Hugh heard loud noises outside his tent. Right at that instant, he knew there was something bad happening. He racked his brains and thought of different scenarios that lead to the loud screaming that can be heard from outside. Hugh hypothesized that a magical beast had come to attack their camp but immediately dismissed the idea since there were no magical beasts in those forests. Dismissing his thoughts, he went outside of his tent to assess the situation.
The camp was literally immersed in blood and gore. There were blood stains on the tents of the elite knights. Decapitated heads of the elite knights were seen to be rolling on uneven ground.
When Hugh Falconair came out of his tent, the surviving knights immediately gathered around him in a semicircle formation in order to protect him. An elite knight beside him promptly reported to Hugh, addressing the situation in the camp.
“Sir, we have not identified the attacker but we believe that it may only be one.”
Hearing that it was only one attacker, Hugh was angered.
“If it’s just one attacker then why aren’t you able to deal with it?!”
The elite knight paid no mind to their commander’s anger and directly answered.
“It seems that it knows a certain type of magic that enables it to be invisible.”
“Invisible? What kind of magic is that?”
“We don’t know but that type of magic resembles the ability of some magical beast to hide and remain invisible in darkness.”
“So are you saying that it’s a magical beast?”, Hugh asked.
“I’m not cert---”
Before the elite knight could finish his sentence, they were interrupted by a disturbance. The elite knights that surrounded them were engaged in a battle with an invisible foe. Since the elite knights were not accustomed to such an enemy, it was clear that they had the disadvantage. The elite knights were not able to land a hit against their enemy. When they attacked at their enemy, they could only hit the air. They were wasting their energy so it was understandable that some died since they couldn’t defend themselves from the attack.
Limbs were flying off from their respective bodies and chests were stabbed by swords. The situation had rapidly escalated. Only twenty elite knights remained out of the hundred that Hugh brought with him. Hugh knew that he was going to receive severe repercussions for losing that many elite knights. The Bradford Empire would not easily forgive him even though he was regarded as their hero.
“Come on men. You are better than that. We are fighting against one single enemy but we’re losing. Show me what it really is to be an elite knight of the Bradford Empire.”
Hugh encouraged and tried to increase the moral of the remaining elite knights but it was futile. An invisible enemy was quite the foe. The enemy was also agile in his movements because once it strikes someone, it immediately moved before an elite knight could strike it.
Back in the carriages, the villagers were worrying for their lives. They understood that the camp was under attack by an enemy and that enemy could possibly kill them as well. Most of the villagers lost hope especially the ones without families, they were just silently waiting for death to arrive but it would not turn out as they thought.
The carriage that Viashna was in was suddenly opened by an external force. Fearing that it was the enemy, she let out a yelp as the door banged against the outside walls of the carriage.
“Viashna?”
A female voice called out to her and she immediately recognized the voice. It was Darshee’s voice. She was happy to hear her voice once again because she already accepted that they would not be able to meet again until the afterlife. But her happiness was instantly replaced with worry. She went out and pulled her sister in the carriage.
“Why are you here? You shouldn’t have come to save me. I was already happy with how the things were. You were supposed to save yourself. Now we’re both going to die because the camp is under attack.”
Tears poured across Viashna’s cheeks and once they did, Darshee brushed her hands against Viashna’s cheeks and wiped them off.
“Don’t worry sis. All the villagers will be saved. The one attacking the elite knights is Azzard. I accompanied him to save you guys.”
“Azzard?”, Viashna asked.
“Yes, Azzard. He came back and he saw me inside the house. I told him what happened and he decided to conduct a rescue mission.”
“Just him alone? He isn’t strong enough to compete against the elite knights of the Bradford Empire. Everyone knows that the elite knights are the very strong.”
Darshee reassured her worrying sister. “I told you not to worry sis. Azzard has his ways. I saw it myself and I thought that we might just have a chance to pull off this mission.”
“Let’s talk later. First things first. We have to free the rest of the villagers. We don’t have much time.” Darshee informed her sister.
And so the newly freed villagers went to free their companions. After everyone was freed, they ran away from the camp and gathered at another place.
----------------
Thirty minutes passed and what remained of the platoon of elite knights was their commander. Hugh was in a defensive stance as he held his longsword with both hands. He would tune in to the sound of footsteps and was able to block the attacks of his enemy. He was not the Captain-General for nothing. Hugh was extremely skilled at fighting and was quick to adapt to his situation.
The fight entered a stalemate. Hugh could tell that his opponent lacked battle experience. He could predict the direction of the attack. Most of the time his head and chest were targeted so he took this into account and was able to keep himself alive. He also believed that his opponent was a human or something like that, he knew it was not a magical beast since magical beasts didn’t attack like how his enemy was attacking.
Hugh blocked another attack with his sword and he could feel his stamina going down. But he wasn’t afraid since he also knew that his enemy was quite tired as well. He just had to wait for the right opportunity to launch a counterattack that would instantly kill his opponent.
