A boy was in the middle of the forest. The forest’s landscape was already changed. There was wreckage of the Sun God Peak all around the whole forest. The boy had been sitting on the rock for days now. He had his meal 2 days ago.
The boy stood up. There were 3 squads of knights that were surrounding him. He could tell because these knights had been hunting him for years now, these guys were a different batch, unlike the knights and adventurers that came before.
There was something from their smell that told Simon that they were not from the frontier, rather they carried a suffocating presence in terms of magic and demeanor.
The boy’s name was Simon. He had seen worse and been in much more bad situations before. He was hungry, it was because of the circling of the knights that he didn’t have a chance to go around and hunt for food, and they denied him that.
Simon was sitting on the biggest rock that fell down from the Sun God’s Peak. That spot where the wreckage fell created a clearing in the forest. He had been sitting there for days because he wanted the knights to confront him.
Finally, the knights were ready to take him on. Simon was in a relaxed position feeling his wooden sword in his hand, letting the magic flow into it.
“Boys! We have a plan! Follow it!” one of the knights in the front screamed, he was the captain of the knights in the northern side.
“The boy is already weak! Let’s get this over with!” another knight in the southeast direction screamed, he was already out of patience.
The squad in the southwest direction was silent.
“ATTACK!” the captain on the north screamed and the scrimmage began.
The boy opened his eyes and he immediately threw the wooden sword that he was holding in his hand. He threw it in the direction of the southwest squad. The knights in the direction dived as they evaded the attack.
“He is unarmed now! Attack!” a knight screamed again.
The captain checked and kept an eye on the southwestern squad. The leader of that side raised his hands and screamed “We are okay! Attack!” the captain of the knights smiled. It was time to hunt down the monster with the snake's eyes.
“Don’t underestimate him! Keep attacking his blind side!” the captain screamed again.
The boy didn’t move, he stayed still on the rock. The knights began forming a circle of shields around the boy.
The reason why they were in the frontier when they should have been taking it easy back in the Central was because of a noble that would pay them thousands of gold to hunt down this monster of a kid.
They weren’t the first that were sent to kill the boy. Before that, the noble sent adventurers to kill the boy but the ones they sent were never heard of ever again.
After a few more years of trying it seemed that the noble finally was pissed and personally sent hand-picked knights. They were led by a genius boy. Although the boy was bratty he had displayed his skills.
Starving the monster and preventing him from hunting was a plan devised by their Kid Commander to weaken their prey.
The advantageous situation where they were in now was the effect of the boy’s plans.
“We are set!” one of the knights screamed. Even he was baffled that they had to do all this preparation just for a boy who was even now unarmed.
The captain’s eyes never left the boy’s visage on top of the rock “Fire the arrows!” the captain screamed pointing his fingers up front.
As the arrows flew, 2 knights from each direction broke away from the formation, they were wearing heavy armor but still moved like it was nothing, they even had the ability to jump into the air to slam their swords down.
But to Simon… it was slow. Everything was moving slowly, it was probably hunger “I’m hungry,” the boy muttered. His eyes moved, he could see their next actions a few seconds before they hit, the arrows were fired in an arc, while the knights fearlessly jumped to attack him, he trusted his instinct.
Even though the knights jumped together, their attacks did not land at the same time. The first one landed on his protracted hand, the sword guard to be precise, he pushed the sword away aiming it to block the other strike.
“Clang!!” the sound reverberated. Simon in one motion pulled the same hand pulling it closer. The boy was basically toying with the heavy knights. The knight was positioned above the boy, since he didn’t have his feet on the ground he didn’t know how to generate any force to combat the boy’s strength.
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The arrows finally landed and bounced away against the knight's armor. The third knight rather than finishing his attack pierced his sword to get a footing, he then drew another sword.
“Slow!” the boy said throwing the body of the knight into the knight that was drawing the sword.
The two fell down off the rock and Simon found his sword, he pulled the same sword that was pierced into the rock. “This would do,” a small mutter as he attacked the 2nd knight who was in an awkward stance trying to recover from his sword bouncing from the first parry.
Although the knights were wearing full armor, there were still small weak spots one could aim. The groin, the back of the joints from the underarm, and behind the knees.
The boy cut off the arm of the knight, its limbs flying into the air. “AAAARRRGGGHHH!” the knight screamed out of pain.
As the knight fell down he followed up with a palm strike into the chest. Blood spluttered inside the armor. He landed in the front of the southeastern squad. The knights that were holding their shields felt fear as the boy’s bloody face stared with his snake eyes.
“Hold your ground!” the captain who saw everything screamed. “Move closer!” and commanded the rest, it was a part of their strategy to corner the boy.
