The three who left their village were heading towards the city called Grenton, it was a three-day walk towards that city. So the trio continued their journey without entering any other town and camped out during the night. It was on the second day when Ren and Valdel were doing their usual morning spar.
"Damn it! How come I can never hit you?!" Valdel was attacking with all his strength, but no matter what move he made, no matter what skill he used. He could never even touch a hair of Ren's.
Ren had even allowed him to use magic, while Ren himself was under the effects of his original spell a non-attributed magic, gravitational magic. Ever since he had perfected this spell when he was fourteen years old, Ren kept on using it on his body on a daily basis except when he's sleeping.
The gravitational pull around Ren was thrice that of the world's normal gravitational pull. This helps him in weight training as well as mana control training. He had noticed that the human body had a slightly harder start in acquiring mana, but once it gets going it just keeps on going.
This made Ren wonder, if humans had this much potential why didn't they give off a better fight, when he was still the strongest demon lord? Heck even now in this human form when he was simply fifteen years old, his current strength was about five percent of what it was at his peak.
You might think that five percent isn't much, but Ren's five percent back when he was demon lord Kretos, could destroy several small villages with a single spell. To give you a better understanding of how strong Kretos was back in his peak, before he got sons and daughters, back when he was called the overlord of death.
One attack from him back then could decimate an entire kingdom with the use of a single spell, cities, towns, villages everything in that kingdom would be reduced to nothing. It wasn't even an exaggeration to say back then even ancient beings would flee from him.
So that Kretos now called Ren, was giving himself a handicap as he spars with the current hero, his best friend Valdel. He was truly amazed at the potential of the human body, and kept on wondering why were they so weak back in the day? Lara, on the other hand, was trying out her new spell, using the mana elementals of wind called [wind burst].
While all of them were doing their own thing, Ren had sensed that there was a battle going on further ahead of the path. It took both Lara and Valdel a few more seconds to notice this as well.
"Ren I know you noticed that. We should check it out." Without waiting for a response Valdel charged onward.
When Ren saw his hero friend charging onward without thinking, he could only sigh. He didn't know if it was the natural disposition of a hero, or if he acquires it after awakening his power, but almost all of the heroes share a similar trait of being a busybody.
Ren and Lara followed Valdel and caught up to him rather quickly. It would seem that he slowed down so that they could catch up. When the three arrived in the scene of the battle, they saw a bunch of dead bodies littered on the ground.
Some unsavory looking men had surrounded a carriage. On the side of the people protecting the carriage, there were two knights left, one of them was even a beautiful lady with a gorgeous silver hair that was tied in a knot. Even though she was wearing a knight's armor, you could still somehow see her wonderful figure. She with her ruby red eyes glared at the men surrounding them.
The other knight who was alive was a handsome young man, who had a firm stance. On the other side were sixteen bandit looking, men. That's what they looked like at first glance, but seeing their weapons and the way they carried themselves indicated that they had trained in some way as a unit. Bandits didn't have that kind of training, which led Ren to believe that these people were just disguised as bandits.
It was at this dire moment, the one who was in the carriage went out. The person inside was an extremely beautiful lady with long pinkish blond hair, her blue eyes had the same beautiful color as the sky. She looked at the two knights protecting her and smiled gently.
"If I'm to die today can you please tell me who it is that wants to kill me?" The lady spoke with a gentle and kind tone. Yet the bandit like men didn't respond.
"The lady is asking you something! Answer her now!" The young handsome knight shouted angrily. In which the lady stopped him.
"It's alright Roland. It would seem like this is the end. I'm sorry to have led you to your deaths." Hearing their kind lady say such a thing made the two knights grip their sword even tighter.
"My lady please run, while I and Roland handle these scoundrels." The lady knight pleaded to her liege, but her liege simply shook her head.
"I shall not run... Since even if I do run I won't be able to get far."
"But my lady!" Hearing Roland's shout, the lady simply shook her head once more. The bandit like men couldn't wait anymore for their prey to say their farewells, so they attacked. The lady knight and the man called Roland tried to defend their lady, but because they were outnumbered some of the bandit like men, got passed them.
It was at this moment when a sword of a bandit was about to strike the lady. She who was ready to die was saved, by a man wearing some cheap armor with golden hair. This man had blocked the incoming attack and pushed the bandit like man away with a kick.
"Are you okay?" Valdel asked the lady, who looked at him in amazement.
"Who are you!" Roland shouted at Valdel who suddenly appeared. Even the bandit like men stopped attacking at the appearance of Valdel. They were in a state of shock since all of them couldn't see his movements, they couldn't see how Valdel arrived.
Yet even with this addition, the bandit like men still looked so sure of their victory since they held the advantage in numbers. When they were about to resume their attacks, they heard a voice from behind them.
"Always going on ahead. Do you even think before charging in? Wait, don't answer that, since it's obvious the answer is a no." An irritated voice of man was heard. When everyone present looked at where the voice came from, they saw half of the bandit like men have died, all the heads of the dead were cleanly cut off.
It was amazing, in that one second, eight of the bandit like men had died, and with such a precise attack as well. The female knight who had witnessed everything was stunned.
She saw the average looking boy walking from the distance, and every step he took made him seem like he teleported a few meters. Until finally he passed all the men and got to the area he was standing on. Yet that wasn't the most shocking part, the most shocking part was the moment he passed them by. The heads of the bandit like men that he passed by suddenly detached from their bodies.
The remaining men who saw what happened to their companions had gotten scared. they all started to run away yet the moment the others started to flee, an arrow flew and pierced the heart of those who fled.
Now there were only five men left. The five of them were confused as to what was happening, but it was not only them who were confused. Even the people who Ren and his companions were protecting were confused as well.
The five men had no choice but to bet it all on an all out attack on the lady. Seeing the five men seem to be ready to attack, Valdel who was in front of the lady readied himself. Yet the moment the five men showed their backs to Ren, was the moment they died. Ren with a speed that couldn't be discerned by a normal person was able to behead all of the enemies. These men weren't even enough for a warm up for Ren, he was even restricting his movement to head slices but they still couldn't react. This greatly disappointed Ren as he sighed in the middle of the dead bodies of his enemies.
"Ren you didn't even leave one for me." Valdel who wanted to gain a bit more experience fighting others complained at Ren.
"Hmph, who told you to act so slow? Why were you even waiting for your opponent to attack? Haven't I taught you when to attack? You already determined them to be enemies, so you should've attacked without hesitation."
When Ren was lecturing Valdel Lara who was hiding on a nearby tree branch jumped down. "You're too slow Val." Lara chimed in and told Valdel off as well.
Valdel was about to retort but was interrupted by an angry voice.
"Who are you, people?!" Roland and the lady knight were already positioned in front of their liege, wary of Ren's group. After encountering the bandit like men, the next thing that showed up were these amazingly skilled people.
Since they don't know who these people were affiliated with, they were very wary of them. Even though they had saved their lives. It could all simply be a scheme of sorts.
"Stand down!" The lady ordered her men to stand down. Yet the two knights wouldn't do so and kept their guard up. The lady could only sigh, and their stubbornness.
"I'm sorry that these two, are being rude. I hope you forgive them." The lady bowed her head which shocked the two knights.
"So to start with, how about we introduce ourselves." The lady continued talking with her gentle voice and smile. She was specifically looking at Valdel really curious about him.