Faces of relief across the army were quickly repced by faces of dread and terror. Just when they thought their nightmares were coming to a close, they realised it had only just begun. The howls could only mean one thing. They were in the territory of a monster and from the sound of it, it was a big one— or big ones.

  The soldiers all looked towards the only person who could potentially save them from this plight, the Arch Knight. Damien noticed the looks the soldiers were all giving him. Their hopeful gazes glued to him. Expectations brimming in the depths of their eyes. Unfortunately, Damien had to disappoint them. He pried his gaze away from them and shook his head. The soldiers knew instantly. The Arch Knight could not help them. Even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to help them all.

  The sound of paws rustling across the ground could be heard. They were rapidly approaching. The sound was thunderous. There were many of them. The monsters they had been fighting and repelling heard the sounds. They wasted not a moment and rushed out of the area, even those that were feasting on the corpses. When a beast stopped their feast to run away, it was a terrible omen, heralding a greater threat.

  The soldiers turned towards their remaining hope. Their commanding officers and the mages atop the golem carriage that resembled a humongous spider. They had dozens of Syers at their beck and call. They were well aware of their combat prowess. With them here, victory was possible. However, they could never imagine just how cowardly their commanders would turn out to be.

  The howls resounded once more, louder than it had been. The soldiers’ panic grew and Henry’s anticipation grew along with it. If it wasn’t for the Arch Knight, he would have long left the soldiers to their own devices. They were a bunch of frail men led by suicidal fools who had more power than sense. The Arch Knight was the only one worth his time. The mages and the Syers were the problem. The former was full of tricks while the tter was formidable and resilient.

  Soon, the source of the howls made their appearance. They were wolves standing over seven feet tall, devoid of fur but covered in spikes. The cws on their paws were akin to the talons of raptors. Their limbs were too long for their bodies, forcing them to crawl and creep. They were barely wolves but it was the closest animal they resembled. Their appearances made Henry shiver but not daunted. These wolves took one look at Henry and left him alone. They were wise like the other creatures of this forest. The instincts of beasts. Henry was not to be messed with, lest they invited their own extinction.

  The army went deeper than they already had into their panic. They were exhausted from their battle. They were outnumbered. They didn’t even have the opportunity to rest and now, they were facing off against other waves of monsters, bigger and stronger. It was futile but they had no choice. They had to fight. At the very least, they had an Arch Knight, mages, and Syers. There would be casualties but they would at least win, or so they thought.

  Just when they thought things couldn’t get any worse, it did. Their commanders made their decisions. The soldiers naively expected the mages to join in the defence but instead, they ran. The golem carriage rushed past them into the distance with the Syers trailing hastily behind it, leaving the soldiers to fend for themselves.

  “Fucking cowards!” Damien growled at the sheer cowardice of his superiors. He knew they were cravens but he didn’t think they would be cowardly enough to abandon their troops.

  The wolves witnessed the same pathetic scene and they knew the time couldn’t have been more ripe. They began their assault. They dove into the ranks of the army and the soldiers were powerless to defend themselves. Their cries and screams rang out into the sky, far across the forest. In no time at all, the army was reduced to not even a tenth of their original numbers.

  While the remaining soldiers were in despair, only a single person remained standing and fighting, the Arch Knight. He brandished his twin swords and flourished them against the wolves that lunged at him from all sides. He cd himself in his aura like armour, shielding himself from the wolves’ nasty bites and ferocious cws.

  The Arch Knight needed only to swing his sword once and tens of these wolves were cut down from their heads to their groynes. There were thousands of these wolves but it didn’t matter for the Arch Knight. He had faced worse odds and this one didn’t even come close to the worst. He was faster than the wolves. Stronger too. He was more perceptive too. He was better than them in every way, save for numbers, but that didn’t mean anything when he alone was enough to sughter them all.

  The wolves gradually realised Damien was no prey of theirs. He was their predator and they had become his prey. When the wolves realised this fact, they began to retreat. They let out a howl and made their escape.

  Damien didn’t let them, not after what they did. He chased down the wolves and cut down the stragglers. The soldiers were all dead or dying. He could not save them. Even if he had, he wouldn’t be able to get them through the forest safely. Their fate was sealed when their commanders decided to leave them for dead.

  As Damien was chasing the wolves halfway, he stopped in his tracks. Someone had been following him since long ago. He didn’t know exactly when but he wagered he was stalked since before they entered the forest.

  “Show yourself!” Damien shouted.

  Henry obliged and exited his Camoufge. “Here I am.”

  Damien frowned. “A boy…? No, you’re no boy. You’re not even human. What are you?”

  Henry didn’t answer. Instead, he spat out a stream of fmes at the Arch Knight.

  Damien widened his eyes and dove to the side. He regained his bearings and charged at Henry with his swords bared.

