I and my group were together waiting for the Snakemans to arrive, when they approached and I could see they look like humans with mostly green scales, they are bald and have golden eyes like snakes, their faces are very similar to those of a snake and their bodies are thin, they also have long tails behind them, they are dressed tribally from what I can see too.

What I was worried about is that half of them are using weapons like swords and spears.

Another thing that worries me is the way they are running, unlike the other monsters that ran anyway without any coordination, the Snakemans are running in a coordinated way, they are also keeping the same speed.

"This is going to be difficult." (I)

"Those who can launch long-range attacks do it now!" (I)

One of the things Érica taught me is that simple spells like fireball can become stronger just by pouring more mana into the spell, but it runs the risk of losing control, but the simpler the spell, the easier it is to maintain control, so I'm going to pour all my mana into this fireball.

"< Fireball >" (i)

A magic circle forms in front of me and I point it in the Snakeman's direction, then start pouring all my mana into the magic circle.

Little by little a fireball forms in front of the magic circle, soon the ball starts to grow bigger and bigger until it is my size.

I must say that even though I'm casting this spell I'm feeling the heat of this fireball, as the fireball got bigger I realize it's getting harder to control it with my will, but it doesn't matter as I don't need a precise aim since that hits in front of me will wreak havoc on these Snakemans.

BOOOOMM!!!!

When I launch the fireball it flies forward almost doing a zigzag, then it hits a Snakeman and explodes sending fire for about fifteen meters around it, even as I see this amazing scene I pull another bottle of blood and drink regaining a third of my mana, but my head feels like it's going to explode with pain.

I resist the pain and prepare myself with my dagger and sword in hand, after my attack Irius makes a cut in the air in front of him forming a large blade of light that goes flying towards the Snakeman cutting ten of them, Kira pours his energy into Byakko that grows more and more to the size of an adult Tiger, then Byakko opens its big mouth revealing fangs that seemed to be made of metal, from his mouth comes a powerful ray that kills about sixteen Snakeman, after releasing this ray Byakko shrank again for your Tiger Cub appearance.

"We did more damage than expected, but now they're coming our way." (I)

Sigh

I sigh and grab another bottle of blood to drink, so when they reach us I see Diana and Sophia's Auras come out of their bodies, Diana's Aura gives a feeling of ferocity and brutality like that of a wild animal during the hunt, Sophia's Aura, on the other hand, looked like her, it was controlled and instead of spreading to the surroundings the Aura only involved Sophia, I could see her getting into battle position and attacking, her blows were faster and stronger than before, I also noticed that with each blow her enemies flew backward as if they had no weight.

Leo just transformed into his lion man form and swung his big ax killing one or two monsters with each attack, Irius used a sword to cut each oncoming enemy, he was never the first to attack but defended the enemy while Ibuki was attacking a vital point.

As for me, I am not able to fight like them, I had to dodge the attacks of claws, swords, and spears.

With a body as small and light as mine, if I defend even though I have more strength, I will be thrown back by the difference in weight, so I dodge the attacks taking advantage of my superior speed and the dodging techniques of my martial art.But I found it difficult to dodge these Snakeman attacks, they are more flexible than I expected, they attack from strange angles me, as I fought them more I got used to it little by little, but the fight seemed to have no end, no matter how many I kill they always show up more, the worst thing is they sometimes do combo attacks.

The fight was so hard that I couldn't pay attention to the others, it seems that during the time I was dodging the attacks I ended up distancing myself a little from them, but it seems like it wasn't much since I can hear their voices close to me.

"(Layla, I'm going to put the plan into action now!)" (I)

"(Wait for a little longer master, the last Snakeman are coming out of the forest now, if you hold a few more minutes we can finish them all.)" (Layla)

"(If I wait any longer I'll end up dying here!)" (I)

"(Wait a few seconds then, I'll warn you to prepare for the attack.)" (Layla)

"(Okay, no more...)" (I)

"(Master!!)" (Layla)

Talking to Layla at this point proved to be a bad choice, during my foreseeable distraction I was cut by a pair of claws from behind and then a spear pierced my shoulder.

I resist the pain and slash each side of the spear, breaking the shaft, then use the jumping ability to jump as high as I can, then use the seconds I gained in the air to throw a fireball to the ground where I'm standing. one hand as he plucked the spearhead from my shoulder.

"< Fireball >" (I)

I use the fireball to create a place to land and even then get attacked by two enemies, I use the spear point to pierce one of them in the eye while pulling my sword out of my storage item and chopping off the second's head.

"(Layla, it will be now!)" (I)

I give Layla a warning and use my two Aura abilities and my Intimidate ability at the same time to the fullest.

My auras spread to the surroundings while intertwining at the same time that Intimidation skill activates and I feel all the rage, hate, fury, and desire to kill I felt at that moment leave me in an explosion that spread through my Aura.

At that moment I see Snakeman get immobilized, those closest to me dropped to their knees trembling, I could see fear in their eyes which surprised me as until now they looked at me with a murderous look even as I killed several of them.

Then I see the rest of my group run towards me and then Irius pulls a heavy shield from his storage item, yells something and the shield glows with white light, so a barrier forms around our group.

"Shield of the Guardian!" (Irius)

At this point I see attack spells and arrows flying towards us, but none of them hit the shield, only the immobilized Snakeman is hit, not only that, but branches also start to grow out of the ground and envelop the shield as a second protective barrier, all I could do was listen to the Snakeman's death cries and the sounds of explosions.Boom! BOOM! BOOM!

"Argh!!" (I)

"Master are you alright!?" (Sophia)

"I'll be fine in a few seconds." (I)

I use my recovery skill to close the wounds little by little since I started using Ki the skills that used STM before became stronger, after several uses I was recovered from my wounds, but I was still weak.

"I am better now." (I)

"Irius, do you still have any blood bottles with you?" (I)

"I've drunk all the ones I had." (I)

"Yes, but I can't get it now." (Irius)

Now that I take a closer look I see that irius hasn't moved or moved since he created this barrier.

After a few minutes, the explosions have stopped and Irius deactivates his barrier, so he takes two bottles and tosses one of them to me, and drinks the other.

After picking up the bottle and drinking it, I feel better, so I try to look around, but I see we're stuck.

"Should I try to break an exit with my Axe?" (Leo)

"Don't do that, this is a powerful Wood element barrier, you won't be able to make a scratch." (Sophia)

"So what should we do." (Leo)

"Wait a second." (I)

I close my eyes and communicate with Layla through my mind.

"(Layla, ask whoever made this barrier-free us please.)" (I)

"(It was Mari who made this barrier, she used one of Freya's arrows for that.)" (Layla)

"(I'll talk to her about it now.)" (Layla)

After a few seconds, the branches open outward freeing us, then I get a view of the torn bodies of Snakeman all around us, I also see soldiers fighting a group of a hundred or so Snakeman in the distance.

Those must be the last monsters that were coming out of the forest Layla spoke of earlier.

I look more carefully and only see two more groups a little farther away from us, all the others are out of sight.