Inside A Forest Roughly 20 Miles From The Capital

A man wearing brown leather armor sat on top of a small boulder. Next to him, stood a woman with black hair tied into a ponytail. This girl was none other than the Class Representative.

Before they were the rest of her classmates, excluding Alek.

She clears her throat before starting her announcement.

“It's been almost a month since we’ve received the report about the attack on the capital which leads to the King and the Prince’s grave injuries. In about a day or two, we’ll arrive at the capital as support”

Some of the students started murmuring to each other when suddenly the armored man, Dean, stood up. He had dyed, blonde hair and an earring on his left ear; the perfect poster boy for being a playboy.

“Now, now, calm down. We’re just going back to help with moving the debris n’ stuff. ‘kay!?”, he said in a dismissive tone.

Soon, the murmurs died down and the students dispersed; leaving the Class Rep. and Dean to themselves.

“Hey, Class Rep., what do you think happened back at the capital anyway?”

She shrugs nonchalantly and looks at the knights who were ordered to help them, but only when they truly needed it.

“The Knights haven’t told me anything. Just kept saying it was some sort of monster…”.

“Well, I guess we’ll find out soon enough…”

Just as they were about to go, rushed footsteps and a sudden shout caught their attention.

“Class Rep! Class Rep! Problem!” yelled the random student as he got closer.

She turns her head to look at the incoming student and notices a number of scratches on his thick, woolen robe.

“What's wrong? Did something happen?” she asked with stern authority in her voice.

“The Knights! *huff*... They-…*huff*... They’re in trouble!” he managed to say as he caught his breath.

Dean and the Class Rep. looked at each other before nodding once. The Class Rep. took a step forward.

“Lead the way!”

As they ran towards the direction of the knights, the sound of battle rung through the air accompanied by the sound of a child’s laughter.

When they reached the clearing, the scene presented truly shocked them with awe.

In the middle of the clearing stood a boy. He had red, spiky hair was wearing a black cloak, and on his fists were red metallic gauntlets with spikes placed on the area where the knuckles could be found. What shocked them though, were all the high-level knights, who were lent to them by the king as guardians, surrounding him and beaten to a pulp on the floor.

Their armors were dented, swords in pieces, and shields were broken. Some were even knocked out while others were simply lying on the ground while letting out pained moans.

Only one knight was left standing. A level 70 Knight Captain; one of the kings most trusted knights. He swung his sword aiming towards the child’s head. His attack was so fast that even we, with our heightened senses, could only see it as nothing but a blur.

“Martial skill: Crescent swing!” the Knight Captain yelled as he brought his blade down.

His sword was suddenly covered in red energy which increased the speed of his swing to the point that we couldn’t even see the sword as it sliced through the air. I instinctively closed my eyes; anticipating the inevitable death of his young opponent.

*CLANG!*

The sound of metal hitting metal reverberated through the forest just as I had closed my eyes.

‘Eh? The kid managed to parry his swing!? What amazing speed!’ -Class Rep.

But, as soon as I opened my eyes, I realized just how much I had underestimated the child.

Before me was the young boy with spiky, red hair; his left hand covering his mouth as he yawned while his right hand was raised in the air, holding the Knight Captain’s sword between his index and middle finger like it was a mere toothpick.

“M-Monster!” the knight captain exclaimed in fear.

“Huh? That was it? So much for the Captain ”

The boy flicked his arm and sent the Knight Captain flying towards a tree, knocking him out.

The child tilted his head, staring at the two who had just arrived.

“Ooh~ More people!”, he said in a jovial tone.”

“You.” he said as he pointed his gauntlet at Dean. “You look stronger than those pesky knights fight me!”

“Ha? You wanna fight me!? Hmph! Suit yourself!”

This idiot!

I quickly grab him by the shoulder and pull him back.

“Oi! Are you brain-dead!? Don’t you notice anything strange about him?”

“I know, I know! He beat the knights, but I can beat the knights too! Trust me. Even though I’m at a lower level than the knights, I could still win.”

