'This heat is killing me, why did this damn armor have to be so hot?'

Even if he complained, Gordon wouldn't dare take off that armor. Because that was the official armor of the Marquis' personal guard, if he did that, it would surely be his end.

Not that he was going to die for enemy soldiers, instead, he would be beheaded for dishonoring the Marquis's guard. Even if it was just something like taking off the helmet, for Edrorian's army, it was a serious offense, especially when they were going to war.

‘Luckily I don’t have to wear full armor.’

Even though he was considered part of the Marquis's personal guard, he was only a squire, so he wore only basic leather armor with a family crest.

The reason he's going to war right now is because of the ambitions of the King of Edrorian. He intended to use this army as a distraction just to keep Poutis busy while Tarodel would take the opportunity to conquer Prazar.

As they were not going to win the war, the army commander was the son of Marquis Palaques. He intended to use this opportunity to let his son earn military conquests.

'I am very lucky, never in my wildest dreams did I think I could become part of a nobleman's personal guard.'

'And to think that that strange stone that I found was so valuable as to put me in the army of the Marquis. After so many bad things have happened to me, at least it's time for my luck to come on the scene.'

"What's wrong with that weird face, Dogkin?" A Birdkin yelled. "Get yourself together! You're in front of Lord Bargus!"

"I-I'm sorry, Captain!" Gordon respectfully said to the Birdkin.

"This better not happen again or you will receive a punishment." Captain Birdkin said.

"Yes sir!" Gordon replied respectfully.

Even though he looked respectful on the outside, on the inside, fury was taking over him.

'I have a name, you fucking bird! Don’t think you’re amazing just for being promoted.’

'Lord Bargus a damn shit. If it weren't for his father being a Marquis, this coward would be worthless. When he heard he was going to command the army, he got so nervous that he almost peed and only calmed down when he heard it was just a distraction.'

Despite complaining that the Marquis' son was a coward, Gordon was also the same. Even though he was carrying a sword around his waist, his combat ability was practically zero, so the last thing he wanted to do was go to war right after joining the army.

If it weren't for the fact that he only needed to stand beside the Marquis's son and protect him in a safe place in the rear, Gordon would have run away without a doubt.

While he kept his fury to himself, the army was slowly approaching the border. Although it was just a distraction, this was an army made up of thousands of soldiers, so it would still take a few hours to reach the goal.

But to everyone's surprise, a single man appeared. As Gordon was in the back of the army, hundreds of meters away, all he could see was that this man was wearing a battered mantle.

He seemed to walk smoothly as if he didn't care about the army's presence.

'To dare to pass in front of an army as cruel as Edrorian's, this beggar is crazy, he will surely die.'

Gordon thought while analyzing the situation.

As he continued to move on, one captain on the front line called the man.

Turning calmly, the man gave him a dismissive look and said. "Don't bother me, I'm not in a good mood today."

Looking frightened, the captain quickly walked away from the man, but soon pulled himself together and yelled. "Watch as you speak, you are in front of Edrorian's army, if you don't show us proper respect, we will execute you."

"I won't warn you again." Speaking these words, the man turned and walked again.

"Hey Dogkin, what are they talking about?" Captain Birdkin asked.

Because the Dogkins had a good hearing, it was understandable that he would ask Gordon.

In the most respectful way possible, he responded to Birdkin and looked back at where the man was.

After a brief hesitation, the captain ran towards the man and stretched his hand in an attempt to grab his shoulder.

But before he could do that, the man turned and in a quick movement, hit the captain with a kick.

The blow was so strong that the captain flew several meters, stopping only after hitting a tree and almost broke it. Judging by the blood leaking through all the orifices while his limbs were in strange positions, he had surely died.

A dead silence fell over the battlefield.

Turning again, the man started to walk.

"Ki-Kill him!" Bargus shouted.

Recovering from the shock, Captain Birdkin responded. "We will do this immediately, My Lord."

The sound of the horn sounded across the silent battlefield. As if encouraged, the army shouted in unison and a platoon of 100 people ran towards the man.

Moving faster than Gordon could see, the man had already turned and appeared among the soldiers while holding a spear in his hand.

Before the soldiers had a chance to react, they began to be impaled.

Even if they tried to dodge the thrusts or tried to hit the man, they couldn't. Besides being very agile, whenever he dodged, his spear pierced and killed someone.

Without missing a lunge, the man was killing the soldiers one by one.

Despite trying to disguise it, Bargus was shaking uncontrollably.

Even if he didn't admit it, Gordon was sure that the carnage that was taking place was to blame for it.

"He may be strong, but if we use the numbers, we can kill him." The Captain shouted.

