168 Thorns

Departing from the church and heading towards the Black Bulls base, it didn't take long for the two to reach their destination.

This Ki...

"GRIM!!"

Suddenly bursting out from the inside and surrounded by a group of familiar looking people, Asta and the rest of the squad greeted the duo with a face full of smiles and cheers.

---

-Blue Rose Base-

"Who did this."

Standing in the doorway of a elegantly designed room, Charlotte's eyes rested on the bodies of two unconscious female magic knights.

"Reporting, according to eye witnesses the perpetrator was a member of the black bulls."

'Black Bulls?'

Her eyes hardened.

"Which one." She asked.

"It was..." Upon recalling the name in the report, the voice of the blue rose magic knight faltered for a moment as she struggled to say the name.

Noticing the girl's hesistation, the gentleness in Charlotte's voice suddenly vanished as she turned to face the magic knight and hit her with a bone chilling stare.

"Who was it." She asked again.

Faced with such a gaze, the blue rose member felt her mental fortitude collapse as she lowered her head and said-

"Grim."

---

"Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"

After eating a meal and catching up with the others, Grim finally got to the main topic at hand.

Remembering that he hadn't been around for the last week or so, the group told him about their recent discoveries involving the Heart Kingdom, curses, and the fact that they had to hunt down a devil in order to satisfy parliment.

' A devil cursed being in the heart kingdom?'

'Does that mean that there are devil's outside of the one I fought roaming this world? And if so, are they in the Heart Kingdom?!'

'Even if they're not, if I go there I might find traces of how to enter the underworld.'

No longer paying attention to the conversation going on, several thoughts raced through Grim's mind as he determined his next course of actions.

"When do we leave for the Heart Kingdom?!" He finally asked.

"Huh?"

"What?"

"You want to join us?"

Not expecting Grim to be the one to take the initiative, everyone's heads snapped in his direction as the group was taken aback by his sudden interest. From what they knew about Grim, he definitely wasn't the type to help someone out of the goodness of his heart. Even his clash with parliment could be taken as him just wanting to bully the nobles... again.

'This guy~' Vanessa sighed before asking the question on everybody's mind. "Why do you want to go anyway?"

To that he could only shrug.

"You said that there was a devil cursed being living there right? Whose to say that the devil who cursed them isn't still there. Wouldn't it make more sense for someone with my magic type to go as backup? Y'know, in case something devil related happens?"

*Waves grimore in front of them*

"Better safe than sorry right." He smiled.

'...He's not wrong.'

Finding herself at a loss for words, Vanessa had to admit that what he said made sense.

"What you're saying is true but... Why do I feel that you going will only make things more complicated."

"Tomato Tomatoe." He brushed her off and immediately turned to Noelle. "So when we leaving?"

"Yeah, about tha-

Before Noelle could tell him that they still needed to talk to Mimosa about gaining access to the kingdom, the wall behind her suddenly exploded causing her hair to flutter wildly as a pissed off Charlotte followed by several members of her squad stormed in holding her vine whip and exuding a dangerous amount of murderous intent.

"Captain Charlotte!" The others gasped not expecting that the one to break into their base would be her.

Ignoring the looks of surprise on their faces, there was only one thing in this room that her eyes were stuck on.

"GRRRIIIMMMM!!!!" She seethed.

"You're much slower than I expected blondie." Unlike his squad mates, Charlotte's appearance was something he had saw coming from the moment he injured the members of her squad. In fact, the only thing he hadn't expected was the amount of time it would take for her to get here.

"YOU!!" Charlotte's eyes widened in anger as her grip on the whip tightened. "You'll pay."

"Really now." Grim chuckled at such a statement. "Just try it."

Walking past the confused looking black bulls and standing adjacent to the blue rose captain. He tapped his cheek and with a playful grin on his face he said - "Take your best shot."

*SWOOSH!!*

Without wasting any words or acting under false pretenses, Charlotte's arm flew in the air as she swung her whip down with the force to split the base in half!

But who was Grim?

Faced with the threat of the desending whip, with the power of [Breath of Wind] and the outward force generated by compressing and releasing large amounts of wind on his side, deflecting such an attack was childs play.

