Souta's group was running towards the direction where Lumilia and the rest stay.
Souta noticed that someone was following them. He stopped and looked behind him. He saw the two knight leaders were following him.
"What's wrong, Souta?" Bryan asked him when he saw Souta stopped all of a sudden.
"The knights are following us," Souta said while looking at the approaching knights. The knights were carrying their young masters.
"Bryan, Fred. You can go now. Leave this to me." Souta said with a serious expression.
Bryan looked at Souta for a while before he nodded. "Okay, I understand."
"Take care," Fred said.
The two of them continued their way to Lumilia and the rest. Bryan was injured, so Souta didn't let him fight anymore, and Fred was unstable. He was afraid and he wouldn't be able to hide it in front of Souta.
"Okay, let's do this," Souta said as he stretched out his limbs. He then took out a mana potion from his bag. He drank it without a second thought. He already lost a large amount of mana from casting buff to Bryan and Fred before.
He prepared himself for the arrival of the two knight leaders.
Before that... Souta looked at the direction of the big battle. He knew that it's only a matter of time before Julius killed those people.
Julius' level was entirely different from the family head of some noble family and the head of a town. It needed several generals of the Melosa Country to stop a single Commandment.
...
Vince and Gredi, the knight leaders, stopped when they saw that Souta was waiting for them. They looked around and saw that it was only Souta. They thought that the other two already left with the Mystical Light Cherry.
They placed down their young masters and looked at Souta with a wary expression.
"You! What are you doing? Tell me where's the Mystical Light Cherry!" One of the young masters pointed at Souta and asked him.
"Yeah, tell us if you want to live." The other one said.
"Hmm... What a spoiled young noble." Souta said with an amused expression. He slowly pulled out the [Vajra Sword Saya].
"Young master, stay back," Vince said as he stepped forward to shield his master.
"We're going to finish this quickly," Gredi said and he silently gathered his mana.
"Hmm... Finish me quickly. That's something else, you know." Souta casted [Agility Boost] and [Strength Boost] on himself. He only has half amount of his mana left in his mana pool.
He then raised his hand and casted...
[Shadow Bind]!!
Their shadows burst out and tried to bind the two knight leaders, but the knight leaders weren't ordinary people. Both of them swung their sword, which was filled with mana, at the shadows.
Swoosh!!
They continued to swing their sword until they cut all the shadows.
"Ah! Gredi(Vince)!"
They turned around and saw that the same shadows were strangling their young master.
Another shadows burst out of the ground in the form of a spike. The shadows went straight to the two young masters but Vince sliced the shadow spikes with his sword.
Vince looked at Gredi and said, "You deal with him. I'm going to protect them."
"Okay." Gredi nodded and he charged towards Souta.
"He~" Souta slashed his sword.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Metallic sound echoed each time their weapons collided. Sparks flew out and Souta was slowly getting pushed back.
Several small cuts appeared in his arms and chest. The knight leader Gredi was better than him in the sword fight. He couldn't afford this to continue.
"Ah!" Gredi shouted as he slashed his sword towards Souta.
Swoosh!!
"Argh!" A huge cut appeared on Souta's chest. It spurted out blood but he ignored it and took a distance away from Gredi.
Souta knew that fighting an injured knight leader wasn't going to be easy with his current strength. The [Sword Mastery] of Gredi was higher than him by two levels.
Gredi gripped his sword tightly and he chased after Souta.
Suddenly, his foot sunk in the ground.
Souta smirked at this and a red light covered the Vajra Sword in his hand. He swung it towards Gredi who couldn't move in his position.
He already prepared the [Mud Slide] spell all over the whole place. Only he knew where it is and no one else. This was his advantage against the opponent who was clearly above his level.
If the two knight leaders weren't exhausted from fighting the Earth Crawler Ape then it would be a different matter.
[Crimson Moon]!!
Vince was about to help Gredi when Souta casted another [Shadow Bind] and [Shadow Spike]. The spells casted by Souta caused Vince to stop.
Spurt!!