“It’s not that you idiot! Look at him and concentrate! You can’t see his level at all! Not just that; even his name and title can’t be seen by using ‘identify‘!”

As the two of us whispered to each other. the spiky hair child suddenly clicked his tongue.

“Tch. What, you ain’t comin’? Well… If you’re not gonna go first, then I will!"

As soon as he finished, he suddenly dashed towards us… No, it wouldn’t do it justice if I called it as just a ‘dash‘.

It was more like he teleported in front of us; he was that fast.

He pulled his right hand back before sending a punch towards Deans face.

Even though I was right next to him, I couldn’t do anything about the incoming attack. Even Dean couldn’t react fast enough to dodge it and he has the highest level in our whole class!

I closed my eyes and so did Dean, bracing for impact…

“Asura, that’s enough.”

Suddenly, a voice echoed through the forest.

As I slowly open my eyes, I see the red gauntlet inches away from Deans face, it seems that just the shockwave from the boy's strike blew dean's hair backward. Dean, on the other hand, was sweating all over, his breathing rough.

“Tch… you got lucky.” The red-haired youth would say in annoyance

As I raise my head to look at the origin of the voice, I see seven hooded figures standing on top of different tree branches. They were all wearing black cloaks that hid even their feet. A very tall one; a short, but wide one; and four others with average height. The last of the group, however, had his hood lowered; showing his entire face. It was Alek, the classmate we deemed unneeded. Why was he with them!?

“Come, we need to go.”

The spiky, red-haired boy, Asura, nods his head and jumps towards one of the branches before covering half of his face with his own hood.

“Arcana: Mirage”

One of the people in the hooded group suddenly casts a spell and all eight of them start to become transparent and fade from vision.

From the start of the spell until they were completely invisible, Alek stared at me with his cold emotionless eyes.

Throughout the journey back we received a few casualties. Aside from the ones brought upon us by that red hair martial artist we encountered several magical beasts that the whole class had to team up on just to fend off. Two boys and a girl were injured. Luckily only the knights were injured by the martial artist so the healers were there to patch us up.

As we near the capital we could clearly see a giant fist made of stone sticking out from the center of the castle. Other than that there seem to be nothing else.

My meeting with Alek's group gives me a feeling that they're the cause of this. Did he sell us out? A traitor? Or maybe they're controlling him… That's it! They're controlling him!

Then that means that idiot fell into a trap… Even though he's useless we need to save him. Losing even just one of our classmates will raise many questions once we get back to our own world.

After beating this demon king or whatever we'll get back home… and I'll get back to my normal everyday life... that's right.

Inside the castle

Little witch POV.

With a light knock on the door, the head of a young knight peeks into the throne room where I, the king and his elite guards are planning out what to do. As we hear the knock we all turn our heads towards the young knight, feeling the pressure of our stares he begins to stutter.

“Your Highness… Th-The heroes are b-back”

With a simple nod of the kings head the young knight quickly did a small bow before running out of the room.

“We will continue our discussion together with the heroes. Take them here to the throne room” (king)

“Well, you heard the man!” A man with a large muscular frame, a well-kept handlebar mustache on his face shouts as he places a hand on top of the hilt of his sword. This man is the king's nephew and also the captain of the elite guards. Drunn. Compared to the captain of the normal guard force his strength and the number of martial skills he is able to perform makes the regular guard captain look like a child swinging his sword around.

With his shout, five elite guards march out of the room.

Drunn turns his head towards me, a dissatisfied look on his face.

“And? Where were you when all this happened. Are the rumors true? Is the youngest court mage in the kingdom still an irresponsible child? Leaving our king to fend for himself. What are you doing little witch?” (Drunn)

Clicking my tongue I turn to him

“Watch your mouth. I was out collecting materials for the heroes. Who could have known that there was a traitor amongst them? And I have a name, you idiot. It's Annastatia!” (Annastatia)

With a grunt, Drunn turns to face the door as it opens. A group of young adults march in, a few are bandaged up but are in no life-threatening danger and it seems they've all grown with the short time they've been outside the castle walls. Some leveled up to 30 within that short amount of time… Really.. this is cheating. Wish I had that every time I restart.

