image [https://i.imgur.com/5QfbzoJ.png]

The DUKE

In the woods.

Heightened senses brought me back to the reality before me. Several hundred on all sides. Swords, spears, and shields glow in the dark wood, bringing the stars to earth. I heard boots on bark. Archers getting a good view of their target. Four heavies guard the bastard. Greataxes flared with the fourth and third circle manas. And Hymir himself sat in the middle of a summoning rune circle inscribed with blood. Shamans worked with their sickly fingers, twisting the mana taken from poor souls. Were they creating a cursed using Hymir?

I spun my blade to deflect an arrow from behind. With one came many. Arrows rained, and my sword moulineted in a figure of eight, cutting down any arrow coming my way. I heard the wind being ruptured by a fast arrow. I flared my mana and strengthened myself with Qi to block and my feet dragged up dirt.

“Had my bow replaced! You still owe me for that!” Hymir shouted as he nocked another arrow.

Will the woodland be my grave? I must think. There has to be a way out of this, a way to survive. I searched for exits.

Where can I run-

I stomped my right boot on the ground with enough force to make a crater.

RUN!!? Have you gone soft?! I thought to myself.

I crouched down, my muscles tensing like a spring.

A little humiliation got you scared!? Scared because the bald horn man beat you to almost death!?

Pristine circles spun faster than ever before. My sword, a bonfire of blue aura, I trained my eyes on Hymir.

Afraid of losing all you gained? A hypocrite should never call others cowards!

I beat my chest red, my adrenaline rose, and my battle high returned.

This is your chance to take back the pride they stole from you! The chance to prove yourself once more!

“Haha, have you gone mad?”

Tarion, you had your fun. But your way wastes time. Wastes lives. No more hesitation. Let me be free. Let me kill.

“Yes. Mad. I have gone mad. Maybe your head on my wall will sort me out.”

Hymir shot his arrow.

The soil, rock, and grass below were destroyed as I leapt with all my speed. Hymir's arrow made a shallow cut on my cheek and I continued flying towards him like the wind. The bandit leader brought his arms to block. Mana repulsion gave me extra motion as I thrust with all the might I could muster. My greatsword priced Hymir's right shoulder several inches deep before it was hit upward through his muscle.

“Haha, at least I tried!!!” I said, laughing maniacally in mid-air. Hymir's wide eyes gazed at mine with delicious fright.

I react to an axe slicing at me. My sword rang like a bell. The heavy bodyguard power reverberated from to me and I flew metres back into a crowd of dirty bandits. Before I touched the ground, I spun and cut a head. Rolling on the grass, a handstand brought me up to receive three-second circle attacks. Flash Step moved me right to evade the three swords and three lives end with a mana slice. I grabbed a spear coming from my heart. I weaved away, pulling on the owner to stab their chest. Qi strengthened me, and my greatsword cut through my heart, lungs, and ribs to smash into a second man. Ears heard an enemy and my open hand glowed blue to repulse a strike. A spin backwards disembowelled a shocked man.

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Heightened eyes search for my enemy. Receiving help from his shamans, he continued with the ceremony.

“KILL HIM! GET HIM AWAY!”

I parried a charging sword down. My sword arched up, slicing into a chin and nose. I shot mana from my sword point to push away the dead and as my sword curved, my momentum continued to slash another assailant from ear to ear. I dipped under an attacking wood axe and the pommel of my sword ruptured the bandit's chest.

“Don't get in my way!” Swordpoint at my seven, I slashed with burning mana, lacerating a dozen on the wave's path. Slice after Mana slice shot out the sword of Osberg, killing and maiming dozens.

I missed this.

Soil burst as I ran for the baldy. Swift jabbed and killed weak first circles in my way.

“I hope you don't run away again!” I zigged and zagged past bandits, crushing throats, pounding heads inward, and pruning off limbs.

I bent down an inch to let an arrow kill its fellow bandits and resumed slicing. I bathed in blood, my smile tight on the corners of my face. I engrossed myself in the thrill. A sword caught me on my right rib and I returned the kind gesture and thrust a hole in the enemy's skull with mana. A flash step quickened me close, delimbing five with super senses and speed.

The ground crumbled under my feet, and Qinggong saved me by floating me onto a bandit's shoulder. I wound back my mana armour leg and kicked the poor soul's face. His neck opened up like a chest, squirting his red juice like a fountain. The back of his head hit his back and I jumped off with light steps to find the origin of the earthquake.

There's the fat fucker.

A heavy-set axe-wielding brute yanked his weapon from the crushed ground to swing at me. The axe of glowing blue missed as I leaned back, the wind unfurling my tied hair. Axe waiting to fall, I sped forward to piece his feet. The large bandit roared in pain, swinging down with all his strength.

My free hand fired a mana tether at the mana-free handle of the axe, redirecting it away with a tug. The axe crashed beside me. Greatsword, still in his right boot, I slice up, making a line of blood from his right leg to his left shoulder. With another swipe, an ugly head fell to the ground.

“BASTARD!!!” Another heavy fourth circle roared, running with two of his friends of similar stature and power.

I avoided two giant axes with a flash step. Instinct warned me too late, as a spear punctured through a few centimetres of skin and muscle before my Mana armour saved my back. I spun on the spear's pole to open up a neck. The attacker gurgled on the ground as I flash-stepped away from three axes. My sword ground with an axe above and another aimed at my open stomach. A half step lets one weapon miss and another fall. I mana thrust with blurring speed and two men fell with searing holes in their chests.

“B-BROTHEEEEERS!!!”

The last fourth circle flared a blue mana flame around his hefty mass, launching a shark-finned mana slice at me. With flash steps, I dodged with ease, throwing my own mana slice from my nine o'clock. The crescent blue energy killed several of the mob as the guard saved himself with a blocking axe.

I charged my sword and slashed again. Two mana slices were too much for the brute and his body was diced along with his fellow bandits. I searched for Hymir and moved.

I need to kill him before they finish what they are planning

Qinggong floated me metres high with a single hop. Mana jetted out of my back and soles. From above, I saw the movement of troops.

They run to protect their master. How loyal.

Around three hundred men huddled with weapons glowing, guarding Hymir with hastily made mana shields.

I should change my strategy. I need weapons.

I reallocated some points from speed and senses into intelligence.

From a free hand, a tether of mana reaches down and splits into dozens of magical strands. I felt the tug of heavy steel as my mana tether brought the many blades of my fallen enemies to me.

Saw this in an anime once.

I hovered above, light with Qinggong and with jets of mana repulsion. I

I put speed points in mana capacity and engulfed my new blades in my fifth circle mana. I primed my radiant weapons to point at the horde below.

“For wasting my time and interrupting a joyful day, none of you will leave this forest alive.”

I pointed with a finger and a meteor shower of metal shot at the huddling mass.