Supreme Monarch

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A sudden gust of wind raised the snow in the air as the temperature dropped even further. The sounds of catering teeth could be heard as two figures tried desperately to wrap themselves in a single fur cloak as they tried to walk in the thick layer of snow while dragging on the reins of two horses behind them. The level the snow had reached was too high for them to ride the horses and they couldn't leave them behind.

"Why. Did. We. Bring. Only. One. Winter. Coat. We're. Gonna. Freeze To. Death."

"You. had. your. own. Bag. Why. Didn't. You. Bring. One. For. Your. Self."

"I. Thought. it was. Your job. To. Pack. Clothing. And mine. To pack. our gEars."

The argument continues at a snail's pace in the blistering cold for a while before a voice cut in from the front and broke their conversation. "Will the both of you be quiet." There were no signs of discomfort that came from the voice, proving it was unaffected by the cold. A sign that someone possessed some level of Cold Resistance.

He rode on a horse that was somehow able to move on top of the snow without sinking. The owner of the voice wore a thick black fur cloak, with a hood over his head that covered most of his face. He carried no weapons only a small box that was attached to the belt on his waist.

He jumped down from his horse and brought out a fur cloak from his spatial box and threw it at one of the brothers. "Here, I asked you guys to equip yourselves well for the trip and you couldn't even buy a winter coat." He then walked over to the head of his horse and cast a spell. The horse immediately neighed and took off running in the direction they had come from.

Without a pause, he proceeded to do the same to the other two horses before walking forward towards the entrance of the forest. Bam and Bor finally able to breathe after each equipping their fur cloaks, hurriedly followed behind their boss Zomatsu as they had finally reached their destination. The Darknar forest.

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•••••••••

In the vast interior of an exquisitely designed hall in the south wing of the massive demon king's castle, stood several figures as two of them stood at the center of the hall several meters apart and Tyler was one of these figures alongside Rain who stood in front of him with Albert and the two girls standing further to the side.

This was a wing Tyler hadn't been to before so he was unaware of this Practice hall as Albert had put it. Like the rest of the castle, this hall was massive, to say the least. It was about 300ft long and 200 wide and there were more than five of them on this section alone.

Tyler watched the dark elf in front of him with piqued interest, it was only a few minutes ago when he was just about to question these girls and even made a nice gesture in returning the black dagger in order to gain a level of trust but was instead challenged to a duel.

Of course, she said it wasn't a death match but she still wanted him to go all out. Although she appreciated his help she wasn't willing to just bow down to him like the rest without knowing if he was strong enough to match her. Tyler had been a bit speechless before he finally agreed to the match. To be honest, this wasn't completely bad, he needed to test his new spells, gain some more battle experience and find out how strong this dark elf really was.

Rain stood a few meters away from Tyler, she remembered when she had asked Tyler to fight her everyone in the room had gone speechless and even Liz tried to convince her otherwise. To be frank, there was no real reason for her to do this as they still owed Tyler for saving her life, but after hearing the story about what had transpired in her absence, there was one word in that story that irked her.

<strong>Behemoth.</strong>

She had heard the tale of the seven deadly demons that had shaken the entire continent more than eight hundred years ago. They were either regular demons, lesser demons, and even subsidiary races with strength rivaling that of a demon lord.

While it was easy for the Great Five to handle any family or families that went out of control. It was a lot harder to deal with Seven individuals' demons with that could match a normal leader. They were forced to compromise. Handing over some of their most undesirable regions to them to govern over without their interference.

The region may be undesirable but the behemoths still gladly took in and they thrived. Over the years several more behemoths had risen to fame, with some joining the hunter guild, merchant guild, and even joining some of the great Five and other weaker Families in order to gain something beit wealth or fame.

To Rain, these people were nothing more than brutes that knew nothing more than proving their strength. She felt that the reason they never establish a family for themselves was just because they couldn't think past their bloodlust.

All they thought about was either money or their next fight. She had also met a behemoth before and therefore didn't have any favorable opinions of them. She couldn't accept being weaker than an ignorant idiot like that and couldn't stand the fact that Liz was talking about this possible behemoth so fondly.

Rain remembered what had happened back in the darknar forest better than Liz and she knew that what Tyler had used that day must've been a Tier 6 spell or maybe even higher. With that said, and him being a magic swordsman, that must've been his most powerful spell, but in a setting like this, he wouldn't be able to use it.

She readied herself, she didn't believe she was all that far off from a behemoth and she was going to prove it in this fight. Even if she lost, she would have already made her point and proved to Liz and everyone here that this guy wasn't worth the hype.

Albert came forward and asked Tyler if he required a weapon, Tyler simply shook his head and asked Albert to start the fight. Albert walked to the center of the two and took several steps to the side before saying. "Begin."

Rain was surprised that Tyler hadn't taken out his sword and wondered if he was keeping it for later when he runs out of mana. 'In that case, I'll just have to force it out.'

"Twin magic, Lightning."

Rain stretched out an arm and Tyler could see electricity crackling on her fingertips as two thick bolts of silvery-white lightning shot out of her outstretched fingertips, traveling in a snake-like motion at Tyler with great speed.

