God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain stared at the lines with total concentration. Using his spirit as a guide he controlled the patterns that were once still, and changed them into curves, breaking the spell apart. The fire elemental mana gathering in the air dissipated very quickly.

However, Cain wasn\'t disappointed as he wasn\'t done yet. Once he got to the exact center of the magic circle, he came across an ancient-looking rune. This rune looked like a burning sphere. Although it was beautiful, Cain could tell. It was lacking something...

Staring at the rune, Cain decided to change the very nature of the rune itself rather than changing and clipping at the peripherals before he would remove the limiter...

The first thing he did was analyze the structure of the rune. A rune\'s structure, 90% of the time could influence its purpose or give one the ability to most of the time accurately estimate its properties correctly.

For example, runes like the {Mark of Bestial Strength} were simple stat runes, so they didn\'t have a lot of additions and were not as complicated as the more complex {Cross-blade} rune. The {Mark of Bestial Strength} consisted of a rhombus containing the key rune enclosed in a circle, just like that of the spell, {Fireball}.

The key rune would always have an appearance that provided the same idea as the concept behind the rune. For example, the central rune of the {Cross-blade} rune took on the appearance of a blade superimposed onto another, creating an optical illusion where it was difficult to identify just exactly how many blades were shown on the rune.

The reason for this, was when a rune is created by the system, the system tries to simplify it to a point that would get the most basic information across at first glance. And as a downside of this, the system was only able to create the most basic of runes.

The fire ball rune was just like the runes the system created,

Simple to a fault...

The central rune took the shape of a simple flame. It wasn\'t complex and consisted of a series of rune lines connected to create this image.

\'The attack factor is set at the maximum limit, but the consumption factor is at the minimum. This is a skill created to serve only one purpose... Dealing the most amount of damage with the least amount of mana possible.\'

\'If I remove the limiter while leaving the damage at max, the consumption factor will also be removed as well. What this means is I will create a faulty skill that will instantly drain me of all my mana the moment I use it...\'

Cain fell into his thoughts as he contemplated the skill. However, he wasn\'t idle...

All of this was happening within his head, but in the real world, he was still chucking {Fireball} after {Fireball} into the hoard of devils...

Cain and the others were extremely strong without a doubt. With the barrage of spells coming from Cain, Vincent, Hunter, Susan, Steve, and Jenny, they managed to stop the devil army from moving forward for some time.

***

"Lord J\'orntz, half of the devil imps are dead already. Very soon, they will all be dead...\' The devil that wielded two chakrams said to the Soul devil that stood beside it with a calm expression.

It seemed completely unbothered by the deaths of its kind. In fact, there was an element of excitement in its voice as it spoke.

"Very good... Once all the devil imps and blades are killed, we can begin the real war. We need them to expend as much of their strength as possible." J\'orntz said as it gazed into the battlefield coldly.

Another one of the {Hulking Behemoths} spoke with rage and discontent in its voice, "If it weren\'t because we become weak on planets like this, we would have long since crushed all these humans like bugs! Now here we are, being careful of a few lower lifeforms!" The devil\'s eyes glowed with unbridled anger as a violent torrent of mana swirled up at its sides.

"Calm yourself, Grigna. All of this is because of the power our race wields. In the void, we are unmatched, but once we begin our hunt for food, we will have to be suppressed by the natural laws to give the weak lifeforms a chance to fight against their fate, which is unavoidable destruction..." the {Hulking Behemoth}, Jamiel said.

"But the restrictions on our power are useless at the end of the day if they can\'t escape their fate," Grigna said with a deep growl.

Jamiel let out a grating laugh, "Kekeke... Relax, Grigna. We will recover a bit of our powers in a while. Let\'s be patient." The devil said as its devil core glowed ominously, causing numerous streaks of light to pass through the runes on the surface of its body.

The devil army continually marched on despite the heavy fire they were receiving from Cain and the others. In more than thirty minutes, they had managed to wipe out half the numbers of the {Bladeless Devil Imps}.

