บท 210: Battle for Ul

"Holy slash..." Alex said in a mostly monotone voice as he fired a blast of holy energy through Ascalon, and slaughtered several hundred monsters at he same time. As the body parts and gore settled back to the ground several more monsters had already filled the hole Alex created, not that he was worried about them, if Alex didn't worry about their image with 'Goddess Gabriel' it would've been a simple matter for them to wipe out the monster army. He then started preparing for his next attack by funneling the excess energy from super Saiyan form into Ascalon, while also glancing to the sides to check on those in the front with him, the dragonfied Tio on his left and Shia then Yue on his right, while occasionally a monster would fall out of the sky or randomly drop in the background from Rias and Hajime sniping from the back.

Occasionally they would let some monsters through to have the adventurers and Knights behind them fight as well to demonstrate the 'blessing' from Gabriel. Alex was pleased to see the fervor they instilled in them still going strong, even if it took some minor brainwashing from Rias's 'Devils Allure' to get them like this to begin with. Alex almost shuddered when he thought about how potent the upgrade to the ability was, 'Devils Charm' would merely plant a suggestion in someone's mind but wasn't strong enough to actually brainwash them, 'Devils Allure' however was on the cusp of brainwashing and if she got the ability to evolve one more time would probably be able to brainwash on a massive scale. The thought was something that made Alex both excited and scared for the future.

"ROOAAARRRR!!!" A monster roaring brought Alex's thoughts back to the battlefield, before it collapsed in front of him while foaming at the mouth. Alex sighed, and unleashed another massive holy attack before his attention was again diverted towards Shia.

***

Shia swung her hammer around wth ease as she slaughtered her way through the monsters. As the people watching the battle looked at her they all shuddered, as the rabbitmen race were known for being peaceful and submissive, whereas Shia looked anything but as she danced with her Warhammer while surrounded by an artistic rain of falling blood and gore.

"Oh?" She muttered as she looked at her status. Shia then grinned as she saw she finally reached level one hundred in her first job, and was ready for her next one. Thanks to the fact that the golems in Raisen were controlled by Miledi, Shia and the rest got next to no experience from the labyrinth besides when they beat Miledi herself in the end. She then focused on dodging the monster attacks as she pondered her next job, not wanting to waste the experience they would provide.

[Jobs available- hammer user, apprentice assassin, apprentice thief, brawler, fortune teller, warrior, berserker]

"What should I choose?" Shia wondered out loud, before she was suddenly assaulted by an entire swarm of monsters at once. Focusing back on them she thought 'I'll just pick one randomly!' and selected one before restarting the fight. She didn't know what job she got until the notification rang in her head,

[NOTICE! Strength, speed and defense significantly increased, and 'Berserker mode' skill acquired!]

"Berserker?!" Shia said out loud in surprise, before she was forced to return to attacking monsters once more. What she didn't realize was that her hammer that fit comfortably in her hands was suddenly nearly weightless to her, even though it weighed nearly a thousand pounds. As the blood and gore started flying around her once more she also didn't notice the slight red glow to her eyes, and how her hair and ears also turned red at the roots.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Shia let out a bloodcurdling shout as she charged forward and smashed her way through even more monsters, breaking the formation they had. Alex looked over at the rampaging Shia and sighed in exasperation, before asking Lauren the best method to stop her once the battle was over. To her own dismay Shia would find afterwards that she earned herself a new title as the 'Berserker Bunny'.

***

Rias looked through her scope to find the next monster to bring down when she suddenly saw a rampaging rabbit in her sight, causing her brow to twitch with irritation.

"What the hell is she doing?" Hajime practically growled right next to her, to which Rias couldn't help but wonder as well. She then ignored the rampaging Shia and started taking down more monsters along the ranks before taking out another flying monster; as it fell to the ground Rias looked for her next target, before noticing that there was a human silhouette on one of the flying monsters. Alex's earlier orders went through her mind, before she trained her sight on the person and fired, bringing both person and monster to the ground when she hit both with the same shot. As both figures fell Rias then saw all the monsters start stalling as the one who controlled them was now dead, before they turned on each other and started tearing themselves to shreds.

"I suppose you'd want me to keep quiet about that?" Hajime muttered quietly from her side. Rias didn't say anything but slightly nodded her head, to which Hajime stayed silent. Wether or not his classmate lived wasn't something that he concerned himself with, but Hajime was slightly surprised that Alex verbally agreed to let Shimizu live, yet had Rias eliminate him immediately. He then looked down from their spot on the wall he made, and saw some of the adventurers that were injured coming back for healing by Anne, and others that wanted to avoid getting caught up in the rampage of the now freed monsters.

***

Alex unleashed another slash of energy with his sword as the monsters ran from him. Unlike the ones in the labyrinth, these monsters valued their lives and ran from him when they were released from the mind control and noticed the unusual energy coming off of him. Alex didn't feel like chasing after them, and since he figured that he didn't need to keep up the holy attacks anymore since the battle was just about won, he then created a large ball of fire before sending it forward. As the fire hit the ground it starting moving weirdly before breaking and forming into hundreds of fire creatures that immediately started attacking the remaining monsters.

"Now I need to deal with you..." Alex muttered to himself as looked in Shia's direction. Her eyes were glowing red and her hair had changed color from the roots to about halfway its length as she rampaged around the battlefield and slaughtered anything in front of her. He learned from Lauren that the hair was an indicator of how berserk she was, the roots would indicate the beginning stages, while if all of her hair was red then she was pretty much unstoppable unless someone significantly stronger stopped her. Without alerting her Alex used his max speed to appear next to Shia and delivered a chop to the back of her head, instantly knocking her out. He then picked her up in a princess carry and started walking back towards Ul while the flame creatures he created eliminated the rest of the monster army. Soon Yue and the now humanfied Tio joined him, before giving him a weird look and saying,

"Master, if it pleases thee then can thou put away thine sword? It gives this one a terrible feeling." At Tio's words Alex recalled that she was a dragon, and Ascalon was a holy dragon slayer. He realized the sword was probably showing her an insane amount of hostility since it was bathed in Sammael's blood, and he wasn't sure if dragon slayers existed in Tortus before so this would be her first time being around one. Of course being the wielder of Ascalon Alex himself was completely unaffected. He was holding it awkwardly while also carrying Shia, but Alex immediately put it into his personal storage again after hearing Tio's words. They then returned to Ul to declare the end of the battle.

***

Freed made his way through the mountains on the back of a flying monster away from Ul after his plan to use the human boy failed. He didn't care if the child succeeded or not, but it would have been a benefit to the demon race if he had. If he didn't then Freed planned to eliminate the 'Fertility Goddess' Aiko himself, but didn't due to the appearance of an irregular. Normally he would just eliminate the irregular as well, but the brief moment he considered doing so the irregular looked right at him and with a single glare sent shivers down his spine. Freed had no idea what evil magic the irregular used, but decided that since the irregular didn't try to finish him off he was unable to from that distance. What he didn't realize was that Alex didn't kill him simply because he hoped Freed would make at least a semi decent opponent for a certain white dragon battle maniac, especially since Freed fought with a tamed white dragon.

(A.N. Back from my break, ended up taking a couple extra days than I originally thought, thanks for the patience!