“Mr Li, what do you think?” asked Acma. He was observing the situation at the enemies camp with Li Susheng from a cover.

“I know nothing about cavalry formation. But they look ready to sortie anytime”

Both of them were looking at the new elven troop who just arrived. Their armour was the same as the previous elven troop, but the tip their pointy helmet had a long green tassel. They didn’t dismount and stayed in line facing the town and divided into 5 ranks. Before long, they were joined by the rest of knights, elves and beastmen alike. No sounds were made. All of them were waiting for an orders.

“Yeah. This new troop is a bad news. All of them are level over 300 and there even 20 mages. They must be an elite troop”, said Acma.

“I wonder what is their plan about us”, Li Susheng mumbled.

“That’s hard to say. Let’s watch them a bit longer”

Inside the flowery tent built for the princess.

“Big brother, you have arrive”, said Princess Nidhwen as she stood up ceremoniously to welcome her brother.

“Why do you have to come? I already have everything here under control”, she said.

The prince sneered. He waived his hand and chanted something. Soon after, a root began to sprout before peeling its skin, exposing a silvery inner root. That inner root then began to interweave. Soon after, a silvery chair was formed.

“My lovely sister, the only thing that you have under control is that the sky over this town is clear again. But, since I can’t see any Hell Suppressing Plant around, that’s mean the threat of the undead was eliminated before you’ve arrived. Am I right?”

The princess didn’t reply and just turned her head toward the left.

“The human in this town are still alive, right?”

She’s still silent but she lowered her head, looking at her feet while she started nibbling her fingers.

“Let me inform you, there are many human town like this one appeared throughout our kingdom and all of them are in similar situation as this town. They were plagued by an undead till the sky was covered by dark mist. The headquarters and the shrine already gave orders to eliminate all the human in these towns to prevent any undead outbreak in our kingdom”

“Lady Kaylana didn’t say anything last night”, she replied.

Her replied was met with a sharp gaze and stern face. That gaze made her flinched.

“You’re a knight and the princess of Isebial. You should prioritize the safety of the kingdom”

“A knight must follow the orders from the headquarter and a princess must obey her father. I really receive nothing except the order to eliminate the undead last night. It’s not my fault”, she tried to defend herself.

“...”

“I’m not blaming you. I just ...”, the prince stopped his words when looking at his pouting sisters.

“Alright, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you didn’t receive the orders. I’ll help you handle this matter”

“Hmmmpphh”, the princess folded her hands and turned his head to the right with a slightly raised chin and a closed eyes.

The prince scratched the back of his head a little then looked at his adjutant who was standing next to him.

“Is Captain Arturas arrived?”

“Yes, Your Highness, he was standing outside the tent. Young Lord El’Tael is also there”, the adjutant replied.

“Let Captain Arturas in”

“Yes, Your Highness”

A few moments later, a huge bearman entered the tent. After a slight bow and his right hand on the left chest, he took one step forward and lowered his body to kneel on the floor. But, he was stop by the order from the prince.

“No need to kneel, Captain. Is what you report about werewolves den and the centaurs true?”

“Yes, Your Highness. I sent my men to investigate the werewolves den. It was destroyed completely and it was impossible to determine either there is a survivor or not. As for the centaurs, they lost close to 2000 men of their tribe. They were attacked by a single human”

“Where is that human? Have you captured him?”

“He’s supposed to be inside this town and we almost had a fight with him this morning”

“Almost? What do you mean?”

Arturas didn’t reply. He look awry as he lowered his head.

“I ordered them to retreat to avoid a meaningless bloodshed. We still don’t know the extent of his strength yet”, the princess answered.

“What?” the prince startled. He look unbelievably at his sister.

She raised both of her hands a little while rolling her eyes and then she said,

“He rode a huge purple rank python king and treat it as his pet. How am I going to let my men fight that thing?”, she protested.

“...”

“Forget about it”, the prince surrendered. “He came from a village right? How much do you know about that village?” he asked Arturas

“Yes, Your Highness. From the information given by the centaurs, the number of defender shouldn’t exceed 200 men and most of them were archers. They also have two blue rank stone golems and one blue rank mountain harpy as a guard. Unfortunately, we don’t know the exact number of human in that village”, Arturas reported.

“Hmmmm... they repelled the attack on their village with just that number. They are dangerous”, said the prince. Then he turned his head and looked at one of his officer.

“Arael, take 100 warriors and 5 mages to that village and eliminate them. Captain Arturas, have one of your men follow them as a guide. Go”, ordered the prince.

“Yes, Your Highness”, both of them answered and then exit the tent.

“And you”, said the prince as he turned his body toward his sister. “You’re going to listen to a special lecture by Prince Iandithas, a mighty General of Isebial Kingdom”.

The princess hurriedly edged herself as to try to avoid his brother.

“Errrr... brother, didn’t you say you wanted to handle the matter here? Sooner is better, right?” she asked stutteringly.

