Demon Ambush

The frightened students stayed behind Knight Captain Belle while looking over at the Demon Lieutenant. This thing was supposedly as strong as a Knight Captain! Although Belle was putting up a fierce front, they could tell she was nervous.

Mateo looked upon the Demons with curiosity. They could talk, and knew how to use tools. They were nothing like the monsters his party had been hunting previously. Did being a Demon increase their cognitive ability?

He positioned himself so that he was hidden behind Instructor Belle. The others gave him an inquisitive glance as he nocked an arrow and pointed his bow at the ground. He quickly drew the bow and released the arrow.

Instead of getting stuck in the ground it went right through the ground without any type of resistance. The moment he fired nocked another arrow and pressed his back against the Knight Captains.

The others also knew that the fight was about to kick off and also tensed up, ready to engage at any moment. The Demons were confused when they heard a sound coming from behind them. The next moment an arrow came from the ground behind the Ox Demon, causing it to hurriedly turn around and parry the arrow with its axe.

The moment it turned around Belle fired off her own arrow while Mateo fired off another Art of his. Her arrow was quickly obscured as Mateo’s arrow suddenly shimmered and split into a multitude of arrows.

However, their arrows weren’t the first thing to hit the demons, rather it was the giant net made of lightning that flew over from behind them. The smaller demons were too busy protecting themselves from the lightning to try and do anything about the arrows or notice that something wasn’t right about them.

The Ox Demon turned back around and swung his axe at the wave of arrows that were about to strike him. He was bewildered when he felt nothing making contact with his axe even though it definitely hit several arrows.

He heard two grunts next to him as he saw two of his subordinates collapse with arrows sticking out of them. It was an illusion! Only two of the arrows had been real.

Knight Captain Belle gave up the chance of sneak attacking the Ox Demon believing she wouldn’t be able to cause any debilitating damage. No, the safety of the Heroes was more important. It was better to strike down as many Demon soldiers as she could before she got tied down by the Demon Lieutenant.

She nocked another arrow and fired it straight at the Demon Lieutenant this time. As the arrow traveled through the air, wind started to gather around it and kicked up the leaves and sticks scattered around the forest ground.

The wind made it so that the Ox Demon couldn’t move out of the way causing it to block the arrow with its axe. The moment the arrow made contact with the axe head a massive force suddenly came as all the wind that was gathered pushed against the Demon.

The wind didn’t cause any harm but it did bear a momentum that sent it flying backwards at a fast speed. The party watched as the Knight Captain turned to face them.

“I can only keep the Demon Lieutenant away from you, it’s going to be up to you to defeat the soldiers. Stay calm and don’t die.”

She crouched down as they felt wind gather around her feet before she leapt in the direction the Demon Lieutenant had been launched. As she flew over the smaller demons she released an arrow in mid air that landed in the middle of them. The arrow exploded and sent them all tumbling down.

Alicia immediately took action as she charged into the fray. As she dashed over her body lit up with a divine light as Noah cast a quicken on her. The demons also glowed, but with a more decrepit light as Helen induced a Sloth curse on them, making them struggle even more to get up.

Both Mateo and Glenn fired off some arrows and spells to the demons on the fringe as Alicia’s swords lit up. Her speed suddenly doubled as she lunged at the nearest one. The moment her strike landed her body flew towards the next one.

This happened four more times, with her momentum ending upon landing a hit on the fifth enemy. However, she found herself surrounded by hostile combatants, who were now able to get on their feet.

Thankfully, her support had arrived as Kyle charged forth with his shield raised. Even without a skill he trampled upon the small foes and made his way next to Alicia. At this point they had already stuck down a third of them with almost all of them being injured in some way.

Although the students were outnumbered, they had now gained the tactical advantage as Kyle and Alicia fought their way through and reached the enemies flank. With the two no longer in the fray Glenn once again threw a Lightning Net, only this time it was more effective as not all of them were facing his way plus being injured causing them to be blindsided by the spell.

Mateo kept firing off arrows while every now and then mixing in a Mirage Arrow. As they slew the last few demons Mateo came to a conclusion, Demon Soldiers were dumb. While they did have some type of sentience that could not be seen in Monsters, they also lacked the calculative abilities of Humans.

They also had the weakness of a creature with intelligence, they could be tricked and they easily fell to panic. He has seen as they fell to his Mirage Arrow every time, Alicia’s feints were also always deadly to them.

Once the situation calmed down Mateo gazed off into the distance, he was tracking the movement of the Ox Demon. Although the arrow had been blocked by its axe, it still counted as a hit allowing him to use his Tracker Weapon Art.

The two hadn’t gone off too far from what he could sense. Every time the Demon was led away from them it would make a mad dash towards their location. They really were the motive behind this attack.

“Everyone, standby. I’m going to provide support for the instructor. Do not follow.”

The party seemed unsure but eventually gave a nod. He was their leader and they had been thoroughly taught in Military School that orders are absolute. Being in a new world changed nothing.

He went off into the woods towards the direction that his tracker pointed him towards. He made sure to silence his steps as he got closer.

The two moved sporadically, never staying in one place too long. The ox feared being peppered with arrows while Belle could not afford this fight becoming a close quarters one.

Mateo readied his arrow even though the demon was yet to be in sight. The benefit of having the Tracker Art was that he didn’t have to rely on his sight.

He closed his eyes and tracked the Ox’s movements, trying to pick up on its habits. How it moved when it would charge to attack, how it evaded attacks. How it tried to maneuver itself closer to its enemy and close the distance. Even how it would suddenly make a break for the direction the rest of his party was in.

He slowly pulled the string, he felt the mana that was being built up in his back. He wasn’t worried of being discovered as the mana of the Knight Captain saturated the area due to her constant release of Weapon Arts.

His eyes suddenly snapped open and he released his fingers. The arrow flew forwards as he released the Power Shot Weapon Art. As the arrow traveled through the forest it reached the two combatants as the Ox Demon was putting strength on his left foot as he was about to kick the ground to avoid the Knight Captains incoming arrow.

That very moment an arrow shot out from his left, aimed directly at the ankle of his left foot. The arrow had been so sudden that the Demon Lieutenant couldn’t react in time. It also didn’t expect that any of the fledgling Heroes would be so foolish to involve themselves in their fight. At their level even a glancing blow would be fatal, hence why Belle made sure to separate their fight from her charges.

The arrow pierced through the Ox Demon’s Ankle as it tried to dodge, but it wasn’t able to kick off with as much strength as it wanted to. The arrow that Knight Captain Belle fired wasn’t just a normal one either, it was an intermediate level Weapon Art.

The Demon Lieutenant knew that it could not block the Arrow with any type of hasty defence, especially with its weak stance. In a last ditch effort it hurled its axe in the direction that the sneak attack had been launched from. Seeing how one of the Heroes had the gall to perform such an attack, it would definitely become a thorn in his Master’s side in the future.

Mateo was alarmed as he heard something cutting through the air. He now found himself in the same situation as the Ox demon as the Axe appeared in front of him before he had time to react.

He braced himself for impact as he raised his bow to provide some form of protection. Only to go wide eyed as a figure appeared in front of him. He felt blood splash on his face as he stared wide eyed as the person who had trained him for the past two weeks looked back at him with a pale smile.