I'm Ray Night

"Hey, look at this woman. She thinks she can compete with us, even though she doesn't have her power."

One of the hooded men jeered while pointing his dagger at Miss Erika.

"Hmph. Let's finish her off then."

Another one, who was bulky compared to the first, snorted, picked up his menacing mace, and grabbed it firmly, commanding his fellow mates,

"Don't get in my way. That bitch is mine to kill."

Exclaiming that, the bulky man stepped forward, gazing at Miss Erika with contempt.

"Hmh."

Miss Erika tried to stay calm and collected, but due to the extreme pressure that the man was emitting, her body started trembling a little.

'Calm…I need to be calm, or else everything will be messed up.'

Miss Erika tried to control her body; nonetheless, it was trembling due to the sheer pressure of the hooded man.

"Hah," the hooded man grinned as he noticed the fear from Miss Erika as his face darkened. He commented,

"I hate bitches like you, always acting all high and mighty, but when it comes to the actual combat, you just chicken out."

He completed his words and out of the blue, he vanished.

"Huh? Where did he–"

Erika gazed around, but her words were cut off when a big shadow appeared behind her. She gazed backwards, but before she could react, the hooded man swung his mace at her, roaring.

"DIE!!!"

"?!"

Erika's eyes dilated as the mace arrived in front of her face; it appeared as if time had slowed down and everything around her started appearing in slow motion.

"E…den…"

She mumbled as if she thought that it was the last moment of her life.

*Swish!*

However, in a heartbeat, as if conquered by fate, a dark silhouette of a boy materialized between them. With a speed rivalling the speed of light itself, he landed his right leg on the mace.

Before the hooded man could even sense his presence, at lightning speed, he landed a brutal kick on the cheek of that man, propelling him backwards through the air, and his mace slipped from his grasp.

"AARGH!!"

With an agonizing scream, the hooded man landed on the ground, ending up creating a massive crater.

"Andrew!"

One of his comrades called out in concern after noticing the man, Andrew, falling flat on the ground.

"Hehe, easy peasy."

The boy snickered and finally landed on the ground in front of Erika.

"E…Eden…?"

Erika whispered after noticing Eden's new appearance. His body seemed a little bigger than his actual size.

"Oh, Eden? I'm afraid I'm quite sure who you're referring to, Miss."

The boy grinned; his voice seemed a little heavier than Eden's.

Then he raised his right arm, and a lethal golden blade emerged out of the air. He grabbed it tightly, adding,

"Because my name is Ray Night now."

"Ray, huh?"

A faint smile shaped Miss Erika's face as she sighed, realizing that it was indeed Eden, but changing his name since he didn't want to raise any suspicion.

She smiled and stepped backwards, saying,

"Okay then, Ray. You know what you have to do."

"Better than any other!"

Ray exuberated and twisted his blade and placed it horizontally in front of his face, requesting,

"Just as we planned. Stay out of it; I'll deal with them now."

"Got it."

Although Erika felt reluctant to entrust this responsibility to her student, since the situation compelled her to do so, she just accepted it and stepped backwards.

"You brat!"

The hooded men barked and paced forward towards Ray with their weapons, while one of them intimidated Ray, saying,

"This is your biggest mistake to harm a member of the White Devil."

"You're done for!"

The other one roared and charged forward at Ray and swirled his scythe, yelling,

"Die, you brat!!!"

Sigh!

In response, Ray just sighed, and just at that moment, the scythe was about to hit his neck. He clasped it with his two fingers, commenting,

"I'm not a kid, you know?"

*Slash!*

"Uh?"

The man let out a confused voice as he felt a sharp sensation in his right abdomen.

As he descended his gaze, a sinking feeling overcame him, and he noticed the flow of blood seeping from his wounded abdomen.

"W-when did you…Gah?!"

The man stepped backwards in dismay but ended up coughing blood as he knelt on the ground, clutching his abdomen.

"Hmph."

With a contemptuous snort, Ray swung his blade to remove the bloodstains from it while fixing his gaze on the man, asking,

"So, do you still think I'm a kid?"

"You…bastard…"

The man groaned in pain while his head hit the ground, almost like he was losing consciousness.

"...."

Witnessing Ray wounded a human, almost equal to killing him without showing a sense of discomfort intrigued Erika as she continued to stare at Ray, wondering,

'Is it because of losing Lady Celestia that you've become this way, Eden…?'

She wasn't entirely wrong here, as the loss of Lady Celestia had indeed made Eden cold-blooded.

But there was another aspect to his personality that remained concealed: he showed no mercy to those who tried to disrupt his peace.

"Kill him!!!"

A commanding voice emerged from one of the white-hooded men as the ten of them surged forward at Ray with only one goal in their minds, and that was to slaughter the nuisance.

"Not bad."

Ray grinned again and snapped his fingers, and ten dark portals appeared from the ground.

Just as the white-hooded men were about to lunge at Ray, ten silhouettes emerged from the ground, swiftly countering their attacks with blades of their own.

"How?!"

"What the?!"

"Shadows?!"

The men were forcefully pushed back by Ray's shadow clones, who stood protectively around him, their blades raised menacingly towards the white-hooded men.

'You…'

Erika's face had a mixture of amusement as well as perplexity as she exclaimed inwardly.

'You never cease to amaze me!'

She had a lot of questions about how Eden managed to get this much strength out of nowhere.

But since the matters at hand were more important than her curiosity, she just stayed tight-lipped.

"Hehe, they will handle them."

Ray smirked as he peeked at his shadow clones and jumped forward.

"Hmmm…"

Ray hummed while gazing around at the battleground, just to find the device that restrained Miss Erika's power.

"There are so many; I alone can't stand it here. I need to destroy that device as soon as possible."

Muttering to himself, Ray dashed forward while gazing around.

*BOOOM*

"Tch!

Suddenly, an axe landed in front of him as he clicked his tongue in annoyance, and jumped backwards.

His quick reflexes saved him, or else he might get cut in half.

"Where do you think you're scurrying off to, young one?"

A deep voice emanated from the front and a colossal figure in the white hood, a man who was bigger than Andrew by nearly five times in size, appeared.

"I'm not sticking around for an axe to greet me," Ray commented, his voice quivering with both irritation and fear.

"I know it won't be easy to just achieve something, especially when nuisances like you are almost everywhere."

Later on, he snarled and swirled his blade as his eyes fixated on the man in the front. He exclaimed, "Come at me then, you piece of meat!"