There were ten thousand devils on the opposing side, 5000 of which were {Bladeless Devil Imps}, 3000 {Bladed Devils}, 1000 {Devil Fighters}, 900 {Miasma Devils}, and 100 {Hulking Behemoths}...

In thirty minutes, they had killed close to 3000 devils, a majority of which were {Bladeless Devil Imps}. Although this seemed like a lot, the {Bladeless Devil Imps} were the weakest devils, and a single attack spell was enough to completely destroy a single one. Stronger devils would require a lot more to face...

"There is no end to them..." Dan said as he gazed at the endless sea of black that approached them slowly.

"As long as we keep up the tempo, we will win eventually..."

Suddenly, Hunter, who had been attacking with his bow spoke up, "I think they want us to kill the weaker ones."

"That\'s painfully obvious..." Vincent said as his finger never left the trigger of his rifle, spraying bullets of mana into the swarm of devils, gunning wave after wave down...

"Yeah... The stronger ones at the back don\'t break rank, and will only move forward when the weaker {Bladeless Devil Imps} are all eradicated." David said with a serious expression on his face.

"Why?" Manny asked curiously.

"Why you ask?" Steve said, a smile making its way into his lips. The mage stood on a stone platform he had created behind the group, elevating him above the entire party.

"It is because unlike us, the devils actually benefit from the death of their comrades..." Steve paused for a bit before letting out a strange chuckle, "However, it will be best to let you witness what I mean for yourself...*

Turning his attention back to the approaching swarm, he began to cast a spell...

Above the battlefield, a huge stormcloud began to appear as a gigantic magic circle the size of a football stadium appeared in the sky. At the center of the magic circle was a rune that appeared to be the image of lightning striking the earth...

Once the magic circle was completed, Steve started his chant,

"Chains of Lightning, weave into a malevolent net of terror and burn the foes before me into black cinder. Gather from the heavens, and fall from the pathways to show your earth-shattering might. Chaotic Lightning Storm!"

Hell fell from the sky...

Whips of lightning cracked down from the heavens and unleashed their terrors onto the devil army...

In the blink of an eye, most of the {Bladeless Devil Imps} had been completely eradicated, leaving the {Bladed Devils} to the front lines...

"Hahaha! That boosted me to level 37!" Steve yelled out excitedly as he stared at his status screen.

"Tch! Don\'t get cocky, you bastard!" Vincent said as he stared at the devil army that continued despite the effects of the cataclysmic spell.

"These bastards didn\'t even slow down... Now that the {Bladeless Devil Imps} are dead, it will be much harder to maintain tour defense." Susan said as he fired another arrow of light into the devil army, only, this time, the first shot was unable to complete the job, leading her to fire a second arrow into the devil to kill it...

"If you have another spell like that, now would be the best time to use it," Jenny said to the now slightly embarrassed Steve.

"Hehehe... My mana pool was nearly emptied by that one, and I can\'t use mana potions to regenerate. You\'ll have to wait a while..." Steve said with a sad smile.

\'Why are you acting so sad?!\'

"That means we need to double our attack output." Hunter said as he raised his bow to the sky.

Cracking his neck, he is eyes took on a sinister glow as he spoke loud enough for all of them to hear,

"It\'s time I got a little bit serious..."

He struck down with force, driving the lower tip of his bow into the ground. A magic circle appeared on the ground, expanding over time. In three seconds, the bow had more than quadrupled in size, becoming bigger than all of them.

"Graaah!" Following that, Hunter\'s body began to contort as he grew bigger and assumed the properties of his bestial form...

"Damn! This is so creepy!" Vincent said with his face squeezed up in genuine fear. Although they had seen the skill before, the fact that a person could change so much because of a skill had certain effects on the human psyche...

Hunter\'s gaze locked onto his target as he readied himself, grabbing the bow that was now a perfect fit for his large body.

"Let\'s rain hell down upon these bastards." Flames gushed out from his body and bow as he prepared his deadly attack.