A man casually jumped off from a tree and blocked the path of the escaping group. Mathis halted and so were the men behind him. He looked sideways to one of the man and the man shook his head. No one was with the mysterious man apparently he was alone and was waiting for them. They've scouted the area and neither suspicious movements nor people were spotted so the man before them was the only one who followed them all the way from the destroyed camp. The disturbing thing though was that no one ever noticed the man tailing them.
There surrounding fell into a tense atmosphere as they remained in standstill. Captain Mathis was on an adrenaline rush as he thought of different countermeasure they could to at least stop the man and buy time until the reinforcement arrives. The man lifted his hand and held the hood covering his face and pulled it down revealing his face. The mysterious man's face was white with unruly curly black hair and unusually bright green eyes. He swept his cold gaze towards them and in the blink of an eye he disappeared and appeared before Captain Mathis.
The man's hand was wrapped with wind that you could see the wind swirling around his fist and with that same hand he slammed his fist against the captain's abdomen causing him to be thrown a few meters away from them. Mathis lost consciousness and slumped on the ground, no one knew if he was still alive.
Everything happened so fast that none of them were able to react, it was as if time had stopped at that moment. One by one more of them were attacked and fell to the ground dead or unconscious no one bothered to check them all they could do was run around flustered and in a panic. They eventually scattered and ran in different directions to try and escape.
"Stay in place and defend!" Dreigh shouted in an attempt to stop them from leaving the group but no one was listening except those who knew him. The whole place was in total chaos, screams were heard throughout the area but not even a single soldier from Luelia cam and the mysterious remnant was still attacking them but they knew that the man must have done something.
They were slowly pushed back by the man's attack with only a few attacks from the man's ability. With one blow their only leader was immediately immobilized, their ranks was scattered and were probably dead while they, who had abilities were reduced to a sorry state.
Dreigh can't help but think that the man was a monster even among them remnants. People who spread the news about this high level remnants being terrifying and merciless were true and it is right for people to fear them.
"I think we are going to die in this battlefield, we are not even a match against one ability user," Rond spoke through the chaos with a resigned tone. The others shared the same belief and silently agreed in their hearts.
"You are just a coward!" the girl who can summon a tornado gave him a glare. She was called Lina which they learned along the journey. ��If we're going to die, we should die fighting and not as a coward such as yourself," she added with contempt against Rond on her voice.
After saying her piece, she summoned a large tornado that engulfed the mysterious man and she slowly compressed the tornado to crush the man.
"Endo use your fire to aid Lina's attack," Dreigh instructed. Endo didn't hesitate and he generated the strongest fire he could and fired it towards the raging tornado.
The fire became stronger the moment it made contact with the tornado and now the flaming tornado was wreaking havoc ahead of them. They waited with bated breath to see if the attack had an effect on the man, if he was even injured or dead but their hopes were cruelly crushed as countless wind blades shattered the flaming tornado. The man immerged from the tornado like he was just having a nice stroll.
"Retreat!" Dreigh immediately commanded and all of them made a run for it while he remained to face the man.
"What are you doing Dreigh?" Vira asked in surprise when he saw that Dreigh didn't move.
"I'll buy you some time, run as far as you can!" Dreigh did not look back but instead focused his attention on the man who was slowly making his way towards him.
Vira was not able to talk anymore because Endo came back to pull him away, "though I don't know Dreigh that long, I believe that he will come out of this fine." Endo spoke as they continued to run away. Vira didn't reply and also continued to run with the others.
Originally, he didn't want to show his true ability but it can't be avoided now, he concentrated his internal energy and channeled it outward, using the space around the mysterious man as a medium, he grabbed the man and using an invisible force flung him away from where he was. He followed the man while continuously throwing rocks or uprooted trees towards the man who got his balance back and floated in the air.
The moment the man saw an opening, a wind blade rushed towards Dreigh which he was barely able to dodge. He rolled to his left and controlled the other wind blades rushing towards him. He also used uprooted trees or strewn boulders as his defense while he prepares for the next attack he would do. Seeing an opportunity when the man landed on land, he used his ability to incapacitate the man directly. Dreigh then followed up by manipulating the man's internal energy while he can't move in his attempt to overload the man's core by transferring some of his internal energy incorporated in his control ability.
He could feel the man struggling but at the last moment a sneak wind attack suddenly collided with him from his left throwing him off balance and crashing on the ground like a doll swung around. A trickle of blood flowed from his mouth and from a head wound he sustained from the crash. The ground he was lying on was slowly stained with red as the wound on his side from the wind blade started to bleed. He could feel not move his body and the pain was overwhelming that he wanted to scream but he can't.
He was slowly losing consciousness and the only thought at that time was his family, his smiling sister and his serious father who were waiting for him in Westdenn. He remembered his promise and the letter he was not able to send to his sister, there were too many things that suddenly popped in his mind. Before he could close his eyes, he saw the man who was supposed to kill him was wearing a bewildered look on his face. It was like he saw something he was not expecting to see at that moment. He smiled to himself before his eyes closed with one last though on his mind. 'The man was weird.'
The man in black shakily backed a few steps away from Dreigh. His breathing became erratic and his vision was turning dark. He steadied himself and took a deep breath before he decided to turn back and left the place like someone was chasing him. He disappeared without a trace with the wind.
Vira felt that the tremors from the ongoing battle between the mysterious remnant and Dreigh suddenly stopped. He stopped on his tracks and looked back, he waited for a few moments and no one came after them. "Endo let's go back!"
Endo stopped and furrowed his brows in question, "why?"
"The mysterious man is gone," Vira added.
"How can you tell?" Endo asked not fully believing the guy.
"The tremors from the battle have long stopped but no one has come to pursue us, let's go back and look," he hastily explained. He don't want to stay there anymore and be idle while Dreigh was fighting for them.
Endo looked at the others and at Vira before he walked towards the later, "Rond and LIna you be with them and I'll go with Vira to check."
Lina and Rond nodded before they continued walking away while Vira and Endo returned to the where the fighting had happened. They reached the area and saw the destruction all the fight has caused. They did not saw the mysterious man but they still carefully walked around and checked for any survivors. They saw Captain Mathis, Vira immediately held his wrist to check for a pulse and felt that there was.
"He is still alive, I'll give a first aid while you go and find Dreigh," Endo nodded and left to look around.
Not long after, Vira heard Endo's frantic call not far away. He hastily stood up and ran to where Endo's voice was coming from. There he saw Endo crouching beside a body. He approached them and saw Dreigh's bloody body.
"Help him! He's still breathing, make it fast!" Endo urged the stunned Vira. Vira moved naturally after the shock and casted healing magic to Dreigh's wounds but he was still breathing weakly. They didn't want to move him carelessly so they were stuck while Vira continued to heal Dreigh. When they decided to finally move Dreigh, they heard the hooves of horses rushing towards them.