“This place is perfect.” Kamys stopped moving when he reached a middle of a forest. All around him were tall trees and he couldn’t see anything even ten meters away from him. It was a great spot to ambush his enemies. Other nine people of his squad caught up to him and started looking around to find a hiding spot for themselves. “Bern, I’m leaving to lure our enemies here immediately, so you will be in charge of setting up traps and arranging our people here. When you will see me coming, prepare to fight, but engage enemies only when you will see the perfect opportunity.”
“Yes, captain,” An old man with a sword on his belt reacted instantly. Bern was the most trusted and experienced man of this squad so Kamys chose him to take the lead over other men.
“Captain, please take at least couple of us with you. It’s too dangerous to go to their camp alone!” A burly man with a big hammer behind his back stood out and clenched his hands into fists.
“Sarugin, even though you’re all strong and brave, I will be a lot faster alone. You all should be prepared to fight an unequal battle against our enemies when I’ll lead them here.” Kamys smiled and patted the burly man on a right shoulder.
“Yes, captain.” Sarugin had to follow Kamys’ orders even though he still thought that it was a bad idea to go alone against the enemy army. While Kamys was far stronger than any of other men in the squad, the enemy could still easily capture and kill him.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll only attract their attention and immediately run away as fast as I can.” Kamys seemed calm and collected as he gave final instructions to his men, turned around and left.
Kamys was running through the forest as he was pondering over his plan and chances of the victory.
‘I’m not really familiar with light attribute battle aura and techniques, so I’ll have to practice fighting on my first opponents. It seems like I’ll be able to hold out against an ordinary rank 3 wizard, but I won’t be able to win or kill him. And I don’t even need to consider a situation where he’ll be getting help from his allies. So I need to stay away from the enemy commander and try to lure out at least one rank 2 wizard and a few rank 1 wizards to lessen our problems when we’ll infiltrate the enemy camp. Also, our plan with traps and luring enemy out will only work once or twice before they’ll notice that something is wrong. And I have to remember that there are lives of civilians and my comrades at stake so I have to do everything extremely fast.’ Kamys was using his light attribute battle aura with every move he made to get used to it. Kamys’ each step sent a little of light energy out of his feet into the ground and every move of his hands created a few specks of hazy white light in the air.
Kamys looked through his new memories and found a few light attribute techniques, he recalled how to use them and what they were used for. Previously, Kamys thought that light attribute was mainly used to heal and support allies, but now he understood that there were actually quite a lot of offensive techniques and great amount of illusory techniques. But the most shocking thing was that he didn’t need to chant anything to cast techniques, in this illusory world it was enough to say a name of the technique to use it.
“Sword of light.” Kamys decided to try out the simplest attacking technique from his memories and targeted it at a random tree he was passing by.
*SLASH* *SLASH* *BAM* *BAM* *BAM*
A brilliant crescent of light flew from his right hand, and Kamys felt like this light was too soft and weak to destroy or kill anything. But in the next moment, Kamys’ jaw dropped as he was watching a seemingly harmless light fiercely strike the first tree. Kamys stopped moving from shock when he saw results of his casual attack. The first tree was cleanly cut in half, but the white crescent didn’t stop moving. Tree after tree were cut by Kamys’ attack and the crescent disappeared only after it travelled more than a hundred meters and destroyed almost twenty trees.
‘Just a casual attack with a weakest technique, which consumed only a little bit of my battle aura, managed to deal that much damage… Is that a the light attribute power of the true rank 2 wizard or is there a difference between this illusory world and a real world’s laws?’ Kamys was a fire attribute wizard so he always thought that his attacks were incredibly powerful for his rank. Shadow attribute was the best for stealth and assassinations, death attribute was the best for soul attacks and control over dead souls, earth attribute was the best for defense and his fire attribute was undoubtedly the best for offense. Kamys now didn’t know what to think about all this, so he quickly decided that everything in here was just an illusion and stopped doubting his knowledge of the real world.
“Have you seen how many new slaves our chief brought yesterday?” An ordinary looking black-haired man in a green military uniform was standing on guard of the gates of the village.
“Yeah, there are even a hundred captive wizards. Our chief is truly an overlord of the area and we’ll probably dominate over all surrounding villages soon.” A second guard was a thin man with a scar on his face.
“I wonder if I’ll be able to get myself a beautiful female slave…”
“No chances, brother. Only people who fought in a war against the enemy are eligible to receive slaves for free. If you want one, then you’ll have to pay for it and I don’t think you’ll have enough money for a beautiful female. And even if you would have money, your wife would beat the shit out of you for thoughts like this. Hahahahha.”
“Shut it, idiot! She’s my woman and I do what I want in my house!”
