Supreme Monarch

—In the Darkin Mountain Range.

Rain, Liz, and the Battle Troll Kazko stood in place in the wide gap between two mountains as they stared at the young girl that stood confidently before them in silence. Kazko had already confirmed that they were no mountain golems within a 500-meter radius of them so it would seem that this girl and her group had chosen the right time to ambush them.

This implied they had been following them for a while now and had most likely even followed them here from the castle. The chance that they had also been watching them for a while was also quite high.

For such a thing to have escaped their notice either spoke highly of their opponent's capabilities or they had gotten too complacent and distracted after entering the castle. This was certainly detrimental to Lord Ty's plans and Rain could not believe she had let it happen.

They were sure Lord Ty must've noticed them already but the fact that he did nothing about it told them that he had assumed they could handle it and left it to their discretion. The fact that he had placed so much trust in them and they had ended up failing him without even realizing it made a certain emotion swirl with Rain.

She stared at the young girl with a sharp gaze as the girl continued to approach them with utter confidence only stopping after reaching a few meters from them. She then tilted her head slightly as her twin tails swung gently to the sides as she spoke:

"Hi there. I don't suppose you guys would just surrender quietly, would you? That would make things a lot easier. For you."

"Surrender? That is quite a confident statement you know. Are you sure a child like you can back it up?"

A vein visibly burned in the girl's forehead but she struggled to calm herself down and did not respond to Rain's obvious provocation but continued to stare at them with only a semblance of the previous calm and composed demeanor she came with.

She hadn't made a move yet so it didn't seem like she was in any hurry to attack which made Rain suspect that the barrier around them had something to do with her present confidence.

Seeing that, Rain decided to ask a question of her own given that they couldn't escape from this barrier until they found out what type of barrier it was. "Why are you here? And what exactly do you want from us?" 

"That's simple. I just want her." The young girl spoke pointing at Liz with the same expression on her face as she clenched her fist and entered a fighting stance. "I don't have any business with the rest of you, so if you leave now I'll let you go."

Liz was confused, she did not recognize this girl as a member of the Alcar family and she surely could not sense the cold aura of ice that all the Alcars seem to possess when they went into battle so this girl was surely not from the Alcar family. Perhaps she was hired by the family to capture her but even that didn't make sense as the family had the Dark Elf division for that and they should still think she was dead.

"You want me? Why?"

"You're clearly a demon heiress from one of the Great Five and we would very much like to know why someone like you would be in a place like this, most especially since you came out of that castle. Do surrender peacefully, I wouldn't want to damage that pretty face of yours."

Liz was about to say something else when Rain suddenly stopped her and spoke instead. 

"You want to capture Liz by yourself. Where's your backup? Or do you really believe a simple suppression barrier will allow you to take us all yourself?"

"Sure, going against so many strong opponents might be a problem if this was a fair fight. And if you think this barrier is a simple as a common suppression barrier, you're in for a rude awakening."

She said that smiling for the first time when she suddenly frowned and muttered something under her breath about someone not showing up or something like that as the two surprisingly weren't able to clearly hear her despite their enhanced senses.

Liz then shifted closer to Rain and whispered. "Hey Rain, if they've been watching us all the way from the castle, do you think they're also planning on attacking everyone there? There might even be more of them."

Rain frowned slightly as she heard that and replied. "Not sure. I've been trying to call Albert and Erin but this blasted barrier is jamming all communication spells. Still, the castle is protected by the 5 layer barrier and even if they are from one of the Great fives, there is no way they would give them any of those items that will allow them to break part of the barrier just to attack us. The only ones I can possibly see them attacking are the Kobolds working in the Grayad Plains as well as Azar and his group so as to use them against Lord Ty."

"You might be right, but we should still get out of here as soon as possible to confirm. It would be bad if Lord Ty comes back and is troubled by this."

"Agreed." Nodding her head in agreement, Rain then spoke to Kazko the Battle troll who stood in front of them with his sword in hand as he readied himself to face the maiden before him. 

"Hey, step aside."

Kazko was stunned once again, he could not believe what had just come out of the Dark elf's mouth. While his knowledge of the situation was vague at best. He was still smart enough to recognize the severity of their current situation. 

The enemy came at them alone even though there were multiple people that had surrounded them. They all just stood out of sight most likely maintaining the barrier that entrapped them. This told him a few things, either the enemy completely outclassed all three of them which was unlikely, or she had a tool that could easily one-shot them all which was a high possibility given the ominous aura of the amulet around her neck.

The last possibility was obvious given that the young girl had spoken about the barrier herself. He could surely feel his strength draining from within him inside the barrier but something else was being sealed inside him the more time went on. 

"Kazko, I won't say it again, move!"

Kazko hesitated. He had been tasked with guiding and protecting the pair and could not just disobey an order from his master. However, just when he was struggling to make a decision, the beautiful and more reasonable demoness Liz suddenly came to his aid.

