‘BAM’ ‘BAAM’ ‘BAM’

The sounds of treeherd fists slamming the barrier still thundering across the temple at a constant tempo, but Acma and the leaders of Boulder Town survivors were still quiet. They were deep in thought while looking at the projection in front of them.

After a while, Shi Ming ended the silence.

“Being so close to the main troop while being surrounded like that, how can we save them?” he lamented.

The captured and the surrendered residents were grouped together behind the army and were surrounded by close to fifty knights. Among them were three magicians. This situations made the rescue effort harder and more dangerous.

Acma didn’t reply. He knew, he can’t move recklessly. The cards he have in his sleeve were his summons, his guardians and the Teleport spell. But he used them before so the enemy might already have an information about them. He need to rely on the best card he have which is the explosives beneath the enemies foot. He had to coordinate all his cards well so he could catch the enemies off guard and save the residents.

“Mr Li, do you still have the detonator?” he asked in a low voice.

“Yes, it’s in my inventory”

“Detonator? Young friend, isn’t using an explosives right now are dangerous since our residents are too close to the enemies?” one of the leader questioned.

“Yes, it is. I need to modify the detonator a bit so not all explosives explode. Actually, the explosion are just a deadly distraction so I can arrange my helper to save the residents”

“You have a helper? Where are they?”

Acma looked at the man and smiled.

“You will see them soon. Don’t worry, they are really reliable”, he paused and ignored the uneasiness on the man’s face. He turned his head toward Li Susheng.

“Mr Li, please give the detonator to me”

“Sure, here it is”, replied Li Susheng.

Acma thanked Li Susheng after he received the detonator and began working immediately.

While they were discussing, Acma’s presence was finally been noticed by Prince Iandithas, leader of the knights in front of the temple. The prince raised his right hand and immediately all attacks stopped and silence immediately enveloped the town. But it only lasted for a while because the town residents began to speculating the reasons behind the sudden halt of the attacks.

Acma and the leaders turned their head toward the center of the enemies formation and saw the enemies’ leader stepped forward and headed toward the temple.

“Human in the black armour, step forward. I want to ask you something”, said the leader after he stopped 100 metres from the barrier.

“This guy is a prince, right? Hmmmm... how should I reply? I never talk to a royalty before. ... Nevermind, just talk normally”, thought Acma. He knew that the prince was addressing him because he was the only one who was wearing a black armour.

“What do you want to ask?” shouted Acma without moving his legs.

The prince’s face became stern. Acma’s behaviour toward him was extremely rude but he chose to ignore it, at least for now.

“Human, are you the one who killed my men?”, he accused.

“I killed a lot of undeads last night, I’m not sure which one was your man”, replied Acma with a ridiculed tone.

“Do not feign ignorance, you pest”, the prince’s voice was stern.

“If those undeads aren’t your men, then what do you mean by killing your men?”

“I sent my men south and I got a report that my captain was killed by a human in a black armour. And here, you’re the only one who use a black armour and you’re the only one who’re capable of fighting us”

“...”

“I’m pretty sure all the escaped knights were heading toward the village, so how this prince get the report? Did some of them turn back to the town after I’m gone?” Acma puzzled.

“I know you’re spying on us when I arrived at this town. Then you’re just disappeared right after my men setting off to the south. You must be tailing them”

“That’s quite a good imagination”, said Acma neither conforming nor denying.

Acma’s word made Prince Iandithas frowned. He expected this man would deny his accusation, but he never expected that this guy just kept a poker face and slandered him imagining thing. He raised his left hand next to his shoulder and moved the index finger twice like he was calling someone behind.

An elven knight immediately dismounted and ran to the back. A while after, he returned with a resident. Then, both of them standing next to the prince with the knight a step behind the resident.

“You fought because you want to protect your people, right? I understand that, but you should never kill my men. I will make sure you pay the price. I will kill you and I will kill the people you want to protect”

“...”

“However, I am happy today because I finally able to meet my sister after a long time. So, I’ll give you a chance to save this man and the others at the back”

Acma raised one of his brows. The prince’s words were unreasonable and not relate to the current situation.

“A chance?” he asked.

“I’ll give you a choice, kill yourself and I’ll release them without harm”

“...”

“Or, I will kill all of them in front of you then I will kill you miserably. Choose”

Acma didn’t say anything but his face had a trace of a chilling smile. A storm of hatred were brewing inside his heart. This prince dare to force him to kill himself. Before, he fought the knights to protect the Orca Village. No hatred involved. But now, the prince is going to pay for what he just did.

“You will regret that you threaten me”, he swore in his heart.

“Equip: Helmet”, he said.

“Mr Li”, said Acma while looking at Li Susheng. “Please take this detonator”

“What are you going to do?” asked Li Susheng after he took the detonator.