“That can wait. Now, first lesson ....”

Everyone walked out of the tent to give space to the princess to receive her special lecture.

At the edge of the town, Acma was busy selecting a suitable weapon to use if he have to fight those knights. Sword was out of question since they wore a full body armour. From many types of weapon he had in his inventory, his choices were finally narrowed down to a warhammer and an axe. He rubbed his chin slowly and he still couldn’t decide.

“Hey, look..”, Li Susheng suddenly nudged Acma’s side, pulling him back to reality.

He saw two person, an elf and a bearman came out of the flowery tent. The elf immediately mounted his horse and began to give orders. A moment later, 105 knights line up behind him and all of them from the same troop that just arrived. After giving a few words, he led the troop into the forest.

“Where are they going?” asked Li Susheng.

“...”

Acma was puzzled too. After a few thinking, he arrived at two conjectures. First, they were to inspect the werewolves’ den or the centaurs’ village. Two, they went straight to Orca Village. Both of them eventually led to the same ending, Orca Village. Secretly, Acma was hoping that their trip wasn’t to attack the village, but he couldn’t take the risk. He must return to Orca Village. Somehow, Acma could feel that these knights knew about him, they knew about what happened to the werewolves and the centaurs were related to him, especially if he counted the behaviour of the werewolf he slammed with Sawa’s tail this morning. If these feeling were true, more reason for him to worry about Orca Village’s safety.

“Most likely they were heading toward Orca Village”, Acma answered worriedly.

Li Susheng looked at Acma with concern. Worry was plastered all over his place.

“You should go”, he said. “That’s your village, right?”

Acma smiled and he felt warm in his heart. “Mr Li is a good man”, he thought.

“We have the temple’s barrier here, so we can hold out for a few more days. Go”, Li Susheng continued.

“Thank you Mr Li. I will come back here as soon as possible”, said Acma.

“The trip back to your village will take times, right? So, take your time. Don’t worry about us”

“Okay”, said Acma short.

He stood up and scanned the horizon, calculating the location of Orca Village. When he saw the movement of the trees, he was almost confirmed that the troop earlier was heading toward the village. Right now, he have two choices in front of him. Either return to Orca Village straight away or try to delay the enemies in the middle of their journey.

He turned his face toward Li Susheng and said,

“I’ll go first, Mr Li”

“Eh?”

‘TELEPORT’

Acma faded into nothingness after his body glowed with a bright light, leaving the dumbfounded Li Susheng behind. He didn’t tell Li Susheng what was needed to do, because as a leader, Li Susheng surely knew by himself.

A second later, Acma appeared on top of a small mound, halfway from Boulder Town to Orca Village. The journey to Orca Village was approximately three hours. If he engage the enemies here, they will have one hour minimum to reach their destination either they choose to advance or retreat. This will give him a lot of time to prepare for his next move.

Acma looked around as he descended, forming a plan in his head. The trees were a few metres apart of each other, giving enough spaces for a cavalry manoeuvre. The floor was solid and clear except a few bushes and thicket here and there.

“This is a good place. I thought I need to teleport a few more times to find a suitable place”, he said slowly with a gleam in his eyes.

“Alice, contact Uncle Pai and warn him that a strong enemies are coming. They are Knights of Forest with level over 300. Also, there are 5 mages among them. Tell them to decide. If they decide to relocate, I’ll return and teleport them right away to safety. Otherwise, I’ll return before the enemies’ arrival”

“Yes, Master”

An hour and half later.

“You’ve arrived”, said Acma.

While waiting for the enemies, he was sitting crossed legs, meditating on a boulder on top of the mound. Now, they have arrived. He looked at the leader of the troop as he slowly stood up and dusting his butt in a carefree manner.

Elemental Knight Arael LVL 415

“Fuh, 415”, Acma told himself. He felt pressured but he’s still calm.

Arael raised his right hand to order his troop to stop then waived it to the right. The knights behind him began to fanned out to form a line with 20 knights in each rank.

Acma was standing on the boulder, looking down on the knights below. Nobody talked. The standoff lasted for a minute.

“Could you please turn around and leave my village alone?” Acma broke the silence.

“Turn around? Hmph”, Arael sneered. “Knights, dismount and kill this ant as quickly as you can. We have a lot of things to do”, He shouted.

Ten knights began to dismount and walked toward Acma with their weapon in hand. Acma just calmly looked at the incoming threat.

“This is the worst”, Acma thought as he shook his head lightly.

‘Inhale’

‘Exhale’

‘Inhaaaaaaaaale’

Acma fixed his eyes on Arael.

‘PHANTOP STEP’

Instantly, he appeared right behind Arael as he equipped his helmet and a knife in his right hand. He grabbed Arael’s forehead and dragged it to his left shoulder. Faster than a lightning strike, he stabbed Arael’s neck and pulled the knife to the right.

“Die, please”, he whispered.