"What kind of beast is that?" The general spoke while intently watching Idris. His eyes were sharp and if you looked at him you could tell that he was a experienced veteran in the knights. It also explained his high status.
Not only that, his strength was far beyond the commander's too.
His short black hair was a perfect match to his relatively small face. His body was well trained and one could see his muscles from only a glance.
"Well..." Commander Hermann said hesitantly, "It is no beast. It's actually just one of the kids that lived here, that suddenly transformed into that creature after trying to hurt one of the soldiers. Thereafter, all of our troops fled, because of its strength. I tried my best t stop it, but it is just too strong for me to handle."
"I see. Please say, do you think I would be able to defeat it?" The general raised a reasonable question.
All of the knights were confident in the power of their superior officer, but what they've seen from the creature that was still standing still, its gaze fixated on general Hopkins, was amazing. It had no disadvantage against their commander, even more, it had almost killed him.
"I believe your power should be enough to deal with him. Even though he's strong, he only has the strength of a 6th layer Body Tempering Realm." Commander Hermann said without hesitating. From what he had seen so far, the boy's power should never be able to even touch the 9th layer of Body Tempering Realm which the general had already achieved a long time ago. He was on the verge of breaking through to the 10th layer.
The general smiled slightly and then responded: "Haha. Thank you, but I'm still a small fry in the eyes of the other generals. But it's good that I don't need to fully exert all my energy in this little fight."
Hopkins was the weakest of the 5 generals. The other 4 were all above the Martial Beginner Realm, which was a huge power jump. They were several times stronger than him.
His gaze locked onto Idris again. And, as before, he again felt the immense pressure weighing down on him from above. Even so, he did not move and did not loose his cool.
"Then let us start the fight." General Hopkins commenced the battle. He charged in at the perplexed Idris that hadn't thought the fight would start so swiftly.
A jab came from the front. Idris could barely defend himself and could only try to avoid the punch. After he dodged, a kick came flying towards his head. Idris held up his hands to stop it, but it was so powerful, he flew sidewards onto the ground.
General Hopkins shook his foot and praised Idris: "Wow, the flames on your body are really strong. I almost burned myself."
Idris stood up again while moaning. It was the first time while being transformed, that he felt pain. And it wasn't light.
He became angry, his face turning into an grimace. He was no longer calm. The power inside of him had suddenly welled up and took over his body.
He ran forward without thinking. Only after another kick of his opponent, did he snap back and calmed down again.
The general smiled and took a lance from his back. The sword had the same silver color as his armor. He got into a battle stance.
He had the plan to fight over distance. From what he had seen before, his opponent could only use close combat magic. So, as to defeat the creature, he had to hold the range between them
He began to try to prick Idris. But Idris was not so easy to defeat and loaded another one of his darkness spheres, this time in front of his chest, while dodging all the attacks of general Hopkins.
Suddenly the body of his oppenent shone blue. The general's element was water and he used the water particles in the air to strengthen himself. They formed droplets which flew into his open mouth. Their power became his and his power increased drastically.
He also imbued his lance with his energy. He suddenly became faster. His weapon sliced through the ball of darkness Idris held and it disappeared.
Since the general was too fast for Idris to react, he eventually got his right leg cut off. He fell to the ground in pain. Black blood came flowing out of his leg. Even the flesh and the bone one could see now were as black as the blood.
Idris began to scream. He had never felt such excruciating pain in his life. He crawled away from his opponent. But he was too slow.
General Hopkins stepped down onto the chest of Idris. He made his opponents' bones break. He took his lance and held it before Idris' face.
He switched it from the right half of his face to the left. "Which side should your skull be opened from?" Hopkins asked.
Idris said nothing, only groaning heavely. Because of this, the general took his chance and stabbed into the left half of Idris face. The screams only grew louder as the elemental energy of his opponent flowed into him, destroying the left half of his face.
After minutes of screaming, Idris suddenly stopped. His body didn't move either.
Another minute passed, making the knights on the side mumble. They thought the creature must be dead.
After another minute passed, even the general thought that Idris was dead. But in the moment he turned around to announce his victory, the power inside of the creature suddenly exploded. But instead of attacking the general, Idris stood up, his leg repaired, and started to run.
He knew he had no chance against his current opponent. So he fled. Even though he didn't want to, it was his only chance.
His leg and chest had been recovered, but the left side of his face was still in the healing process. The process would also turn slower, if he spent his whole energy on escaping. So it would probably still need twenty minutes or so.
He charged towards the forest.
"All troops after him!" General Hopkins ordered in an angry tone. Of course he wasn't happy. He had just been fooled by a little child.
All of the knights strated to move. Like flashes of light did they charge into the forest with the general at the front.