The voice was full of mockery as it said those words. Then it continued, “Take their weapons and bring them to me. If they resist, kill them.”

The youngsters looked at each other, then at the demons coming from the various paths. They were in danger of being surrounded. There were over a hundred least demons coming towards them and easily a dozen lesser demons. What caused them to worry were the three true demons that were with them. These things were considered equal to tier seven heroes.

The group took their positions and started backing towards the entrance they came in from to avoid being surrounded. Derek swung his glaive in a blur of speed. Augmented by smite it would pass through three or four demon bodies per swing. With his skill he was able to whip it back into another attack almost upon the end of the previous attack. His mind was clear and his heart was calm. It was as if he was on the practice yard under Ovid’s watchful eyes.

Elton and Feros fought in their places with ferocity. They lacked Derek’s skill but they possessed the same will to resist the demons. They hacked away at any demon that approached them.

Hector began casting Holyfire while Belany prepared a slower to cast enchantment. Hector’s Holyfire was enough to bring down any least demon it touched but it merely wounded any lesser demon and was a mere nuisance to the true demons behind them. The least and lesser demons must have truly been terrified of the true demons to swarm towards the Holyfire anyways but they were still quickly brought down by the glaives and Holyfire.

“Righteous Blessing!” Belany shouted. This enchantment took a while longer to cast but when it did it provided an enhancement to all five of them. Increasing their basic attributes, empowering their holy spells and providing a powerful holy shield around all of them. It required quite a lot of Belany’s mana and stamina to cast as it was a spell that could only be cast once the caster could cast level four holy spells. After casting it she leaned against her staff, panting for breath.

With this boost, Hector’s Holyfire grew much more powerful, extending the radius and causing it to kill outright any lesser or below demons. It even harmed the true demons, who were enraged by this and moved forward to join the melee.

With the enhancements from Righteous Blessing, Derek could stand on par with the true demon he engaged, but Elton and Feros were quickly pushed back. Feros even received a vicious blow to his side, causing his armor to cave in at that location and him to spit up blood. With their formation collapsing Belany drank a potion before she took one more risk and cast another spell.

This was a higher level spell than even the one she had cast before. A more powerful Sanctuary spell overlapped the original, providing an additional buff to the five of them while weakening their enemies. For them it had the effect of bolstering their basic attributes and holy magic once again while also providing mana, stamina, and health recovery. For the demons it did the opposite; weakening their basic attributes, making them more susceptible to holy magic, and even raining a holy light upon them that drained their mana, stamina, and health.

This spell had an immediate effect on the fight around them. Feros started to recover. Derek quickly felled the true demon he was fighting and moved to support him while Elton held off the other. But Belany had overdrawn too much by casting that spell. She swooned and was caught by her brother. Hector gasped out her name in surprise and the others looked back. They could see that she was not well.

At this point they had made it to the tunnel they had come in from. Hector blast out two empowered Holyfires that drove back the demons for a moment. Derek looked back into the cavernous space which was filled by the sanctuary spell. There were more demons pouring in from the other entrances. The two enchantments Belany had cast would last quite a while longer but without her offensive spell casting they would not hold out long.

He cursed as he thought of how confident and proud they had just been. He turned to the others and said, “Hector, you are in charge now. This is too much, Feros is hurt, and your sister is not well. We have already completed our trial. Go back, I will hold them here until the spell wears off and follow you out.”

Hector looked up, “Are you sure?”

Derek looked at where the demons were reforming, “As long as I have these enhancements I will be fine. Now go. They will attack soon.”

Hector didn’t argue and lifted his sister onto his shoulder. “Elton, Feros, let’s go.”

The other two looked back before quickly following Hector. They ran down the tunnel towards the exit of the cave. Derek looked towards a shadow by the wall, “You should go too. You are only tier two and haven’t trained in my clan’s skills. I will see you when I get out.”

The shadow nodded and left. Derek turned towards the demons that had started to charge once again. All of the least demons had already died to the damaging effect of the Sanctuary spell. The dozen or so lesser ones were in a sorry state but were still pushed forward by the true demons behind them. Aside from the two that were there previously, two more had shown up. They were using their magic to block the rain from Sanctuary but they were definitely weakened from before.

As Derek prepared to fight he felt a zeal flow forth from his heart. His mind was calm but a passion to stand firm against these foes flowed through him. As the lesser demons rushed towards him he surprised them by moving forward to meet them. He brought his glaive around in a horizontal slashing motion that pivoted his whole body from right to left. He cast smite into the weapon just as it struck and though they attempted to block with their claws, three of the weakened lesser demons were cleaved through in that one attack.

Others rushed forward to attack him but he sidestepped smashing the smite imbued buttspike into the head of one. As that one died, he reversed his grip, slashing from left to right, killing two more. The other six had to approach through their dying comrades in this miserable holy rain. Their movements were already slowed by the effects of Sanctuary but now their own cowardice compounded their issues. While his mind was filled with only how to kill his enemies, theirs were made sluggish by the desire to flee to escape in any way possible.

Cowardice, the greatest weakness of the demons. In the blink of an eye the last of the lesser demons had been slaughtered. Four true demons stood before him. Each had a distinct look. One had a wolf’s head and crab claws, another had a man’s face and the paws of a bear, the third had two rat’s heads and bird’s claws, while the last had a beak and tentacles for arms. The true sign of a demon was how obscene they looked.

Once Derek had slain their minions they made their move. They worked to surround him, but he took that as the opportunity to rush one and isolate it. He struck rapidly: overhead slash, buttstroke, reverse cut. With each move empowered by smite, he drove the demon back. Its tentacles attempted to parry but the Sanctuary empowered smite broke through. In the first attack its left tentacle was cut straight through. The buttstroke punched into its chest, knocking it off balance before the reverse cut cleaved through its head.

