The beast looked terrifying.

It boasted shallow eyes, wickedly sharp and long teeth and nails. The horns twisted in a way that reminded Asta of a devil. A fat one since this guy looked like he packed a few hundred pounds. Smoke rose from the corners of his mouth in a evil way.

Asta could feel it.

The killing intent. The sinister feeling of enjoyment. The evil feeling of despair that emitted from the monster was just absurd. But the feeling of familiarity was too strong. He felt this before. Has felt these intense feelings of just hatred come from something he has seen before?

Wait, he was the one who felt those feelings. Did he have a connection to the monster? Same magic? No, that can't be it. That thing isn't human so they can't have the same magic. Maybe they have similar magical affinities? That could explain it. What was his magic affinity anyway? Shadow? Maybe he should ask Captain Yami since that Gordon guys said they had similar magic.

What do I do to help?

He looked at the monster to find a weak point in him, anywhere that could give him a advantage. He gripped his blade as he took a glance around from the building he was standing on that wasn't destroyed yet. Noelle was in a orb of a raging current of water protecting what civilains weren't dead or haven't fled yet. Magna was looking exhausted from the fight and the ride here so he didn't seem to be making any progress on the fight. Asta saw he was also low on stamina, not just magical since his dodging from the attacks form the monster slowly become slower and he began to be nearly missing death each time.

'I'll attack from behind, and if fires anything I'll reflect it. It's better to reflect it than to nullify it since those blasts like they have to much power to them, I don't want to be on the receiving end of that force.' He nodded as he got into a position to slice through it. He tensed and launched forward. He drew back his blade and started his swinging motion. He watched as the monster turned around in a surprised face as Asta just threw it.

He landed down after his strike and looked at Mgana, breathing heavily. Asta never realized how tired he was but he also felt mentally exhausted. He guessed that the axe from earlier was more exhausting then using his wings. But he was glad inside that he discovered a new use for his shadow besides flight.

"Asta, I thought I told you to stay!" Magna yelled. Asta panicked.

"Uh sorry sir!" Asta yelped. Magna sighed.

"Thanks. You managed to do something me and Noelle couldn't do for the past 5 minutes." He chuckled. The field went down around Noelle and a large amount of villagers were holding each other terrified. They all whimpered at the damages done to the village and were extremely sad looking.

Noelle looked exhausted. Her breathing was labored and sweat had started to fall. She began to walk over.

"Are you guys ok?" She asked. Asta nodded. His gut as sore from earlier but that was all. He didn't feel any major injuries afterwards.

"Yeah I'm ok." Asta replied.

"Yeah, whatever that thing was almost got me. Good thing Luck is faster than that thing or I would be minced meat." Magna claimed. Asta looked around at the immense destruction.

"Was there any deaths?" He asked. Magna fell silent.

"One. Only one. We were lucky it only focused on the town and not the villagers. But that death.." His eyes changed to a crisp body that had a nasty cut that split him in two starting at the shoulder. Asta almost hurled at the sight. His was morbid and smelled rancid.

"Oh god, that.. that's horrible." Noelle said. Fire crackled as they started to help get the villagers out.

("Sir Licht!" The lone survivor of his group ran to a fairly well dressed man as he stared at a tablet. The man turned and smiled at the man.)

("Yes?")

A few hours had passed since the attack. All the fires had been put out from the people who had water magic and sand magic. The three knights stood at the lone grave at stood overlooking the razed town. A child was looking at the grave as the 3 stood awkwardly in silence. Magna moved over to the child to comfort him, leaving Asta and Noelle by themselves. He looked at Noelle.

"Uh, I'm sorry for anything that may have happened." Asta said. Noelle sighed.

"Thank you for coming. We nearly died if you didn't come and kill the thing." Noelle calmly stated. Her voice held quiver and sorrow but her face held nothing. Asta felt immense guilt for not taking out that squad from earlier and helped. Asta needed to clear it up and state something to lighten her mood.

"Hey, That was a awesome spell from earlier! Can you show me at some point?" He asked. She turned surprised. No one ever asked to see her magic or shown that much excitement for it, excluding her one cousin. He didn't seem that well kind earlier. She felt a cold interior and a dark exterior with him from earlier and a strangely magicless presence, but why is he different now? Was she wrong originally?

"What? Why?" She asked.

"Well your magic is so cool! Your magic power is absurd! I'm jealous, my magical power didn't surface until the middle of the exam." Asta exclaimed. Noelle never heard someone who was magicless or believed so. She remembered he said he was magicless before he first joined but she thought he was just joking. He didn't seem to be praising her for her status but for her abilities.

He seemed to praise her for who she was.

For the first time Noelle felt happy about herself. Asta was someone who barely knew her and praised her for something he barely saw.

Maybe he wasn't the cold person she perceived earlier. Maybe he was a kind and thoughtful person who wanted to make people happier than they were previously. A person she needed all her life of pain and sorrow.

A angel must have smiled on her today.

I know I wanted to make a longer chapter but I had such a long hiatus with summer stuff and I wanted to give you guys a chapter before August. A more heartfelt chapter and short too but I'm going to go longer next time hopefully and this is sort of a qna thing.

After rereading a few chapters. I realized I made a lot of mistakes both grammar, spelling and storywise. Notice any of these or have any questions tell me and ill fix it/answer the question (As long as it isn't spoilers ;) ) All answers and general convos will be summarized for the next chapter.

A thing I must state is Asta's situation and the Black Bulls. I made mistake earlier and meant Charmy and Yami's reveal about Asta's not so subtle parent be a guess, so Ill fix that shortly after this chapter goes up. The Black Bulls (Except Charmy) will not follow the rule Yami instated due to not seeing anything to fear (yet)

Hopefully there isn't to much questions and I'm willing to answer any questions you guys have.

See you next time on Clovered Sins, chapter 7!

Zalde