Really, he couldn't use a tier 1 level 1 spell against this kind of opponent. Also, it could hardly damage the elite knights.

The two knights arrived in front of Souta and slashed their swords at him.

Souta quickly moved his body and barely avoided their attacks before he waved his sword at them.

[Crimson Moon]!

The two knights stopped to blocked Souta's skill and Souta took this chance to gain some distance away from them while casting the [Shadow Bind] spell.

The tentacles-like shadows flashed as it went towards the other five knights of the Vidrato Family. Of course, Souta didn't forget to send some of the shadows to the two knights that blocked his attack.

Swoosh!! Swoosh!!

The knights scattered in the area as the shadows chased after them. They knew that they couldn't cut these shadows with their own strength.

But Souta found one knight heading toward him at high speed. This knight was Madan, one of the direct subordinates of Gregory.

He had short blonde hair and blue eyes. He had sharp features that could be considered handsome in the human race.

Souta gripped his sword tightly and he slashed it in front of him when Madan appeared.

Clang!

Madan reacted quickly by raising his sword to blocked Souta's sword. He already anticipated that Souta will slash in front when he appeared.

But what happened next was something he didn't expect.

"What?!"

His feet suddenly sunk into the ground. He glanced down and found that the concrete floor before turned into a pool of mud.

"[Mud Slide]... Didn't expect it, right?" Souta grinned as he used his free hand to deliver a powerful blow on Madan's stomach.

He then grabbed Madan's arm, which was holding a sword, before Souta slashed his Vajra sword.

Swoosh!!

A large cut appeared on Madan's chest and a huge amount of blood spurted out of it. His purple grade armor couldn't do anything against the dark grade sword of Souta.

Actually, Souta was going to cut his neck off but he changed the trajectory of his sword because he saw a three-layered barrier that appeared on it. A small barrier like that was hard to break. The caster made it smaller because they wanted to clearly avoid being cut in that place because if they made the barrier covered Madan's whole body, then the Vajra sword would simply shatter it like a piece of fragile glass.

They sacrificed the other place so that Souta couldn't kill Madan in an instant. What a smart move if Souta was to say it.

The barrier must be the work of the other elite knights.

Souta was about to stab Madan in the chest when Madan headbutted him.

Bang!

"Shit!" Souta cursed as he used [Cross Moon].

The red light flashed from the sword and the barrier expanded to blocked it but it didn't last a second before it broke into tiny particles.

But a second was enough for Madan to get out of the pool of mud. Madam distanced himself and looked at his broken left hand.

Even though he jumped away Souta still managed to get his left arm.

He took a deep breath as he felt intense pain in his body. He looked at Souta and asked, "How?"

He wasn't expecting to get an answer from his question. It's just that he wanted to shift his attention out of the pain he was feeling right now.

His purple grade armor was of no use when it comes to defense against Souta's sword. There's only one explanation to this, and that was Souta's sword was higher grade.

There's no way that Souta's strength was higher than him because, from the earlier clashed, it gave him a bit of understanding of Souta's strength. With various buffs, Souta's strength was only a bit lower than him.

He circulated his mana and found that it became hard to control. He opened his eyes widely and looked at Souta.

"That skill before can corrupt the target's mana pool..." Madan muttered as he recalled how that skill got his arm. If he knew about this earlier then he could have dispersed that red light when it seeped into his arm using his mana.

Souta took a deep breath and casted [Shadow Bind]. He held his forehead and felt that it was bleeding. After all, Madan poured his mana on his forehead when he headbutted Souta before.

"Hoo~" Souta exhaled and he observed the knights of the Vidrato Family. He didn't manage to kill Madan, the strongest one among them, so he knew that they would be wary about the [Mud Slide] spell.

'That was careless on my part.' Souta thought. Luckily, they still didn't know about the [Shadow Ball] spell so he would only use it when he got another opportunity to kill Madan.

Madan looked at his comrades and said, "Be careful when you got close to him. He had a spell that could turn the concrete floor into a mud."

"Yes, sir!" The knights answered him in a loud voice.

"It's really a problem when you don't know your opponent skill. Be wary, maybe he still have a skill that he haven't use." Madan said to his comrades. He thought that Souta was just an ordinary C-rank Adventurer that's why he got careless and thought that they would be able to take him down easily but he was wrong.

"[Knight's Will]," Madan muttered as his body exerted a white aura around him. This skill could increase his attack damage and speed.

"[Sword Aura]," The sword in Madan's hand was coated by blueish energy. This sword skill could increase the sharpness of his sword. Also, his attack damage.

"Lastly, [Strength Reinforcement]," Madan said as he activated all the combat arts that could increase his strength. His power right now was a little bit lower than those B-rank.

The skill that Souta used before was problematic to a mage who used their mana in the battle as it could disrupt the flow of mana inside a person's body. Luckily, he was a knight, not a mage.

Among the fifty direct subordinates of Gregory, he was one of the weakest. Because his strength was below B-rank. He only became a direct subordinate of Gregory because he had the potential to reach that level of strength.

"Let's do this!" Madan shouted as he dashed towards Souta.

Souta knitted his brows and controlled the tentacles-like shadows to distract the other knights. He doesn't want them to bother him in battling Madan because it would become a trouble if they ganged him up.

He then charged towards Madan.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Souta and Madan exchanged blows at high speed. Every time their swords collided, a spark flew out between their swords as a loud metallic sound rung in the whole area.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Every second, small cuts started to appear around Souta's body. He knew that in terms of overall abilities the knight in front of him was higher than him.

He couldn't do anything but defend against Madan's barrage of attacks. Even defending was hard for him as some slipped in his guard and cut his body.

Souta even tried to use the same tactic once again but Madan already knew it so it didn't work. Madan avoided all the mud that he created on the ground.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Souta opened his eyes widely as another two knights appeared on his left and right side.

Since he focused on trying to fight Madan, he could hardly have a time to control the tentacles-like shadows to distract the other knights. So it's not surprising that they managed to get passed from his shadows.

...

Ursus frowned when he heard the report of his subordinates.

"I know that my daughter left the mansion on her own but I didn't think that it's because of the engagement, "

Ursus muttered as he tapped his finger on top of the table.

"If we annul the engagement then Gregory would face us. I know his temperament as he wouldn't tolerate it if my daughter is the one who broke the engagement. He valued their family face after all. But... what if Gregory's son is the one who annulled the engagement..."

Ursus shook his head and thought that was impossible. Gregory wanted to take some of the Crystal Flame Honey, so he wouldn't let his son cancel the engagement.

"I don't want to make another enemy, so I'm going to personally visit my daughter and have a talk with her," Ursus said as he stood up from his seat.

Suddenly, the door opened and his assistant came in.

"My Lord, the captain of the city guard is here. He wanted to talk to you about the happenings in the city."