The sun was under a cloud cover painting the land in grey. Distant cries echoed across the plains as Drake and Elwin marched with their army. On the horizon, blurry, indistinct figures started appearing. They were quickly moving around left and right, back and forth. There were hundreds, no thousands of them.

“Not good,” Elwin whispered. “If it starts raining, the terrain will become hard to traverse and the enemies will get an advantage.” The army approached quickly, the sounds of war soon becoming louder and louder. Their movement didn’t go unnoticed, and the army fighting in the battlefield saw the reinforcements and huge cheers resounded through the plains.

Drake was excited for his first battle, but as he got closer, a strong stench of blood and death assaulted him. Soon he could see many corpses piled up on the ground. There were battles raging everywhere, all manner of demons were attacking the humans relentlessly.

Most of the battles involved several human soldiers surrounding and attacking a single demon. Only the martial artists could take on the demons one on one, but they became exhausted after a few battles and had to retreat.

If they arrived any later, the demons may have already broken through.

“General Elwin!” the person in charge of the army came rushing to greet Elwin. He was a muscular man with a brown skin tone.

“What’s the situation general Eliot?” Elwin asked. This person was another general of their Jain village, and he was the one who had requested the reinforcements.

“It is a medium sized demon group. We have set up several defensive lines and have just been defending while waiting for reinforcements. The demon group is too large for us to handle ourselves, so we didn’t dare to go on the offensive.”

“What about the mines?”

“The miners have currently been evacuated and the mines can be easily defended so our wounded are using it to rest and recuperate. Thankfully, no demon has managed to break through to the mines yet. There are several onis who are the main threat. Originally there were half a dozen, but two were killed leaving four, an Orc, Orthrus, Hellhound, and a Minotaur. However, they learnt their lesson and are now using their numbers to their advantage and so these oni quickly retreat if they are injured too much, having the demons cover them. We currently have…” The general gave a brief report on the number and type of soldiers left, the remaining supplies, and the general state of the army.

Elwin nodded, quickly processing the situation.

“General Eliot, I suggest that you have your army maintain their defensive position. I will leave a quarter of my men here and the rest of us will go on the offensive to wipe out these trash. If we get rid of those four oni, it is likely for this horde to fall apart. The Orcs are especially troublesome with their regenerative abilities, so I will personally lead several men to dispatch it. As for the Minotaur-”

“I’ll take care of it,” Drake jumped it.

Elwin looked at him surprised but then remembered something. Drake had suffered extensively due to the attack of a Minotaur when he was little, no doubt leaving him with a mental scar. He wanted to use this opportunity to face his fears. Elwin appreciated that however… this was a battlefield. If his trauma distracted him, he could lose his life. Elwin hesitated.

“I can do it brother, trust me,” Drake insisted. Elwin seemed to make up his mind and nodded.

“General Eliot, this is my brother Drake. Despite his age, he is a strong fighter. I hope you are okay with me sending him to dispatch of the Minotaur?”

Eliot finally understood who Drake was and nodded, “If you can vouch for his ability then I will trust your judgement.”

“In that case, I will send several people with you, brother. Don’t die out there.” Drake nodded.

Elwin quickly put together a few elite groups to deal with the onis while the rest were commanded to attack the remaining demons to make way for the elite groups to attack. Drake was put into a group with ten other people, Drake being the leader. One of them was George whom Drake had sparred with before. Out of the others, two were archers and the rest were swordsmen. However, apart from George and Drake, there was only one other martial artist, who was a female swordswoman. The rest were just ordinary mortals and even weaker than Drake.

Horns sounded as the army charged to the front lines. Drake’s and the other elite groups were a little behind so that they could save their energy for the big fight. Once they entered the battlefield, the scene was extremely chaotic. Many soldiers screamed whilst the demons growled fiercely. These demons ranged from large centipedes and monkeys to human sized flying eagles and vultures. They were under attack from all sides.

Drake was protected by the vanguard, but the flying demons were a threat. Drake summoned two shields to protect him. One covered the top, and the other was rotating around him. He then summoned two spiked, medium sized, cross shaped iron boomerangs to attack any demons who got close to him.

Drake was on high alert. Suddenly a vulture attacked from above, heading straight for one of Drake’s comrades. He reacted instantly and blocked it with his shield before slicing its neck with his boomerang, killing it in one blow. Soon another bird attacked and was swiftly killed.

Drake also observed his team members carefully, assessing and memorising their skills. He became slightly distracted when a leopard demon pounced from the front lines and landed right in front of him. Without giving him any time to think, the leopard slashed its paw, aiming straight for Drake’s head.

