during a fight, people seem to think that it is a matter of physical power. if that was the case, then I would never be able to hold the phantom city for so many years.
well, in a battle, the more important thing is to make sure that the enemy thinks that you are very powerful.
well, time for some acting. right now, as far as I can tell, the enemy is still quite dispersed, converging in this area with the passage of time.
well, the best way to Instill fear in my enemies is to suddenly attack them. shock tends to translate into fear. I quickly find my way to my first victim. they tend to be bait, setting of any kind of traps meant to target a group. loss of one person is always better than that of a group. it helps that they are trained to avoid such traps. well, they need not worry about such traps, I am not that skilled with this new type of mana.
this part of the cave is an open one, large enough to hold a small troop. I chose this place because, well for a person as agile as me, fighting in a closed place would be too hard. it also helps that this place only have one entry and one exit. I can still have a clear idea of the enemies that I face.
well, time to take him out. I suddenly jump towards him. he is taken off guard, clearly not expecting an ambush at such a place. I take that moment of surprise to close my distance between him.
he falls into a stance, almost immediately, covering all his vital points.
he has a physical type ability, seeing the sturdiness of his body he is capable of taking a lot of damage. well, these body strengthening idiots tend to forget they hold the same weaknesses as that of a normal human and that holds true to their joints also. well, I can't blame them, I don't expect them to have too much of experience in close-range fighting, what with their age and the types of enemies they face.
anyway, while thinking of all of this, I kick on the kid's leg, at his knee. while I feel like I have hit an iron pillar, the kid in front of me has crumbled. after a well-placed kick to his throat, to prevent him from screaming. I take out one of those bombs of mine and place it on him.
BOOM!!
this explosion should definitely be attracting more people. again, the brat in front of me is hurt, but it is nothing permanent.
now the hardest part will start. the still army is still stronger than me and while they do not have too much experience, they are still an army capable of fighting the wind family. (the wind family is primarily focused on their abilities. they don't have much scope for close-range combat. )
in a couple of seconds, the next waves of enemies have appeared. they are four level twos. thankfully, there are body strengthening ones here. one of the four chucks a fireball at me, another two combine their mana to form some kind of a shield while the third is ready to react to any moves I make. in theory, it is a good formation but I can see many holes in this due to their lack of cooperation. they are well trained, that much I will give them. I charge towards the guy attacking me with the fireball. they paused for a second, shocked. they must have expected me to attack the shield mages.
well, I do things my own way. I jump to the side to dodge his fireball, as he prepares a close-range spell most likely something similar to an explosion spell, but the brat is too slow. I have reached him before he could complete that spell of his. now the thing with explosion spells is that they are very dangerous. you need to release it before they can explode or they can very well destroy your arm. well, I don't want the kid to become disabled so I kick his arm upwards. the kid seems to have lost focus on the spell, not releasing it at all.
me - release it you fool.
taking my heed he releases his spell upwards. then I punch his stomach and touch a few of his nerve points. he won't be able to feel his hands for a few days. this is a useful art I learned from a blind man about one fifty years ago. the only drawback with this is it can only be used on those that do not have too much physical difference from normal humans. that already eliminates everybody with a body modifying ability. well, there are three more to worry about. they are already becoming ready to throw their spells at me. one of them is using ice-based abilities and the other two have earth-based abilities.
the ice-based kid has already formed spikes of ice. looks like this is going to be hurting me quite a bit.
he releases the spikes that he had crafted. well, I can't move this body fast enough to dodge them. well, it's fine I can take that kind of damage. ice does not have too much of a penetrative power. it should not be able to break through the armour and even if
it did, should not slow me down too much.
the earth-based kids are combining their power to pull of spells that I would expect a class seven to pull of. a smart idea, they just did not assume the time it would take to execute them. well, it will be better for me to be injured now and defeat them then let them execute those spells, so rather than dodging the ice spikes, I will charge at the earth kids.
