"Barrier!"

"Fire s.h.i.+eld!"

"Flame Spear!"

"Mana Armor!"

The four black-clothed men cast their spells. A faint trace of light shrouded their charging allies, followed by a think coat of mana along with a s.h.i.+eld made of fire. The adventurers' arrows didn't work on them at all. What's worse for them is that a

Seeing their enemies close in on them, the warriors and s.h.i.+eld-bearers prepared themselves while the magicians conjured their spells.

"Fire s.h.i.+eld!"

"Flamethrower!"

"Water G.o.d's Blessing!"

"Wind Slas.h.!.+"

The magician adventurers started bombarding the charging enemies. Although it did little to no damage to the charging men, their attacks removed the barrier shrouding them. Fire s.h.i.+eld was cast by a magician on the s.h.i.+eld-bearer in front to bear the brunt of the spear made of fire currently aiming towards their group.

Boom!

The s.h.i.+eld-bearer's s.h.i.+eld barely held as it took the brunt of the spell. Seeing this, a black-clothed man took the opportunity to lunge at the s.h.i.+eld-bearer and kill him before he recovers.

Before his dagger could reach the neck of the s.h.i.+eld-bearer, the swordsman beside the s.h.i.+eld-bearer suddenly stabbed in his direction. The black-clothed man was forced to change his attack trajectory and managed to scratch the shoulder of his target. The s.h.i.+eld-bearer groaned but immediately signaled his ally that he can still endure the wound.

The battle between the 30 adventurers and the dozen black-clothed man continued. Although the adventurers could hold their fort, their front-liners already had light injuries. Fortunately for them, the black-clothed men seem to only use daggers and throwing weapons, and their combat style is like that of a.s.sa.s.sins. If those a.s.sa.s.sins decided to pick them off one by one, the number of deaths would be more. Instead, maybe due to their arrogance, the a.s.sa.s.sins didn't put the adventurers in their eyes and decided to have a frontal fight with them.

Charles focused on the battle. He was considering joining the fight but he realized that the voice he heard still isn't here. He guessed that they were waiting for him to join the fight and make use of the environment of the fight to kill him.

Seeing as their target didn't have any intentions in joining the dogfight, the one who talked earlier had gotten impatient and threw a dagger towards Charles. He didn't hope to kill Charles with it, but rather to introduce himself and his allies to their target.

As expected, Charles easily deflected the dagger.

"Hehe, who would've thought we'd catch a big fish here! Looks like intel's true, they really are grouping up huh! These pieces of s.h.i.+t only know how to turtle inside their forces HAHAHAHA is this how n.o.bles act? HAHAHAHA"

The same voice resounded once again, along with three more black-clothed men wearing black masks appearing from the bushes. All of them exuded boundless killing intent which could make normal people shudder.

Charles was surprised, but his surprise soon turned into a smile.

"I was originally afraid of fighting 5 more of you. Turns out, I didn't need to worry about it at all. Although the one in the middle is slightly stronger than you and your buddy there, I should still be able to handle you." Charles smiled.

The three seemed to have heard of a joke, as the one who spoke earlier loudly laughed.

"HAHAHAHA nice joke for someone who's going to die HAHAHA"

"Enough, both of you. Someone might have heard about the battle here already. We have limited time so you two accompany me to clean this sc.u.m." The one in the middle coldly spoke and as soon as he uttered the last word, he immediately charged at Charles.

"Conjure Weapon. Arcane Fire."

Charles uttered two spells in quick succession. Before the masked man could get to Charles, a spear made of light blue flame appeared on his hand. He also appeared to be on fire, but his face remained calm. His eye turned red and his pupils turned to vertical-slit. The horns on his head also grew by an inch or two. A faint image of a dragon's head also appeared behind and wrapped him. His current form and expression didn't resemble the Charles that Zeke knew, and it slightly resembled Zeke's view of demons in this world. He intercepted the masked man's sword with his spear and both took a step back.

"Great. It seems this trip of ours won't be boring at all!" Instead of feeling fear, Charles felt excited. He didn't have that many opponents to spar with, so having a life or death battle with someone with almost the same combat prowess as him is an opportunity for him to polish his skills.

Inside the caravan, Zeke could feel that Catherine is devoid of emotion. She seems to not have any fear that her husband might lose.

