小嫂子的味道

"Anya! What are you—no, why are you here?!" Zero asked, coming to a halt. Even though she had saved Ainge and Ron, this was the worst thing that could happen right now. For now she was in danger as well.

"I think this isn't the best time for talks like that, will you agree with me on that?" anya said, gesturing to their surroundings.

And she was right. Even though they had killed over a thousand demon beasts there wasn't much difference in their numbers, and they were coming close. From the front and now from the sides as well.

Despite the desperate circumstances and the chaotic situation, Zero was no fool. It didn't took him a second to realize that, and thus he kept his questions to himself and gave Anya a nod.

"You're right bout that, so let me tell you something important while we still have some time," he said. "Listen closely, the only way to kill these beasts is to destroy the core that's buried deep inside their chest. If that is not destroyed, then they won't die even if you cut their bodies in a trillion pieces."

"I understand. That'll be helpful," Anya replied and raised her magiken-activated sword. Seeing that there wasn't much distance left between the new wave of beasts and themselves, she was getting into her battle stance.

Alada followed her while staring at Zero and gesturing him of something with her eyes, she then slipped out her sword and stood opposite to Anya, covering Zero's parents in between.

Of course, they also wanted to scold their daughter for coming out in the dangers of the world, but unfortunate time was what they all lacked right now.

Zero on the other side, despite the miserable condition he was in, gets in the posture of fight again.

He was about to create another protective barrier around his parents when he suddenly stops himself. Doing this like trapping them inside a cage, if they were out then they could at least run and get out of the way if a beast makes his way to them. That's why he decided to leave them in the hands of Anya—and Alada.

The new wave of demon beasts hits them and in no time all of them were locked in combat.

Zero was back in action too, although this time things weren't going quite well for him. He was having difficulty in swinging his sword, and a part of it was because he'd lost all sensation in his left hand.

However, that wasn't the only reason…

He swung his ice blades and cut off the head of a beast, then he stabbed deep in its chest until he heard that crackling sound. Protecting himself from the behind with the levitating wall of ice and stone, he turned around and stabbed another one.

He turned again and stabbed yet once more, though this time something weird happened. His vision turned blurry, and he felt like his head was spinning. Darkness started to swell up in in the corners of his vision.

He was fighting alright, but slowly he was losing control over his body.

His attacks were starting to get slow, his blades were beginning to turn dull, and his movement was lacking.

Then it happened. For a moment he lost concentration and control over his body and magic.

The ice swords he was holding crumbled into nothing along with the protecting wall floating behind him. He was out in the open and the beasts weren't going to let this go.

They jumped at him, five of them, all at once. And they would have easily ripped him to shreds and eaten him alive. Though before they could do that a black flash of light hit them and wiped them off completely.

It was a blow of [Dark Edge] from Req and it'd cleared out a dozen beasts near Zero; she got herself some time to launch a protective attack for him.

[What are you doing? Stay focused! You would've died just now!] Concern was clear in her voice.

'Y-Yeah. I'm sorry, I lost myself for a bit there. I'll be careful from now on,' he replied and got hold of himself.

He passed this as an accident and didn't tell her the real reason despite he was aware of it. Perhaps he didn't want her to lose focus as well, or he just didn't want to accept it himself.

But whether he wanted to accept it or not, it was the truth.

He was turning low on mana, and was beginning to feel the symptoms of mana exhaustion. And it was not strange thing either.

After all, he had used elemental magic continuously for five hours when he came running here from the academy, and he was using [Foresight] since then too. Then he had also used his magiken for quite a long time before he handed the sword to Req. And even now he was using elemental magic to large extents.

It was not strange at all that he would use up all of his mana. If anything, it was a wonder that he lasted thing long.

In his mind he knew this, but he also knew that there was no other way.

Anya and Alada were on the rear protecting his parents. Req was on the front-lines facing tens of thousands of beasts—and new incoming continuously—at once. He had to stand on the middle ground or else the beasts would reach directly to Anya in larger quantities.

And as skilled as she was with sword, this was not something she could handle. He had to go this, after all he was the one who set up this situation.

Thus he braced himself as he wiped the blood running down from his mouth, nose, and eyes.

He recreated his ice swords and after a stare, dashed toward the incoming demon beasts with a battle cry. He ran straight into them, and killed three in an instant.

However, they were surrounding him again. The protective wall on his back was now gone and he hadn't noticed that. Of course, the beasts weren't going to let this chance go just like that.

One of them came at Zero's rear and scratched him with its razor sharp claws. A good chunk of flesh was ripped off from Zero's back, revealing his inner muscles and some parts of his rib cage.

He felt intense pain and stumbled forward, and in hope to dodge and get away from the other attacks that the beasts were about to launch he forcefully expanded the range of [Foresight] to all his surroundings, to predict the attacks of all of them at once.

That was his mistake.