“I’m going to attack the leader and save the residents at the same time. To succeed, I need Mr Li to coordinate with me”

“How?”

“As soon as I disappear like I did before, detonate the bomb”, Acma answered.

“I repeat, As soon as I disappear, detonate the bomb. While they are still in confusion, I’ll rescue the residents”

“I.. I understand. I just need to hit this button after you disappear, right?” said Li Susheng as he gripping the detonator tighter.

There was a hesitation on Li Susheng’s face which made Acma frowned a little. Although it was just a slight, that hesitation made Acma wasn’t sure if Li Susheng really up to the job or not. He could make thing easier if he depended on Alice to detonate the bomb, but, it was Li Susheng’s idea to use the explosives and he also wanted to give Li Susheng a chance to prove his determination to get stronger.

“Yes, Mr Li”, replied Acma.

Everyone looked at Li Susheng with anticipation.

“You can do it, Mr Li. You will save our town residents”, a man supported.

The others also gave their encouragement to Li Susheng while the man himself didn’t say anything. He looked alternately between the enemies and the detonator in his hand. Nobody knows what he was thinking at the moment.

Acma looked back at the prince.

“Done talking?” the prince asked.

“I won’t kill myself but I’ll fight. Let see if you’re capable of killing me or not”, replied Acma as he waved his hand.

Five Supreme Guardians and 100 Guardians appeared around Acma before spreading to his right and left. This sudden development startled the prince but he kept his cool.

“You want to fight? Hmph, do you think you can bargain with me?” he scoffed.

“Coward”, Acma provoked.

“What did you say?” the prince incensed.

“I said, you’re a coward. You have all these garbage with you, yet you didn’t dare to fight me”, Acma proved further. His right hand swiped horizontally indicating all the knights in front of him were garbage.

“...”

The prince’s face darken when he heard the insult. But he immediately controlled his anger when he realized that Acma must be up to something.

“INSOLENCE!!!” a bearman shouted. He raised his great axe and step forward. “Your Highness, let me kill this vermin”

A few beastmen shouted angrily while the elven were gritting their teeth and tighten the grip on their weapon. They looked at the prince, waiting for his order to attack.

The prince took a glance at the bearman and shook his head a little. The bearman understood and returned dejectedly to his line.

“Eilavel”, he called the elven knight on his right.

“Your Highness”, answered Eilavel.

“Get ready. Tighten the formation and kill the prisoners as soon as he is attacking”, said Prince Iandithas in low voice.

“Consider it done, Your Highness”

“Don’t underestimate him. His ability is quite special and he can strike anywhere. But, I think he will target me first, so watch my back”

“I will sacrifice my life to protect Your Highness”

“Go and relay my order”

“Yes, Your Highness”

Acma quietly watched the prince talking to his assistant. He was amazed on how the prince controlled himself and didn’t fall for his provocation. But he believed that calmness would soon evaporate when the bomb underneath their feet exploded.

“Alice, are you able to control all these guardians perfectly?”

“There is no problem, Master. It still within my operating perimeter”

“It’s great to hear that. I want you to teleport the stone guardians around the captured residents and secure their safety. Kill the guarding enemies”

“It will be done, Master”

“Good. I will attack that elf soon and have these great axe and great sword wielder metal guardians thrash him. Don’t kill, just incapacitate him. As the other metal guardians, have them kill those magicians”

“Rest assured , Master”

“Thank you Alice”

“You’re welcome, Master”

“Initial preparations is done. Next”, thought Acma as he turned his body toward Li Susheng and looked at everyone around.

“Everyone, I will begin soon”, he said. “Mr Li, are you ready?”

“Yeah”

“Great. Let us send these bastard back to their forest”

Everyone nodded and uneasiness seem to faded away from their face, replaced by a determine look. Acma was satisfied with their response but when he looked at Li Susheng again, he frowned. He could sense a hesitation on the latter’s face.

“Mr Li, are you sure you can do this? You seem to be hesitated” he said.

“Wha.. what are you talking about? I’m ready. It’s just pressing a button. What’s hard about it”, Li Susheng stuttered.

“...”

“Okay then”, said Acma short as he turned around and facing the enemies.

He took a deep breath and threw away all disturbing thoughts. Then he step forward with his left leg and began running.

'PHANTOM STEP'

As soon as Acma disappeared, the bodies of the guardians began to glow and then disappeared. Three of the Supreme Guardians headed toward the magicians in front of the enemy’s troop while the two heavy weapon wielder ran toward Prince Iandithas.

Acma reappeared with his left forefoot stepped on Iandithas left shoulder. His body tilted a little to the left while both of his hands spread to balance. He accumulated energy and then sent it to his right leg that was swinging toward the back of Prince Iandithas’s head. Acma was kicking the head as a ball.

The body of the prince shook as he reacted to Acma’s sudden reappearance and began to glow with purplish light, but it was already too late.

