"Within 300 meters are the demons, remember to stay in formation, protect each other, and absolutely do not take more than you can, if the situation heats up we will intervene with the A-Ranks so do not lose your cool under any circumstances"

Captain Sánchez gave a few reminder prayers to the subordinates, this was a common act of any leader, always being careful that his orders are correctly received.

We have been walking for two hours, unbelievably it takes longer to get to a place when you travel in a group than when you go alone, I remember that it only took me half an hour to get to those mountains.

Sure I didn't get very close, but you could tell the difference.

Regarding the members of my squad, now I could have a better judgment about them.

Lion's group, although they liked to joke a lot, at least they were responsible and united, on several occasions I have spoken with some of them.

Mainly snooping about my exotic appearance, from the rest, telling me about his experiences in the squad, probably so I wouldn't feel left out.

And on the other hand, the group with which he had started the mission, were somehow very close with each other, almost all of them made Marcus believe that he was right, but at the moment of truth, each one took for their own.

For his part, Marcus doesn't seem to realize such hypocrisy, the worst thing is that this guy really thinks he's the leader just because some of them seemed to pay attention to him just to get rid of him.

“Get out of the way newbie”

Speaking of the devil, Marcus walks by with a condescending smile.

'oh, did he forget the fight I had with him earlier?'

He could certainly be good, playing the ignorant and stepping out of the way so as not to get in his way.

Right after Marcus passed, then Jessy passed further back, but before I followed him he approached me.

"I hope you didn't resent what happened a while ago, you can still take your turn with me, handsome boy"

He winks at me after saying that and returning to Marcus's side.

Shit, this chick is a hungry bitch…

I don't know whether to be disgusted by her, laugh at the absurdity of the situation, or feel sorry for Marcus not only because he's a fool, but because his partner has already cheated on him, not to mention how many times it's happened since they've known each other.

*** *** ***

We had reached where the demonic mana was traveling through the air and everyone began to feel it, before that, Captain Sánchez ordered.

"Put on stabilizer bracelets, from here stay on full alert"

As a consequence of that, everyone began to wear protective equipment.

Why was this happening?

The short explanation is that staying in areas impregnated with demonic mana was similar to breathing hot air, you could live, but it was not easy at all.

Now, the long explanation...

The demons used certain ancient artifacts to pollute the mana in the air, that way they had an advantage over people who couldn't tolerate such an environment in the same way as them.

One reason why they couldn't exterminate the entire demon race after the overthrow of the first Demon King is that the demon territories have been worked like that.

The humans made the mistake of letting this slide by assuming everything of importance was over, but they only realized their own mistake when the Second Demon King emerged.

When that happened, humanity exhausted itself terribly to defeat it and worst of all was the intervention of other races that entered the world at that time. At that point, it was already impossible for humanity to force itself on the demonic territories to exterminate them.

Even though they tried to launch the offensive again with the few decades that had passed, time was not enough as the third Demon King was already knocking on the doors of this world.

At least that was what was reported in the history books.

Going back to the topic, the bracelets worked for a certain time limit and partially.

It wasn't a final solution, but it was better than nothing.

"Aren't you going to equip one?"

Lion asked me with a bit of confusion and held out his hand with a bracelet on his hand for me.

"Thank you, but I'm sorry, I was trained to survive under such an environment"

I told him and Lion's eyes widened at my unusual response.

"Okay, if you insist"

After that, we continued to get closer.

I was able to notice that the tension in the environment increased due to the attitudes of my colleagues.

I guess they don't have much experience yet or it's something that doesn't change no matter how long you are on the battlefield.

On top of that, he could already feel the presence of the demons once more and that indeed, from afar they began to move in a fast but strange manner.

Have they noticed? And if that were the case, why did they move as if they already knew where we were?

As he thought, there came a moment of deathly silence that would then be interrupted by a scream.

"NOW!"

In the next few seconds, the hunters in the vanguard disappeared in a blink followed by explosions.

-BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Yes…

They have started fighting.

And that's how it all started, it didn't take long for the action to catch up with me in sword form.

A sword wielded by a demon came hurtling in my direction.

I instinctively stepped back to avoid the cut and thanks to that I managed to distance myself from him.

Explosions and war cry reigned throughout the mountains while I was face to face with a demon.

So this was a demon...

Their description was as I had been told before, they were similar to humans, only their skin tone was greyish, they had a pair of horns and their mana core was as was pure demonic mana.

"Ready to die, human?"

Saying that the demon pounced on me again.

In a short time, he had already verified that his core was rank D and his speed was not something he couldn't handle.

I drew both pistols and started shooting.

-BANG! BANG! BANG!

The demon managed to react and moved accordingly.

Did any of my shots hit him?

The answer is no.

It's my first time shooting and the demon moves too fast for my senses inexperienced in the art of shooting to be able to hit the target.

"So you are one of those, do you think that because you have those weapons you can make up for your lack of power?"

Oh, it seems you have misunderstood my strength, accommodating myself I replied.

"I guess so?"

Then I shrugged.

"Who knows…"

The demon, taking advantage of my careless posture, charged against my position, once again dodging all my shots to the point where it was in front of me.

Trying to perform a vertical slash on me, I rushed at him with strength and speed that I hadn't shown him before.

That resulted in my fist landing on his stomach causing a groan from the demon, confused as he tried to distance himself from me.

I didn't waste that, following him closely I took the double barrel shotgun from my dimension ring and made a quick shot aiming at his head point blank.

The demon could only put on a panicked face before realizing that he had made a mistake.

The next thing was as predictable, the demon's head had exploded into a thousand pieces and its body fell to the ground lifeless.

I briefly looked at his corpse and looking closely I could see his mana core was fading.

That didn't last long until I heard a scream.

“DAMN IT! I WILL KILL EVERYONE!"

It was Marcus screaming at the top of his lungs as he pounced on the demons, I don't think he noticed, but he was badly hurt.

Wait…

I was already wondering why this guy had that outburst.

There was an inert body near him, it belonged to Jessy who had died while I was fighting the demon.

"Boy, how many demons are left?"

One of the A-Ranks that was accompanying the Captain had appeared next to me with that question, his name was James.

"There are 13 left, the other 7 are already dead and 3 are still hidden inside some caves"

"I understand, don't waste time here, go back with the rest and support your teammates from the rear, don't wear yourself out, keep an eye out for the 3 demons and let us know when they deign to leave, I'll be back with Yohan and Sánchez"

With that quick response from James, he disappeared from my sight in the blink of an eye.

Everything is happening very fast, although I don't want to admit it if all this is hitting me a little on my conscience.

Both deaths, quick decisions, or even the simple weight of a real battlefield cause me mental pressure.

It's already a miracle that I didn't fall for seeing people die here since Jessy wasn't the only one who died on our side, honestly speaking, there is a certain difference from fighting monsters in a dungeon.

Focus, I have to finish this first and then I can question myself, I don't want to make a mistake by thinking too much.

Everything would be easier if I could work alone, I insist... working in a group is tiring.