After the command, more and more soldiers set out towards the man.

But even the numerical disadvantage didn't seem to bother the man as he continued to impale anyone who approached. Soon, a mountain of bloodied bodies was at his feet, but he didn't seem to care about it as the death toll increased further.

"Archers, prepare, when our allies retreat, kill the enemy!" The Captain shouted. "Let's show him the power of Edrorian's army!"

But to their unhappiness, the man was following the soldiers closely. Seeing as his killing speed increased, it did not seem that he intended to let them escape.

"To be strong like that, he is certainly a Magic Warrior, at least a Superior Warrior." The Tigerkin standing next to Bargus said carefreely. "But he's still inferior to an Epic Warrior like me."

"Travis, don't stand there relaxing! Kill him or at least hold him for a while!" Bargus yelled at Tigerkin. "Don't hold back, go after him with everything, if he keeps killing the soldiers like that, dad's going to be mad at me!"

"I thought I'd only get a chance to exercise when I got that old man from Solaris, but it looks like I'm going to be able to have some fun before that." Walking away from Bargus, Travis smiled, showing off his fangs as his body began to change.

The pressure that surrounded him almost caused Gordon to run out of air. Although Travis walked away, he could feel the pressure slowly building.

‘Could it be that this is the bestial transformation ?!’

'And to think that this coward had someone with such a rare transformation under his command, and yet he was almost smudged in his pants.'

'I've seen his tremendous power before when we were in the training area, but now he's even more terrifying. I bet that with this transformation he can even fight a Heroic Warrior, that beggar will surely die.’

Before, Travis had only ears and a tiger's tail. But now, he has gained the appearance of a hairy humanoid tiger, even his eyes have changed. His body grew beyond two and a half meters, while each of his limbs doubled in width.

Standing on all fours on the ground, Travis left a small crater where he was as he fired at a speed faster than an arrow at the man.

The captain immediately shouted. "Archers and Mages, prepare a wave of fire to finish off the enemy if he tries to escape."

Travis quickly traversed the distance of hundreds of meters.

Upon reaching a few meters from his target, his claws flashed as he prepared for the moment to strike his blow.

But before he could get any closer, a bored voice came out of the man. "Too slow."

In an incomprehensible way, Travis' body was simply split in half. But due to his speed, the two halves of his body continued to move as his viscera spread around the place.

Even if he tried, Gordon couldn't understand what had happened.

"Archers, attack!" The captain ordered.

The archers immediately unleashed a volley of arrows toward the man.

But miraculously, they all seemed to have missed the mark.

"He's using wind magic to deflect the arrows!" The Captain shouted. "Mages, finish him off!"

Following orders, hundreds of fireballs went off.

The environment quickly became warmer as the fireballs came together.

As if he were not worried, the man quietly raised his hand and with a simple swing, a powerful gust of wind shattered the hundreds of fireballs as if they were nothing.

Not losing its momentum, the gust of wind continued until it hit the soldiers, hurling them away.

"Since you like fire, I'm going to send you a gift." The man said scornfully.

He quickly floated in the air and raised his hands.

As if commanded by the man, enormous pressure fell on everyone on the battlefield, making them almost suffocate while their bodies seemed heavier.

"Thi-This is far beyond what an Epic or Heroic Warrior can do." The captain trembled uncontrollably. "He-He must be a Legendary Warrior! Why did we have such bad luck?!"

"I-I don't want to die here!" With a desperate scream, Bargus turned with his horse and fled without losing a second more.

Equally nimble, Gordon immediately followed his master, but not out of loyalty. The last thing he wanted was to stay on the battlefield.

“Retreat!!” The captain's voice came from behind.

Not caring about anything else, Gordon put everything he had in his legs.

At that moment, he felt a scorching heat wave hit his back. Without having to look back, he already knew it must be that man who was doing this.

But what made him even more scared was the fact that the man was hundreds of meters from him.

With adrenaline and despair taking over his body, Gordon further increased his speed to the point of almost reaching the horse his master was on.

Suddenly, desperate screams came from behind.

Not daring to turn his head, the only thing Gordon could imagine was that they were dying burned.

***

A few hours after meeting the mysterious man, Gordon was still stretched out on the ground due to exhaustion.

But he wasn't the only one, most of the survivors were the same. Besides being exhausted, many had severe burns scattered throughout their bodies.

'Damn, just when I thought my life was going to get better, I had to find this monster. Besides, I didn't escape by luck, he gave the impression that he could kill us at any moment.'

'This life is not for me, I'm almost 40, I'd better retire.'

While arbitrarily deciding that he would retire from the army a week after entering, Gordon could no longer endure exhaustion and fell asleep.