Realizer of Death : The Reaper

"That's Lizardman? No, it's armored lizardman!" A male student said in a trembling voice.

"Another fourth-level monster!?" A female student said in disbelief.

The students subconsciously stepped back in fear. Not only them, but Akio also trembled when he saw the armored lizardman.

Lizardman is a third-level monster whose strength is on par with an ogre. But the armored lizardman was a mutation of the lizardman with a larger size and thicker scales that formed the armor on its body.

The armored lizardman was the same fourth-level monster as the wyvern. Although his appearance is smaller and he looks weaker, his combat power cannot be underestimated. The defense of its scales was tough because the armored lizardman was also a subspecies of the dragon.

Apart from the armored lizardmen, the black-robed person also appeared with ogres, orcs, goblins, and lone wolves behind him.

"You… how did you know we were here!?" Daisuke said in shock. He gripped his sword tightly and looked around, especially at the sky. Daisuke was worried that the wyvern also comes along with the black-robed person and would shoot fireballs at them.

Daisuke was sure that they had moved carefully in the forest so as not to be discovered by their enemies. But in the end, the black-robed person could still figure out their location and came with many monsters.

"You don't need to know how I found you. Remember that you will die miserably once you dare kill The Ghost Nebula member! Kill them all!" The black-robed person spoke indifferently and gave orders to the monsters behind him.

Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The armored lizardman let out a battle cry and charged at Daisuke. The other monsters also followed behind and attacked the students.

"Ready to fight! I will restrain the armored lizardman together with the other senior Realizers! The first-year students will face the goblins, and I will leave lone wolves and ogres to the second and third-year students! Do you understand!?" Daisuke looked at the students and gave his orders.

"We understand, leader!" The students answered in unison and moved according to Daisuke's instructions.

"Let's fight the armored lizardman together! Please make a chance for me in battle and hold the monster for a while so I can attack the black-robed person." Daisuke said seriously to the other senior Realizers, and they nodded in response. After that, they were ready to clash with the armored lizardman coming at them. The monster moved at high speed while thrusting its spear, and Daisuke blocked it with his sword.

Booooooooooooooooommmmmmmm!

***

Not far from where Daisuke and the armored lizardman were fighting, Setsuka's group was exploring other forest areas, looking for other students. Setsuka didn't find as many ogres as the teacher said. She feels something is wrong but doesn't care about it.

Kaede thought it was their chance to escape from that place and look for the other students scattered in the Shima lake area. But after walking for a long time, they still couldn't find anyone in the forest. The students were worried and assumed that monsters had killed the others.

"We've searched this area for quite a while but didn't find a single student. What are we going to do next, Setsuka?" Kaede asked and wiped the sweat off her forehead.

She looked tired after walking for a long time in the forest with bumpy terrain. Moreover, they encountered many goblins and lone wolves on their way. The fight against the monsters drained their stamina a lot.

But then Kaede was confused because she didn't get any reply from Setsuka after waiting for some time. She thought Setsuka was focused on keeping an eye on her surroundings and looking for the other students.

"Setsuka… Setsuka…" Kaede called out to Setsuka several times, but the other party didn't respond. She frowned as she felt something strange about her best friend. The Setsuka she knew would respond to her no matter how focused she was on her work. Then Kaede approached her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Setsuka! Are you okay?" Kaede asked worriedly.

"Hmm? Why do you ask that, Kaede? Of course, I'm fine. goblins and lone wolves won't hurt me if I don't lower my guard." Setsuka tilted her head in confusion.

When Kaede called out to her, Setsuka was thinking about Tenku, who fell into a big hole after saving her. Even though Setsuka was sure that Tenku was still alive, she doubted that Tenku would be okay after being hit by a fireball from a wyvern and falling from such a height. If Setsuka had been in Tenku's shoes, she would have been seriously injured after that incident.

That was Setsuka's concern and made her think about Tenku the whole way. She had lost her focus during the battle against goblins and lone wolves. Fortunately, those monsters were only first and second-level monsters. Otherwise, it would be dangerous for her.

"I'm not talking about it. I called you several times to ask something, but you didn't respond to me. So I thought that something had happened to you." Kaede sighed after she heard Setsuka's answer. She felt her best friend was thinking about something and became unfocused with the current situation. Even though his body was with Kaede, Setsuka's mind was elsewhere.

