‘These things hop too much!’ Tus complained in his mind. The leader that was converted by the captain seemed to be more agile, or smarter, than the ‘natural’ ones. Every time Tus waved the feather to send out a wind blade, the new leader would see it before Tus finished and smoothly evade.

‘I’ll have to predict where it moves to when I send one out and then send another in response. If it can avoid an attack in midair, then that means this will be much, much more difficult.’ Following that thought, Tus swung the feather, and watched the movements of the leaders’ muscles. Just after it moved, Tus sent out another wind blade.

The leader never moved its eyes away from Tus and when it saw him make a new move, it twisted its body mid-air. The energy veil around one of its arms moved inward due to the wind blade and it separated. A moderate wound opened and the leader was send flying backwards. It turned its body once again to try to gain balance, but only managed to stumble when it came to the ground.

‘Score!’ Tus hurriedly closed the distance and attacked at the same time it touched the ground. The next attack made its already unbalanced figure fall to the ground. It tried to get up, but every time it did so, it was knocked back down and gained more wounds.

It looked like Tus was about to make another kill, but before he could get closer to give a mortal injury, another leader closed in from the side. He had no choice but to back off. Just before he did, he made another attack that crippled its legs.

The other leader ran forward with intense ferocity and its eyes were wide from rage. As it came within twenty feet, its mouth split open and the purple light and golden specks could be seen rising from the depths of its chest.

‘I can’t allow that!’ Tus changed direction, desperately running to the leader. He aimed at the open ‘mouth’ as he sent his attacks.

It seemed to not mind as it ventured forth in a suicidal manner. The ball of energy kept becoming bright like it was about to spew out.

Before that happened, a wind blade managed to move through the veil that was thin around the mouth and struck the back of its throat. The leader immediately puffed up like a balloon before its skin tore apart and disintegrated. It left behind a purple ball with the golden specks moving together to shoot the beam.

Tus thought ‘Crap!’ before he moved behind a tree.

The golden beam exploded forth as the purple ball seemed to surge into it. The beam curved around the tree Tus was hiding behind like a bird. The head of the beam aimed to penetrate his skull when he forced his body to collapse onto the ground.

The beam just barely missed his head as it incinerated a few hairs. It consequently hit the tree that he hid behind and vanished without leaving any marks.

Tus stayed laying down on the ground with his chest feeling like it was hosting a hardcore rock concert and the pain from the injury there nearly causing him to faint. He cried with rapid breathes, “This. Is. Too. Difficult.”

Gargoyles voice echoed in the forest. “You are going to die if you keep laying down like that.”

Just after he said that, the leader that Tus beat to the ground crawled on the ground using its four arms. Its speed was half of that of its running rate and it was acting with the last regular that ‘turned’ leader. Both were bearing down on him menacingly with their daggers raised.

‘Crap!’ Tus cursed again.

The leader that was crawling on the ground was closest with a distance of three feet. The captain made its appearance in the distance as the healthy leader approached. Tus forced himself to his feet and attacked the one crawling on the ground first, hitting it four times on its head. Its skull was easily smashed to pieces with its blood and brain matter drenching the ground.

‘Two more!’ Tus ignored the captain and went straight to assaulting the remaining leader.

This leader was just like the other one with its enhanced reaction speed. However, Tus expected this and he rushed forward. He accomplished in hitting it while it was mid-air after sending out the initial attack. The poor creatures’ stomach was sliced open and an abundant amount of purple blood poured out. With the distance so close, Tus was able to finish it off very quickly.

‘Last one!’ The captain moved and was very fast as it closed the distance of a hundred feet with the dirt rising behind it. The two swords and two shields were extended from its sides like a praying mantis poised to strike. ‘I already know that its defense will be very difficult to break down based on the three layers of internal energy and the shields. How do I defeat this thing?’

Tus began his attack when it came in ten feet, but the wind blades bounced off the veils like rocks hitting hard rubber. They only caused the veils to tremble a bit.

‘The weakest part of this thing are probably the legs with only the layers protecting them… but I still need to get in closer and the attack will only be able to cripple it.’

“Do you want some help?” Gargoyles’ voice boomed from up above. “I’ll only be able help you this once!”

‘Yea, yea. I’ll do that later. If I can’t take this one down myself, then when I face stronger opponents, I will probably be helpless. Plus you are probably going to be unreliable anyway.’

“Maybe next time!” Tus yelled.

“Okay.” Gargoyle disappeared from Tus’s sight as he flew back to the tent that was now hidden behind the trees.

Before the captain and Tus came closer for a physical clash, Tus surveyed the area around and changed his directions. The captain squinted its eyes and swept both of its swords from its right to the left when Tus came within striking distance.