Gary had done well with overcoming an opponent that was far stronger than him. Now it was my turn to do the same.
The man I was facing wasn't as skilful with the sword as Gary's opponent. The problem was his equipment. His gear was an incredibly high level. Every time we were locked in combat when I managed to get a punch in, it didn't seem to affect him at all. If I couldn't harm my opponent, there was no way for me to defeat him.
The man swung his sword at me. I knocked it away with the gauntlet and punched towards his chest again. I Hoped that a second blow in the same area might do something, but the man didn't even flinch. Instead, he responded with an overhead swing. I covered my head with a cross block. the sword clashed against my gauntlets. I stepped back and looked down at my gauntlets. There were now several dents in them. Sooner or later they would break.
*****
With the chains man's weapon now broken, he dropped the chain to the ground and pulled out a sickle.
"You're just an intermediate beast. I've killed hundreds of your kind." The man coldly said.
Noir was cautiously circling around the man. Her biggest advantage against the man was her speed. Noir then pounced with her horn forward, aiming to pierce the man. The man quickly blocked the attack and tried hacking back at Noir, but she was too fast and pounced back.
Noir repeated the same thing several times, but it was useless. The man would just block her attacks. She came up with a new plan and started running in full circles around the man. She was hoping that her speed would be too fast for the man to keep up with her, not knowing where she would attack.
The man then picked up part of the chain on the ground and threw it towards Noir. It managed to just catch her leg causing her to fall to the ground. Her leg was now injured and bleeding.
"Crap I need to do something." Gary thought. He had been watching the whole thing as he was meditating face first on the ground. Gary was trying to use his Ki hoping to recover faster. Gary had only seen Slyvia do it once but that was enough for Gary to understand the concept behind it.
Gary had now healed just enough to move. The man got closer to Noir. He lifted his sickle towards Noir ready to stab her. Suddenly, a blade struck the sickle out of the man's hand. Gary had leapt across and managed to reach the man just in time but in doing so, his wounds had reopened. Gary could no longer move and fell to the ground again.
"You idiot…it's just a beast. Why would you risk your life for it?" The man spat.
As the man bent down to pick up his sickle. Gary threw his blade towards Noir.
"Fight like your master." Gary thought to himself.
Noir jumped up to the blade and grabbed the hilt between its teeth. As the man bent back up, his head was already rolling on the ground. Noir had dashed across using the blade to slice at the man's head off.
*****
None of my attacks were working but I still had one more thing I wanted to try. I had no idea if it would work on not. It was risky.
As the flaming swordsmen saw another one of his men defeated, he quickly shot out flames of fire towards the man's head and body. This was my opportunity to strike. If there was one weak place, it would be the mask. It didn't look like beast gear. I reached out my hand and managed to grab hold of the man's mask.
As the man moved backwards, I crushed the mask making a fist with my hands. The man was uninjured but now we could see his face.
"No way!" Gary exclaimed.
Even I was shocked to see who was behind the mask. It was someone who had warned me about the dangers of the forest repeatedly. It was the squire master Lancy.
"It doesn't matter that you have seen my face, for all of you will die here today."
Lancy was in charge of helping the students if anything was to go wrong. The others must be outside looking for Lancy. Unknown to them, he was right here with us. It meant if the others went to get help, they would have to go all the way back to the city. Help wouldn't be coming anytime soon.
"You're a knight! How could you!?" Gary's blood was boiling, his face red with anger. But there was nothing he could do. He was far too injured.
"Shut up!" Lancy then shot another line of fire towards Gary. Gary tried to move but his injuries were too bad. As the flame was a few feet away from Gary, he closed his eyes.
Suddenly A wolf's cry was heard.
Noir had jumped in the way of the fire trying to protect Gary. Flames started to spread quickly all over Noir's body.
"No!" Gary cried "You bastard!"
I quickly de summoned Noir back into the system. I wasn't sure if it would do anything but hopefully, it would get rid of the flames and allow her to heal.
I stood there still. Humans were indeed pieces of trash. I didn't know if Lancy's target was me or Gary. But what was the need to get others involved? Why cause all this pain and suffering? Had Gary or I done anything to deserve any of this?
Lancy then started to charge forward towards me. His blade was now completely covered in flames.
"This is the end of you Ray Talen. Once I'm done with you, I'll kill all your friends as well."
Flames from the burning trees started to swirl and gather towards Lancy's sword. The flames had disappeared from the trees but had now completely covered his sword.
Lancy jumped in and slashed at me with his sword. I could feel the heat emitting from the weapon. It was already burning the surface of my skin. As the blade came down, I grabbed the sword with the palms of my hand stopping it dead in its tracks.
"Activate!"