“Try saying it to her fa-”
*BOOM*
Before the guard had a chance to finish his sentence, a huge ball of white light suddenly flew in their direction. Guards wanted to react and defend themselves, but it was already too late to do anything. A huge explosion burst their bodies into nothingness and gates behind them crumbled to pieces. A huge hole appeared in a middle of great gates of the village.
“ALERT! ENEMY ATTACK!” A thunderous voice resounded throughout the whole village, all soldiers and wizards grabbed their weapons and ran toward the explosion.
Kamys was standing a couple of hundred meters away from the gates with a provocative smile on his face. When people of the village saw him calmly standing there, they were all infuriated as they ran toward him.
“Beams of annihilation,” Kamys slowly said these words and pointed a finger at incoming enemies. A few hundreds of rays of light shot out from his finger with an incredible speed.
When enemies saw Kamys’ attack, they all stopped moving and used all they could to evade or defend against it. Numerous cries of pain sounded and a few bodies dropped onto the ground. All people who attacked Kamys were rank 1 wizards, but most of them couldn’t defend themselves even from a single attack from Kamys. More than half of enemies were now lying dead on the ground and almost everyone else was gravely injured. Only two people managed to successfully dodge Kamys’ attack and both of them immediately turned around and ran into the village.
Kamys started finishing off the injured enemies using the simplest attacks, he needed to kill as many enemies as he could to make it easier for his squad in a future battles. When only two enemies were left alive, he heard a terrifying roar coming from the village. Kamys’ senses told him that a danger was coming his way, so he immediately backed off as far as he could.
*ROAR*
A few moments later, Kamys saw a huge horse-like beast running at him. Even though the beast was similar to horse, it was three times bigger than an ordinary horse and had a very muscular body with a strange red spike sticking out of its head. And there was a rank 2 red-haired female wizard in a primitive clothing sitting on top of that beast.
“Speed of light” Kamys now had a startled expression on his face as if that female wizard’s appearance has actually surprised him. He turned around, used his best movement technique and ran toward the trap he prepared.
“Don’t let him escape!” The female wizard was followed by almost thirty other wizards as they chased after Kamys.
“Katelynn, this might be a trap.” Another man riding a similar horse-like beast approached the female wizard and tried to persuade her to not recklessly follow Kamys.
“Bob, He killed Dennard, I will rip his spine out of his body and eat his heart.” Katelynn didn’t even glance at the male wizard as she hastened her mount.
“Men, follow Katelynn closely and be prepared for an enemy’s ambush.” Bob had no choice but to follow Katelynn and try to protect her.
Kamys was constantly looking back to make sure that the enemies haven’t caught up to him and haven’t lost a sight of him at the same moment. Katelynn was attacking him from her mount all the time, so Kamys had to dodge a lot of her technique and his physical endurance was already at its limits. When they were almost at the place of his trap, Kamys started showing weaknesses as if his battle aura was already exhausted from constant usage of his movement technique.
*BAM*
A ray of black light hit Kamys’ back and he fell onto the ground. Kamys got up and started running away, but his speed was noticeably slowed down. Katelynn was sure that she finally hit the enemy with her previous technique, so she jumped off her mount and launched a ferocious attack with her sword at Kamys.
*CLANK*
To Katelynn’s surprise, when she was a meter away from Kamys, he turned around and met her attack with his sword. Two swords clashed, and ripples of energy were sent flying into all directions around them. Katelynn wanted to jump away from Kamys, but it was already too late.
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“Purifying palm,” Kamys said these words calmly, and a gentle white light formed around his left palm. Katelynn’s attack was too fierce and swift, so she couldn’t immediately retreat; she could only try to meet Kamys’ attack with her technique. But before she had a chance to gather her battle aura, Kamys palm had already reached her abdomen.
Bob and other wizards were trying to catch up to Katelynn and Kamys, but they were still a little behind. When they finally caught up to Kamys, they saw clash of Kamys’ and Katelynn’s swords. Bob immediately reacted and used his best movement technique to help Katelynn defend, but when he reached her, she was already dead and Kamys continued running off into the distance. Bob didn’t waste even a moment as he put Katelynn’s corpse onto the ground and hastened in Kamys’ direction. But before he could do anything to Kamys, he heard a series of miserable screams behind him. Bob turned around and saw more than half of his men dying by the hands of Kamys’ people. Those rank 1 wizards were shocked by the death of one of their leaders and lost their focus for a second; Kamys’ men used that second to annihilate their enemies.
Bob’s squad didn’t have a chance to defend themselves simply because most of them were too shocked by the sudden deaths of their leader and comrades. In just a few seconds Kamys’ men killed all their opponents and all of them turned their gazes at Bob.