  “Finally,” Henry muttered. It was the moment of truth, where he stood in this world. Damien’s swords came at him. They were fast but not fast enough to evade his senses. Still, he did not move and let the bdes come to him. It was foolish but he had to know.

  The edges of the swords pressed into Henry’s skin and also his flesh. The bdes stopped there, going no further.

  “What?” Damien blurted out. With his abilities, he could even cut steel apart as easily as carving a cake. Yet, he could not even scratch the skin of this fire-breathing monster with the appearance of a young man. He withdrew his swords and returned with a thrust with all of his strength behind it. The pointed ends of his sword dug into Henry’s skin but once again, they went no further than simply pressing harmlessly into his skin.

  “Well, this is very disappointing,” Henry said and kicked the Arch Knight away.

  Damien felt as if all the wind was knocked out of him as he stumbled backwards. He kept his stance and stumbled no further than a few feet. His Aura Armour had saved him from certain death. No doubt his body would have ruptured from that kick alone if he wasn’t protected by his aura.

  “Show me more!” Henry roared and flew at the Arch Knight.

  Damien leaned his head back, dodging the cws that threatened to tear his throat out. The cws had just been a normal hand of any ordinary man. Somehow, someway, it had turned into cws when it came for his neck.

  Henry lunged again and sshed upwards, from the feet to the head. The strength behind it was enough to cleave someone clean in half.

  Damien dodged that fatal ssh too. He countered with a twirling ssh that met no result other than tickling the monster in disguise. The monster thrust its cws at him. Damien veered to the side and drew a cut across the monster’s back.

  Henry groaned and flinched. There was no wound or bruise but it still hurt. He spun around with a kick but the Arch Knight parried the kick with his own, before retaliating with a flick of his bde that grazed his shoulder.

  Damien grunted in frustration at the absence of red on his bde when he struck the monster’s shoulder. The monster was fast and strong, but it clearly cked skill and experience. He reckoned he would have already taken the monster down if it wasn’t impenetrable. He created some distance from the monster and gathered his aura into his bde.

  Henry watched with fascination and curiosity. He could easily stop the Arch Knight but he didn’t want to. He wanted to see what the Arch Knight would and could do.

  Once the bde started shining with a vibrating glow, Damien swung his sword in a wide arc, sending a wave of energy towards Henry.

  Henry raised his hand and caught the energy projectile. The pain was immense and he was being pushed back. To his surprise, the pain grew and by the time the energy had all but faded away, there were red marks on his palm. Any stronger, he would have bled. When he raised his gaze from his palm, the Arch Knight was no longer standing where he should be. He was behind him.

  The bdes were shuddering and brimming with the concentrated energy he had gathered. The air around the bdes rippled whenever it made contact. Damien swung the bdes down on the monster.

  For the first time in a long while, Henry felt danger calling out to him. He raised his arm in defence, partially transforming. The shuddering bdes swept across his forearm and blood scattered across the air. A sharp pain rang through his body. In a momentary fit of rage, Henry sent the Arch Knight tumbling across the ground with a push and Gravity.

  “Tough son of a bitch,” Damien grunted. A ssh that would have taken down a group of Syers had merely scratched the surface of the monster’s flesh. It was not only its skin that was tough, so was its flesh and muscles.

  Henry was still clutching his arm. The pain wasn’t unbearable. He simply wasn’t used to pain due to his nigh-impenetrable skin. Even if he wanted to, there wasn’t much opportunity considering nothing gets through his skin easily save for those accursed centipedes with their sickle-like cws. He shuddered to even think about approaching them.

  “Looks like I can’t take you down without using the ugly sword,” Damien said.

  The Arch Knight’s words caught Henry’s attention and piqued his interest.

  Damien cast aside his swords and yanked off a pouch dangling by his hip. From within a pouch, he withdrew a sword that was far too big for the pouch to accommodate. The sword had a bde of a twisted shape which could be described simply as ugly. Yet, it also had a strange and aberrant charm to it. It looked as if someone had decided to cool the bde down while it was still in the melting process and smoothened out the edges afterwards.

  Henry shook at the sight of the bde. He knew what the bde was made of. Or rather, he knew where the bde was sourced from. Coincidentally, he was just thinking about it.

  Damien saw the change in the monster’s expression. There was a flicker of recognition in the monster’s gaze. It knew what the bde was and what it was capable of. There was fear in its eyes. Seeing that, Damien grinned. He had a chance.

  Henry sighed. “I suppose I have stalled long enough. Just tell me, are you truly the strongest of all Arch Knights as I have heard?”

  Damien raised an eyebrow. “What if I am?”

  “Good to know. Then I need not worry about the others.”

  Damien came to a realisation. The monster’s motive still wasn’t clear but at least he knew what it intended to do. He had to stop the monster right here and now. However—

  “Fun’s over,” Henry said and let loose his true form, casting a vast darkness on the Arch Knight who became no bigger than Henry’s palm.