217 Making your own path (1/2)

Her soldiers just kept coming one after another as if they were sharks being attracted by blood in the water.

The blond man wanted to try and lose them but Mia wasn't taking her eyes away from him for even a second. It appeared that his ability to release imprisoned souls really put her on edge.

”What's wrong, Gus?? Don't you wanna play with my friends??” the lady in red clothes yelled.

Gustav didn't mind it though. He was more than glad to keep Mia distracted while the rest of his teammates continued to recover their breaths while others still tried to contain the giant water hydra that appeared that it was going to be much bigger trouble than they expected.

On top of that, he still could rely on the power of the holy metal he was wearing to increase his agility, so dodging the enemy attacks was no problem for him.

”I don't mind playing... But are you sure they can keep up? Or should I try to go slower to give them a chance?” he replied.

A group of monsters leaped towards him and tried to capture the man, but Gustav just quickly moved out of the way and charged his fists with purification power.

He dashed in between them and unleashed a series of quick light punches that managed to hit the beasts in their weak spots, followed by removing the cursed energy from inside of them.

A huge blue tiger with horns was turned into a small cat, an eagle with three tails that had fire wings became a regular bird no bigger than a fist, and a humanoid figure with four arms that had snakeheads in the place where its hands should be was turned into a small white rat.

”... Uuuhh... How did... Ugh... never mind...” Gustav grumbled as he was about to question the logic behind that last monster's transformation, but he had other things to focus on, such as staying alive.

More enemies kept on coming, but the champion of the south just continued to act with smart fast movements and used his blessing to remove the red energy from inside of their bodies.

They were mostly monsters thought, Mia was being very careful to not send any possessed mages after Gustav and run the risk of losing her biggest hitters. Losing Daren was already a major blow in her arsenal.

”How hard it is to take out one guy???” Mia complained.

Gustav was in the middle of purifying another demon but he heard the lady's comment and decided to challenge her.

”If you think your followers are no good, why not trying taking me yourself??” Gustav declared while opening his arms wide as if he was trying to look like a big target for Mia to chase after.

”Pass... taking on you is below me... I'm only after the big fishes!” she commented while trying to hide her true intentions.

”Could it be that you're scared of a mere human?” Gustav tried to continue his taunt.

”Scared...?? Of you?? Don't make me laugh! Until a few minutes ago, I didn't even remember you existed!”

”So you say... And yet, the second I show up, you start to focus all your efforts into finishing me off!”

Mia started to wonder about that and realized that Gustav was right. She was really trying hard to get him, but not because of how much of a threat he represented. For some reason, she really hated him, and she couldn't really put her finger on why.

”Come on, Mia!! Show me what the demon queen can do!” Gustav continued.

However, Mia was just lost trying to understand her feelings. The more she looked at Gustav the more her anger continued to rise until finally, something started to clear up inside her mind.

”... I know you...” she whispered.

”Huh...?”

”It was you... wasn't it?” she whispered while gripping her hold on her diamond chair.

Gustav just seemed lost at the sudden change in the tone of the woman in red.

”That's right... I remember now... You're from her memories...” Mia continued as she raised her hand.

The ground started to shake and a group of diamond golems with the appearance of a certain girl with messy black hair Gustav recognized started to emerge and crawl after him.

Mia kept focusing and finally could see the memory with full clarity. It was an image of him trying to apologize to the same girl with messy black hair and getting yelled at by her and punched into a lake.

”You were the guy that made Evlin cry!!” Mia yelled.

”Excuse me...???” Gustav responded while feeling like he was missing some context.

The golems stood up and started to jump on top of him while trying to hold him down.

Gustav tried to fight back but these things were much harder to hit than a regular monster or demon. He attempted to purify them, but there were no souls in their bodies, Mia was moving these dolls with her will.

Realizing that this would not be the same kind of opponent he could easily take down, Gustav tried to get as far away from that spot as possible, but before he noticed, he was completely surrounded.