The Author's POV

—Spurt!

Retrieving my sword back from the corpse of a demon, I icily looked towards the distance.

About half a day had passed since the start of the second wave and as of now, the situation was under control.

Although the first line of defense had been breached multiple times, I, alongside Hein, Ava, and Leopold, had done an excellent job at keeping the demons from breaching the second line.

Of course, we weren't the only ones standing in the second line of defense, but judging from the body count alone, we were some of the few individuals that had made the most contributions. This was mainly due to the fact that the powerful individuals had not made a move yet.

Spi Sli—!

Slashing the sword down to get rid of the blood coating it, I turned to face the others.

"You guys doing alright?"

—Clang!

Blocking an incoming attack, Hein let out a muffled groan before finally stabilizing his footing. Turning his head, he forced a smile.

"Khh...Yeah, though I'm a bit tired."

Raising my hand, I pointed towards my wrist, or more specifically, towards my bracelet.

"Drink a potion then. It'll help out."

"...Right, I almost forgot about that."

"You what?"

His answer made me shake my head.

Perhaps it was because he was too excited, but it seemed as though Hein completely forgot about the fact that potions existed.

"Tell the others to cover for you while you drink a potion."

"Oka—Huk!"

But just before Hein could take out a potion, a demon shot explosively towards him, and a whistling sound arose. Soon the demon violently clashed against Hein's shield.

—Bang!

Fortunately, Hein was quick to react. Even though he had been distracted the moment the demon attacked, angling his shield right in front of his shoulder, he nudged it slightly and cushioned the attack of the demon. Sparks flew, and Hein proudly remained standing on the same spot as before.

Unmoving.

"..."

Silently staring at Hein from behind, I was impressed by his performance. Not only him but Ava and Leopold's performances deeply impressed me. In fact, they were doing so well that all together, they had accumulated quite a substantial amount of kills.

Quite a few more than me who was a whole rank higher than them.

Well, this was to be expected. After all, I wasn't fighting at my fullest abilities. My body count would've been way higher if I had been using the Keiki style.

On another note, I was also improving as the fight continued. The more I got used to this new fighting style, the faster I started killing the demons. If before it took me a minute to get rid of a ranked demon, it only took half of the time now.

Slowly but surely, everyone was improving.

"Hm?"

Sensing something, I looked towards my right.

Sure enough, a demon was quickly headed in my direction. Before long, it appeared a couple of meters away from me.

"Hieeek!"

Sinisterly opening its mouth, the demon let out a screech and viciously slashed in my direction.

WIIIIIING!

Staring at the incoming attack, I was completely unfazed. Raising my sword and thrusting it forward, the green hue enveloping my sword expanded and contracted rapidly.

Shuop—!

What came as a result of this was a subtle suction force that altered the direction of the demon's attack. An instant later, gently tapping on the ground with my foot, the ground cracked apart with a 'bang,' and I appeared only a few centimeters away from the demon.

I moved was so fast that the demon could not react in time. Raising my sword, I slashed upwards,

Spurt—!

blood sprayed everywhere, the head of the demon quietly rolled in

"That's another one down."

as my

VUAAAAM—!

that a grim

with its wings wide open. The moment

the humanoid figure, the moon shone brightly, enveloping the

soon came at a standstill

—Splurt!

on the head of the demon I

commander of the second wave

***

before the humanoid

"What do you think?"

ensuing outside of the walls from a small room. One of them had his hands interlocked

other person stood behind the old man with his arms crossed. He was none other than Waylan Roshfield, Emma's father. Similarly, staring

of two youths and an adult

as he perfectly told the two youths what to do. The way the three of them coordinated with each other deeply impressed Waylan as he

"They're good."

who was wordlessly staring at the same

at the screen, Waylan started

how he can make the right calls in this situation, he must've gone through

could tell that

but the timing at which

the video soon

these two youths seem to be extremely talented,

Waylan's brows furrowed tightly.

wrong, she's controlling four beasts…that's almost

tamer could only control one

the

some could tame two, but even then, they were extremely expensive to take care of, and most of the time, they weren't a

different if the beast tamer could control more than one animal. If

perhaps

noticed

beasts would move. It was almost as though they

intrigued looked suddenly appeared on his face as he focused his whole

To think that

a hunch for now, but the more he observed, the

sure just yet. The flute could very well be an artifact that

his head and looking at Douglas, Waylan

do you think,

Waylan did

his attention was fully focused on a particular youth on the screen. He was neither the girl nor boy that Waylan was looking at

them, he skilfully dealt with the demons that were

"?"

looking toward where Douglas was looking,

you're interested

his beard, Douglas curiously

"You know him?"

"I've met him before."

with a

"Oh?"

his interest

to face Waylan, he

tell

Waylan leaned back and

t…keumm…I mean when I was walking down the

middle and corrected himself, but judging from how indifferent Douglas was Waylan knew that he had not fooled

be noted that he wasn't actually allowed to go anywhere near that tavern since he wasn't allowed to get drunk. After all, they couldn't allow themselves to let down their guards

slipped up, Waylan

you so

head, Douglas's brows knit

his beard, he thoughtfully

"...He seems familiar."

"Familiar?"

it was Waylan's turn

you not realized that this is the youth from the