AN: Enjoy another (a little late) chapter of Kalim's story

Change in writing: “...” for speech and '...' for thoughs

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Kalim came back to his group and told them the situation.

“Somoene whose strenght you can feel from more than 20 meters away? I really don't want to deal with this group. You may be fine, but us girls aren't strong enough. Amarok and Asena too.” said Shanira.

“I know that, Eryween will stay hidden here with the wolves as bodyguards. Shanira, Elody and Alinee will advance until a certain distance. Elody and Alinee will spread to the sides while advancing so they can strike from the sides. Once the battle start, carefully get closer and wait for your chance to deal a surprise strike on whoever is close to you. You stalk, you strike, you hide. If you get hurt, fall back here where Eryween will heal you. If someone is after you, he or she will receive a surprise attack from Shanira, Eryween, Amarok and Asena.”

“Hmm, not a bad idea.”

“If things get a little too hot we will fall back here. I will make several traps around the place Eryween will hide. You can try and lure any persistants guys there. I will also make holes for you to hide if necessary, with a small tunnel to put some distance between you and your pursuers. You will by enough time for someone to help you.”

Thus, Kalim spent 1 hour making the hiding places and the traps using his matter manipulation. The hiding places were further hidden by darkness and wind spells. There was the hiding place for Eryween and the wolves, 3 escapes holes, and all those were connected to another small room underground that would act like safe place. There were several pitfalls around, some were smalls and others were deep. The small ones were to injure the feet and legs, the deep ones were made to kill, or at least seriously hurt. Of course the other watched as he worked so they wouldn't fall in the traps.

They all went to their places and Kalim slowly advanced with the 3 girls. When he reached a critical distance from the unknown guys, he made another hiding place for Shanira and told Elody and Alinee to spread to the sides without advancing toward them further.

“Don't act before you start hearing their screams of pain.” he told them before they left.

Then he resumed his advance without trying to hide his presence, but still remaining cautious. He wanted to fight and have fun, yes, but he didn't want to make stupid mistakes and die. His senses, which were already sharper than normal were further sollicited to detect anything.

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Kalim was 20m further than before when he got the feeling that his presence was noticed. At that time he was still around 70m away from the closest human, and he was sure he wasn't the strong one. Kalim was impressed by the skill of whoever was there, and his heartbeat increased due to anxiousness and excitement. When he got around 50m from the closest guy he got more aware of the number of people there. He also noticed a slight shift in the atmosphere of the forest.

'Humm, looks like everybody there is aware of my presence... Wait, a few presences disappeared, I'm sure of it... A welcoming party or just precaution while waiting for the uninvited guest? Whatever...'

He advanced until he was close enough to see the campfire,and the many people and tents around it, when a voice resounded in the night.

“Stop right there stranger!! What is your business here?”

Kalim detected presences stealthily moving to his flanks, and another trying to get his back. So close to the camp, he was certain there weren't much more than 20 people in their group. He could also tell the one who spoke wasn't the strongest of the group. This one was in the area, but he couldn't pinpoint his location.

“Good evening to you guys! You see, I'm an adventurer and I've taken a request to investigate the unusual monsters activity in Palam forest. What about you guys? What are so many of you doing so deep in the forest, with so much equipment, around the time when the forest became more dangerous than before? This is quite suspicious!”

The tension in the air became stronger and heavier with each sentence that left Kalim's mouth. He could feel their hostility rising, for some, bordering killing intent.

“Oya? Do you have something to do with the situation? I'd like to know what you've been doing here for the past week... Dear soldiers.”

“Hoo, for such a young adventurer, you are quite sharp! Yet foolish to openly reveal yourself to us!” said an old woman as she got out of the tent in the center of the camp, right across the fcampire.

“Though you're probably no ordinary adventurer, you even look amused by the situation. Tell me young man, who sent you here and where are your comrades?”

“Old lady, you should know it's rude to answer a question by another question. You asked me what I was doing here, I answered, now answer my question. What have you been doing here?”

Kalim didn't move and still had a pleasant expression on his face, but had gathered a noticable amount of mana within his body in an instant. The atmosphere got extremly thick with tension and killing intent, but the old woman still looked calm, just like Kalim.

“Young ones are always impatient, are they? Well, it's true that you did answer our question, but I have no reason to answer yours. However, we will have you answer all of our questions.”

