He and the boy quickly looked in the direction it came from and saw Angil’s tail firing shots of blue beams, which caused explosions, at the mage while the warrior was kept busy with Angil’s fists that were covered in water. Ajax shook his head and stepped closer to the boy, reaching out a hand, which the boy took and stood up.

“He truly is amazing and cool.” Ajax said to himself and looked down on the boy, “Are you alright?”

“Um…yes, thanks to you.” the boy replied and then quickly avoided eye contact with him, his body taking on a shy posture as if he was afraid to continue holding Ajax’s hand, “Thank you again for not killing her.”

“Yeah no biggie, like I said I never wanted to kill any of you.” he replied, “My teacher may not feel the same as me though, so I can’t promise for him.”

“I understand…but…could you please convince him to spare them at least?” the boy asked, “I know what we did was unforgivable but they aren’t that bad of people.”

“I can try.” he replied, “As for the explosion, we were the ones who caused it, or well me, but it was by accident.” he said, “I was fighting a proto-drake and it happened, so if possible, I would like to see the village it damaged.”

“Oh, well I could take you there!” the boy exclaimed with a bright smile and then went back to being timid, “You know, if that’s okay with you.”

Ajax nodded, he made his way towards Angil’s battle but then he noticed a glimmer coming from the trees on the other side of the lake and behind the battlefield. Soon enough he heard a scream come from Angil and saw him grab his shoulder. Angil plucked an arrow from his shoulder and briefly looked at it before throwing it away. In a split second, Angil fell onto one knee and briefly made eye contact with Ajax, who stood in shock. The warrior and mage jumped away from Angil and both started to chuckle.

“Nice shot scout!” the warrior laughed out loudly, “I knew sending you ahead was a good idea.”

“Even if he is a demon, my poison arrow will be fatal.” a voice said from the tree, with a rustle, a man dressed in a purple ninja outfit appeared out of thin air, “This poison is made from a mixture of venom from a; great basilisk, grand cobra and night spider.”

“Poison you say, well damn.” Angil said, he gave a strained chuckle, “All those ingredients, this is bad, especially since I don’t have the mana I used to.”

“I found it strange that this place was so saturated with your mana, I guess that means you’ve hid here for a long time demon.” the mage said, “I can assume it’s been leaking out of your filthy form for years.”

“If that is the case, my poison will surely be his undoing.” the scout said, “Decipher creation and give me power, Binding Silk.”

“Don’t under…estimate me...humans.” Angil panted, he started to sweat and feel warm, then suddenly watched himself being tied in place by string that appeared from the ground.

Ajax felt paralyzed as he watched Angil being overpowered for the first time, why now he thought, this wasn’t the Angil he came to know. When he finally worked up the confidence to move past his shock, he saw that the boy was already walking towards them with his sword sheathed. He couldn’t help but wonder if he was about to be betrayed now that Angil was wounded. However, rather than siding with the three, he saw the boy stand between Angil and the trio with both his arms extended.

“Give him the antinode right now.” the boy said, “We don’t have to do this anymore, I was told the explosion wasn’t on purpose, it was an accident.”

“Excuse me?!” the warrior exclaimed and snarled at the boy, “You better get out of the way right now.”

“I refuse!” the boy shouted but took a step back, “The demon that fought me and miss Lena had multiple chances to kill me or let me die but he didn’t, nor did he try to kill miss Lena, simply because I asked him not to.”

“And your point?” the warrior asked, the annoyance on his face being very evident.

“My point is…well.…” the boy stuttered, “They are…good…monsters!”

“Good monsters, have you been brainwashed or something by that demon over there.” the warrior said and pointed at Ajax, “There are no such thing as good monster!”

“Have you forgotten that per the guidance of the pontifex maximus, there are only a few monster races that we humans can tolerate.” the mage said, “And even then, it’s an affront to our god and the church that we have to tolerate their existence.”

“I don’t care what the pontifex maximus’ teachings say, I won’t let you hurt him anymore!” the boy shouted.

“Fine then, die alongside him you heretic!” the warrior shouted and raised his sword.

“Water tornado!” shouted Angil.

The water in the lake violently spun into a pillar, that resembled a regular tornado, and rose above even the trees.