“Baaammmm”

The forming purplish light shattered as Acma’s leg connected to the prince’s head and exploded a loud booming sound.

The impact of the kick threw Prince Iandithas flying toward the two Supreme Guardians. The great axe Supreme Guardian stopped to fix its stance and welcome the prince by swinging its great axe downward toward the prince’s back.

The prince saw a pair of metal legs on top of his head and another pair shifting toward his right. They were a bad news. He hurriedly recast his purplish glow and focused it around his back, but to his despair, he saw a black great sword swung toward his right thigh.

“Baaaamm”

Another booming sound and the prince’s purplish light shattered again. Both attacks left the prince disoriented and his body slammed the ground a few metres from the barrier.

On top the prince’s mount, Acma’s eyes glowed brightly when the attack of his guardians connected to the prince. He produced a great axe in his hands and ready to join his Supreme Guardians whacking the pitiful prince. At the same time he heard numerous shouting and screaming from behind the troop indicating that his guardians were engaging the enemies.

But, he didn’t hear the explosion.

He suppressed his worries by thinking, maybe Li Susheng only delayed a little but would press the detonator soon.

'PHANTOM STEP'

Acma ignored the shouting elven knights behind him who just woke up from their shock and joined his Supreme Guardians.

There still no explosion.

Acma raised his and searched for Li Susheng only to see the latter’s teary eyes and his mouth saying, “I can’t”.

“Tsk”, Acma clicked his tongue.

“Alice, detonate the bomb”, he ordered.

“Yes, Master”

‘BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM’

A pandemonium erupted after the bombs went off. A fiery orange flames engulfed the majority of the knights while the blast waves killing them indiscriminately. A stone shards became a shrapnel that killed or injured the knights outside the blast radius. the surviving knights fell on the floor, clutching their ears. their bodies twitching. the same goes to the captured residents. They too weren't spare from the effect of the explosion.

Everyone was gobsmacked. Even the crying Li Susheng halted his teardrops from falling when he saw the results of his plan.

Acma stood up next to the unconscious prince. His sudden attack had successfully incapacitated the target.

“Alice, bring this elf into the temple”, he ordered.

“Yes, Master”

He heard a repeated shout to his left.

“PROTECT THE PRINCESS!!” “PROTECT THE PRINCESS!!”

Acma smiled faintly when he heard that. He found his next target who was surrounded by her guardians, protecting her from the blast.

Acma calculated the distance and ...

'BLINK'

Acma reappeared on the Golden Horn Unicorn’s neck while holding the great axe in his left hand.

“Hello Princess Nidhwen. You will come with me”, he said to the princess whose face was drain of blood.

Before the princess or everyone around her could react, her chin was hit by a backhand, jolted her brain and rendered her unconscious.

Acma put the princess on his shoulder and ready to teleport. He wanted to use the princess to stop the knights from killing the residents.

“BASTARD !!!! RELEASE THE PRINCESS RIGHT NOW!!!” the guard captain shouted menacingly while branding his sword.

Acma scoffed a little. Then he swapped the great axe in his hand with a battle hammer and swung it at the base of the unicorn’s horn. His target was the Slave Ring that enslaved the unicorn.

‘Clank’

The ring shattered and at the same time, the princess’s body jolted and then she coughing blood. The eyes of the unicorn immediately regained its clarity as well as the horn which regained its golden colour.

‘Crackle’ ‘Crackle’ ‘Crackle’

A wisp of electricity formed around the horn and the sky began to rumble.

Acma raised his head and looked at the sky. No black cloud were formed so he had no idea where the rumbling sound came from. But he was sure that something is about to happened and he didn’t want to wait for it.

'TELEPORT'

At the same time Acma and the princess disappeared, the unicorn raised its front hooves and multiple lightning snaking through the air and hit several knights around it, followed by a loud cracking sounds of thunder.

“That was unexpected. It must be suffered a lot during the time it was enslaved”, thought Acma as he watch the unicorn stabbing the chest of a knight with its horn. Occasionally, the unicorn would release a lightning attack on the knight before stabbing them with the horn.

Acma was standing on a guardian’s shoulder and its spear was impaling a body of a female magician. Acma looked around him. The destructiveness of the bomb was evident. Craters were formed, body parts were scattered everywhere, the blood were dying the ground red and painful screaming were quenching everyone’s heart.

However, the knights weren’t the only one who lost their lives during the battle. A number of the residents too. Some of them were cut by a sword and some of them were impaled by a sharp root, jutting from the ground.

The surviving residents were surrounded by the guardians who were fending off the attacks from the knights. Since all the three magicians who were guarding the residents were already dead, the guardians burden was lighter.

Acma grabbed the back of the unconscious princess’s neck and raised her.

“KNIGHT OF FOREST, STOP YOUR OFFENCE!!!” he roared.