“The one at fault is that guy. Former Beast King or not… he’s the enemy.” Asa’s hand was pointed at Vaizer, but his gaze was still on Aloe.

Intense emotions surged from him. Both agitation and excitement. Slowly, a smile crept up on his face.

“Let’s stop him together.”

Silence proceeded the boy’s proposition, but not for long. After all, the emotion he gave off was infective.

Aloe tapped the boy’s shoulder and gave a sweet smile of appreciation. It would seem she was back to her normal self.

With a gleam of delight in her eyes, and her confident grin spread all over her face, she faced their opponent.

“You’re right. We’ll have to do this without Maro, but…”

“Yeah…”

Appearing to be like mother and child, but now partners in the same cause, Aloe and Asa stood side by side, staring at Vaizer like predators.

“Let’s take him down hard.”

>BOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM<

The ground beneath the two shattered as they launched themselves at the previous Beast King.

He stood, transfixed to his positions, but his eyes trailed their every movement. To normal people, they must have been imperceivable, but they weren’t much fast to him.

>WHOOOOOMMMM!!!<

Both, from the left and right, sent powerful hits at Vaizer, but he caught them instantly. He sighed, thinking there was no point to the challenge.

However—

“Uh?!”

The one called Asa slipped past him and instantly appeared underneath him, freezing his body more.

“What are you—??”

Before Vaizer could say another world, flashes of light appeared above him, sending down rains of Light Spears.𝑶𝔳𝗅xt.𝕔𝒐𝕞

“Ah…”

With ice impeding his movement and destructive light darting at him, there was a deadlock he couldn’t escape.

“… Are you mocking me right now?”

At least, that was what they thought.

>BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!<

A burst of blue light sent everything in Vaizer’s path flying away. The indescribable surge of power blew Aloe away, sending her crashing among the icicles that hung from the ceiling.

“Miss Vida!” Asa, unaffected by the blast cue to his Null state, swiftly ran away from his opponent.

“Pathetic.” Vaizer gave his verdict.

The young boy was still in his Null state, so the draconic beastfolk couldn’t see or sense him.

However, having felt the ice attack cease, he determined that the boy went after his partner. The weak banding together with the weak… it truly was pathetic to him.

As for Asa, he ran to the site of the crash until he saw Asa slowly descend from the debris and destruction.

“I’m fine, Asa. Thanks for worrying.”

Asa reappeared, nodding with a smile as she returned to his side.

“You were right. He’s tough. Looks like I’m going all out.”

It didn’t seem like there was any other option at this point.

‘He has a great deal of Mana. His physical abilities also exceeds mine…’

The only advantage they had was that Vaizer was unable to use Magic, making him succeptable to it.

“It is said that he’s a Martial Arts master, though.” Asa interrupted Aloe’s thoughts, almost as though he read her mind.

“A-ah, thanks for that.”

A true Martial master could match a skilled Mage. Jared had once told them that, so Vida took it into consideration.

Things looked much more difficult once she made that consideration.

“How did your father beat him then?”

So far, he seemed very powerful. It would be nice if they knew a weakness of his.

“I… father told me he just beat the hell out of him. He was weaker than him. That was all.” Asa whispered.

While possessing immense skill in Martial Arts was important, a person with far greater power could simply blow you away in one shot. That was how Gerard had beaten Vaizer.

He was simply far stronger.

“Interesting subject you have going on there.” Vaizer’s voice echoed from where he stood, and he slowly began approaching Asa and Aloe.

“Bringing up Gerard… the brat I lost against. He’s still the Beast King, right? I wonder how much stronger he’s gotten…”

The moment Asa heard this, his face instantly morphed into that of rage.

“Shut up! As if you’re not aware that he’s dead! You people blew up our city!”

“Eh? Really?” Vaizer’s face morphed into that of surprise.

He stopped dead in his tracks, and the look in his eyes showed genuine shock.

“He’s dead? What kind of joke is that?”

This surprise—whether fake or real—just enraged Asa even more.

“Joke? You dare call it that? Your Cult blew us all up, and you’re acting surprised like you didn’t know!” Asa was seething with pure anger at this point.

His family, everyone he ever loved had been snuffed out in an instant. All thanks to the Nether Cult, no doubt. Yet… yet…!

“Relax, Asa. Jared never exactly confirmed that the swordsman was from the Cult.” Aloe tried pacifying the boy.

“B-but, who else could it be? They’re the only ones with a grudge or whatever!” Asa was slowly getting calmer, but the anger in his eyes remained.

“Did you say just a swordsman? He took out your City?” Vaizer’s eyes narrowed, and he appeared to be in thought for a while.

Aloe felt a bead of sweat fall from her chin as she tried to imagine ways which they could use to ensure victory.

“Did the swordsman have long auburn hair, by any chance? Long auburn hair and a blue dress?”

“H-how do you—? Yes… if you mean a kimono, then yes. Seems like you know him. So the perpetrator was from the Cult, after all.” Aloe Vida spoke, trying her best to observe the opponent and his surroundings

What she noticed, however, was an ever-growing frown on his face.

“I… wanted to fight Gerard again. I wanted to crush him this time. With my newfound power, I was going to crush him in front of everyone.” Vaizer whispered.

The burning gaze in his eyes only seemed to strengthen as his piercing gaze took in both Aloe and Asa.

“To think ‘he’ got to do that first… damn it!” True anger spread across Vaizer’s countenance.

Though the reason behind his rage was questionable, he was just as—if not more—angry as Asa had been.