all of these decisions need to be taken in an instant on a battlefield or you are giving your head to the enemy on a platter. describing them takes time.
the ice spikes hit me and as expected they do not pass through my wood overlord armour(i named it the middle of the fighting. once you reach my age, fighting becomes engrained in your very body. I tend to be semi-focused on most battles. very few fights need me to fight with the entirety of my focus.)
there are a few minor wounds that don't affect my performance in battle much, so I won't be healing myself. anyway, I have reached the two earth ones. they don't know what to do. they are frozen in their actions. this is what is to be expected of such young ones. well, let the two brats expect failure in their lives.
the two brats fall almost instantly, paralysed in an instant. well, this type of thing tends to be easier to execute when the other side is inexperienced. I need to look into making weapons. weapons are going to another headache to look into, just the armours have troubled me so much. well, at least it beats wasting time doing nothing at the very least.
there I going rambling again.
well, the two brats are completely taken out by me. this technique is way too effective at the lower levels.
the last one is a bit of a tough nut. he is the calmest of my potential enemies. he is clearly scared, but he is not too worried about me. that means he has somebody to rely on or reinforcements are coming. neither possibilities are any good. well, let's focus on him for now.
he is keeping his distance from me, crafting more of those ice spikes of his. well, this is going to be interesting. weapons would help in such a situation as well.
well, there is a simple way to take him out, I am after way faster than him, just that it is going to be very painful.
entering a stance to protect my vitals, I charge towards the brat. as expected he throws those spikes at my feet. well, I can't have my speed reduced so I begin to dash about it in a zig-zag manner. most of his spikes miss but the last one hits, thankfully not hurting me enough to not be able to catch up with him.
I reach up to him, but he is still not particularly panicky. I throw a punch at him, a simple move but the brat is ready for it. he seems to be trained in close combat fighting. well, this is going to be annoying.
we trade a few punches for a few seconds, the brat is pretty skilled at close combat and the brat's mana is slowing me down.
well, to take him I will need to go all out. it is kind of embarrassing that I need to do so against a bunch of untrained brats.
I am the immortal after all. well, going all out is less embarrassing than defeated by a brat a level below me and is similar to a toddler compared to me.
during all this thought I am dodging his punches, which are filled with his ice mana. my armour is good at handling physical damage but on the more magical side of the damage, it does not do much.
I will need to see what I can do about that. for now, I let him punch me right in the chest. well, the mana will take a couple of seconds to affect me.
before he can retract that punch of his, I catch that hand of his and pull his hands. that move dislocates those arms of his.
taking that moment of surprise of his, I quickly press against the nerve points, finally paralysing him. I must say I am getting rusty in all of this. close combat is not something that is well-liked by anybody, especially in later stages. there are few like that crazy tiger, who really is not a good example. he is more like a close combat mage, using that ability of his to strengthen his close combat fight. I am one of the last purely physical close fighters left in this world.
taking this moment to rest, I took note of the time that it took to defeat the brats, it took me about forty seconds to beat. not bad, considering that I did not access immortal mana reserves. remembering that I use a bit of my reserves(which took me a couple of weeks to gather again after the dragon now incident) to deal with cold mana in my body. I might be physically as strong as a third class, but that does not mean that my soul is any weaker. if I can't push away the man of a brat that has yet to see a true war were to overpower my soul and my mana, I have no right to call myself immortal. In a few seconds, the ice mana has been removed and my body has returned to its old temperature. well, I think it is time for me to deal with the brat that is trying to ambush me from the beginning.
me - well, young one how long are you going to hide in that corner. if you had helped those brats, maybe I would have defeated. you can't defeat me by your lonesome. well, you should tell me your name
that young one has been spying on me from the start, waiting for me to beat the brats. I assume some kind of internal strife is the reason for such an action. the one in front of me is a class three, which means that this is going to be an interesting fight.
winds bane - well, my name is winds bane, senior uncle.
me - what did you call me young one?
winds name - my master is a disciple of the great mind lord, as are you, senior uncle jack.