heads, but neither Lux nor Guang had the luxury to see what it was. They were only able to focus on the incoming strixes. The remaining strixes seemed to be slightly smarter than the others, and flew much closer to the two of them compered to the other ones. This severely limited both of their ability to cast the highly destructive spells they had casted previously. With the additional limitation of unable to use any magic that may indicate their true identity as exorcists, they were left to use weaker spells that would take care of the strixes one by one.

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“Allow the world to ignite the world, reveal the source of all life! ,” at the same time that Guang threw out a fireball towards a strix, he felt a fierce killing intent behind him.

Although he knew that Lux was covering his back, he still couldn’t help but to take a look at the source of that killing intent.

What he came face to face with was the talons of the Grand Strip that had disappeared previously. Guang instinctively raise his arms to shield his face, but the impact of the strix’s talon was enough to send him flying back.

It was fortunate that he subconsciously raised his arms to block, otherwise, he would have been completely blinded in the best case scenario. In the worst cause scenario, he would have been killed on spot. However, although it was said to be fortunate, he was not unscathed. Quite the opposite, blood was seeping out from the long lacerations that could be seen along his entire forearm. Ignoring his wounds, Guang tried to stand up to continue to fight.

“Ugh,” he grimaced in pain as he placed his hand onto the ground to push himself back up. Before even pushing a part of himself up, he collapsed once more, his arms unable to support him. Guang could only smile wryly, it looks like the wounds were far deeper than he had imagined. He didn’t feel like it had hurt that much initially, but thinking about that now, it would most likely be due to his training to endure pain kicking in.

All of a sudden, Guang realised the abnormality of the situation. Since he was down and looked rather defenceless. Why didn’t any strix attack him?

With that in mind, he look around, seeking for an answer. It didn’t take him any more than one moment to find his answer. Lux was drawing the attention of the strixes to herself. Seeing this, Guang immediately raised a feeble hand to throw out another fireball at the strixes that were furiously attacking Lux.

“Guang, don’t do anything. I’ll handle it!” as if noticing his intentions, Lux shouted at him without even turning her head to look.

As if trying to refute her point, the Grand Strix dove towards her.

Lux didn’t even flinch, instead she stood calmly and muttered several inaudible words. Although Guang was unable to perceive what she was saying, he understood what she was going to do.

. That was the magic Lux was about to invoke. It was a monarch class lightning magic that most people could not even imagine invoking. The fact that Lux was able to invoke it could only display her outstanding talent as a magician.

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A moment later, a humongous flash of lightning struck where Lux and Guang were fighting. That flash of caused David and Hikari to be momentarily blinded. It was truly thanks to good fortune that they had already dispatched all the strixes around them, or else they may have fell prey to the sharp beaks and talons of the strixes in that second. Or actually, the strixes would have been blinded as well.

“What on earth was that?” David asked to no one in particular.

“” Lucifer answered.

“” almost at the same time, Hikari also gave him her answer beside him. “A monarch class lightning magic that Lux-sama is well versed at.”

“I see, that is certainly impressive,” David answered absentmindedly as he watched the scene unfold.

As the scattered dust began to clear, he was saw Lux standing beside Guang, who as lying on the floor. Around them were corpses of the strix flock that had been assaulting them, including the Grand Strix that had disappeared for a while.

“One shot…” David muttered. He had assumed the Grand Strix would be a relatively troublesome monster to deal with, even if it will not cause him too much trouble by himself. However, he didn’t expect it to be a monster of a caliber that would die to one spell.

“It can’t be helped. Even among monarch-class spells, is one that holds the position as one of the most damaging spells. In an essence it is not too surprising considering it is a full offensive spell,” said Lucifer calmly. “Nonetheless, it does shine some light onto who our exorcist companions are. Considering their names as well as one of their ability to cast monarch class magic, I think it can be safe to assume that they are the Stella Brigade.”

“Stella Brigade? What is that?” David muttered under his breath.

As if she heard David’s almost inaudible mutter, Hikari asked, “Huh? Did you say something?”

“Ah. No, it’s nothing. Let’s go over to Lux and Guang.”