- "Why did you kill him?" Solus asked in surprise.

"Six against one is a little too much, can’t afford to miss any chance to even the score."

"Then why did you let the other one live, before?"

"A two-stage attack, where the first is aimed to a random target and the second to his rescuers is a classic guerrilla tactic. I didn’t just pin him down, I also left a fireball ready in case someone tried to free him. Divide and conquer." –

Just like the icicles had missed Terion’s vitals, the fireball had been intentionally weak. Despite the boosted effect from the barrier, both Terion and Recca were incapacitated but alive.

They were badly burnt, but the remaining hunters could clearly see them writhing in pain. Lith did it on purpose, forcing his opponents to choose between abandoning their companions or fall twice for the same trick.

They had no way to know if there was another fireball ready to explode.

- "You scared the heck out of me, back then. For a moment I thought you had gone... soft." Solus hesitated before finishing the phrase. It seemed nonsensical to push him to become more kind, just to worry whenever he wasn’t ruthless.

"As I told you earlier, even if I decide to change, my opinion on people won’t. Especially on those who try to kill will me without a reason." –

In the time necessary for their conversation to happen, the corpse of the spearman had yet to touch the ground.

"You f*cking bastard!" The burly woman took out two short swords from her dimensional amulet, dashing towards Lith, hell-bent on avenging her companions. In her hands the weapons moved nimbly as knives, cutting the air with a hissing sound.

Both the fighters moved at high speed, taking each other by surprise.

- "Is he/she even human?" – They both thought.

While Lith’s speed came from air fusion, the mercenary was actually a normal woman, not even a mage.

Among their many defensive properties, her clothes were also equipped with alchemic gems that could enhance her reflexes and strength, without having to drink a potion.

Despite being faster, Lith was having a hard time dodging the incoming attacks. Her arms were almost as long as his legs, and to make things worse, any weapon or shield he conjured lasted only a couple of hits before shattering.

- "Seems she underestimates me no more. I have to come up with something, fast."

"Watch out for her blades, they are enchanted" Solus pointed out. "I doubt that your uniform can offer any kind of protection from them." –

Gritting his teeth at the news, Lith saw the mercenary sweep the ground with her leg, forcing him to jump.

Her plan was to follow up with a roundhouse kick while the opponent was still in mid-air. Instead of falling down like she expected, Lith darted forward, kicking her face with both feet, forcing her to take a step back with a bloody nose.

Exploiting that opening, Lith closed in, stomping his right leg on the ground, with enough strength to crack it.

The force of the kick was transmitted to the knee, and by bending the knee it was amplified and transmitted to the waist, the spine and the shoulder, releasing it through his right fist, right in the sternum, making her slide back several meters with a cracking sound.

Despite all her magical protections and superior physique, the punch empowered by air, earth and fire fusion had broken several bones, making even breathing terribly painful.

The remaining two member of the mercenary squad, Rodimas and Raghul, used that short exchange to position themselves behind him, locking Lith in a triangle formation.

He didn’t need to turn around to know that they were probably casting some spell to give their companion the second she needed to turn him into mincemeat. They had yet to notice that their fight had already ended.

Lith struck again, this time at her chin, knocking her out before activating the tier three spell stored in his magic ring, Checkmate Spears.

The air was suddenly filled with icicles as thick as a small tree, encircling the Rodimas from all directions, leaving her no way out. Inwardly swearing, Rodimas canceled her spell, performing a last second Switch to save her life.

The two found their positions reversed, now Lith was the one under the icicles hail, but besides his wounded pride, he had nothing to fear. Checkmate Spears seemed an overly pompous name for a spell that had yet to actually checkmate someone even once.

Being made out of his own magic, the icy darts passed through him like he was a ghost.

In the meantime, Raghul completed his spell, a tier five Battle Mage one, the fastest one he knew. It generated several water spheres that would act as offense and defence at the same time.

They were able to block or dampen air, fire and earth magic spells, and if an enemy touched them, they would invade his lungs drowning him. Raghul only kept a handful of them to protect himself, sending the remaining ones to kill Lith.

Like true magic enchantments, they were able to chase their prey, as long it remained in the line of sight of the caster. Usually, the only way out was running away or killing the caster.

Being still at the fourth year, Lith had no idea what kind of spell it was. Not daring to underestimate the opponent, he did what seemed to be the most logical thing to do.

He used spirit magic to grab Rodimas and the burly woman, throwing them at the incoming spheres to see what would happen.

Raghul couldn’t believe his eyes, the kid was using his teammates as meat shields. He wasn’t a newbie, he had already lost more than one ally during a job, sometimes sacrificing them to accomplish a mission.

But that was too much, he had to choose between keeping his defence or killing two of his dearest friends for nothing. He could see the water forcibly entering through their noses and mouths, Rodimas panicked screams reduced to a handful of bubbles.

Before he could decide what to do, Lith closed in enough to knock him out with a single punch. The water spheres burst open, freeing their prisoners.

Lith had just knocked out Rodimas too, to calmly decide what to do with them and how get the information he wanted, when he noticed that the young Byk had returned.

"How kind of you, abandoning me like that after I saved your life." Lith said with a harsh tone. The Byk snorted, rubbing its snouts to his leg as a thank you.

"Stop playing dumb. I know you can talk. I didn’t come here by chance, but because some dryads told me about a fated encounter." The Byk tilted his head sideways, finding hard to make sense out of those words.

"So, tell me. Are you supposed to be my true love, my best friend or what?"