"Ezekiel, stay over here and do your parents a favor and don't get out of this caravan. I'm going to battle over there. I can't believe your father is having fun without me! This guy didn't even ask for my help even though he's at a disadvantage. Hmph! I won't let your father hog all the enjoyment to himself. I'll go out, just stay here and watch. I'll let you see how good your parents are!" Catherine also had the same mentality as his husband. She also loved battles, and as someone who grew up in this environment, life and death battles seem to be a casual thing for her.

When his mother left, Zeke felt worried and nervous. What if someone comes to the carriage and do something with him?

'G.o.df.u.c.kingd.a.m.nit, what the h.e.l.l is really happening outside? Why'd mother and father left me here?'

Zeke slightly opened the curtains, and what he saw made him feel excited. He was currently seeing a battle with adventurers and black-clothed men, and both sides seem to be in a stalemate. When he looked more to the right, he saw his father burning with his spear. Zeke instantly became worried and scared, but when he saw his father's ferocious but smiling face, his worries instantly got cleared. He still can't stop himself from s.h.i.+vering as he looked at his father's current appearance. To Zeke, his father looked like an apex predator hunting his prey. With vertical-slit pupils and two slightly long horns, accompanied by the blue fire as well as a faint image of a dragon's head around him, Charles really looked very intimidating for Zeke. He checked the CPs of his father's enemies and found out that the two men on the sides measure 3500 CP while the guy his father's fighting directly measured almost 4000 CP! Zeke didn't expect to meet someone near his parents' combat power. What made him more amazed was the fact that his father could take on all three of them, albeit with a slight disadvantage.

He then saw his mother suddenly change her clothes. Her casual attire was replaced with a Hat resembling a witch's hat, a leather light armor, and a long staff in her right hand. The staff looked really magnificent as the tip resembled a dragon head while the body is adorned with intricate carvings of dragons. Her mother's plain-looking armor and hat seemed inappropriate for the flashy weapon she's holding.

"Water Manipulation." Suddenly, his mother stood above a small wave of water.

"Sea Dragon's Wrath!" From Catherine's wand, a burst of water came out and charged towards the two people fighting Charles on the sides. While traveling, the water changed into a dragon that looked like a snake that had a dragon's head.

The two men, having noticed a surge of mana coming towards them, suddenly leaped back and coated their weapons with mana. They proceeded to block Catherine's spell but they seem a bit exhausted after doing so.

"s.h.i.+t! I didn't know his wife's already that powerful. I thought she was just a weakling, but her strength is surprisingly almost equal to his piece of s.h.i.+t husband!"

The attack they received earlier burnt almost half of their mana pool. It meant that another one of that attack could deplete their mana supply, leaving them vulnerable and useless in the battle against Charles.

"Thanks, hun! Although I didn't need it, you lessened my burdens. Let me deal with this guy myself!"

"Hmph! Do you think you're the only one who can have fun? No I won't allow you! Enhanced Glacial Spear!"

Catherine suddenly launched an ice spear towards the man her husband's fighting.

Seeing the ice spear in his peripheral view, the man quickly stepped back and evaded the spear. However, by doing so, Charles found an opportunity and stabbed his spear towards the man's shoulder.

Catherine's Glacial Spear didn't stop, but instead continued flying towards one of the two black-clothed men behind.

"AHHHHHHHH IT HURTS!" The one who talked earlier seemed to be the one who got hit by Catherine's spear. He didn't notice the spear until his ally dodged it, thus he didn't prepare a s.h.i.+eld enough to withstand the attack. In the end, the spear stabbed through near his shoulder, completely severing his left arm. Blood sprayed and he knelt and screamed in pain.

"Imbecile! We could've won this if you and your men aren't idiots and instead did what a.s.sa.s.sins would do. Now that you are injured, our strength aren't enough to kill the couple. Retreat!" The strongest black-clothed man amongst them shouted.

"What about my squad?!" Although the man is in pain, he still asked his leader about the dozen men under him that's currently fighting the adventurers.

"There's no time. Let's leave them and get the h.e.l.l out of here. This was all your fault anyways, so let them be the sacrifice to atone for your incompetence!" The leader backed off and sprinted towards the other man and pulled out a scroll.

"Come over here quick!" The leader unfurled the scroll and chanted an incantation. A circle appeared on the soil under them. The man whose left arm is missing then started running towards them. When the leader looked at the man running towards them, his expression immediately changed and looked at the back of the man.

Before the man could go inside the circle, an arrow made of mana suddenly pierced through the man's chest. The man didn't know why he stopped but after looking at his chest, he saw a gaping hole and knew he got hit. He then fell on the ground, confusion present in his eyes.

"You can't leave."