Roschev with a broad sword in his hand was facing against his assailant who before this was his partner in guarding the sigil. Earlier, he told the man that he wanted to take a quick nap and leaned his back against the wall. Of course, this childish trick of faking it shouldn’t have worked but somehow, the man fall for it.

He tried to stab the pretending roschev but roschev quickly unsheathed his broad sword and deflected the dagger.

After exchanging few blows, they were at an impasse.

It seems they were evenly matched in terms of fighting skill.

Roschev let out a small sigh and tensed his body. With a step, he charged at the man, swinging his broad sword on his right hand horizontally.

Fhanja switched the dagger on his right to his left hand and clashed the dagger with Roschev’s broad sword.

With his right, the hand suddenly became a blackened claw. He swings down that claw towards Roschev. Before the claw could reach him, Fhanja felt something hard hit him on the side.

It was Roschev left knee. When Fhanja blocked the sword, Roschev lifted his left leg, used instant enhancement on the leg, greatly increasing the speed of the kneed.

Fhanja was tossed to the side onto the ground. He could feel that his right rib was cracked. It was also the same for Roschev. The price of using instant put a strain on his left leg.

“Ouch.”

-As he massaged his left thigh.

Fwoosh!

He dodged a flying dagger that was hurled at him. After he dodged it, a looming shadow was above him second after the dagger hurled.

It was Fhanja. A feral expression was on his face, as his blackened claw was descending.

Roschev had been fighting for years; he could count with his one hand on how many times he was attacked like this.

The way that he had dealt with those attacks back then was- he used Instant on his right arm, adjusted his stance and elbowed Fhanja at his face. This all happened in a second and everything was on instinct.

Fhanja was knocked out mid-air and fell.

“Ouch, ouch.”

Pain was coursing through his right arm as he dropped his sword to the ground. He fell down on his right knee as he rubs his right arm.

As he was nursing his pain, he heard footsteps. He had thought Fhanja was still conscious after being hit hard in the head but he was lying on the ground, unmoving, he looked at where the sound of the footsteps.

There, was someone akin to seeing yourself in the mirror.

“Oh… you beat him already.”

-As Koschel stood looking at his pain-ridden twin.

--

“woah!”

Varius was barely able to dodge the swinging dagger.

“What the hells are you doing?”

Varius after gaining some distance from Balcrit. Balcrit looked at Varius with a cold glare. He attacked once more after he drew a single breath.

Although Varius was trained in the basic of fighting as any children that were born in the Ebony Empire, he was by no mean a warrior and this was the first time he had been in real combat.

Plus he had no weapon whatsoever with him to fight with, so the only thing he could do was to evade the attacks.

Thankfully due to the warning from Zecruix, Varius was always in the state of wariness the entire time and he was able to dodge an attack from him after he momentarily turned his back.

Both of them were heaving heavily after Balcrit had launched a flurry of slashes. Balcrit looked quite worn down and sometimes he touched his right shoulder with his left as though it was in pain.

As they fought, some of the farmers had noticed it. Some of them had ran towards the town while some heading towards them.

“Tch!”

Balcrit seeing one of the farmers were nearing, shifted the dagger to his left.

Suddenly his arm blackened and extended into something scythe-like.

“Oi, don’t come near!!”

Varius, shocked upon seeing that, shouted at the farmer that looked as though he was trying to intervene.

Balcrit turned towards the farmer and ran menacingly. The ‘scythe’ swung diagonally.

Surprised, the farmer barely evaded the ‘scythe’ and he reels back as he was slashed through his right shoulder.

Varius gasped and tried to help the wounded farmer. Balcrit, as a follow up, switched the way he holds the dagger in a reverse grip and thrust it down at the downed farmer.

Unbeknownst to both of them, there were rapid footsteps coming from behind Varius.

Fwoosh~

Balcrit noticed it at the last minute and he jumped backward dodging a flying dagger.

Varius stopped and looked him.

“Jellika!!?”

“Shut up, Varius, I’ll deal with this guy. You go help that farmer!!”

Varius was still stunned by her appearance but he shook it off and went to the farmer.

Jellika with a short sword on her right, charged towards balcrit. She swings horizontally at Balcrit. He dodged it slightly by stepping back and leaning his upper body backward and counter-attack by thrusting the dagger at her.

She side-stepped and leaned her body slightly, dodging the thrust. Balcrit, without breaking the momentum, swings his ‘scythe’ after he thrust.

Jellika without being daunted had crouched and evaded the ‘scythe’. Balcrit committed too much force and he stumbled. She got up and slipped behind Balcrit, reversed grip her short sword and sunk it into his neck.

Blood spewed out and smeared Jellika’s hair.

Varius looked on with horror as he tends to the farmer.

“Yo-you killed him!”

“Of course I did, it’s a kill or be killed. Knocking him out seems to be too difficult.”

Varius assisted the wounded farmer in getting up as he put the man’s right arm around his shoulder.

“Bring him to the manor. I’ll go the town to fetch a healer.”

Jellika ran towards the town after telling that to Varius.

--

Volkara who was on the way to where Hervan and Vaneri were had stopped in her track as she noticed another presence within the small clearing of the forest.

“Seriously, you should have turned tail and ran from here.”

Volkara with her claymore stood with a battle stance against Garshor.

“By the way, where is my short sword?”

Garshor, like a beast, ignored Volkara question and attacked.

The tentacle on his right arm outstretched towards Volkara.