Heroes of the Holy War

"The sun is already setting," Gamble says to himself before they stop near a lake a short while later. Akira and Aki set up the tents while Gamble places a shield under a tree, setting up a simple barrier around the area.

"How about a campfire?" Akira asks, and Kaen immediately offers,

"I can get some sticks."

"I can help too," Kaido adds, but Gamble, ignoring Kaen and Kaido, tells Akira,

"I'll go get some sticks and cut down a tree. You prepare things here." He then heads toward a small forest, leaving a saddened Kaen to help with the tents.

Elarina asks Kaido,

"Have you known each other long?" Kaido replies,

"No, we met just a day before you," then goes to help the others while Elarina sits by the water, looking at the distant Three Dragons Mountain.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Aki says, joining her. Elarina immediately asks,

"How is love among humans?" Aki thinks for a moment and replies,

"It's different for everyone, but it usually takes time for love to develop... Why do you ask?" Looking toward the setting sun, Elarina says,

"Sun elves fall in love only once, and it's always at first sight..." Aki, understanding where this is going, says,

"Kaen is a fox. From what I know, foxes fall in love more easily than they fall out of it." Aki tries to comfort Elarina as Akira calls them to the campfire. Akira lights the fire and pulls out some sausages made from pork-bats.

"Just looking at them makes me hungry," he says, opening the bag. Gamble notices a wagon approaching and sees it's a traveling merchant. Akira asks about jewelry-making supplies and buys a set along with some minerals. Gamble, annoyed, says,

"You know we are short on money, and you're buying trinkets?" Akira defends himself,

"Calm down, I'll make some nice accessories from these." Gamble facepalms while the others start roasting sausages. Kaen reminds them about the story of Akira and Gamble's past.

"The other characters are Seraphina Evans and Elara Nightshade. An axe and a bow. Both are strong, but one has an ego bigger than her breasts, and the other probably has depression. We were good friends in school. But they're idiots,". Kaen, curious, asks, "Why?" Akira, swallowing, explains,

"They follow the second princess like dogs and believe her every word." Kaido asks,

"Is that bad?" Gamble, adding wood to the fire, replies,

"Obviously." His expression looked like he was ready to kill someone. The silence is broken by Elarina asking,

"Who is currently the strongest among the heroes?" Akira thinks for a moment and replies,

"Physically, that would be Seraphina.

Tactically, Elara.

Magically, Gamble."

Kaen, surprised, asks,

"And you?"

"I combine all of them," Akira says confidently. Gamble smirks and adds,

"He may look like an idiot who'll go down with one shot, but his trait is adapting to the enemy. You'll be surprised how annoying it is to fight him on equal terms." Kaen, Kaido, and Elarina are impressed. Akira then says,

"Alright, eat up and go to sleep. We'll have morning training before we leave." He then goes to his tent. The group stayed up for another 40 minutes before everyone went to sleep. Around midnight, Aki tried to leave the tent but saw Akira forging something a little farther away. She decided to go back to sleep. In the morning, everyone started packing. An excited Akira gathered everyone under a tree and said,

"I know you're mad at me for buying those jewelry tools, but I have gifts for you in return." He went behind the tree and brought out a small bag, from which he pulled out earrings, a bracelet, a necklace, and a hairpin. He gave the hairpin to Aki, the bracelet to Kaido, the earrings to Elarina, and the necklace to Gamble. Kaen, slightly saddened, asked,

"Is there something for me?" Akira looked at Kaen with a sparkle in his eyes and said,

"I have something special for you," pulling out a katana from behind the tree.

"Red material, black and red-gold scabbard, red-black handle, and a black guard in the shape of the fox clan's crest. I named this sword HinoHa. Flame Blade," he said, handing the sword to Kaen. Kaen immediately drew the blade, which released golden flames, and the blade turned a golden sand color. Kaen was impressed and, after a moment, sheathed the sword and bowed to Akira.

"Instead of a bow, I'd prefer a small sparring session with you three." After packing everything onto the wagon, Kaen, Kaido, and Elarina warmed up.

"How long do you think they'll last?" Aki asked Gamble. Gamble replied,

"If they're lucky, five minutes." Akira stood ready for the fight, removing his top again.

"Kaido, try to use HellBall with Elarina when you get a chance," he instructed. The girls nodded and charged at Akira. Akira dodged every attack effortlessly, and when he jumped back and clasped his hands together, Kaen interrupted, trying to strike Akira with the blunt side of his sword from behind. Akira dodged the blow, and from the side, Kaido and Elarina attempted to perform HellBall. Kaido extended a hand with a ball of wind, and Elarina added... lightning? Kaido rushed at Akira with extraordinary speed, but Akira dodged Kaido and took the ball of wind. Looking at it for a moment, he thought,

"Thanks to the lightning element, it increased her speed? She has a real talent for combining magic and using the advantages of each element." He clenched his fist, dispelling the spell, and in the same hand created a fireball that he hurled at Kaido. Kaido blocked the fire, but Akira came up from behind and knocked her out. Elarina used the wind to lift herself into the air and attack Akira from above, but he caught her and slammed her into the ground.

"You're the only one left," he said, pointing at Kaen, who immediately charged at Akira, making a few cuts. Akira dodged all of them effortlessly, and when he grabbed Kaen's sword, the sound of drums filled the air. Gamble shouted to Akira,

"The problem came to us." Akira looked in the direction of the noise and saw a royal escort approaching, soon followed by the king of the demihumans himself. Gamble quickly healed Elarina and Kaido, while Akira dressed and said to Aki,

"Can you protect the kids?" Aki said nothing, just looking at the ground, trying to hold back tears. When the king reached the heroes, he began to speak,

"Heroes of the sword and shield. What brings you to my land?" Gamble responded bluntly,

"To end your reign." Pretending to be surprised, the king asked why, and Gamble listed all the crimes he had committed. When Gamble finished speaking, a girl similar to Akena, also a half-fox but with one orange and one icy blue tail, emerged from the guards.