"Forgive Rain, she can't really express herself well. We need you to retreat and find a way out of this barrier while we keep the opponent busy. It would be really bad for us if you get killed by accident."

'Me, die on accident?'

Kazko was speechless. While it appeared that the Lady Liz words were more calming and comforting. That was not the case for Kazko, her words seemed more terrifying than Rain's straightforwardness. He was an evolved troll at the Basic Tier 4 stage and yet he had just been told that in this battle, he could get killed by accident.

Seeing the seriousness in both their eyes, Kazko had no choice but to yield. He quickly stepped aside and ran towards the barrier. The young Lady's eyes followed his movements for a while but it did not seem like she would try to stop him. Either she knew he could not break the barrier, or she realized that turning her back on Rain and Liz was a bad idea.

"So, before we begin our little dance. Care to introduce yourself. You seem to know a lot about us after all."

"You can call me Izabel, that's all you need to know about me. Don't bother telling me your names either, I'll find out later anyway."

"Confident, I like that." Rain said licking her lips as she adopted a low stand after drawing out her daggers from her spatial box."

"Well, you'll soon find out why I'm so confident."

Saying that the amulet around Isaiah's neck suddenly began to glow as an ominous reddish-black aura enveloped her entire body, gathering more around her greaves and vambraces. The atmosphere in the barrier had completely changed and Liz and Rain began to understand why she was so confident.

"A demigod? No, that item is it. So a magic artifact then."

"With the strength of the aura, it looks like it might actually be a Divine grade Artifact."

"Indeed. No choice then, I'll draw her in, back me up."

"Alright," Liz said as she prepared to cast several spells simultaneously. However, something strange happened the moment the magic circle of the spells was about to be completed. 

—It shattered.

Not sure if she had made a mistake somehow, Liz tried to cast the same spells again but was met with the same results. She even tried other spells and even basic Tier 1 spell but each time the magic circle was about to be complete, be it inside her mana body or even when she manually constructed them in the air— it would break and the spell would not be cast.

"I can't use my spells."

"What!"

Hearing that, Izabel's smile widened as her aura rose even further. "I guess there's no need to hide it anymore, this barrier does more than weaken your mana and prevent your escape. It also disrupts the formation of magic circles so your skills and spells are currently sealed. It takes a while to work so I was a little worried. Lucky for me, you were both cautious and did not try to attack me immediately."

Saying that, the wild and chaotic aura exploded from her as the ground she stood on shattered and she shot at the girls with an almost unbelievable speed. Rain frowned slightly as she tried to move but noticed how sluggish her body was right now. It would seem the barrier had greatly affected her physique as well.

Izabel closed the distance between them in only a second as her speed didn't seem to have been hindered by the barrier at all. Although she probably couldn't use any spells or skills as well. However, the reddish-black energy around her suddenly gathered in her right arms. She jumped lightly into the air and came down on them with a ferocious blow.

BOOM!

Even without the use of Thought Acceleration, Rain and Liz somehow managed to avoid the blow but the massive impact it caused destroyed the ground in a 15-meter radius and with their strength currently being suppressed. They could not completely avoid the debris.

"Get behind me."

Rain charged ahead of Liz as she took the brunt of the attack while defending against most of them. Izabel on the other hand did not stop there as she immediately followed her attack by lunging at Rain before they had a chance to catch their breath.

Rain, noticing the charge of the young girl, took deep breaths as she received Izabel's heavy blows. Her daggers trembled from receiving a punch from the child-like girl but Izabel did not give her any chance to retreat.

With the chaos aura that eve loped her, the barrier could not suppress her physique and thus, there was currently a great disparity between their current speeds so she launched an onslaught of attacks at Rain from every conceivable angle.

However, to her surprise, Rain was constantly able to block or parry her attacks even though she could see the lags in her movements. Her insanely sharp instincts were somehow able to allow her to react to Izabel's attacks even before they had reached her.

Izabel tsked. This was probably due to the skill, •Foresight• and even though skills were supposed to be disrupted in the barrier, it would seem that already active skills within the body could not be hindered.

Rain on the other hand was very agitated at the moment. Even knowing where the girl was going to strike beforehand didn't seem to be very helpful as she was constantly being pushed back. Her strength was also suppressed and thus the blows she received were constantly getting heavier by the second.

With her spells and skills sealed. Rain knew that Liz could not offer much help at this point until she was able to buy her enough time to figure out an alternative means of attacking or simply a way for them to break the barrier but that would require time.

Although Rain could not use most of her skills and spells, she was once a member of the Dark Elf assassin division of the Alcar family, and thus, she did not only rely on those things in a fight. Even her pure physical abilities were not the main source of her strength.

After observing the fighting style of the young girl for a while. Rain finally decided on a plan of attack. She parried Izabel's attack ones more and using the brief moment before the next one comes, she used a technique.

[Secret Technique- Thunder God's Descent.]