Six men walked out of the woods with evil grins and eyes filled with lust. Both girls immediately turned paler from fear.

Grey's gaze turned cold as he glanced at the men. The men were all in the Arcane Plane with the one at the front was already the Third stage. 'This is going to be troublesome'.

Although beasts are stronger, humans are much more difficult to deal with in the same plane. Well, that only applies to beasts who haven't completely awoken their intelligence. Most beasts in the Arcane Plane have already awoken their intelligence, only some are much more intelligent. Some beasts are even more cunning than their human counterpart.

"Boss, we finally found these girls after searching for so long," A man with a small build said as he laughed.

"Hmph, if not for those morons who delayed us, they would already have been in our arms. But it's not too late, the night is still fresh" Another said lewdly.

When Grey heard their conversation, he understood the reason they were attacked. They had been overcome by lust, after being in the mountains for so long and not being with any women. Seeing the young beautiful ladies, their lust erupted.

"Brat, leave here now and we will act like you were never here," The leader said while looking at Grey.

Both girls looked at Grey with hopeful eyes. He was their only hope currently and they knew since the mercenaries have caught up with them, there's no way they could fight with them.

Grey shifted his gaze to both girls. He sighed before asking, "Can you at least deal with one each?". If they couldn't deal with even one of the mercenaries, he would leave them to their fate. He knew the rules of the jungle, only the strong survive.

There was no way he was going to risk his life battling these guys alone when there were two Arcane Plane Elementalists by his side. 'If only Alice was here' Grey thought of Alice when he saw how timid the girls were. If Alice was the one these guys dared to have thoughts about, Grey was confident she would kill them instantly.

Even if she spares them, they wouldn't be too far from death.

Both girls looked at each other clearly they weren't confident. " Can you at least delay them?" Grey asked again. Their timid nature is starting to annoy him, 'Seriously if you know you can't fight, what are you even doing here?' He almost said this out loud.

The girls didn't respond. They've sparred with others before but that was just sparring, this was a whole different matter. And the death of Ryan affected them mentally as well.

"Forget it, just don't get in my way and also, try not to die" Grey reminded them before turning towards the group. There was no way he could hold them all off, so even if the girls are too afraid to fight, they wouldn't have a choice.

"Seems like you've made a decision" The leader snickered, "A very foolish one I must say" He added coldly.

"Make sure he doesn't escape like the last one's, boys" He ordered coldly.

When the girls heard this statement, they felt a little bit better since both Claude and Aaron were able to escape.

"Boss last time was an accident, this time we will surely get the girls and this hero here would die," The man with a small build said with a tone filled with killing intent.

Grey squinted his eyes, 'They want to kill me. Interesting'. This was the first time he was going to have a life and death battle with humans. He unsheathed both his blades, this time there is no room for errors.

When he battled with the bandits, he noticed they only wanted to beat him up so he didn't really care. If he had taken out his weapons then, he would have been able to easily deal with them.

The mercenaries were all in the Arcane Plane, so the first challenge for Grey was how to get close to them.

When the mercenaries saw Grey taking out a weapon, they stopped their initial charge. If Grey had a technique that he uses with the weapon, it would be detrimental to them. The effects of a technique boosted with a weapon were terrifying.

But to their surprise, Grey charged at them.

"Get him," The leader said.

When the others heard this, they immediately released different attacks towards him. It was a colorful sight.

"Earth Wall"

A three-meter wall appeared in front of Grey. He stopped and hide behind the wall. The attacks all landed in the wall, due to Grey's thick elemental essence, the wall was very sturdy. The stronger he becomes, the sturdier it would also become.

Grey charged out from behind the wall and headed towards the one closest to him.

While Grey was engaged in battle with four of the men, the remaining two went towards the young ladies.

Nina summoned some courage and sent Ice Arrows towards the men. The leader was able to easily destroy the attack. "Pointless struggles, come with us willingly. I promise you will have a good time" He laughed heartily as he said the last parts of the sentence.

When Tessa saw Nina's was futile, she gritted her teeth and also attacked. They knew Grey wouldn't be able to free himself and come help them soon, they can only depend on themselves and drag on as long as they can.

Although the leader was stronger than them, there was no way he could neglect their attacks.

On Grey's side

The long-range attacks of the mercenaries were annoying since it has been able to keep Grey at bay. Although the attacks can't touch him, he couldn't get close to them. He had tried using Shattered Rocks, but the speed of the rocks was too slow. The mercenaries were able to easily evade them.

"I should have taken a long-range Lightning attack" Grey regretted his choice of not taking a long-range lightning attack. With the speed of lightning, he would have at least gotten one of them by now. Even if it doesn't kill him, he would have a chance to get close.

An idea suddenly struck Grey, "Shattered Rocks". As the rocks flew up towards Grey from the ground, he quickly coated his feet with Lightning and did a tornado kick. He kicked one of the rocks strongly. As his foot connected with the rock, the rock was almost covered in lightning and shot towards one of the men at a lightning-fast speed.

The man only saw a light flash before him before he was sent flying. Grey didn't stop there, he used Lightning Steps to charge towards another man.

The men were distracted by the rock that suddenly hit their companion. Before they realized it, the man with a small build held his throat with blood streaming out of his mouth.

Grey had been able to quickly take out two of the four men. It was almost simultaneously.

The remaining two men looked at each other in horror. " He's a Dual Elementalist" One of them shouted towards their boss who had almost gotten the girls.

The boss turned and saw one of the men lying down a distance away, it was unknown if he was dead or alive. While the man with a small build was lying in a pool of his own blood.

"Lightning Elementalist"