His years of training under Ovid had not been for naught. There were no wasted movements. This demon had died before the others could react. The two nearest him lashed out with their claws. He dodged the crab claw while parrying the eagle claw. He empowered that with another smite, cutting the claw in half. He followed it up with a sweeping attack at both of their legs. The crab clawed one managed to dodge.The other had its leg cut open to the bone, knocking it off balance.

Derek stabbed forward with a buttstroke, intending to finish that one off but the third attacked at just that moment. As its paw struck against his chest he imbued his armor with a holy shield spell, which held against its attack but its strength drove him back. He backpedalled diagonally to create space between the three of them. He knew one was lamed and would be out of the fight for a while but the other two were attempting to flank him again.

He knew better than to attempt the same strategy again so he feinted with a buttstroke towards the crab clawed demon before making an overhead cut towards the other. When he appeared to attack the other, that one had lunged forward to strike his back. Only as the blade came down towards its head did it recover. It threw a paw up to block and attempted to jump aside.

But it wasn’t fast enough. The smite imbued overhead strike severed the hand at the wrist and then cleaved down through its shoulder well into its chest. Derek kicked the body off of his blade and rounded on the crab clawed demon. Its claw was coming in dangerously fast towards his head. Derek ducked, allowing the claw to slide along his helmet, and jabbed the buttspike of the glaive into its throat below the wolfshead. The holy energy erupted forth, driving the spike out the other side.

Derek turned to look for the final true demon and saw it hobbling towards the northern passage. One of its rat heads was watching him and it panicked even more as it saw that Derek had finished off the rest. It struggled to hurry faster, but could only move so fast with its leg injured in the way that it was.

Derek planted his glaive and drew his bow. He empowered one obsidian arrow and fired it into the center of the back of the fleeing demon. The demon screeched in fear, the arrow struck, and the smite exploded into the demon. It collapsed and went limp. Derek took a deep breath, raised his vizor, and turned his head up to the holy rain of the Sanctuary spell. He breathed in a few times and his arms trembled from the adrenaline washing out of his system.

At that moment he heard a loud crashing sound from the entrance of the cave. “Gnome, was that…”

“Master, the elder that I detected collapsed the tunnel after the others made it out.”

“What about the man the Prince sent?”

“He got out too, barely.”

“Oh, that’s good. There is almost an hour left to these spells. All eight of you come out and collect demon hearts for me. This ley line and Sanctuary spell should be quite nourishing for you. I am going to just sit here for a moment.”

As he sat down the eight sprites flew out through the room to collect the demon hearts. Once they were done, they frolicked in the abundant essence in the area. He watched with satisfaction as they grew. With a quarter of an hour left to the spells he stood up and approached the northern corridor.

“I hope you are still there. Since you welcomed us so warmly, how rude would I be not to come thank you for your greeting?”

True Demon-

Class

True Demon

Elemental Attribute

Elemental Affinity

Point Value

Spell Level

Tier

7

Order

-

-

-

Level

-

Water

Excellent

20 (-20)

Low 4 (30)

Light

-

-

-

Basic Attribute

Point Value

Wind

Excellent

20 (-20)

Low 4 (30)

Strength

42

Chaos

Supreme

29 (-20)

Peak 5 (49)

Body

46

Fire

Supreme

24 (-20)

Mid 5 (44)

Agility

39

Dark

Supreme

29 (-20)

Peak 5 (49)

Mind

41

Earth

Supreme

24 (-20)

Mid 5 (44)

Essentia Pool

Mid T7

Malluses-

Hell’s Gate Mountains Seal: -2 to Basic Attributes per Tier, -2 to Elemental Attributes per Tier, additional -2 to Chaos

and Dark Attribute per Tier, Essence regeneration inhibited

Overcast Sanctuary, Level 8: -16 to Basic Attributes, -16 to Elemental Attributes, additional -16 to Chaos and Dark

Attribute, Damage over time being inflicted, Essence regeneration inhibited.

Bonuses-

Unholy Power, level 10: +20 to Basic Attributes, +20 to Chaos and Dark Attribute, Level 10 regenerating shield.

Unholy Shield, level 5: Reduce effectiveness of Mallus spells by 5 levels.

Belany and Hector-

Class

Twin Mage

Elemental Attribute

Elemental Affinity

Point Value

Spell Level

Tier

0

Order

Supreme

20+5(+30)

Mid 10 (95)

Level

10

Water

Outstanding

9 +5

Peak 5 (49)

Light

Supreme

20+5(+30)

Mid 10 (95)

Basic Attribute

Point Value

Wind

Outstanding

9 +5

Peak 5 (49)

Strength

8 (+30)

Chaos

Excellent

8 +5

Mid 5 (43)

Body

8 (+30)

Fire

Outstanding

9 +5

Peak 5 (49)

Agility

9 (+30)

Dark

Excellent

8 +5

Mid 5 (43)

Mind

10 (+30)

Earth

Outstanding

9 +5

Peak 5 (49)

Essentia Pool

Mid T1 Mage

Previous Classes-

None

Permanent Enhancements-

Twin Mages: Greatly Improved paired casting between these two. When near each other, gain moderate improvement to casting speed and power.

Unicorn Tears: +10 to Order and Light Attribute

Equipment-

Runic Robes: basic protection high t1, maximum defensive spell level 7

Runic Staff: +5 to all elemental attributes, maximum offensive spell level 7

Bonuses-

Overcast Sanctuary, Level 8: +16 to Basic Attributes, +16 to Order and Light Attribute, Heal over time, Essence

regeneration boosted.

Righteous Blessing, Level 7: +14 to Basic Attributes, +14 to Order and Light Attribute, Level 7 regenerating shield.