The force of the wind it created sucked everything towards it; trees, rocks, and even the birds were immune to its pull. Everyone, except Angil, was struggling to keep themselves from being sucked into it, though tentacles emerged from the remaining water in lake and threw Ajax as well as the boy into the tornado. Angil jumped into the tornado the moment they went inside, flipping off the remaining three as he went inside.

“Why you, I won’t let you get away with that.” the mage said, “Decipher creation and give me power, Flare Eagle!”

A ring of fire appeared around the mage’s feet, the flames grew into the shape of a bird and flew towards the water tornado. The water tentacles shot out at the bird and tried to restrain it but the water evaporated upon touching the bird’s flaming body. When the bird made contact with the tornado it didn’t pass through to its center, rather it appeared to be being pushed back by the water. The force of the battle for supremacy between the bird and the tornado violently slammed the; warrior, mage and scout into nearby trees, whereas the woman was protected by Ajax’s barrier.

Ajax looked over at Angil, who was clearly struggling to keep hold of him and the boy, and he reached out to touch Angil’s wounded shoulder. Angil looked at the hand and shook his head, which made Ajax pull it away. Angil slowly took them from within the tornado via going through the back and sneakily flew away from the lake using the water tornado as a diversion.

When Ajax looked back at the lake he saw the tornado instantly start to be dispelled the further away they got. Furthermore, he could clearly tell that Angil was struggling to stay in flight given that at brief intervals they would loss altitude. He wanted throw himself out of Angil’s grip to fly alongside him but his wing was too damaged from the battle. He knew if he did that he would just plummet uncontrollably to the ground which would just cause more trouble.

He looked over at the boy to see how he was holding up since he found it surprising that Angil took him along. The boy appeared terrified given how tightly held onto Angil’s arm and his refusal to have his eyes open. Soon the lake was completely out of sight and at their backs, and soon they started to fall.

When they descended back into the forest Ajax created a barrier that eased the impact of their fall. Their impact kicked up a lot of dust and created a crater in the ground, when the barrier fell, Ajax quickly ran over to Angil. Meanwhile, back at the lake, when the lady was released from the barrier she ran over to her teammates.

“Are you guys alright?” the lady asked and bent down.

“That damn boy will pay for this.” the warrior groaned as he regained consciousness.

“We are alright Lena.” the mage groaned.

“If vengeance is what you desire, I can give that to you.”

“Huh…who said that?!” the woman shouted and looked around.

“I said it.”

A small human boy, looking no older than ten, accompanied by a large white spider stepped out from the forest. The boy had a devilish grin on his face as he looked at the group. They flinched when they heard the boy let out a small laugh and turned to the warrior.

“Seems I missed my big brother’s show, and after going through all the trouble of coming here.” the boy said and clapped his hands, “Oh well, as I was saying, if you want revenge, I can grant you that chance if you become my toys.”

“Be your toys, you’re just a child.” the lady said which got a displeased expression from the young boy, “And if we refuse?”

“I hate to get my hands dirty on such a boring playtime, however, you dared to insult me.” the young boy said, “Still, none of you are worthy of experiencing my power, so go and have your reward for serving me.”

The young boy snapped his fingers and the spider lunged at the woman, it pushed her to the ground and sunk its fangs into her shoulder. The woman screamed uncontrollably as her arm was eaten, and even as she punched the spider it dug its fangs in more until her arms was torn off. The rest of her group simply stood there and watched, horrified by her slow dismemberment at the hands of the spider and too afraid to even intervene lest they share the same faith. Meanwhile, the boy stood there smiling while holding in his twisted laughter.

“Now that was a little entertaining.” the boy said, “Though I’m bored again now, too bad she couldn’t fight back.”

“Help…me!” the lady exclaimed and reached out to them but all they did was shook their heads.

“Now back to you three, will you become my toys or will you bore me like her by not fighting back?” the boy asked, his entire face appeared to have gone black with only his toothy smile from ear to ear apparently being visible with an ominous glow.

The three quickly looked between each other and showed their acceptance of his request by vigorously nodding without hesitation. They wished to avoid sharing in the same fate as the woman at the hands of this seemingly innocent looking boy.

“Good choice, guess they’ll be under your care when I am finished with them, Melina.” the boy said, “Don’t forget, your clan is counting on you.”

“Yes, as you wish, my lord.”