Hetsalia and her remaining group quickly started to make their way to the dungeon, growing ever farther.

Mark immediately turned around and faced the direction the group had come from. Byot let his gaze linger on the retreating group for a while longer.

A silence ensued between the three of us at the forefront.

Mark broke the silence first, “Can you two use magic?”

“We can use it, but we don’t know any spells,” I said.

Mark grimaced while saying, “I don’t sense any Aura from you either. They’ve got five knights, don’t expect me to be protecting you.”

“Hmm,” I grunted my assent.

After a short time more of silence, the pursuers finally came into sight.

They must have been surprised, as the lead five momentarily stopped their mounts.

The knights took measure of us and started marching closer with all their soldiers in tow. The knight in the center had his hand raised while they advanced, a gesture that they did not seek battle, at least not yet.

The knights made their halt a short distance away from me.

All five of them got unmounted and some soldiers led away the horses.

I took a look at the lead knight.

Name: John Fleetsword    Age: 25 Height: 176cm Race: Human (LowHwasten / Hwasten-Low) Gender: Male Class: Knight (Rare, D-) Titles: Knight (Superb, A-), Aura User (Rare, B), Veteran (Elite, A) Skills: Blade Aura (Uncommon, A+), Enhance Speed (Limited, C), Backstep, Backstab (Rare, B+), Lie (Uncommon, A-) Charge (Limited, C-), Block (Limited, C)

Mentality: Forked Tongue & Warped Mind

Disposition: Evil, Order

 Martial Prowess: 25/30   Intelligence: 31/35 Commander: 11/35   Health: 40/40  Explorer: 5/30    Wisdom: 8/35  Politics: 28/30 Allure:2/30

“Fuck, you’re big. I thought Keenstag was a big fellow, but you, you’re something else!” Fleetsword exclaimed while glowering up at me before continuing, “But I don’t sense any Aura from you two.”

He sneered, “Hand over the Whore and I’ll let you live.”

“You dare!” Mark roared, just about ready to jump into a fight.

I raised up my arm while meeting Mark’s gaze to stop him.

“And if I refuse?”

 “You die and I take your horns as a trophy,” Fleetsword said.

At this point the soldiers behind the five knights started murmuring amongst themselves while laughing. My enhanced hearing could pick up some of the conversations between them.

“Hehehe, wudden min’ havin a taste of the Hetsal whore meself”

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“Bah, ain’t like the cap’n ever let us!”

“That there a dungeon entrance, see? Praps we’ll take ther treasure.”

“Saw a few settler villages on the way here I did. I says we go there and kill ther men, take ther women and stuffs. Think capn’ll let us?”

“Sure he will, cap’n loves to kill and rape more than us he does.”

“You must not be very smart, displaying outright hostility to a possible enemy whose strength you haven’t measured,” I said to Fleetsword.

“Bah, ha ha hah! I’m the stupid one, me!” Fleetsword turned red with laughter before continuing, “Listen well you dotard. You are the fool! Taking your entire fucking army out of the dungeon when you’re nothing but an upstart whose dungeon didn’t even exist a month ago!”

“Fuck it, you piss me off, so I’ll just take what I want from you,” Fleetsword said without even giving me a chance to respond.

“Pete, you take those two Auraless fuckers, the rest of you, we’re on all Keenstag. Don’t let your guard down!” Fleetsword ordered.

One of the follower knights raised up his arm and dashed it down while shouting, “Attack!”

“Raarh!” The soldiers yelled while rushing our position.

“Attack! Meet them front to front!” I commanded.

“Keeeeeeh!” The goblins screamed while rushing towards the soldiers.

The Golems thumped forward and the pixies took position to unleash their wind magic.

With the ensuing of the melee, one of the knights charged me, and the other four rushed towards Keenstag.

The knight, Pete, swung down his sword with a grunt. I could see a grin on his face.

I blocked his attack with my own sword. The recoil that I felt was weak. Very weak.  The knight continued to attack, but I could follow all of his movements easily, and successfully blocked his ensuing jab and slash.

“The hell?” He uttered in surprise as all his attacks literally bounced off my sword.

I took the opportunity and swung my sword at him. He tried to block my attack, but his sword broke and I bisected him from his head all the way down to his torso.

“Not a pretty sight,” I clicked my tongue. He had been too careless and had not even used his Aura in his arrogance.