Doing a practiced bow, the whole class pays respect to the king

“We've returned!”

With a small nod from the king the whole class stands up/

“It seems all of you have grown stronger since the last we've met. This is good” (King)

At first glance, the king would look fine but underneath his robes, his whole body is covered in bandages and several healing runes. Showing the heroes such a weak old man would be shameful according to him so he had the healers work their butts off just so he could walk around for a day.

“As you were told, we were attacked. By a group of vile creatures taking the form of normal everyday people. Do not be fooled, they are monsters who merely look like people. Along with their attack, they took one of your own. One of your classmates. Even though our valiant knights managed to fend them off they were still able to control the mind of one of your own and for that, we are truly sorry.” (king)

A few gasps could be heard from the group as the king reads out the script prepared for him. A string of lies to convince the heroes along with any other country keeping a close watch on us. Obviously, once they spot weakness they'd take that chance and attack.

With the king's apology, a few of the heroes shake their head, saying it was okay. Or how he wasn't of any use anyway. If only they knew…

“Do not fret. A few of my elite knights will accompany you this time. Along with our strongest court mage Annastatia to help get your friend back” (King)

Pointing to me I do I small bow.

A few cheers could be heard from the group along with whispers

Clearing his throat to silence the crowd the king puts on a frown. Again, according to the script.

“I'm sorry to inform you but there is more bad news.. As you may know, my kingdom is small. Compared to the rest of the world we could be considered as a small but stable kingdom who is not much of a threat. Once the other kingdoms heard of our hero summoning. They sent spies into our country, somehow managing to steal the information regarding it and summoned their own heroes!” (king)

More gasps could be heard. Soon worried whispers could be heard. The leader of the heroes, a girl with glasses and a ponytail stood up.

“Then couldn't we work together to beat the demon king?” (Class rep)

The king lets out a sigh

“If only it were that simple. If by chance another group of heroes defeats the demon king before you Then the chance of returning you back home would be zero!”

In other parts of the world, the biggest and strongest kingdoms each performed a summoning ritual to summon their own heroes. An odd collection ranging from one or two people up to a whole group of 15 strong individuals. Apparently, it was all up to luck on how many they get. Some of the more unfortunate ones managed to summon evil beings such as Necromancers, Mass murderers, and even minor demon lords. Least to say these kingdoms were either demolished or taken over quite easily by the summoned 'heroes'.

All of the summoned knew that they only had one chance to get back to where ever they were taken from. To kill the demon lord first was their goal, it was all or nothing.

Somewhere in the kingdom of Despin

Three figures appear in the middle of a giant magic circle. One was a woman wearing full plate armor, the armor was made so that it would hide her face but not her feminine curves.

The other twos genders were unidentifiable. A large muscular humanoid creature wearing full plate, a great sword attached to its back as well as rough breathing echoing inside its metal helmet. The other one was short but had pointy ears, blue eyes, and long blonde hair that reached up to their hip along with an androgynous face, a thin curved blade tied to their hip.

The kingdom of Despin was a knights kingdom, hence the people surrounding the magic summoning circle were some of the strongest and most hot-blooded people in the country, Ranging from veteran knights to the highest ranked adventurers they represented the best of the best. So as soon as they laid eyes on the three in the center of the room, they knew… Strong... That was one of the words that came into mind along with Monsters and Masters. Their posture, the atmosphere around them, even the simple way they stood and looked at the men around them as if they were children holding sticks. Each and every one of them inside the room had goosebumps as their instincts kept telling them to run away, but oddly enough none left. Scared that they might anger the three monstrous things in front of them.

Then suddenly the woman in armor started laughing

“Hahaha, it worked! It really worked!"