Capítulo 38: The White Haired Demon Slayer (Part-4)

***Elaina Evreux***

"I am not tired!" Luca threw his hands up in the air, exasperated.

"I am not saying you are tired! I'm saying you 'will' get tired!" Sylvie stomped her foot down to make her point.

"I won't get tired! Ren...!" Luca pleaded Ren to make her understand.

Ren sighed and pressed his forehead. "Alright. Listen Sylvie, just like you trained and every other adventurer trained to become one. Luca has trained for all kinds of situations too. He understands his limits."

"You always take his side!" Sylvie squeezed her eyes shut and stuck her tongue out at Ren before stomping back to hide behind me.

"This is the first time I said anything!" Even Ren was exasperated now.

Liam shrugged smiling snarkily. "Hey it's alright if he gets tired. We'll just stuff him into our bag and carry him along."

"Pooft." Sylvie almost burst out laughing but barely managed to clamp her mouth shut.

Ren wasn't so careful. He just burst out laughing and crashed against the wall in his fit of laughter.

"Guys..." I tried to speak up.

"Oh you!!" Luca angrily swiped at Liam but he just dodged and continued grinning.

Even Sylvie was giggling behind me. While I admit that was a little funny, everyone in the team, especially the boys(yes boys, there is no semblance of maturity left in these idiots anymore), were forgetting something really important.

I pulled Luca behind and bonked both Liam and Ren with my bow. "Will you guys stop laughing so loudly?! We are in a monster spawn!"

Sylvie clamped her mouth shut again and Luca went back grumbling to himself. Liam copied Sylvie and clamped his mouth shut as well, and as for Ren... *Sigh* I had to stare him into silence.

With that the dooming silence returned, letting us know just how much of a ruckus we just created.

"You guys are taking this too lightly. What if the goblins found out where we are and ambushed us with large numbers?" I scolded them as we started walking again.

"Uh Elaina, I'm sorry." Liam said.

I scoffed. "You should be. You could have brought multiple goblin groups on us with that."

Liam who was walking ahead of us all turned back to me with an apologetic expression. "Um... no like... I am sorry. I think I kind of already did."

I looked past Liam and true enough, three groups of large hobgoblins were closing down on us from three different hallways of the 8 sided hall in front of us.

We couldn't even enter the hall itself to fight in a more open area as our exit out of our own hallway was blocked by the goblins. Neither could we turn back since we had just diverted our path off the proximity of another particularly large goblin troop, now behind us safely. But not for much longer if we don't deal with the threat in front of us quickly.

"Get ready for battle." Ren said as he turned his skin to metal again. A rather close quarter battle, but not so much as the corridors had now turned into large hallways as we got deeper into the monster spawn.

Luca, Ren and Liam got into position for their formation.

I am not gonna lie, while it was surely not a pleasant thing to run into more goblins again, there was definitely something entrancing watching the guys fight together.

And so it begins.

A thin layer of water appeared on Luca's blades, flowing atop the surface and edge of the knives with such force and speed that you could actually even hear a small humming buzz.

In an instant, just as the goblins all gathered up in the hallway, Luca burst forward at a speed almost too fast for the naked eye to follow. Weaving and flowing through the ranks at an unimaginable speed, he stabbed and slashed, killing a lot of goblins instantly, leaving them all in a stunned disarray all the way from the front to the back of the goblin troop.

Just as the goblins were starting to recover from their shock, Ren and Liam went in to make their move.

And well, you could just see how much they loved what they were doing. While Luca had instantly zipped through the middle, Ren and Liam just charged in headfirst to follow up Luca on both sides.

Ren on the right, went flying in, ramming his knee into a bunch of goblins and landing down with a smash, killing even more. He was even more brutal than he was before, back in the forest. Punching, smashing, ramming, and all forms of harm that could be inflicted with bare hands. He would stab his hand through the armor of the hobgoblins with raw strength and crush their hearts inside, then instantly pull it out to continue fighting like nothing happened. I am pretty sure I also just saw him smash the head off a goblin. The body was just left standing in one place while the head just disappeared with the punch.

He was having too much fun.

And he wasn't the only one. Liam on the other side was just having the time of his life as well. Slashing, dodging, stabbing, parrying, countering, he was doing it all with flawless technique in an effortless manner. Hell, I even saw him cut down multiple goblins, behind him, with a single slash, without looking. He then followed up that strike with another to kill yet again at his side.

Everything from his foot movement to his form, rapid powerful strikes and flawless technique. Everything looked too easy for him. He was an absolute natural.

It was an amazing sight to behold.

Liam was so dominant with his sword and his natural instinct for battle, he was basically controlling the entire fight. Charging into enemy attempts to group up, breaking down formations and cutting down any overzealous goblin with a will to fight. Luca had got right back into the fray, weaving through, killing off unsuspecting goblins and instantly moving on to the next. Ren however was the one who was truly amazing. He was watching out for everything. Predicting, understanding and adjusting for both Liam and Luca's fighting styles to support and even cover for them. All the while also causing the most devastation out of the three. Ren undoubtedly had immense combat experience.

They fought as if they had fought side by side for years. One couldn't possibly imagine at first sight that they had just met for the first time a few days back and that this was a newly formed team.

It was this that gave me confidence that we can indeed pull off this extremely dangerous mission.

In a matter of minutes, over 60 goblins had just been taken down in this very hallway. I had remained rather passive the entire time. Just picking off goblins with arrows that curved using wind magic and made sure none got to us or managed to run away.

"That's about it." Liam said as Luca cleaned himself off with his water magic and Ren, well I have no idea how Ren got rid off all that blood he got on himself from his brutal fighting.

"We have come a long way. And the goblins seem to be getting stronger." Luca said. While he had killed them all like a bunch of paper, I could see his chest movement due to breathing become heavier.

Sylvie was right. He seems to be losing stamina fast. And I could understand why.

He is a slayer. His entire fighting style is based on speed. Not just his own movement speed, but also his speed of attacking. And this consumes stamina a lot quicker as well. Of course he recovers some during the pauses between battles and when we aren't fighting. But it still cannot be compared to a full recovery.

"Are we close?" Liam asked.

I nodded.

"We are."