“I guess I'll have to get rough to get answers. By the way, I have no trouble beating up old people.”

As he said this, his spear went through the skull of the hidden guy that tried to ambush him from the left while he was talking. Before the other 2 near him got to him he had dashed forward, his spear still carrying the spasming corpse of his opponent. He channeled fire mana through his spear in the body, and then threw it in the air toward the center of the camp.

All the people were surprised by the strenght and speed of the young man, who shouldn't be older than 16. He reached the edge of the clearing where they were in an instant while carrying a corpse on his spear with just one hand and throwing it. The people with magic ability in the group did sense him gather mana, however the amount didn't decrease, indicating no spells were cast. Meaning this phisical prowess was completely natural. Or rather unnatural in that case.

When the corpse reached the middle of the camp, Kalim activated the spell he had prepared within it. The magic users, sensing the activation of magic in the corpse dove behind the nearest cover. The others moved toward Kalim while ignoring the corpse of their dead comrade. The magic activated by Kalim heated all the liquids within the body, instantly vaporising them. The sudden internal pressure made the corpse explode into a red mist, projecting bones pieces and shards around at a speed fast enough to inflict wounds on all unprotected parts of the bodies from the people near.

“GAH!! RRAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!

The old woman took a bone shard in the left eye. She fell on her back and rolled around, screaming in pain N ot only did the impact hurt, but the bone piece was also burning hot. The old woman was crying, crawling on the fround to get away from the intruder.

The explosion of the corpse lightly wounded several soldiers, and a few were frozen stiff by the bloody performance. The few who continued their advance toward Kalim got their concentration disturbed for a split second, just enough for Kalim to get within range of 4 of them. With a fast and powerfull spinning motion, he attacked them all, the blade of his spear slashing the first one, digging halfway into its neck.

Within the same movement, while adjusting the position of his hands on the handle and correcting the aim, he shredded the head of the second one starting by the mouth, breaing the joint of the jaw and the bone of the cranium andcutting the cerebellum. When the blade left his body, it went toward the throat of the third one and ripped it appart, to finish in the nape of the neck from the fourth one, passing between 2 vertebraes and cutting the spinal cord.

Within 3 seconds, Kalim had killed 5 of the soldiers. He had their blood on his body and his face. And he was happily grinning. The sight of this young man, stained in the blood of their comrades and smiling, illuminated buy the light of the campfire in the middle of the night, made all those around shudder, sending shivers down their spines.

However, even though they got impressed and intimidated by his physical and battle prowess, they were still trained and experienced soldiers. They took defensive stances and slowly surrounded him while keeping a safe distance. The bow users retreated towards the darkness with the aim of striking him from his blind spots, and the magic users prepared their spells. All of this happened in a second.

But for Kalim, 1 second is a lot of time in the middle of a battle. When a mage cast a spell, there is a build up of mana first before the spell activate. When Kalim gathered his mana during the talk, he gathered enough for several spells so the enemy couldn't predict at which moment a spell would be released. However it is hard feat to gather a large amount of mana, cast a single spell and have enough concentration to keep control of the remaining gathered mana. Especially in the middle of a battle.

He struck the ground, using a combination of 2 spells, body strenghtening, then earth magic, to create a powerfull schockwave. Within a 60m radius, the ground vibrated and bust appart, making everyone in the area completely lose their footing. The camp was destroyed and the campfire was almost completely out. The visibility wasn't that great to begin with this deep in the forest at night. With the fire almost gone, all the soldiers would have a harder time fighting if the mage didn't cast a lighting spell.

But Kalim had no intentions to give them the chance. Using the remaining gathered mana, he created earth spikes and skewered all the magic users he had identified, those who reacted before the explosion of the corpse. Instead of a single, big spike for each ofthem, there were several, thinner and sharper ones for each mages. The air got filled with the painfull screams of several men.

Suddenly, Kalim got a shiver running down his spine. A strong feeling of dread assulted him. The powerfull one was making his move. Kalim had no idea of where he was, yet his instincts was screaming at him to dodge. But where to dodge when you don't know from which side the attack would come? He may very well jump right into the lion's den. At that time, he felt a burning sensation on the skin of his neck, starting from the middle the throat and spreading to the sides.

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