59/ Man in black

It was barely 9 a.m. when Logan and Aria left the guild. They briefly returned to the hotel to collect their belongings.

"How are we going to proceed?" Aria asked.

"First, we'll finish this mission as quickly as possible. It should take us a day. Then, we'll experiment with breaking the slave seals and implement the action plan to save your tribe," Logan said.

"Alright," Aria replied.

They visited several shops to purchase necessary items for their journey and mission. The village they were heading to was located on the western border of the kingdom, 700 km away. By carriage, it would take them at least 12 hours to reach there. So they decided to buy horses for their trip, which would save them 3 hours of travel time.

Aria, who had never ridden a horse before, struggled to mount one. She fell numerous times, becoming red with embarrassment, while Logan effortlessly mounted his horse. She tried for the tenth time, but this time the horse made a sudden movement, causing her to fall once again. Even the horse seemed to mock her, neighing and looking at her while she was still on the ground.

"Stupid horse!" she exclaimed.

She approached the horse to attempt to mount it again, but the horse started running away to escape from her.

"Come back here, you dumb horse!" Aria shouted.

Logan was quietly watching Aria on his horse, running madly after the horse that seemed to take great pleasure in annoying her by running away.

In the end, they decided to take only one horse, as Aria was unable to ride. They left the stable with Logan's horse, and they heard a neigh it was the horse Aria had tried to mount. This time, it seemed to definitively mock her.

"Ugh, you jerk!" Aria said, feeling vexed.

"Let's go," Logan declared with a slight smile.

The horse started galloping at full speed, and Aria held onto Logan tightly to stay stable. It was the first time they were so close to each other, and she noticed something about him.

"He smells good!" she thought, holding him even tighter.

They galloped as fast as they could, with a few short breaks to feed and water the stallion. After hours of riding, they finally arrived at the entrance of the village called Saêl. It was 7 p.m. at that moment, so they checked into a small inn to drop off their belongings and rest. However, their rest was brief as Logan and Aria headed out after having a less than delicious meal of potato soup.

Logan's gaze focused on the forest surrounding the village. According to the guild's report, the monsters had gathered about twenty kilometers away. They were near a cave, hidden from view, fortunately having been discovered in time.

"Shall we go for reconnaissance?" Aria asked.

"Exactly," Logan replied.

The two naturally headed toward the forest and moved through it, silently and stealthily, on a night adorned with stars and the two magnificent moons.

After a while, they arrived at the designated location. It was indeed filled with a gathering of monsters. They could see silver wolves, goblins, high goblins, and some sort of fiery serpents. Their distinctive feature was that they were covered in vivid flames. Aria and Logan quietly observed them from a high branch of a tree. They had carefully positioned themselves downwind and did their best to conceal their presence.

Logan activated his control vector and used his radar to calculate their numbers. He counted a total of over 300 monsters, each of them nearly reaching level 60. Inside the cave, he sensed only two presences, which seemed strange to him.

He came to the conclusion that the infamous man in black must be there, but he had no idea what the second presence was. Having now taken into account almost all the factors, he turned to Aria and said, "We'll finish all of this in a single night." His red eyes looked at the monsters.

A gentle nocturnal breeze blew through the silent forest, illuminating the place with stars and moons. The silence was broken by an explosion, and a wall over fifteen meters high surrounded the area. The monsters immediately reacted, screaming and starting to move.

But before they could even move another five meters, a second explosion resounded. Suddenly, the area was plunged into chaos and an icy coldness, some monsters being swept away or turned into ice statues. Then a second and a third equally powerful explosion followed, with the same consequences each time.

"Well done, Aria," said Logan.

Aria had just depleted 75% of her mana for those three explosions, and sweat could be seen on her forehead.

Logan jumped down from the tree he was perched on to enter the arena he had created to prevent the monsters from escaping and causing collateral damage to the nearby village.

"Let's try this!" said Logan.

Masses of rocks slowly emerged from the ground, transforming into several swords. Around him, five menacing stone swords now flew, taking advantage of the panic. Logan dashed towards the monsters without the slightest hesitation.

The swords followed him like a loyal dog to its master, whirling in all directions in search of victims. Goblins and wolves were sliced without a chance to react. Their arms, legs, and abdomens were relentlessly attacked before their heads were finally severed. The high-ranking goblins, however, managed to parry the whirling swords with little difficulty.

"I still lack mastery," Logan admitted.

Suddenly, a high-ranking goblin who was fighting against the stone blades collapsed lifelessly to the ground. Then a second one fell, followed by a third, and so on. Too focused on the flying swords, they hadn't noticed Logan throwing small spike-shaped stones at them.

In addition to attacking with the flying swords, he bombarded them with multiple projectiles at the same time. Each one precisely aimed at their vital points, quickly cornering the monsters whose numbers had already been reduced by Aria's attacks.

A fire serpent that had been trapped in Aria's ice broke free as it rapidly melted. It stood in Logan's path, exhaling a fiery breath. One of the swords attacking other monsters halted and flew towards Logan, changing shape to become a shield and blocking the serpent's attack. A second sword then decapitated the serpent as it continued to spew flames.

These serpents were not entirely made of fire; only their scales were ablaze. So decapitating them wasn't that difficult. It would have been more problematic if they were entirely composed of fire, but fortunately, that wasn't the case.

The monsters were overwhelmed by Logan, not only by his attacks but also by his defense. The monsters couldn't even scratch him. The final touch came when Aria finally joined the battle, her ice claws mercilessly cutting down any monsters that dared to face her.

The monsters were all destined to be quickly exterminated if things continued like this. Suddenly, a shrill cry echoed from the cave. From its dark entrance, a light began to grow gradually, until finally, a gigantic fire serpent emerged. It was three times larger than the ones they had faced before.

However, the most important thing was the man in a black robe walking beside it. The monsters around him all ceased to move, while he stepped forward and finally spoke with a voice filled with anger.

"What do you think you're doing?" the man in black said.

"It's simple. Stop your plans," Logan casually replied.

The man looked at the numerous monster corpses; more than half had been killed in such a short time. A vein appeared on the man's forehead as he raised his voice even further.

"There's no way I'll allow you to hinder our plans. I'll put an end to your miserable life right here!" the man in black declared.

A strong mana pressure accompanied by a murderous intent spread throughout the area. The monsters began moving again, but it seemed that the man had done something to them. They exuded an even greater bloodlust than before, and Aria's fur stood on end. The monsters once again charged towards them like madmen.

"Aria, as I told you, everything will end tonight!" Logan declared confidently.

Your level has increased: from 95 to 100.