Even though Bob was the strongest rank 2 wizards of his village, he was now surrounded by nine rank 1 wizards and a powerful rank 2 wizard. But Bob was a seasoned warrior, so he didn’t lose his demeanor as he took out his weapon and decided to at least take as many enemies to the grave with him as he could. He used his all battle aura to attack closest rank 1 wizard, since it was too hard to instantly kill Kamys. But before he could reach his target, Kamys has used a restricting technique, which slowed Bob’s movements. And in a next second, ten different attacking techniques were sent flying in his direction.
*BOOM* *CLASH* *BOOM*
Bob managed to evade three techniques and defend against four more, but the last three techniques hit his body. He was still standing straight with his sword in hands, but there was already a huge hole in his stomach, his left hand was cut off and his chest was burning with crimson flames.
“Ge-general Khristof… Cough-cough… Will fi-find you…” Bob’s voice was incredible frail as he spoke his last words before his eyes became empty and his body fell onto the ground.
“Great work. Now rest, we will attack their base in a few hours.” Even though Kamys understood that they had low chances of success and even lower chances of survival, they had to act as soon as possible. While they could use guerilla tactics and destroy enemy forces little by little, by the time they would finish, all their friends and family would already be dead.
“Yes, captain!” All men shouted at once as they started gathering items and weapons from dead bodies of their enemies.
Three hours later, Kamys restored his condition to almost perfect state. He stood up and all his men immediately followed his suit.
“Bern, Sarugin, Xerx, Sulp, Hunter and Shik will follow me to charge into the enemy camp. Everyone else will go around their camp and enter it only when we will attract enemy’s attention.” Kamys deliberately chose six older men to accompany him into the battle and decided to let young ones live.
“Captain, I’m stronger than any of them! I shall go with you!” The young man with a scar on his face came up to Kamys with a fearless expression on his face.
“Grogg, you are indeed the most talented wizard in our tribe and that’s exactly why you have to go with a rescue team.” Kamys’ eyes were filled with sincerity and kindness. Everyone understood that Kamys was prepared to die in that battle and everyone who would go with him would have almost no chances to survive. Grogg was the best candidate to become a future protector of their tribe, so he had to survive no matter what.
“Little Grogg, listen to your captain’s orders or I’ll have to beat your ass like I did a few years ago.” Sarugin patted Grogg on the shoulder and smiled at him.
“Yes, uncle.” Sadness was written all over Grogg’s face, but he had no way to object both Kamys and Sarugin.
*BOOM*
A huge ball of white light crashed into a squad of wizards. Kamys’ technique killed two more rank 1 enemy wizards. Mortals of the village started running away, wizards gathering into groups and people already ran to inform their leader of the situation.
“There are less than thirty enemy rank 1 wizards now. Each of you just have to kill three or four enemies and I have to kill the remaining rank 2 wizard and their rank 2 leader. Sounds easy, eh?” Kamys’ brilliant smile and confident voice gave a slight boost of morale to his men.
“Was a pleasure to fight alongside you, captain!” Sarugin took his big hammer into hands and a crazy smile appeared on his face.
“See you all on the other side!” Xerx’s face was as serious as usual when he took out his crimson saber.
“I bet I’ll get more heads than any of you, old fucks.” Hunter already held his two short blades as he licked his lips in anticipation of incoming battle.
“So you all came to rescue your comrades?” A thunderous voice resounded throughout the whole village. A tall white-haired man walked out of one of the buildings. Even though he looked to be extremely old, his aura was terrifyingly powerful and domineering. “With just this bunch of trash you hope to defeat me and my men?”
“So you’re Khristof?” Kamys looked at the rank 3 wizard in front of him with no fear in his eyes. He took out a bag from his magic ring and tossed it onto the ground before Khristof’s legs. When the bag hit the ground, two heads rolled out of it.
“So you were the one who killed Kate and Bob? And you think their deaths should scare me or something?” Khristof only laughed as he kicked two heads flying off into the distance, “But I guess I still have to kill you and your men to show that no one can offend me without consequences.” Right after Khristof finished speaking, a majestic aura started radiating off his body.
Even Kamys felt pressure from Khristof’s pressure. Kamys’ men were already trembling and terrified expressions were on all their faces. Even though they were all brave and weren’t afraid of dying, fear of such a strong enemy was imprinted in their souls, so they couldn’t do anything about it.
“Purifying domain!” Kamys concentrated his full might as he used his defensive technique to protect his men. A translucent barrier appeared over him and his men.
“Ho-ho. What a wonderful technique, it’s a shame that it’s going to be completely useless in front of me.” Khristof simply extended his right arm and his battle aura shot from his hands into the barrier.
*BOOM*
The barrier shattered and Kamys’ face instantly paled. The difference in strength between him and Khristof was obviously huge.
