The man's body feels numb. That thing that slams into his vision and continues to hack at his body was gone. His throat was full of blood, he can't even speak a word of spell.

Numbly, the man remembers about his family back in the country.

He remembers an old hand, handing him a flask of a potion.

"Do you want to see your family happy?"

Without hesitation, he took it with gumption. The potion will temporarily increase his power in exchange for his life.

Immediately after taking the potion, he can feel magic power running through his body. It was painful like someone has taken salt and rubbed it all over his inside.

The old man sighs

"For what it worths boy, I'm sorry. For our countries, there has to be sacrifices.

Kill princess Aries and the hero, and our pact will remain. Else, there would only be destruction for our countries."

The young wizard sees another young wizard being brought into the room. However, different from him, the other party was a full-fledge wizard. Yet, he was still offered the same privilege.

Before he dies, he looks at the sky and murmurs

Even though those words never came out, he could hear it

'Was I useful?'

And the wizard smiles as he passes away

Ayva ducks under an overhead swing as he punctures a pikeman's lungs.

The pikemen and swordsmen have much less HP than the wizard. In truth they only have [170HP] each, more than the bandit archer, but not that much.

If he was alone, Ayva could conceivably kill all of them.

As he pierces the pikeman's lungs, the pulls back and decapitates the man with one full swing.

Ayva's mind became numbs with the violence, however, his arms move again and swing at the dead man's two arms and one leg.

After that, he was done and moved on to his next victims.

Even as he slows his breathing, the result was still the same. He can't help it, he was just a killer.

However, people who does not rely on a system to guide their strike can choose not to be.

Like a certain Aeana and Micah.

Immediately after the wizard was gone, Micah was already running forward.

'Take care of the spearmen!' Micah yelled at Ayva.

Ayva knew why, first it was because Micah and Aeana was at a disadvantage against the pikemen, with them being outrange and all. However, it was also because Micah knew exactly what would happen if Ayva went there alone.

There won't be anyone left alive to force out any confession.

The last time they capture the bandits, most of the surviving bandits did not know anything, only forced into it by their leader. Now this group is all human, they could get something out of them.

An arrow flew toward Ayva, who steps out of the way.

Outside of Aeana and Micah who are engaging the three swordsmen alone, there was still two archers left.

Compared to the whole group of archers the other days, it was underwhelming.

Currently, Ayva was equipping three active skill

[Detect Monster]

[Lightning Reflex]

and [Strength]

Detect Monster was a placeholder, in case there was another demon. However, Lightning Reflex and Strength are toptier damage buff skill all things consider. He is currently running under the effect of Strength which give him a 50% increase in physical damage.

If he touches them, they will die. It was because he has surrendered his hand to a game character.

Ayva walks slowly toward the two archers

'Please don't make me kill you. Surrender.'

He silently prays.

Ayva's brutality was used as a shock tactic by Leonel despite Eliza's distaste of it. However, Ayva could see its usefulness after apprehending the peeing, cowering bandits. He could only hope all the other battle will be as easy with the other parties surrendering as easily.

However, something was wrong. The archers were shaking as Ayva walks toward them but they didn't give up.

They glares at him with determination despite their fear, as if they have a higher cause.

With a heavy feeling, Ayva feels that the only end to this confrontation is death.

And so, Ayva moves shakily toward them while Micah and Aeana are busy with the swordsmen.

5 more steps and they are within throwing range.

That day, there was a lesson that Ayva learns.

A battle hurts. It can leave injuries, infections and scars.

He was the only one who notices the footsteps. If he has equipped [Detect Enemies] instead of [Detect Monster], maybe he could have spotted the source of danger much sooner. However because of his previous experience with the demon, he was paranoid about demonic creature.

It was also because Ayva reasoned that a normal human was not a threat.

Up until now, Ayva has only seen demons as the true threat and human as collateral. Even the bandits, Ayva didn't want to kill them.

He only wanted a fight against inhuman evil creatures that he can fight without guilt.

However, perhaps he should have been more fearful of human because at that moment, he heard a voice, hiding farther in the forest assessing the situation.

"You did well. I have already seen all that they can do. As tribute to my friend that is already in the grave, REST!"

Ayva hastily tries to put up a defense against a wave radiating from the newcomer's hand. However, his eyes were quickly closing as did body shut down.

Even as he passed out, a notice appears

"Wizard

HP: 750

Damage: 25

Hit: 1

Spell: Fireball, Lesser Magic Heal, Hypnosis"

[Wizard used Hypnosis]

[Aeana the princess guard was hit by a wave of drowsiness]

[Evra was hit by a wave of drowsiness]

[Micah the knight stays awake]

Ayva's body curls up upon itself, with his hand holding his body up while he is kneeling over the ground.

He falls asleep in this position.

Aeana who was fighting another swordsman and winning, fell over the ground instead.

Grunting, Micah could not cover for any of them even though him and Aeana has already taken one swordsman, there was only two swordsmen left. However, Micah was not a superman, a hero that could save anyone.

Savagely, Micah's sword went wide trying to quickly take his opponent down with brute strength to save Aeana. Aeana's opponent was also confused at the start but has since known to use the situation. He moves to stab down at Aeana.

When the body suffers a grievous wound, Aeana will surely wake up, however, it may be too late, she will be dying then.

Micah's opponent called his wild blow and maneuver to thrust toward his torso to stop his attack. However, instead of stopping to maneuver backward, Micah lets the thrust go through and continues his wild blow, striking the opponent in the arm, breaking it. Then, he ran toward Aeana to put up a guard.

Ayva who was curled up on the ground was left alone.

The wizard has his eyes on Ayva and gestures the two archers to stop.

It was not because he has any kindness toward Ayva, instead, he needs to make sure that Ayva stay dead. So, instead of risking to wake him up with the arrows, the full fledge wizard starts chanting a lengthy spell.

The moment he finishes his chant, he gestures toward the archers who yell

"FIRE!"

The fireball comes out of his arm at the exact same time as the arrows. Both the arrow and the explosive fireball impacted Ayva's body at the same time.