Reacting to her attack, Tyler cast a spell of his own, this time opting to use the defense spell "Earth wall." He felt a massive drain of his Mana and immediately reined it back. Expending too much Mana was very dangerous for him so he needed to be extra careful.

This was the best time to gain more control and he would take full advantage of it. A massive wall of stone shot out from the ground a few feet ahead of him, it was wide enough to cover his entire field of view. Tyler quickly moved to the side knowing fully well that this wasn't enough to stop her spell.

The lightning shattered the center of the stone wall and penetrated through the hole it created in less than a second, before finally being stopped by the enchanted walls in the hall. However, the few seconds his wall had bought him was all Tyler needed. Avoiding the attack head-on would have caused her to launch an immediate follow-up attack while giving her a false notion that he intended to defend against the attack allowed him some precious time to prepare.

All the spells Tyler wanted to test he had just learned and would need some time to create and imprint the magic circle on his Mana body before he could cast them with just a word. He had done the same for the fireball he had used in the fight against the lesser basilisks back at the settlement. He created the magic circle when he had wanted to roast the red hawk meat.

Tyler hurriedly created the magic circle of a spell before quickly casting it. "Magic Arrows." Another surge of energy left his body creating over a hundred magic Arrows which filled the air around him and shot at Rain in an instant. The spell magic Arrow could normally only create about three to five arrows since it was a tier 1 spell so when everyone had seen Tyler's version creating over a hundred, it was no exaggeration to say they were dumbfounded.

Rain, having destroyed the wall of stone created by Tyler had no intentions of making a reckless pursuit without any preparations. She made use of the extra time to cast some enhancement spells on herself.

Mythical Hardening.

Greater Dexterity.

Geater Fire Resistance.

Haste.

Protection against Negative Energy.

She knew he could use a high-level fire spell from listening to Liz and Erin speak so she prepared herself for a fight against a fire magic swordsman. Preparing her next attack she saw Tyler come out from behind the half stone wall and cast a spell of his own.

Countless white arrows appeared in the air and shot at her with great speed, they quickly appeared in her view before she could even blink. Rain quickly jumped sideways to avoid the spell, it had taken her by a bit of surprise as she didn't know anyone could create that many arrow within a single attempt.

"Water Barrier." She stretched out her left arm and a wall of thin water layer formed spiraling in front of her and absorbed the few arrows that had cornered her. She immediately raised her other arm and cast another spell at Tyler.

"Thunder Ball!"

A massive ball of electricity appeared in the air and shot out at Tyler with the deafening clap of thunder, making the spectators cover their ears. Tyler watched the massive ball of electricity come at him helplessly, the spell had a large area of effect so he wasn't sure he could avoid it completely.

Tyler then turned his head and looked at a spot behind Rain, his ring trembled slightly and he disappeared from his spot just as the ball of electricity had charred the marbled floor black. Arriving behind Rain, Tyler cast another spell he had just finish creating the Mana circle of.

Flame Sphere."

A 5-foot-diameter sphere of fire appeared in the hall with Rain as its epicenter. Tyler tried his best to rein in his Mana but the spell had still gone beyond a simple tier two spell. The heat was so intense he started to even sweat a little.

Tyler knew she would be unable to dodge or use a defensive spell and wasn't really trying to kill her but right now he was beginning to think he had gone overboard. However, what she did next shocked him.

Without any hesitation or even sparing a thought for the scorching flames around her, Rain swiftly turned around and lunged at him with her dagger drawn, she was unable to dodge or defend against the flames but with her Tier 6 fire Resistance spells active, she barely even felt the heat.

The Flames soon disappeared after Rain had exited its range, brandishing her weapon at Tyler before he could even recover from the shock. Although she was annoyed by the fact that she had drawn out her weapon first, she no longer had any intentions of holding back.

"Spiritual Daggers."

Several illusionary black blades appeared hovering around her and she picked up one of them to wield in her off-hand while the rest occasionally moved on their own as she continued her ferocious barrage of attacks.

Tyler narrowly avoided the sudden attacks by the dark elf and tried to create some distance between them by taking wide strides backward but Rain's pursuit was relentless and she wouldn't let him get away. Her attacks only got harder to dodge when the illusionary daggers had appeared.

He had no weapons and she was incredibly fast. Faster than Liz to be honest and Tyler had to focus to avoid her vicious swings. Even though he was still faster than she was, her movement techniques and grace, coupled with her beautiful swordsmanship and his amateurish techniques made her more than keeping up with him.

Rain swung her blades at him several times in quick succession, even while controlling several weapons at once, it didn't seem to affect her attack pattern at all. She twisted her upper body slightly, her legs spun soon after performing a spinning back kick that carried traces of a silvery-white aura.

<strong>°Bandinshing Kick.°</strong>

A wave of the sliver aura gusted out at Tyler, who was too close to dodge the wide rage attack, Tyler used his new skill once more. <strong>Spatial Movement, </strong>and appeared several feet away from the attack. He then used another spell he had finally managed to complete the magic circle on even under such onslaught.

<strong>"Darkness."</strong>