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Hearing footsteps behind him, Hugh prepared himself to launch a counterattack. He faced his invisible opponent and moved slightly to his left. He allowed the attack to hit his side so that he can also strike back at his enemy. A strong blow struck against his ribs and Hugh could hear his ribs cracking. He had not expected that the attack would be so strong but it didn’t stop him to raise his sword and strike at the area where he thought his enemy would be.
Slash. Blood squirted from the place where the sword had struck against.
“Ughh.”
Azzard felt pain on his shoulder. The sword had penetrated at least 5 inches of his flesh but he was lucky that his entire left arm was still attached to his body. His skin was already hard like the scales of the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent but to say that it was impenetrable would be a joke. If Azzard were to be hit by something, he would still feel pain and be wounded. His body was strong but it wasn’t impenetrable.
Hugh became ecstatic as his sword was able to hit his opponent. Although he initially expected to defeat his opponent with one strike. He hadn’t expected the opponent’s skin to be as tough as steel. He had poured every inch of his strength in that one attack only to cause a wound that was from being fatal.
“I think it’s going to take a lot more than a single strike to defeat this enemy.”
Hugh was not disappointed at all with the failure of his counterattack because when his sword struck against the enemy’s flesh, the magic that originally made the his opponent invisible disappeared. He saw a tall, muscular young man that had hair up to his shoulders.
“So you’re the one who killed all of my companions. I commend you for the strength you have shown but I must say that now I am able to see you, you won’t have the advantage of this fight any longer.”
Hugh driven by adrenaline rushed forward and swung his sword vertically at his opponent. Azzard dodged the attack by rolling on the ground. But it was not the end of the barrage of attacks that Hugh was doing.
He swung left and right, up and down. He also slashed horizontally with his sword but he wasn’t able to draw blood from his opponent.
Azzard spent every energy he had in dodging. Azzard tried to use the Conceal Spell again but when he did so it nothing happened. He must have spent most of his mana in to using the spell. So he was left with only his superior strength and agility to keep his life intact.
Hugh became impressed at the fact that his opponent was able to dodge the numerous attacks. Hugh already became aware of the strength of his opponent and he believed that his opponent will go down at any moment.
It was now a battle between the endurance and stamina of the two men. The one who tires out faster will lose the battle. And it was Azzard.
Fighting against a hundred men was not an easy task even though he was invisible and had a huge advantage against his enemies. It sapped away his energy and with the battle against the last opponent, fatigue showed on Azzard’s face as he breathed heavily.
“It seems that I won. You no longer have the strength to continue this battle.”
Hugh became confident and ran towards his opponent. Azzard immediately jumped back but he was reckless and he lost his footing. Seeing this opportunity, Hugh swung his sword as Azzard stood back up again.
The sword struck against Azzard’s side and it penetrated deeper than the first time he was hit. Blood oozed out from his wound and he frantically dodged the remaining attacks that was heading for him but was unable to do so.
Azzard was now lying on the ground facing at the sky above. He could not see a single star as the night sky was painted black.
“HAHAHAHA. It was an entertaining fight. You could have killed me if you hadn’t lost the ability to become invisible. It was unfortunate for you to have met me. I am the strongest knight of the Bradford Empire. You held your ground but it was enough. Now, I’ll send you to the afterlife.”
Hugh held his sword and stabbed towards Azzard’s heart. Seeing this, Azzard remained still as if he had already accepted his lost. Azzard could no longer move so this may really be the end for him.
“Master, don’t give up.”, Gerard told him telepathically.
“You can still live. With my remaining power, I can launch a huge fireball that will eliminate the enemy.”
“Do it!” Azzard commanded.
So a large fireball formed in front of Azzard and enveloped the body of Hugh.
“NO!!!!”
That was Hugh’s last word before he was incinerated by the tremendous heat.
Azzard was lucky to be alive and as usual it was Gerard who had saved him.
“Thank you Gerard.”
Azzard spoke telepathically but heard no response so he called out again.
“Gerard?”
No response. Azzard was alarmed so he grabbed the pendant that was hanging by his neck. He saw that the pendant had broken apart. He tried imbuing it with mana to try and fix it because most magical items were fixed with mana. Nothing happened and the pendant remained broken in his hands.
“What happened?” Azzard asked himself that question.
Azzard was suddenly reminded of the words that Gerard spoke. “With my remaining power” How could he have not noticed. Gerard spoke those words to inform him that the fireball would use up the rest of his power but he was not able to understand. If he did, he would’ve stopped Gerard from using the spell. But if he had done so, he would’ve lost his life. Gerard already mentioned before that his power was weakening so he was not able to help Azzard during the fight with the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent.
“Gerard. Thank you.” Azzard said those words as he held the pendant in his right hand. He just accepted the fact that the Gerard was already done. He made it his motivation to strive harder in becoming a Grand King Magister.
Azzard pressed against his wounds to stop its bleeding and he proceeded to head off from the camp.