Gredi tried to block the attack but the attack was powerful and it broke his defense. It left a huge cut on his chest, the same as Souta.
He gathered his mana and smashed the ground.
Boom!!
He kicked the ground hard enough so that he could get out of the [Mud Slide] spell.
Souta opened his palm and aimed it at Vince. He shot the [Shadow Ball] spell. He then gripped his sword tightly before he slashed the air in front of him.
[Cross Moon]!!
Cross slash flew towards Gredi who was distancing himself from Souta. He raised his sword in front of him to block the slash.
This was the other equipment skills of the [Vajra Sword Saya]. [Cross Moon] was a long-range skill and it could travel very fast. Souta could also control the direction where it's headed.
Bang!!
"Argh!!" Gredi gritted his teeth as pain assaulted his body. "This guy is strong." He muttered.
Souta prepared himself to cast the [Crimson Moon]. When he suddenly vanished from his position. He replaced the [Shadow Ball] that flew towards Vince.
Swoosh!!
"Wha-" Vince was surprised when he saw this. He didn't expect that Souta would appear beside him. He didn't prepare himself at all for this development.
He was just going to avoid the [Shadow Ball] but Souta appeared in its place.
"Surprise." Souta grinned as he swung his sword using the skill [Crimson Moon]. He aimed it at the neck of Vince, attempting to kill him with one strike.
Swoosh!!
Vince reacted quickly by moving his body sideways. Still, the sword sunk in his flesh drawing out a huge amount of blood.
He was cut from his left shoulder down to his belly. It wasn't a simple injury at all. If he couldn't treat it in time then there's a possibility that he would die even with his extraordinary physique.
Vince gritted his teeth and shot a kick to retaliate.
Swoosh!!
Souta raised his hand and he blocked the attack. He flew out but he managed to stabilize himself in the mid-air before he landed on the ground.
He held the cut on his chest and felt the blood flowing out nonstop.
He looked at Vince and charged at him but Gredi appeared in front of Vince. Gredi faced Souta in a sword fight once again.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
[Shadow Bind]!!
[Shadow Spike]!!
[Shadow Ball]!!
Souta casted his spells consecutively while exchanging blows with Gredi. He knew that he wouldn't be able to beat Gredi in a sword fight. He needed tricks to defeat someone at Gredi's level.
Gredi have to protect the two young master while also protecting himself from Souta's spells.
Vince didn't have enough to protect others with his condition. He got careless and that nearly took his life.
[Cross Moon]!!
[Cross Moon]!!
Souta used the skill of his sword. Red slash flashed and it flew towards the two young masters.
"Damn!" Gredi cursed as he knew that Souta was deliberately targeting his young master. He gripped his sword tightly and he collided at the red slash.
Boom!!
The other slash went on the ground and before it exploded. It caused the smoke and dust to shot up. The smoke covered Gredi and the two young masters.
Souta bent his knees and threw himself while casting [Shadow Ball] towards Vince.
Swoosh!!
He used the skill [Dash] to increase his running speed. In just a second, he arrived in front of the thick smoke.
He pulled back his hand and used [Stab] repeatedly.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several holes appeared as he kept stabbing his sword nonstop. He felt his sword sunk in the flesh of Gredi. It's not just Gredi, the two young masters were also stabbed by his sword.
Souta followed it up by using [Crimson Moon].
Swoosh!!
He didn't even need to see if they died as the system prompts sounded in his mind. He blinked towards the [Shadow Ball] that he casted before.
Swoosh!!
He saw that Vince was already waiting for him to appear. Souta expected this so he quickly slashed his sword.
Clang!!
"Hmm...?" Souta stopped moving and he looked up. He saw a four-meter rock flying towards their direction.
He quickly jumped back to avoid the burning rock. Vince also jumped away.
Boom!!
Boom!!
Boom!!
It's not just one explosion that occurred but numerous explosions happened at the same time. The burning rocks from the sky were falling down and it was destroying the whole forest.
Boom!!
Boom!!
Souta looked up in the sky. He then placed back his sword in its sheath. He looked at Vince once more before he left.
"See you later. I've already completed my quest here."