"That's you're opening? Let me show you how its done."

*Crackle*

[Breath of Thunder: First Form - Thunderclap and Flash]

*SLASH!!*

Turning into a bolt of yellow lightning and flashing past a group of Blue Rose magic knights. Moments later, the scene of several bodies hitting the floor caused everyone watching to stop moving.

"GRRRIMMMM!!!" Charlotte screamed seeing the fall of her comrades.

While all this was going down, the rest of the black bulls stood there in both shock and confusion not understanding what was happening. It was only after seeing Grim start fighting that Luck broke out of this stupor and joined in.

"This is why you need to stick around more Grim!! ITS MUCH MORE FUN HERE WHEN YOU DO!!"

[Lightning Magic: Thunderclap Crumbling Orb]

[Breath of Thunder: Third Form - Thunder Swarm]

"STAY AWAY FROM THEM!!"

Watching the flashes of blue and yellow lightning tear through her squad members, a panicked Charlotte dove into the skirmish.

But would Grim allow her to interfere?

Hell no!

Wanting to see how much angrier he could make her, he purposefully avoided facing her head on choosing only to focus on her comrades.

Watch Charlotte.

Watch as those precious comrades of yours fall.

Watch as you fail to protect them.

Watch and realize your powerlessness!!

"ENOUGH!"

[Briar Creation Magic: Corpse-Hunting Briar Tree]

[Corpse-Hunting Briar Tree: Vine whip transforms into several prickle-covered vines, which extend to considerable length as they surround the user. These prickly vines actively hunt the user's targets. Once these vines have caught them, they converge together and rise to create a tall trees of briars while the targets are still trapped between the prickles. Additionally, the user can create multiple trees at once to defeat a large number of opponents. These prickles are sharp enough to shred the targets that are trapped within the vines.]

Seeing her comrades helplessly falling to the combined might of the Grim-Luck duo, Charlotte's rage covered mind was instantly swept away as she realized just how much danger her squad members were in.

Thus she activated this spell inside the cramped space of the Black Bulls base determined to end things now-

[Breath of Blue Flames]

*SWOOSH!!*

"I-Impossible..."

Watching with disbelief in her eyes as Grim's blue flames swept through her newly created vines, a shock ran through Charlotte's body. Wanting to move by finding her feet rooted to the ground, for the first time since starting this fight, she realized the folly of her actions.

'He has fire magic... How could I forget.'

Its as I thought, even though I no longer have access to my elven power, my control on mana has become much more exquisite compared to before. If its like this, I don't have to worry about accidentally burning this place down.

Having rendered Charlotte's magic powerless and ineffective, Grim let the flames do their job as his focus shifted back onto the scrambling members of the Blue Roses.

---

*BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!*

Repeatedly punching a female magic knight in the face until it was unrecognizable and his fists were bloody, Grim soon dropped the mage and walked towards the teary eyed Charlotte while a certain proverb replayed in his head.

'A punch to the face puts a bitch in their place.'

Seeing the bloodied fist and amused expression, what was left of Charlotte's rational mind completely crumbled as she summoned as much magic power as she could handle and launched her briar magic at him.

But just like before, Grim effortlessly burnt them into a crisp.

"Honestly speaking." Grim's voice echoed amongst the sound of crackling flames.

"Its a bit disappointing to win like this, but I never took you seriously from the start. After all, other than Mereoleona (and Yami that one time), no other captain has made my heart race. As for the state of your squad members... Well you can only blame yourself for that one really. I mean what kind of retard would bring such a small amount of magic knights to invade another squad's magic knight base? Its like you wanted them to be crippled. Oh well, better luck next time right?"

Standing in front of the blue rose captain, he looked into her eyes and waited for her response.

"If you want to continue, now would be the best time to attack." He whispered.

!!!

"What are you doing!!"

Suddenly jumping inbetween the two of them, Noelle pushed the two away and sent a questioning gaze Grim's way.

"What? You saw it yourself. She came here and attacked me. I'm completely innocent."

Frowning at his use of the word "Innocent" she used her water magic to extinguish the remaining flames and eventually settle the matter.