“Run!” Kamys exclaimed through clenched teeth. His men had no chance of holding off Khristof for even a second.
“Run? I want to see them try doing it.” Khristof’s lips curved up into a menacing smile. Kamys looked back and saw that they were already surrounded from all sides and half of his men were kneeling from Khristof’s pressure.
Kamys closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them there was an unbreakable determination in them. He clenched his both hands into fists and blinding white light started shining out of his body.
“RUN!” Kamys focused his full might into one ball of light and threw it in the direction of broken gates. The ball landed near four enemy wizards and all of them disintegrated without a chance of evading. There was now a clear path of retreat for Kamys’ men, so Kamys turned around and jumped into the air in direction of Khristof. He planned to hold off this rank 3 wizard to create an opportunity for his men to survive. Even though he understood that there was a very low possibility of them actually surviving, he had to at least create that chance for them.
“Heaven’s rage!” Kamys used his strongest attacking technique from the start and it depleted almost half of his battle aura. A huge blurred face made out of brilliant white light appeared out of Kamys’ body. The face was ten times bigger than Kamys, it opened its mouth and moved in Khristof’s direction with an intention of swallowing him.
“That was such a sweet move you’ve made to save that trash. Sadly, none of you will be able to walk out of here alive.” Khristof put his palm if front of him and a barely noticeable black translucent barrier appeared.
*BOOM*
When the face reached Khristof’s barrier, it didn’t even create a single crack on the barrier as it vanished into the thin air. A moment later, Khristof waved his arm and a tiny rock flew into his palm.
“Shadow meteorite.” As Khristof’s voice fell, the rock in his hand was enveloped by the black battle aura. He then simply tossed it in Kamys’ direction.
Kamys felt an incredible sense of danger at that moment, so he tried to jump back to dodge the meteorite. But to Kamys’ shock, he couldn’t move because two little black hands were holding his legs in a place. Kamys immediately understood in what kind of situation he was, so he calmly accepted it and closed his eyes.
*BOOM*
Kamsy heard a loud explosion, but didn’t feel any pain. He expected that he already died in the illusion and would open his eyes to see the stadium in The Dark Elf Kingdom.
“Don’t give up.” Were the words that woke him up from his state. When he finally opened his eyes, he saw Sarugin’s body falling onto the ground in front of him. As shock and sorrow started growing in his heart, Kamys saw his other five comrades standing by his side.
“We came here together, so we will either leave together or perish here together.” Hunter’s eyes were filled with killing intent and his usual playful personality was nowhere to be seen.
Kamys wanted to yell at them for not listening to him, but then he saw resolution in eyes of each of his comrades, so he shut his mouth. Kamys’ aura burst out even brighter and more powerful than before. Even sword in Kamys’ hands was now glowing with a brilliant white light.
“Let’s do it for Sarugin.” Kamys’ concentrated every bit of his remaining power into his next attack and all his men did the same. Six people were burning their last bits of energy at the same time and all of them were determined to kill the person in front of them.
“HEAVEN’S RAGE”
“ERUPTING VOLCANO”
“SUPERNOVA”
“GODS’ SLAYING FIST”
“DEATH’S SCYTHE”
“ICE CAGE”
Six magnificent techniques used at the same time were a terrifying concept and even Khristof became serious when he saw what was coming at him. “Silent annihilation,” Khristof silently said these words and a barely visible black skull appeared out of his body. This skull radiated horrifying power of a powerful rank 3 wizard.
*BOOM*
A huge explosion shook the whole village and energy undulations from it swept away all weaker rank 1 wizards and a few of them even died on spot.
When all the energy ripples stopped, Kamys was standing on one knee a few meters away from his original spot. All his comrades were lying a few dozen meters away from him, some of them dead and other barely alive. Khristof was standing in a same place, but blood was flowing out of many wounds all over his body.
Even though Kamys and his men managed to injure Khristof, it was not enough to kill him and Kamys had no power left in him. Kamys’ only hope now was that his remaining men managed to rescue other villagers.
Kamys’ vision was already blurry and he felt his body going numb. His legs lost all the remaining power they had and he fell onto the ground. In a last second before closing his eyes, Kamys took a final look at the beautiful sky above his head.
“SCREEE”
At that moment, a majestic snow-white bird was flying high in the sky right above his body. Even though bird’s feathers were white in color, Kamys felt a scorching heat coming off from its aura. When Kamys tried to focus his last bits of strength to look at the bird, he suddenly saw the bird rapidly dropping from its height right into his body.
Kamys felt a soothing warmth run through his whole body. After a few moments, an immense strength started flowing inside of Kamys. He immediately opened his eyes, but to his shock, he was already awakened from the illusory world and was standing in a middle of the magic array.