It was supposedly the plan. The boy immediately rushed close by, he only needed one chink from their formation and he could operate properly. Precisely entering his sword between one of the two shields, he levered it with a step to open the formation, the boy's strength surprised the shield bearer.
“Aargh,” it was followed by the slashed knights, their hands kept falling short.
The boy passing on behind the back of the shields was a fatal mistake rather than something that they couldn’t stop.
The squad only had 8 personnel in each direction. The members quickly turned into 4 and into two. The boy was cutting them like butter and cheese, the blood was spraying everywhere.
<--->
(Commander’s POV)
Our commander, the tactician of our platoon said the loss was inevitable, he wanted to limit it as far as possible but what was happening in front of me was pure massacre.
The boy didn’t stop, he was even changing his swords as the sword that he was holding had already become dull because of blood and fat. He started from the southeast squad and steadily made his way north side circling around the circle we made.
The screams of terror of my comrades reverberated on the battlefield, the sound of meat chopping made a rhythmic beat as it continued on and on.
“Faraoh! Any time now!” I screamed informing the boy that was our commander, he better make sure that the magic that he was going to use would end the madness in front of me.
As the bodies piled up the monster was getting closer to me. “Strengthen your shields! Put magic edge on it!” I commanded the fools that were thinking that it was going to be an easy hunt, easy money.
Sometimes I doubt the knights, although they were trained to the bones their mindset was just full of stupidity, why didn’t they enforce their shield with magic edge in the first place?
Finally one of the knights stopped the onslaught as the sword of the boy bounced off the knight’s shield that was veiled with magic edge.
“Counterattack! Don’t go out of the line!” I commanded but then the boy jumped into the air. The archers were ready, they released the arrows, it seemed like the boy was spinning, using his own body and sword to create torque to dodge the arrows.
“Don’t let him land attack!” I ordered again, it was a great chance. For our fallen comrades, we must slay it!
“Slow…” I heard the boy mutter. That was slow?
The knights that launched an attack had their heads stabbed, the boy aimed at the helmet’s visor, a small hole was all that the monster needed. I worry now if we have enough lives to buy time for the magic to finish.
<--->
Simon was unscathed, he immediately found the point where he threw his sword at the beginning of the battle. There was a boy there, he was already dead. He pulled the wooden sword that was lodged in the boy’s neck. Simon wondered why someone so young was on the battlefield but he knew from the start that the boy was casting some kind of powerful magic.
That was why he threw his wooden sword first.
“No!” a crippled knight walked behind him. He was the captain of the whole platoon of knights. He was still holding his sword but one of his eyes was already missing.
Simon reflected, the stab he made seemed to be not deep enough. He proceeded to walk into the captain to finish him off.
“You are a monster! I will not die like this!” the captain muttered mustering all of his strength just to lift his sword, he was losing his life slowly.
“I’m hungry… just tough… just tough,” the boy muttered as he left the captain.
The captain died on his feet, his body fell down lifelessly.
“I’ll eat first then bury them after,” Simon said.
<--->
The black hood was traveling into the forest, just south of where the Sun God’s Peak was. Before he even entered he looked up, it was true that the Sun God’s Peak was already gone, he had seen this before when he passed through.
The Black Hood was an agent of the Church of Light, he directly reported to the Pope of the faith. The Black Hood’s Order, their mission and reason of existence was to record the lives of the Heroes of the Era. He was sent to find and search for Alphecca to confirm if he was dead or not.
Him finding the boy was just a sign of gesture so that the old man would trust him. As the Pope warned him, the old man knew some of the hidden secrets of the Church of Light, especially about the Order of the Black Hood.
As soon as he entered the forest, he felt an eerie atmosphere. “Spirits,” he said. He slowly threaded the forest carefully keeping sight of his surroundings.
A few hours into his travel he found a clearing. There were evident indications of recent burial activity. The ground appeared disturbed, with loose soil and displaced vegetation, suggesting that something had been recently interred beneath the surface.
“Who are you?” a voice surprised the Black Hood. He immediately located the voice, it was on the top of the largest debris of rock that was probably from the Sun God’s Peak.
“Are you Simon?” the Black Hood asked.
The boy instantly jumped from the rock, landing in front of the Black Hood.
“I’m Simon.” the boy was expressionless and seemed to be blind.
Still, the Black Hood had shivered, the boy’s clothes were ragged but clean, and his hair was unkempt but was still in good condition, this must be him “The old man has awakened, he is looking for you!” as soon as ending the sentence the disturbing feeling he felt from the boy faded.
“Is that so?” were only the words the boy muttered. He wondered when the old man would wake up, he already had 3 harsh winters without him.