As the noxious flamethrower was halted, I saw the giant shadow of Sylrin behind the soldiers!

I was ecstatic with relief and would've rushed out towards him, but I was too shocked with what was happening below me.

The flames were so hot the soldiers lit up in flames instantly and they had no choice but to thrash around on the floor to diffuse their sticky burns – not that it helped.

The air was filled with screams of anguish but I did not withdraw my shadows, leaving them to struggle on blindly.

How dare they shoot arrows at him? Sylrin was alive, but hurt, so my anger refused to subside.

I remained indifferent and only felt they got what they deserved. But the foul stench of burnt flesh made me come to my senses.

I shook my head and slithered down towards the field of fire enveloped by my shadow shroud, to check if any survived.

And to my surprise, amongst the burnt and melted soldier remains, there was one that was noticeably unharmed.

The blonde commander stood within the flames, his shiny armour blackened and marred with sticky flames, but unharmed nonetheless. He was blindly waving his sword around to attack the flying Sylrin, although he was nowhere near him.

Why was he not injured?

Perhaps his armour had some kind of shielding effect?

I recalled he had been chanting something right before Sylrin attacked.

If it was a protection spell, why didn't it include the other soldiers?

Regardless, this one was interesting.

I heard a roar and looked over to see Sylrin fast approaching him.

He sounded infuriated and rightfully so, as there were several arrows lodged in his shoulder area, narrowly missing his heart.

Although his flight was unaffected he roared in fury at the sight of the commander still standing. I quickly rushed out to check on him but the dumb lizard was so infuriated, he swerved around me and made his way towards the commander who was wildly swinging his sword.

The longsword in his grip did nothing to deter Sylrin and he was soon tackled to the ground, claws drawing blood from his blackened armour before Sylrin savagely took a bite out of his neck guard.

It was a disaster.

He was extremely furious and the commander grabbed his shield to fend off against his attacks, as he lodged his sword between Sylrin's teeth to stop his neck from being ripped apart.

I rushed down to intervene, pushing Sylrin off the commander and holding him back before he aggravated his injuries.

And with Sylrin off him, the commander got up and staggered back in the other direction, his neck and shoulder raw and bleeding profusely.

I tried to restrain Sylrin, forcing him to stay put so I could attempt to remove the arrows in his shoulder before his regeneration could take over.

But the enraged lizard kept trying to go after the fleeing mortal.

To my annoyance, instead of falling to the flames or excessive blood loss, the savaged commander somehow managed to run out of my shadow zone.

And just as he got his vision back he was also able to hear the dying screams of his soldiers, but instead of trying to find a way to save them he readied his sword, on the lookout for danger, as he cautiously backed away from my shadow zone.

"Selfish coward" I sneered at him from the darkness.

While I was distracted by the commander, Sylrin managed to break free of my grip and he rose out of my shadows, every bit as angry as before. I set out moving as well, willing my shadows to envelop the commander once more.

But he was not completely witless.

He noticed the fast moving shadow spreading towards his feet and ran in the opposite direction as he began another chant. Suddenly, his sword exploded with crackling lightning as he took a stance facing the fast approaching Sylrin.

A pillar of flame poured down from the air, and in the absence of his brilliant shield, the commander jumped aside to dodge it.

But instead of attacking Sylrin, he chose to dispense his lightning towards my shadows, tearing a straight line through them in a long range attack.

I tried to retract my shadows closer to me but the attack cut through them faster than I could pull them back. The shadows in my immediate surroundings was able to survive, but the rest dispersed like smoke, revealing his shield and one of the thrashing soldiers.

But before the commander could appreciate his work, Sylrin bore down behind him with another pillar of flame, forcing the commander to roll forward and grab his shield to deflect the flame.

Soon enough, Sylrin grew frustrated with his flames being deflected and flew in closer to attack him directly with his claws. But he didn't notice that behind the glistening shield, the commander's sword was charged and ready to let off another lightning strike.

However, before Sylrin flew into his attack range, I condensed a dust sized blade of my shadows and threw it at his shield.

The sturdy shield couldn't block my darkness blade and was sliced cleanly in half, allowing a blast of heated flame to assault the commander. But he quickly leapt back, avoiding the worst of it before using the additional energy flowing through his sword to deflect Sylrin's flame.

He had succeeded in diffusing the flame, but the result was an enraged Sylrin who circled around him to find another opening to strike.

Throughout their battle, the soldiers were slowly burning to death and only the one who had been freed from my shadows regained enough awareness to run for the stream.

However, no matter how hard he tried to put out the fire, parts of his limbs and his skin were horribly melted. But compared to the others, he was lucky to be alive.

The clammy scent of burnt flesh continued to fill the air and I frowned at the gory sight, releasing them from my [Shadow Shroud] to allow the ones who were still alive to find water.

I also used [Venom Rain] lightly to douse some of the soldiers' worst burns, in hopes that the horrible stench went away.

However, after no more than a few seconds, the system dinged.

〚You have defeated LV17 Ailith Mortal!〛

〚You have earned 220XP〛

〚You have gained a level!〛

Hold on! They weren't supposed to die!

But the damage was already done.

I just killed a mortal.

"But." I stared at the corpse in confusion.

It was an accident, but that seemed like a weak excuse.

It was only a few seconds of difference since the first soldier was released

How could they be so fragile to die that easily?

«Do you think your poison is water?» Sensei scoffed at me.

I was panic stricken and horrified.

On the other side, Sylrin was still fighting with the commander in a landscape of purple fire and lightning, while I was getting a bit impatient.

He wasn't listening to any of my commands and in my frustration, I fired off another darkness blade right between them.

But I wasn't able to control the size this time, and it sailed past the two into the forest, colliding with several tall trees and causing them to fall across the ground between them.

Both Sylrin and the commander got away from the falling trees before they were struck, but my intervention perhaps made the commander realize the threat of the second monster lurking in the shadows.

His face filled with terror, overwhelmed by the thought of facing two or maybe more monsters and he began to back away, preparing to flee at the first chance.

Sylrin, on the other hand, was frustrated at being interrupted and let out a low roar in my direction, seemingly telling me to stay out of it.

The commander took that small respite to charge his attack again, as lightning crackled around his sword. He ordered the last surviving soldier to retreat and fired one last lightning attack at Sylrin before he too turned around to flee into the forest.

And I was glad to see them go.

They were already too weak to fight against us and there was no need to push them into a corner.

However, Sylrin was not happy letting them go and chased after the commander and the soldier, probably still upset at being shot by them.

His shoulder was still bleeding but he was too hot headed to care about his injuries.

I had to reach out and command him to stop, but he was so angry, it took all my focus to get him to land.

Once on the ground, the conflict in his mind between his desire for revenge and obedience to me made him miffed and he let out a disapproving roar towards me.

However, at this point the mortals had already run out of my sight, especially the commander who wasn't as slow as the soldier.

Yet, Sylrin was reluctant to let them go, and I had to restrain him to stop him from rushing into the forest after them.

[Calm down, you fool. Take deep breaths.] I commanded him, before reaching for his shoulder to yank out the arrows one at a time.

Sylrin roared in pain, letting out a large plume of sticky flame, but he stayed in place and let me help.

It took a while, but I was able to pull out all the arrows and his regeneration kicked in, eventually closing his wounds.

He soon stopped struggling and I slowly released him.

However, as soon as I took my eyes away from him, he pounced on the still alive soldier, ending his struggle with a sickening crunch to the neck.

The lifeless body flopped to the ground before Sylrin took a large bite of the burnt flesh, as I looked on with disbelief.

This dumb lizard!

Had he learnt nothing from my scolding at all?