"Well, are we going to do this?"
Rubina asked as they now saw just how many demons they were about to face.
"I still believe we can win. They still look the same, mostly—just those crystals look dangerous. If we can fight them now and bring back samples for Silvia to test… maybe we can prevent greater danger when we finally enter the war."
She paused, then added with some concern in her voice.
"And that fight is coming… it might just be a couple of weeks away. We need to know what we're up against."
Rubina looked at the platinum haired girl, she recalled that she was just a caster, a healer at that.
Lisa had truly changed, now she seemed like a full-fledged fighter.
Rubina didn't know what trials Lisa had gone through, but something had hardened her in the temple of light.
It was impressive, especially since the change had happened in less than a week.
And that, in turn, helped Rubina overcome her own fear.
"Alright… I guess I'll have to follow you this time, then. I'm still slightly nervous—even if Logan is around here."
Lisa nodded and began walking forward.
They just needed to act as if they'd arrived by accident, even if no one would ever believe that.
The demons noticed them quickly.
Magic wasn't hard to detect for them, which was why Silvia had given them crystals to mask their true elements.
If they discovered Lisa was a hero or that Rubina was a half demon, everything could fall apart.
Luckily, the crystals they carried, dark-element—helped mask both their power and nature to some extent.
"What are you two doing here?"
One of the demons called out. The rest turned around—some even pushed others aside to get a closer view.
The two girls needed to make it seem like they'd been caught off guard.
They acted the part well before turning and running.
Logan chuckled from his position in the shadows.
Rubina, though genuinely scared, played her role perfectly.
Lisa, on the other hand, was a little stiff.
Her movements looked a bit awkward, her acting not quite as natural.
Still, they pulled it off.
A little less than twenty demons gave chase.
Some of them even took to the air—something the girls hadn't accounted for.
But they had a solid head start.
Logan, however, was worried.
Not for his two girlfriends—they could handle themselves—but because only a fifth of the demons had taken the bait.
That meant the rest remained in camp.
He also questioned why the demons had stationed so many of their kind in this location.
The ones who chased looked like the youngest—eager, perhaps even overconfident.
Logan stayed behind, observing.
He did, however, send out Wyvern's shadow, letting it trail after the group.
It slithered across the ground, hidden in the shadows of the tree's, ready to strike once the demons were far enough that the others in camp wouldn't hear.
Logan remained cautious.
He was especially focused on the demons who had sprouted wings and taken flight.
They looked like a subspecies—something between incubi and succubi.
They reminded him of Rubina, though their energy was distinct from Serana's or the blue-skinned demons they had faced before.
While Logan stayed to keep an eye on the camp, Lisa and Rubina were running for their lives.
They followed the predetermined path—one that would lead their pursuers straight into the trap.
There, the demons would be overpowered in an instant.
The only problem… they didn't know exactly how many had followed them.
Rubina turned back and saw that fewer than half of the demons were still following them.
The real problem was the ones that could fly.
They were closing in fast—mere meters behind the two girls.
"Damn it! I was never good at this kind of thing!" Rubina called out, breath ragged with exertion.
That was until a shadow formed beneath them.
The ground beneath their feet rippled. The shadow rose just enough to lift and carry them forward faster.
Rubina felt like she could finally breathe.
The trap was just ahead.
Both girls relaxed slightly, knowing they'd made it in time.
"This is far enough," Lisa called out to the shadow.
Rubina spread her wings first and grabbed Lisa's wrist, pulling her forward.
Lisa resisted for a moment—reluctant to expose her radiant white wings which would expose her as the hero of light.
The two surged ahead, easily passing the trap zone.
That was when the demons—so focused on their prey—finally felt it: the surge of multiple mana signatures all around them.
The first ones in—the flying demons—were suddenly pulled into the sky by a massive black shadow in the form of a dragon.
Wyver's shadow rose up into the air.
Because of his size, he managed to take five of the demon's at once with terrifying ease.
Two winged demons tried to escape, hoping to warn the others.
But they didn't make it.
A second dragon appeared—Silis—swimming through the earth like water. She lunged upward, jaws open.
In a single snap, she devoured both.
The remaining demons, already too deep into the trap, tried to retreat—
—but that was when magic rained down on them.
Only a few managed to scream.
The rest were skewered like porcupines by dozens of spears, incinerated to ash by Scorch's beam, or dragged into the shadows by Victor's shadow beast.
Some were taken by Umbral, Serana's minion who ruled over shadow and darkness.
There was no time to react.
The ambush had been flawless.
And yet, this wasn't even their enemies most experienced team.
Logan's voice echoed in their minds, the mental link stretching nearly 800 meters now. Just far enough to check in.
[In an instant… How are the other demons?]
Lisa was the first to answer.
[Still here, they're probably not too worried,] Logan said through the mental link.
[They're trying to teleport more of their kind in, so we need to put up a second act… Victor, your turn. Control the shadows. Make it look like the darkness dragon's want to fight—lure them into the trap.]
Even though Wyver's shadow had been conjured by Logan, Victor, its original master, could take over easily.
Victor had already copied the shadow of Drakhel, Serana's blood-forged dragon.
Controlling even one of those was difficult—but now, the boy would be able to control two dragon shadows, each belonging to beasts of overwhelming power.
It was a massive strain.
But he needed to do it.
In the distance, the demons caught sight of the twin dark dragons.
Two massive beasts of darkness in the distance, just close enough to know that the other demons did not make it.
The could even somewhat imagen the malice directed at them from over the treeline, the creatures wings flaring with darkness energy.
The demons began to stir.
Others reached for weapons.
The more experienced ones tried to calm he others and have more demon's teleport in.
They were preparing to attack the temple—and what they thought was the last guardian.
They had no idea there were other guardians lying in wait.
From his position, Logan could see it, the anxiety in their expression.
The demons were growing uneasy.
There were too few of them to fight something like that. He could already hear some cry out in panic.