The blood spurting and painting the head of the horse red. Acma released Arael’s head and let his body dropping to the left. In front of him, the ten knights were still advancing toward the mound while the others showing no emotions as they stared at the location where Acma was standing before. Most of them still didn’t realize that their captain was attacked except the knight behind Arael.

“Eh?”, the knight exclaimed.

However, before he could shout, his face was rammed by a knee, forcing his head facing the sky. When he finally able to open his eyes, he saw a bloody knife in a hand raised high in the sky. He tried to think, but the knife suddenly turned into a war hammer and the hand that hold it, swung the war hammer down to his face.

‘THUD’

The war hammer was lodged deep into the knight’s head.

Without delay, Acma pulled the hammer and lunged toward the next target, a knight who was in the middle of unsheathing his sword. Acma landed on the neck of the horse and threw a kick to stop the knight as he swung his hammer diagonally toward the knight’s head. A cracking sound was heard and the blood flowing from the nose like a waterfall. The war hammer might not able to penetrate the helmet, but the force behind the strike was enough to shatter the knight’s skull.

“BIND”

A feminine shout was heard.

Immediately, several roots as thick as a children arm sprouting from the ground and moving up to bind Acma’s limbs. Acma turned his head to the left and saw behind enemies rank, a hundred metres from him, a female magician holding a staff with both of her hands and pointed it at him. She was the one who casted the spell.

“Tsk”, he clicked his tongue.

‘PHANTOM STEP’

Acma reappeared behind the female magician. He immediately spinning his body clockwise to increase the force of his strike.

“IRHAAL, BEHIND YOU!!!”, someone shouted urgently.

Irhaal the magician, tried to turned her head back, but that was clearly a mistake. She should casted a shield instead of turning back. By the time she turned 90 degrees to the left, Acma’s war hammer already arrived in front of her left eye.

‘PUCHI’

Part of Irhaal’s head from her left eyes to the back was gone, showing a white brain matter. Her blood spurting and landed on Acma's armour.

Acma’s attention quickly shifted toward another female magician, a few metres on his right. He extended his right hand and pointed at her with his index finger. She flinched but she immediately raised her staff to cast a spell.

‘TORNADO’, said Acma softly.

‘THORN’, she shouted at the same time

A small azure coloured tornado enveloped the magician, raising her 5 metres above the ground together with her mount as she started shrieking like a pig at slaughterhouse. At the same time, Acma was bombarded by a dozen sharp thorns aiming at his vitals. Unfortunately, they didn’t even put a scratch on his armour.

‘WIND BLADE’, he added.

A few wind blades merged with the tornado and turning it into a meat grinder. The magician wasn’t screaming anymore after a minute and her blood was spraying everywhere around the tornado.

‘PHANTOM STEP’

Acma disappeared before a few deadly arrows flew across the place where he was. Then he reappeared again on the boulder on top of the mound.

Acma was looking down at the knights below. Traces of dread and fear could be seen in their eyes. They looked alternately between Acma and his war hammer which still dripping with blood. Everybody was silent. Their formation still retained their original form due to Acma’s sudden attack, but they look sluggish and stiff. Maybe because they suddenly lost their leader.

“KNIGHT, HOLD YOUR GROUND. YOU’RE THE PROUD KNIGHT OF ISEBIAL. DO NOT FEAR YOUR ENEMY!!!”

Suddenly, a loud shout reverberated in this quiet forest, bringing back the knights to their original composure. It’s coming from the left side of the formation by a knight called Arlen, a level 376 Elemental Knight.

“AULATHAR, BRING SIX SQUADS AND FINISH HIS HIGHNESS’ ORDER. THE OTHERS, COME WITH ME AND KILL THIS FIEND!!!”

“YES SIR !!!”

Except the 60 knights who began to escape the battle area, the others unsheathed their weapon and charging toward Acma. With Arlen as their new leader, they spread out and sprinting. Their body was brimming with killing intent and it soared higher when they rushed pass the body of their previous leader.

“CHAAAARGEEE!!!”

“KILLLLLL!!!”

“Do you think I’ll let you go?” said Acma coolly.

He was quite astonished by the reaction of the knights in front of him. From changing the chain of command to the knights executing the order of the new leader to divide troops, all of them were done swiftly. Initially, his plan was to engage the enemies by himself as long as possible and he already expected that they would be divided into two teams, one to continue their mission and the other to deal with him. But he didn’t expected it would be this soon. Now he need to alter his plan a little.

“Summon: Sawa”

A globe of purple light appeared in front of Acma and then it flew to his left due to Acma’s will to cut off the path of the knights who were escaping the battle. The purple light enlarged and formed Sawa’s body. But, as fast as it slithered forward, Sawa could only prevent a quarter of the knights from escaping. Some of the knights halted their mount and turned around when Sawa cut off the path of their brothers. But a loud shout from Arlen forced them to continue their journey. They left in rush.

Acma didn’t intend to chase them. He turned his head toward the charging knights at the foot of the mound.

“Sawa, surround them”, ordered Acma.

Acma jumped onto Sawa’s head when it completed its encirclement. Then he waived his left hand and all his guardians appeared on the Sawa’s back. The Supreme Guardians stood next to Acma while the Stone Guardians began to spread out along the Sawa’s body and then jumped down.

The knights immediately halted their mount when the guardians appeared. Their eyes followed the movement of the guardians as they moved to surround the knights. The knights were restless and confused. They looked at each other without saying anything.