"I told him to stop," she said.

"Kyoko?!" Kaen shouted, but she didn't even look at him, speaking to the king instead,

"As your advisor, I advise you to stop hunting for those foolish weapons." The king dismissed the girl and said,

"I have a chance... I'll kill them here and now and obtain the demonic sword and angelic shield." He then removed his cloak and drew a spear.

"And by the way, good job, Aki." The surprised heroes looked at Aki as Gamble asked,

"What does he mean?" Aki could only apologize with tears in her eyes. The king began to speak,

"Aki is my agent, sent to spy on you and reveal your location." Akira calmly asked,

"Is that why she has an explosion seal on her?" Shocked, Gamble looked at Aki in disbelief and tried to say something, but the king interrupted,

"Removing the seal is impossible because it will automatically explode. If you want to remove it, you must kill me." Without a word, Akira grabbed his sword and, with fury in his eyes, slowly walked towards the king. Gamble gathered the children and Aki, shielding them with his shield and forming a small dome.

"Why don't you help him?" Kaido asked worriedly.

"Akira is in a rage, and a raging Akira is unstoppable. I'm here to protect; Akira is here to kill, so I won't get in his way," Gamble replied. Meanwhile, Akira was effortlessly cutting through the king's army, and soon stood face to face with the king, who was four times his size. They stared deeply into each other's eyes.

"Ahhh, there's nothing left for me here, I'm leaving... Goodbye, brother!" the girl said before disappearing. Kaen seemed confused. From a cloudless morning, the sky turned full of dark clouds. Akira, with an angry voice, said,

"Know that I will not hold back." The king laughed loudly and said,

"So the rumors were true. The hero of the sword, Akira Izumi, the bravest talentless fool in the world, HAHAHA." After laughing for a moment, the king wiped away a tear and, in a serious tone, said

"A talentless fool, but I sense one of the greatest talents on this continent, and... dear Akira, you are the first hero with... infinite potential," the King said. Akira ignored the king's words and shouted to Gamble,

"What are you waiting for? We fight together, come here!" Gamble thought for a moment, then detached his shield from his arm, leaving it suspended in the air with its barrier activated.

"If anything happens, touch the shield, and the barrier will renew," he said as he walked toward Akira, shedding his cloak and jacket along the way. Akira pushed the king back, then took off his scarf and tied it around his head like a headband.

"Finally, I can have some fun," he said, cracking his knuckles.

"Five minutes, and you return," said Akira, and Gamble nodded. A moment of silence, which felt like an eternity, was finally broken by the heroes' attack. The king blocked it effortlessly, and as the heroes leapt back, they struck him with fire and lightning. The king shielded himself with a wall of earth, but Gamble dashed to the side, attempting to attack, only to be blocked. Akira flanked him, stabbing a small knife into the ground, then unleashed a series of strikes that hit their mark. After the series, he pulled out the previously embedded knife.

"Not bad," the king said, wiping blood from his chin before charging at Akira. Gamble blocked him with a shield created by the

"projection of mana" spell, which formed a solid mana barrier allowing the user to create anything they imagined. Upon impact, the shield exploded towards the king, and Akira leapt from behind, slamming the king into the ground with a shout of

"Explosive Fist," creating a sizeable crater. The heroes jumped back, and Gamble returned to the barrier.

"Why did you come back?" asked Kaen.

"Akira wants to make sure he dies... he'll resort to his curse," Gamble replied, glancing at Aki, who watched the fight with tears in her eyes. Akira removed the scarf from his head and used wind magic to send it gently around Aki's neck, tying it delicately. Then Akira crouched slightly and began to scream with all his might. Kaen, Elarina, and Kaido were frightened by how loudly Akira was screaming. After a moment, Akira's hair started to glow red, and an aura like flames surrounded him. But Akira didn't stop straining his muscles, trying to draw out more power. The king regained consciousness and, seeing Akira continually powering up, said,

"YES! YES!... THIS IS WHAT I WANTED. COME ON, BOY," tearing off his armor and robes. Akira finished screaming and, with a simple hand gesture, dismissed the aura. The king's face shifted from laughter to fear, and Akira began to laugh loudly. Falling to the ground, he said,

"I haven't felt such power in a long time," then stood up, pointed at the king, and said,

"Hey, old man... have fun with me." Meanwhile, Gamble began explaining to the children what had happened.

"Akira was born with a curse that made his muscles practically nonexistent and his bones as brittle as bread... in exchange for such a birth, Akira also received a power called the 'hermit's power' from an ancient mage who was born with unlimited potential. However, like Akira, he had to be born talentless. The hermit's power strengthens the body and mana. But the user also behaves as if they were not themselves. In Akira's case, he doesn't take the fight seriously and mocks his opponent. A minor drawback, but it can be used against the user. This drawback can be eliminated through training, but the drawback that makes mastering this form nearly impossible is the body's deterioration. The strengthening slowly destroys the bones and muscles. While they can be healed after the battle, the rate of destruction is never predictable. In short, Akira gained a transformation into the 'Celestial Sage,' which grants him strength while deteriorating his body. With his current base power, I estimate this mode will last no more than 3 minutes and 12 seconds. But..."