"I'm sorry. I was too focused on checking the situation around. So what do you want to ask?" Setsuka realized that she had been careless by worrying too much about Tenku. But she couldn't tell Kaede the real reason.

"I wanted to ask your opinion on what we should do next. We've walked for quite a while but still haven't found any of the students." Kaede couldn't help but shake her head when she heard Setsuka's excuse. She didn't want to ask any further if Setsuka didn't want to talk. Kaede decided to focus on their current situation instead of thinking about that

"We will continue to act according to our original plan. We will walk through this forest until we leave the Shima lake area. We don't need to force ourselves to look for students whose location is unknown and instead endanger the people here." Setsuka replied firmly.

"Alright. I understand. I will tell this to the teacher and the students." Kaede nodded and intended to convey Setsuka's words to the teacher and Hijiri, who was walking in front of them. But she heard an explosion not far from their location before she could take a step.

"Setsuka. That is…" Kaede looked at Setsuka and said.

"Let's check!" Setsuka interrupted Kaede's words and ran at top speed to where the sound of the explosion was coming from.

"Yes!" Kaede nodded and ran behind Setsuka. The teacher, Hijiri, and the students who saw that quickly followed the two. They didn't need to wait for instructions from Setsuka in such a situation.

It didn't take long for Setsuka and the others to reach where the sound had come from. They saw a fierce battle between the students and the monsters when they arrived. Setsuka and Hijiri's faces darkened when they saw Daisuke's opponent.

"Isn't that the armored lizardman?" Hijiri muttered.

"Yeah, you're right. Where did that black-robed person get so many fourth-level monsters from? If you count the number of monsters we have seen so far, they are at least from two to three space collapses with a disaster level." Kaede nodded and answered.

"You can talk about that later. We'd better help them right away." Setsuka interrupted their conversation and charged toward the goblin horde surrounding Akio and the others.

Setsuka swung her sword at the monsters that got in her way. She released a cold mist into the surroundings and each slash made the dozens of orcs freeze.

"I understand." Kaede nodded. She manifested his Phantasmal Object and knocked it to the ground. After that, dozens of thorny roots grew and wrapped around the necks of the goblins to death.

On the other hand, Hijiri wielding a red-colored sword shrouded in flames, went the other way. She slashed his sword at the lone wolf horde and caused the monsters to burn up. Akina, Takaya, and Noboru joined the attack and helped the other first-year students fight the goblins.

"Hahaha... Good! Good! Finally, you guys showed up! This way, I can finish you off at once!" The black-robed person didn't panic when Setsuka's group appeared. On the contrary, he was happy to be able to atone for his failure to kill Setsuka, the daughter of the current head of Fuyushima Temple. He didn't know how Setsuka had survived back then, but now he was going to make sure everyone in that place died without exception.

Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

"What!?" Setsuka and the others were shocked when they heard the roar. They turned their eyes to the sky and saw a wyvern flying towards them at high speed.

"This is dangerous! Leave this place immediately!" Daisuke shouted, giving orders to the students, but it was already too late. The wyvern had its mouth wide open and shot a fireball that was bigger than before.

Booooooooooommmmmm!

"Hahaha… I finally finished my assignment… hmm?" The black-robed person was excited when he saw Daisuke and the others being swallowed up in the explosion, but his laughter suddenly froze after sensing something wrong. He narrowed his eyes at the center of the explosion and saw a mist of ice scattering among the smoke and dust.

After the smoke and dust cleared, the black-robed person could see that the students were safe because the ice barrier protected them. Setsuka stared coldly at him with a pale face. The large-scale ice barrier had exhausted all her strength.

"As expected of the Snow Miko of Fuyushima Temple. You can unleash your ability to block that surprise attack. But how long can you protect them?" The black-robed person said playfully and intended to command the wyvern to shoot another fireball. But the sound of an explosion from somewhere in the Shima lake area stopped him.

Booooooooooooommmmmmmmmm!

"That direction…" The black-robed person's face changed drastically. He quickly ordered the wyvern to land on the ground, then jumped on top of the monster's head. After that, they flew away from that place at high speed.