“Summon: Blood Lizard King”

Adding to their misery was the appearance of an ugly and grim looking lizard. They knew what it was. It was a Blood Lizard, a poisonous lizard.

“Coward!!”, Arlen bellowed. “You use poison!!”

Acma tilted his head a little when he heard that. He was curious and wanted to ask the angry elf, why he reacted to the lizard but not to the guardians. But he decided not to because his time was limited. The escaped knights might reach the village in less than an hour. So he had to finish the battle as soon as possible.

Acma looked deeply into the eyes of Arlen. He was searching for any intention to surrender. Any form of hesitation, restlessness or unwillingness was enough. Initially, Acma could see that Arlen seems to be hesitated when the guardians appeared but that hesitation was gone after the appearance of Blood Lizard King.

Acma raised his war hammer and swung it down.

“Execute”, he said coldly.

The Stone Guardians closing in to attack the knights. Their steps were uniformed and unhurried, but each steps were capable of striking fear in anyone’s heart.

“KNIGHTS!!! THIS BATTLE HAS NOTHING BUT A SIMPLE FACT, KILL THAT FIEND AND OUR BATTLE WILL BE CONCLUDED”, shouted Arlen to the peak of his voices and pointed his sword at Acma.

“HU AAHHH!!!”

“Form a ring formation and defend against those golems. You must raise your aura to the peak, that fiend surely will use the blood lizard. Ten knights come with me, we will kill that fiend”, Arlen ordered his troop, then he began to charge toward Acma together with ten knights behind him.

At the same time, Acma gave another order.

“Blood Lizard King, Poisonous Breath”, he said. His voice was calm.

The Blood Lizard King step forward and released the poisonous breath as much as possible into the sky until it formed a mist. Then the mist slowly spread downward until the foot of the mound was filled with a blood red poisonous mist. Not only the mist was poisonous, it also stole the knight’s sight, rendering them unable to fight properly.

The sounds of coughing, vomiting, screaming and weapon clashing were heard everywhere inside the mist while Arlen helplessly trying to raised the moral of his troop. Acma saw the struggle of Arlen and the knights to defend themselves against the guardians’ attack and the poisonous mist, but such sight didn’t stirred his emotions. His face was emotionless and his eyes showed neither joy nor hesitation, only coldness.

“Vice Captain, please go. We will hold this golems. Uhuk-uhuk!!!”, someone shouted before he was coughing blood.

“Go, Vice Captain!!”, urged the other.

“Sergeant!!”, Arlen looked at his officer who were holding back two broadsword wielder guardians. Then a determine look exploded on his face as he turned back and charge toward Acma again.

“I’m sorry everyone. I’ll surely kill this fiend”, he shouted.

“Hahahaha. Go, Vice Capt..”, someone cheered, but his mount suddenly fell down, sending him rolling forward. He stood up and coughing some blood. He wiped the blood with his left and then he roared loudly.

“BROTHERS!! THIS POISON IS NOTHING. DESTRO.. Argh!!”

He struggled to look down. He saw a stone spear tip penetrated his chest. He realized his death was close. Slowly, he grabbed the bloody spear tip with his left hand, trying to push it back. His legs lost its strength as he fell on his knees. He laughed a little, but his tears began to flow. He looked up, staring at the sky.

“Elya”

That was his last word.

The other knights heard his last word. They also roared defiantly. They tried to escaped the poisonous mist area, but the Stone Guardians easily forced them back into the mist.

At the top of the mound, Acma narrowed his eyes when he saw Arlen came out of the mist.

Arlen’s body was glowing with a purple light. He urged his mount to go faster when they finally escaped the poisonous mist. When he was a few metres close to Acma, he ordered his mount to stop abruptly and borrowed the momentum to jump.

“Alice, send him back into the mist”, said Acma coldly as he willed Sawa to move its head away from the incoming Arlen.

“Yes, Master”

A Supreme Guardian wielding a giant axe jumped down and swung its weapon.

‘BAAAAAMMM’

Arlen’s body slammed the ground and a crack like spider web spread out from the point of impact. He had returned into the poisonous mist. Before he could stabilize himself, the following strike from the Supreme Guardian already arrived.

The battle continued for half an hour before everything went silent. By that time, the mist already thinned enough to show the bodies sprawled on the ground and the guardians stood still a few metres from each other.

Acma unsummon Sawa and Blood Lizard King. He walked down the mound and when he reached the foot, he saw the Supreme Guardian who fought against Arlen standing with its axe on the shoulder. Next to it, Arlen laying down motionlessly on the ground. His left leg was gone while the other sprawled awkwardly, probably from a broken bones. There was a cave in on his chest. Obviously he was on his last breath but his sword was firmly in his grip. When Acma get closer, Arlen slowly opened his eyes and tried to move his head but he wasn’t able to. When Acma finally stood next to him, Arlen let out a strained smile and raised the hilt of his sword.

“Kill me”, he said.

Acma took the sword.

“Let... let me see your face”, Arlen begged.

“...”

“You should retreat”, said Acma. He didn’t remove his helmet.

“...”

“You... never give... a chance”

"..."

“You’re too proud to take it”, said Acma in his head.

He raised the sword and aimed the tip toward Arlen’s neck.

“Tha..nk you”, said Arlen as he closed his eyes.

“...”

After a while, Acma pulled out the sword.

He looked up into the sky and took a deep breath.

"HUAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGHHHHHH"

He roared.