Thalrak and Morax suddenly appeared on the battlefield.
They were already aware, and had even calculated, that the Hero of Taming or the Hero of Shadows would be appearing—possibly even both.
The two demons were aware that the heroes needed the blessing of the spirits to evolve.
"Say, Morax, did we not send this team to handle the darkness dragon?" Thalrak, who decided to finally enter battle in his newly made suit of fine leather armor, called out.
He was a two-meter-thirty big blue demon, with three horns on his head.
It was rare for demons to have this many horns, but with enough mana, a third horn could be produced to carry the burden of channeling raw power.
Different from humans and other species, demons' cores relied on their horns to harness raw mana, something the spirits did for their chosen species.
Morax looked back at his companion. He was in the middle of creating a powerful barrier to shield them from the dark flames the dragon tossed their way.
Even if it was far, its bursts of flame could be sent like projectiles.
"Well, if the Taming Hero is here, that means that his entourage is with him, and if he is on top of said darkness dragon, we can guess why our brethren failed. Did you not hear the report from Zaryx? That hero is a pain in the ass."
"True. I don't know why the Darkness Spirit is investing so much into him. Well, we both should be able to at least get the others and retreat. I can sense at least five heroes nearby. I don't think we were ever meant to fight so many."
Thalrak could see that, around the forest, his own team—which he had personally sent—was battling heroes of all kinds.
They were putting up a great resistance, but with the Darkness Spirit already awakened, they had no choice but to retreat.
"Guess the plan failed before it started. Where are Valkar's damn vampires? Were they not supposed to have summoned their own deity to weaken the darkness spirit?"
Thalrak raised his staff. He did not wait for a response. Using the mana stored in his gear, he teleported toward the forest and tried to bring back his soldiers.
Logan saw how one of the demons suddenly disappeared.
This was a bad thing. It meant he would be going to fight the others.
"Narok, use your dark flames to destroy the shields and wards. I shall personally handle the demon while you charge up your best skill."
The boy suddenly jumped down from his new dragon.
Using the wind to guide him, he reached Morax, who was busy trying to create barriers to protect the teleportation arrays.
"Why did you come here, demon?" Logan shouted out as he landed in front of the general.
Unlike its companion, this one seemed to be 1 meter 70—maybe even a little shorter than Logan. His skin was a dark shade of violet and sported three horns, although short as well.
His eyes were probably his most distinguished feature; they were slitted just like a serpent's.
"You must forgive our intrusion, Hero of Taming. We are merely here to pick up our kin. If you decide to overlook this, we will leave in peace," Morax said nonchalantly, almost like a noble looking down on someone.
He was already creating runes around him to empower his spells and also to send out powerful bolts in case the fight started.
"You must think you can get out of here alive, then… but no. We will fight it out… I am sure I can kill you if it's just a one-on-one," Logan challenged.
He was sure that, with Narok backing him up, there would be no problem.
As for the others—there were Wyver, Zephyr, Drakhel, and Stormwing—they should not have problems, even if the demons decided to go berserk.
Logan had already selected the skills he would use.
He found that Narok's skills would be great for the current fight—if they took effect.
They relied on using darkness to nullify the use of skills.
Within his set, there were Darkness Crown, Nihility Burst, and Eclipse Cataclysm.
All three would be useful here. The only problem was that they would not work with Holy Nova or Judgment Spear.
To start things off, Logan used Nihility Burst.
He did not need to use the magic as dragons did with their mouths.
Logan collected dark flames on his palms and sent them out like small projectiles.
He bet if he used dragon breath like any dragon, the damage would multiply—but alas, he was no dragon.
The small but powerful orbs struck the wards.
Morax did not move from the teleportation array.
"I guess we will have to fight then. Go attack him—use the stones!" Morax ordered his platoon, a group of twelve.
The rest of the demons kept the teleportation array active.
Logan did not face them, though.
He was concentrating all his power on the demon general.
He needed to kill at least one by himself.
He was tired of them running the show and then just leaving.
Narok landed behind him and began using its four limbs and giant tail to smack around the demons that were rushing forward.
Two were sent flying but quickly recovered.
Using their berserk stones, they had vitality to spare.
[Don't go easy on them. Use your best skills. Don't mind me—you won't harm me.] Logan called out to his dragon.
Being the first time they fought together, and having a larger size than what he was used to, Narok was being careful with his actions.
He only snarled—as if being told he would not be able to harm Logan—before using his tail in a wide arc to blow the demons back.
Logan only used raw wind elemental mana on his legs, pushing off from the ground and somersaulting.
The tail completely missed him.
"Try better next time. I guess we'll have to have a mock battle later."
Logan returned his attention to Morax.
The demon finished casting his various bolt spells—each one directed at Logan.
Logan, on the other hand, did not waver.
He already had a skill to use to protect himself.
As soon as Morax released the power of the runes that he had around him—six of different colors—Logan used Earthen Bastion, an empowered version of the Earthen Pillars, and one of Gaia's skills.
The bolts hit the structure with powerful force that broke through a few layers of stone.
[I hope you have your best skill charged. I held this guy long enough.]
Logan looked back at Narok, hoping he would use Eclipse Cataclysm.
He needed the darkness effect to use his own skills.
"Guess I will need to show you why they call me the unstoppable!" Morax the general called out, Logan checked what the demon meant by that as he peeked out from the stone shield he had produced.