The soldiers who were behind him had their eyes widen in shock, and promptly swerved towards the minions, deciding not to face me.

 The field was pure pandemonium, with screaming shrieking and crying everywhere. Each golem was tanking a fair number of soldiers with the pixies letting loose wind blades to cut them down. I saw at least a couple of golems on the verge of falling. The goblins were thrashing about.

Then I remembered Mark and looked his way. He had a blue aura around himself and his sword and was focusing on defense. However, he was surrounded and was already covered with blood from his own wounds.

“Byot!” I yelled.

We both ran towards Mark, screaming with our swords drawn, mine covered with blood.

“They got Pete!” One of the knights shouted.

“Fuck! Tim and Ren, take them down! Use your Aura!” Fleetsword yelled while dodging a swing from Mark.

Immediately, two of the knights that were surrounding Mark left their positions and came to meet us. They both had red auras covering their bodies and their swords.

I was wary because I expected that were I to attack or defend in a normal fashion that the attackers’ blade auras would simply cut through my sword. However, I had a Martial Prowess of 80, the caliber of a renowned Hero.

I telepathically contacted Byot, ‘I’ll take the brunt of their attacks, you hang about the edge of the clash and strike when there is an opportunity.’

“Die Demon Scum!” One of the knights lunged towards me while swinging down his sword from above his head.

“Rrragh!” I swung up my own sword with as much power as I could muster to meet his strike.

The clashing of metal rang out and the knight’s sword flew out of his outstretched hand. 

“What the fuck?” He had a genuine look of incredulity plastered over his entire face.

And then, the knight’s head was separated from his neck by a slash from Byot’s sword. Blood spurted out from his neck as his body helplessly limped onto the ground. The knight had failed to maintain his defensive concentration and Byot had taken advantage.

“You fucking rat!” The remaining knight screamed.

Then the knight chased after Byot, simply disregarding me.

So when the knight was about to pass me by again, I stabbed my sword into his side with force. The sword ripped through his mail armor and plunged into his flesh before finally breaking.

“Aahh!” He screamed in pain.

Byot then took advantage again and made him a pair in headless heedlessness with his former comrade.   

After I picked up the dead knight’s sword, Byot and I made our way to Mark. His entire body was heaving heavily but it looked like he had been holding on.

“Holy shit, looks like you guys are no joke,” Fleetsword remarked in surprise.

His face crumbled and he said in fear, “Let’s talk this out shall we?”

As the three of us walked closer, Fleetsword and the remaining knight started backpedaling away from us.

However, I noticed a micro-expressive smirk appear on Fleetsword’s face.

And before I could say anything, a field of electricity engulfed us and jolted us.

I found myself standing still and paralyzed, unable to even speak.

“Heh, hahahaha!” Fleetsword laughed before continuing, “Fools! I set up a trap and you fell right into it!”

He kicked Mark in the head, knocking him down. The remaining knight pushed Byot down to the ground. Then Fleetsword kicked me behind my knees, making them buckle so that I ended up kneeling.

“Oh, I’m gonna make you pay,” he growled and then positioned my arms so that they were raised up in front of me.

“One fucking body part at a time,” he said as he chopped my right forearm off.

“…!”

Not again!

“It’s just too bad that I don’t get to listen to your screams,” he mocked.

Fuck! I got too careless. This time around, the pain didn’t bother me as much as the self-deprecating thought that I made a bunch of beginner’s mistakes.

I’ve lost an arm for it, and who knows what else I’ll have to pay?

“Hee hee hee! Yeh, the left arm is next,” Fleetsword expressed in genuine glee.

As he was about to strike down however, Fleetsword suddenly dropped his sword while yelping in surprise.

“You vermin scum!” He roared as he pulled out a shoddy rusted sword from his calf.

“Masta! I come! Save Masta!” The goblin warrior, all grimy and covered in blood and dust, had come to my aid when he sensed my anger and desperation.

The goblin then bared his teeth and tried to bite down on Fleetsword’s injured leg, but not before the remaining knight kicked away my loyal minion.

The goblin got up immediately, but started swaying around and fell down swooning.

The knight walked up to and positioned his sword in a stabbing stance above the head of the unconscious goblin warrior while disgustedly uttering, “Vile monster, go back to the depths of hell.”   

I’m sorry, my friend. And thank you, my goblin warrior.