Sieghart's weapon was a mace. Its surface was obsidian, and it shone with an obsidian tint. It felt demonic. Reaching close to Odin, he swung his mace towards his chin. At the same instant, Raymond used Blink, a magic that could teleport you for short distances in a blink of an eye, to appear behind Odin, swinging his sword vertically. The plan was simple: as Odin would try to dodge the attack from Sieghart, Raymond would sneak an attack on Odin.
But things don't seem to go that way.
Faster than the mace could reach Odin, Odin's body blurred as he grabbed Sieghart's wrist and pulled him towards himself, and suddenly turned, making Sieghart face the incoming sword from Raymond.
Fear flashed through Sieghart's face as he saw the sword coming towards him at point-blank. It all happened so fast that even Raymond could not react, and the sword directly cut through Sieghart's defenses, targeting his abdomen, drawing out copious amounts of blood. Sieghart's face morphed into one of agony.
"Hey man, I am your enemy, not him!" said Odin, an arrogant smirk playing on his lips.
"You bastard, you will pay for this!" fury coursed through Raymond's eyes as he saw Sieghart's state. His face was pale, and he continuously coughed up blood. The sword of the hero was a legendary rank artifact, and the damage it could deal was not something someone could take lightly.
Svetlana took action, moving her staff. She chanted something, and a storm of wind blew between Odin and Raymond, creating a distance between them.
This caused Odin's focus to shift to Svetlana.
"Why are all mages so annoying?" he asked, a question seemingly to himself.
Suddenly, a ball of flame as hot as the sun was blasted at Odin, approaching him at insane speed. Odin's face turned serious for the first time in the fight. Raising his hand, he chanted,
"Fireball!"
Fireball was a basic spell, but when combined with a huge mana pool and compression, it could only be described as a monstrosity, and Odin used the same spell to counter Svetlana's spell.
However, the size of his fireball was thrice the size of hers, and the moment they collided,
"BOOM!"
A huge explosion took place, creating a giant mushroom cloud of smoke, and debris flew. It was debris everywhere.
As the wind settled, it came to view. A huge crater was created in the center, which expanded more towards the hero party's direction.
Odin was still standing; there was not even a speck of dust on his white robes. Meanwhile, the members of the hero party were blasted off to a distance. But at a distance, Odin could see humongous vines had grown from the ground, forming a giant cocoon.
Slowly, the cocoon unfurled, and hero party members were revealed. Raymond was coughing, holding his arm, which was hurt in the offshoot of the attack. It was burned badly, and charred skin could be seemingly seen. Sieghart was, however, safe because in front of him stood Gaimut, taking the brunt of the attack. His physical stats were clearly the highest among all of them. Gaimut looked unharmed as he slowly dusted his clothes.
"This guy. I don't want to say it, but he might be on par with the Demon King," said Gaimut, his voice rigid.
"We are clearly not prepared for this! Can't we just say, 'Sorry man, our bad, we didn't know you were this strong'?" said Svetlana, her tone semi-joking.
A chuckle escaped Raymond's mouth.
"You can try," said Raymond to her.
"We have clearly made an enemy of someone we probably should not have," he said further.
"He is probably some old monster in young skin. Our luck today really is bad," said Sieghart, his eyes looked dull.
"I think we should fall back for now. We were already tired from yesterday; our mana reserves have clearly not recovered, and now this!" said Sieghart. Although Raymond was the leader and the Hero in the party, he would often take advice from Sieghart on various occasions, and it has saved their lives many times.
"Guys, I don't think he would let us walk away just like that," said Gaimut.
Sieghart's condition was not really good. His wounds, though closed, meant he had lost too much blood, and Raymond's arm was badly burned. Though Freya could heal them in a short time, the enemy before them would surely not let them do it.
Looking at Raymond, Odin said, "The hero of current humanity - what a disappointment you turned out to be," his tone taunting.
However, when his gaze turned to Freya and Svetlana, a glint crossed his eyes.
Suddenly, his face turned serious, and a scary amount of aura started leaking out of his body. "Let's get this over with."
"Guys - it's time we do it. Can't stretch it any longer, or he is gonna toast us," said Raymond, his voice resolute.
"Alright, alright," said Gaimut, moving to the front. His shield activated, growing bigger and bigger until it became 10 meters wide. Gems of various colors started to shine in his shield.
Raymond also took position standing beside Gaimut, raising his sword towards the front. A beam of light started condensing at its tip, and as it grew larger, causing the ground to tremble.
"Leave it to us," said Svetlana and Freya in unison, looking into each other's eyes. They could see absolute trust.
And then it happened.
Odin moved, his speed like lightning. Within a fraction of a second, he was already at the front of the shield, a simple wooden sword appearing in his hand, glowing with a faint blue light as he swung it to strike the shield.
But before the wooden sword could connect, a tiny space opened in the middle of the shield, and the beam of light that Raymond gathered shot out from it directly, making contact with Odin's arm. The shield closed just as quickly as it opened, and a huge explosion took place.
"BOOM!"
Odin was actually pushed back 20 meters. His hand looked a little charred. Not stopping, he again tried to move, but suddenly, large vines shot out from the ground, throwing Odin up in the air.
However, Odin suddenly kicked the air. The pressure generated propelled him to them again. Not stopping, the vines intercepted him again; their ends suddenly turned spiky and attached to Odin from all sides, keeping him busy fending them off with swift strikes of his wooden sword.
"HEYY, are you done yet? I can't keep this up any longer!" said Freya to Svetlana, her brows furrowed in anxiety.
"Alright, I'm done - fall back!" shouted Svetlana, and suddenly all of them pulled back towards Svetlana. A portal appeared behind her, and they started jumping into the portal in a hurry, as if they were waiting for it all along.
"Where do you guys think you are going?" splitting the last of the vines with swift cuts of his wooden sword, Odin walked out, but he didn't actually try and stop them. He quietly watched as they jumped into the portal in a hurry.
After all of them jumped, the portal started closing. However, Odin suddenly broke a sigil that was present on the pendant he was wearing, throwing it into the portal, and the portal finally closed.
Now, all that was left of a place once called the Northern Dragon Maw was a leveled field with several huge craters and various humongous vines growing out of the ground.
However, looking around, Odin wasn't concerned, although this was one of the paths the Demon King's army followed, and its destruction was surely going to make the Demon King furious. If he were to find out who did this, that person would surely become the target of his wrath, but he couldn't care less about demons and their army.
His eyes were a little misty as he grabbed the pendant on his neck and whispered, "Found you at last."