A huge grey tree was finally defeated. Slowly healing his wounds Leo approached the tree and tried to extinguish the fire. He noticed that the fire caused smoke to ascend in the sky creating a beacon of troubles. If a guard noticed the smoke trail he would probably come to investigate and could find Leo.
After the fire died down Leo retrieved his sword and quickly left the vicinity. He was extra careful to make sure that the flames wouldn't spread and destroy the whole garden blowing his cover.
While Leo was walking away he heard footsteps nearing him. Quickly taking cover in the bushes Leo heightened his senses and held his breath. Soon after Leo hid a group of 5 knights stepped out of the greenery. The knights' armor were golden and they all held longswords that seemed to pulsate yellow glow.
Unknowingly Leo took a step back. He felt that enemies before him were powerful. Leo knew that he couldn't leave them alive; it would be bothersome if they ambushed him while he was fighting the vampiric beast. While thinking about the boss fight, Leo suddenly felt uneasy.
" How strong is the beast ? "
Shaking his head to get rid of useless thoughts Leo slowly stood up and started tailing the knights. He noticed that they were approaching the burnt tree. When they reached the burnt tree's vicinity Leo wanted to climb on one of trees to have better vision on the enemy. He stabbed his dagger into a nearby tree's trunk to make sure it's not a beast. Not seeing any resistance he leapt on one of the branches and saw a burnt area with a Man-Eating charcoal in the middle of it.
The group of knights was inspecting the tree seemingly looking for any clues. After a few minutes of fruitless search they gathered together and started communicating using some muffled words as well as hand gestures before separating and running off to different directions.
Seeing the knights' actions Leo smiled. He understood some of the words knights used and knew their plan.
The knights wanted to separate and explore the whole garden searching for the one who killed the tree. After a few hours they will once again gather near the burnt tree to discuss what to do next.
Leo quietly thanked fate for separating the knights. He scanned all the knights searching for his first prey. His eyes locked on the knight that was running towards his hiding place. While waiting for the knight to pass by his tree Leo took out his sword and counted till 5 before jumping down on the enemy.
Boom...
Leo descended quickly picking up the momentum while preparing to swing his sword. At the last second, the knight felt the danger above and pulled out its sword trying to defend from Leo's attack. Fortunately for Leo the knight was too slow.
[ Undead { Royal Knight } Defeated... ]
[ Reward: +125Xp ]
After the collision Leo's hands were shaking from pain. The knight's armor was very tough, even piercing through its helmet was hard. Biting his lips he noticed that some cracks started forming on his sword's blade. Looking at now retired knight's sword, Leo noticed that its condition was perfect and put it in the inventory before escaping from the vicinity. While running he heard a set of footsteps closely following him. Leo wanted to look back, but though that it might lose him a few valuable seconds. Initiating a fight near the knight's friends would be a suicide. He started pumping Mana into his legs, leaving white Mana trails behind him and reaching speeds that were impressive for an Awakener Rank human.
The chase continued for a few minutes and Leo's hands were now healed and in perfect condition. Just to be safe Leo ran a few minutes more, so his chaser would be fully separated from the other knights and wouldn't receive any assistance in the fight.
Stopping in his tracks Leo took out his newly acquired sword and started swaying it back and forth while waiting for the knight to catch up. He didn't need to wait long, soon an undead wearing golden armor stepped out of greenery eyeing Leo with his flame-like eyes.
The skeleton didn't attack Leo instantly; at first it tried to communicate with him, but Leo, who didn't see a reason to talk with an undead bolted towards the knight clenching his sword with one hand. He knew that the armor skeleton wore was hard and he didn't have enough strength to pierce through it with only one hand, but wanted to have another hand to be more versatile. He found a simple solution, before the fight, while he was running, he put 5 additional Stat points into Strength.
Stopping right before the knight Leo swung his sword horizontally trying to split the knight in half.
Clang...
A loud sound of metal hitting metal echoed in the vicinity. Leo's strike was abruptly stopped, by the knight's longsword perfectly blocking the slash before it reached its peak momentum. Not minding that his attack was completely defused Leo used his free hand and threw a punch at the knight's face. Because of his Transformation ability and Bloodline Leo's body was far stronger than other Awakener Rank humans, hence he could punch hard surfaces without any fear of breaking his bones.
Boom...
The punch held so much force that as soon as it landed on the knight's head the undead had to take a few steps back. Not wasting opportunity Leo lowered his body and aimed a kick at the skeleton's legs.
While the skeleton was still stumbling backwards he felt the ground slip under his feet, making him fall on his back. It didn't even have a second to relax, because a huge shadow hovered above him before a yellow sword descended on his neck like a guillotine.
[ Undead { Royal Knight } Defeated... ]
[ Reward: +125Xp ]
Putting his sword in the inventory Leo let out a sigh. These Royal knights were clearly stronger than the normal ones. The armor and weapons they had were better, their senses were sharper. These knights even had good battle sense. During this fight Leo also noticed that they used their bodies and swords more efficiently than normal knights.
Unfortunately for the knights Leo was also very good at close combat and skilled with weapons. After all, he spent 6 years training his body to its absolute limit.
Putting another sword in his Inventory Leo contemplated what to do next. After a few minutes of intense thinking he came to a conclusion to fight all the 3 knights together. Sure, it would be a high difficulty challenge, but Leo was confident in defeating them. He wasn't naive, he knew that fighting 3 royal knights at the same time would be a suicide. Leo quickly devised a plan to assassinate one of undead while hiding in the burnt tree's trunk.
Fighting against two almost equal strength enemies is hard, but Leo needed to learn how to fight against groups of many enemies, if not legions. His plans to find his brother involves him going to a hostile continent, The Umbra Kingdom. Leo would most probably be forced to fight against many strong enemies, hence he wanted to start making preparations early on.