Drake reflexively brought a shield to block it and the leopard demon bounced back. It was too close to use the boomerang so, with a trained motion, he slashed at it with his sword. It shrieked in pain and tried to retreat but Drake chased and chopped down on it with his boomerang, burying it on the floor.

Drake felt slightly troubled, killing was not something he was used to back on Earth, but it was a necessity in this world. Whether it be against demons or humans, this world was very often at war.

‘I have to get used to this,’ Drake told himself.

His distraction and hesitation had almost cost him his life. If it weren’t for his reflexes, that leopard would have killed him. He had to act firmly.

Drake calmed himself and moved with the army, shredding any demon that approached him with his boomerangs. The other members observed how easily Drake dealt with the demons and couldn’t help but be impressed.

Were all mages this strong?

Even George and the female swordsman, who were both martial artists, had to admit his talent.

After fifteen minutes, they had penetrated well into the demon army. The elite group entered a triangular formation with Drake at the front killing most of the demons, George and the female swordswoman covering the sides with the ordinary soldiers. The remaining soldiers who formed the vanguard had fallen behind, being held up by the demons.

Up front was the target. A seven-foot tall, black, gigantic monstrosity that stared at the advancing group. It ordered a large group of demons to assault them but most of them were shredded by Drake’s boomerangs, and the few demons who escaped were quickly dealt with by the other two.

The minotaur was furious and roared. It started emitting a red glow and grew to twice its size. This was its berserk ability, and it was now the largest foe in this battlefield. It looked down on Drake and his group like a bunch of ants and ran towards them. It often stomped and killed some of its own demons along the way without care.

Drake shot out his two boomerangs. The minotaur grabbed one in midair and bashed it against the other. They were made from iron, but now both of them were bent miserably out of shape, rendering them useless.

This is the difference between a demon and an oni, Drake thought.

Still, he was not afraid. He dissipated the boomerangs and got off his horse, standing straight holding his sword. Drake who was half the size of an adult, was facing a minotaur that was more than twice the size of an adult. Anyone who saw this scene would find it to be too ridiculous.

But there was no fear in Drake’s eye.

“I will deal with the minotaur. The rest of you keep the remaining demons at bay!” Drake ordered and started to run without waiting for a response.

Then, he did something no one expected. The shield that was floating on top flipped around and appeared in front of him.

Then, Drake jumped on the shield and started flying! Even the minotaur was shocked!

Ordinarily if someone tried to do this, they would end up falling off very quickly, but Drake designed two foot holds for him on the back side of the shield that he could use to easily balance on top.

His added weight did make the shield more difficult to move with his mind. However ordinarily, the shield could move much faster than him, so even though it was slower, it could still move as fast as he could on foot, which was very fast since he was a martial artist.

The minotaur recovered and started to punch him. But now that Drake could move quickly in three dimensions, it was much easier for him to dodge. The minotaur became more and more enraged. It roared, and immediately Drake was assaulted by a flock of demon vultures. But they came under attack by the archers in his group and had to retreat.

Drake stopped being passive and went on the offensive. He charged at the minotaur and attacked erratically. He attacked the minotaur’s back and it turned around to defend. As it was rotating, Drake quickly changed directions and charged at its legs, slashing its thigh, and retreating into the skies.

The minotaur roared in pain, but Drake charged again, directly towards its face this time. The minotaur was furious and punched out with both its arms. Drake dodged to the side just before its arms could make contact. The minotaur turned and saw two iron daggers that materialised behind Drake’s back charge directly into its eyes. It happened too quickly for it to react, and both of its eyes were pierced.

The minotaur roared in pain and started thrashing around randomly. This made things much easier for Drake who easily dodged its random motions and was slashing at it again and again.

Given its size, the minotaur captured the attention of many people in the battle, and they were all awestruck to see what was going on!

A huge minotaur in its berserk state, was at the mercy of a young boy who was flying around on a shield from the start of the battle! This was too ridiculous.

Elwin was fighting an orc. He sent the orc flying with his kick and looked towards the minotaur. Although he expected Drake to win, he did not expect such a one-sided fight. He even felt some pity for the minotaur’s helpless state.

You surprised me yet again Drake, he thought.

Within a few minutes, the defenceless minotaur was injured numerous times and lost its berserk state and reverted to normal. It was blind and was bleeding all over its body.

“This is the end!” Drake screamed and charged. He stabbed his sword right into its throat.

The minotaur gasped. It could not move its head, but it rolled its eyes downwards to see a sword poking out of its neck. Then the sword disappeared. Then it heard a sword slicing towards its neck. It tried to dodge but it could not move.

The next instant, the minotaur’s head was sent flying across the battlefield.

What a pitiful minotaur, everyone thought.