Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

Before the first monster reached the farmers, Rain charged in and then used the momentum to punch one of the armored turtles. His punch hit the shell of the creature, and that hurt a bit, but at least it sent the monster flying to the side and hit two other monsters and stopped them.

"Not bad… but my fingers won't last long like this," Rain thought.

Rain covered his fists in earth magic without hesitation and made them as hard as possible. The armored turtles recognized him as a threat and then moved toward him. Still, before they could reach Rain, he reached them first with a single step and punched another monster while clenching his teeth. The shell made an excellent cracking sound this time, while Rain didn't feel any pain.

The Healer's Path received 50 experience points.

"I guess the vibration killed it…" Rain thought. "Suddenly stopping while moving like that would make their bodies endure all the G force, but since I attacked as well, that increased."

The other monsters tried to circle around Rain, but that had been a mistake… as if he would give them a chance to do that. Rain charged at them with his quick steps enhanced with earth magic and finished them off with a single punch. Still, after the fifth kill, the Earth around his fists began to crack.

"I guess it can't be helped since I didn't use that much mana," Rain thought and then repaired the Earth by touching the ground.

As it turns out, Rain didn't have a hard time killing the monsters. Only fifteen of them showed up, but they all died with a single punch. It couldn't be helped since his punches combined his strength and magic. Another downside was the fact that a lot of people saw his techniques in action.

When the battle ended, Jori and the others finally arrived, and just like the villagers, they looked shocked by what they saw. A group of monsters bigger than adults around an eight years old kid.

"... Are you all right, rain?" Jori asked. "What happened here?"

"Nothing serious," Rain replied. "They look tough at first glance, but once the impacts shake their whole bodies, they crack like eggs."

That was a clear exaggeration, but since Rain looked fine, the group assumed that his real strength was just beyond what they imagined. In any case, they still looked confused since Rain didn't look like he used his magic like before. The Earth around his fists began falling, and everyone saw his forearm guards. He wasn't just a plain mage.

"In any case, the other villages could still be attacked. We should return to the second one," Rain said.

"Right… can we leave the clean-up job to you all for now?" Jori asked while looking at the villagers. "We will help with what we can sometime tomorrow."

The villagers nodded. It wasn't like they could demand them to help, after all. Their job was to hunt the monsters. Still, nothing happened that night, so the group felt like they wasted time and only Rain worked.

"Maybe I overdid it," Rain thought.

Once they returned to the second village, Rain noticed that the others looked a bit suspicious of him. He said to them that he could use magic, but he never said that he could fight up close as well. Also, he acted by himself while dashing at the enemies. He didn't make mistakes after that, but he ignored the support that the others could have offered.

"This is why I think that work alone is better for me," Rain thought when the sun was rising, and the group was preparing to finally rest. "Worrying about other people's feelings and pride is a pain."

As someone who fought in the ring, Rain knew that when push came to the shove, he could only trust in himself and in his training. He never had a real coach before, so he truly believed that… Regardless, thinking about all that was annoying, but he couldn't help it since he couldn't let those kids learn the wrong thing from him.

"Well, if anything, I tried," Rain thought. "I suppose it will make sense after this if they don't want me working with them again."

Rain fell asleep thinking along those lines, and in the end, he woke up hungry in the middle of the afternoon. Among the group, only Asche had already awakened and was preparing lunch.

"We were more exhausted than we assumed, and it seems that the villagers already fixed the fences," Asche said.

"Is that so," Rain said while stretching his body and then recreating the weights on his ankles.

"I heard that nobles can learn all sorts of things at school, but I didn't think that they would choose magic and melee combat at the same time," Asche said.

"I am not a noble, my father was one, but not anymore," Rain said and then sighed. "You don't have to limit yourself by following what is common; that is what I did. Learning some self-defense and magic would increase my sense of survival in a period like this, and that is why I decided to learn both of them.

That being said, I sparred with my father a bunch of times, who is a former knight, so perhaps that gave me an edge over some people."

Rain didn't think that, aside from his memories of another life, he didn't have many advantages over others. If anything, he had to deal with a bunch of stops that ordinary people wouldn't like invading the enemy's territory to rescue his father. Work when he was just five to make sure that his family would have food to eat and fight during the invasion as well.

At the very least, that balanced things out. In any case, something surprising was about to happen and that would trouble Rain.

"That thing that you did by running super fast, what is the trick behind it?" Asche asked.