"You would think otherwise if you had seen how Thorus humiliated them the last time they had a mock battle. Two months ago, before the assessment of our magical affinity. I watched as 1000 young men and women fought him in a never-ending tide of attacks. Only to fail, fail, fail, fail, and fail again to land a hit or even force him to fight seriously." Esy preached to Kulum with an intense fervour in her eyes.
While I actually only used around 35-40% of my power or skill in the fight, I told Kulum something else. Instead of being truthful, I played my strength down a bit. If your enemy thinks 70% is your maximum, you will always have leverage to show your true potential. Additionally, since then, my power has grown exponentially.
"I only used 50% of my strength." was what I said, and Kulum's eyes widened as if they were about to jump out of his skull.
"We… will… need… to… prove… that… " Kulum said slowly.
"Send as many as you want, I will slaughter them all." I growled,
"Why am I scared of you?" Kulum Necron asked, his voice shaking.
"Because you should be." Esy said as a matter of fact.
The negotiations stagnated at this point. Because Kulum was unable to believe the extent of my abilities. Negotiating with someone who's worth you don't know is difficult at best.
We decided to postpone the negotiations until Kulum had a clear picture of my power. Or better of what I was willing to show him. After the incident where we showed Archibald the extent of our talent with Elemental Manifestation, he did everything he could to teach us a very, very difficult set of spells.
The Song of the Sun and the Song of the Moon. I have to admit that if he hadn't taught us these spells, the world would be a different place.
After some minor or major improvements, depending on who you ask, they become the Song of Twilight. But I jump ahead.
Kulum had agreed for the Nature guard to accompany us, under the condition that they all receive a proper evaluation once they reach the Necron Empire. I, on the other hand, had to raid a Bandit camp that made problems for a small town in the north. It was on the way the convoy would take anyway, 3-4 days away from the city.
The decision was to go ahead and let the Nature Guard follow us before we meet again at the bandit camp. My challenge was to clear the camp before the nature guard arrived. The Nature Guard had the order to move out one day after us. While Kulum and half his guards escorted Esy and me to the bandit camp to observe the challenge.
We reached the bandit camp on the evening of the fourth day. This is my first real achievement in this new world.
I send Athena out to shout the camp from the sky. In the two months she had grown a lot. Not only in strength, speed, and weight but also mentally. She was not quite able to hold a conversation, but our communication was seamless. While she scouted the bandit camp, I was able to see everything through her eyes.
It wasn't that impressive, tents and ramshackle huts in front of a cave entrance. The cave was the only thing mildly serious fortified, giving away the location of the loot instantly It was also the only place that was guarded, except the entrance of the camp. The camp was surrounded by a small wall of dirt.
I started to piece together the first spell I was going to use.
'Sun song verse one: Dawn.'
Dawn is a Rank 3 Level 4 spell, by the time the array manifested in front of me Kulum, and the guard's jaws became loose. I also stored Mana in the array so that it continuously activates. Which is called: "Automatic Chain Activation."
After Athena scouted the bandit camp and returned to a save vantage point, I activated 'Dawn'. Hundreds of fireballs were shot towards the bandit camp and descended to burn it down.
I advanced forward until I nearly exited the forest into the clearing where the bandit camp was built. Kulum followed me. He wanted to get a feeling for my strength after all.
While Kulum watched hundreds of fireballs descend and destroy most of the bandit camp before they could even react, I was already casting the next spell.
'Moon song verse one: Dusk'
I can only imagine how hard it was for the bandits to get attached by nightfall.
A tidal wave of black mist rushed out of the forest and filled the bandit camp. The mist was concentrated darkness mana that was highly flammable.
Dusk and Dawn met in the bandit camp.
/BOOM/
With an earthshaking explosion, the camp and all the bandits outside the cave transformed into ash and dust.
After the Echo of the Explosion had died away, the camp had transformed into a fiery burning pit of hell. Only one person was visible outside the cave. The cave itself was sealed by a wall of eerie black flames.
The person standing outside the cave was encased in an armor of ice. The armor itself was steaming from the heat of the flames.
A white array appeared above the camp and extinguished the flames. Snow began to fall, and the camp that was burning with gusto had transformed into a winter wonderland.
Several more Arrays appeared around him. I was sure he had yet to locate me so I changed my approach and leaped on the top of a tree from where I devised a plan to approach him, sadly the only way to approach was the sky. The amount of arrays that the bandit was summoning was immense, and more appeared the more time passed.
If I just flew through the sky, I would have been forced to reveal some of my trumpcards, so I took the death mage way out of the situation. I casted the Rank 2 Level 9 Necromancy spell: 'Field of death'
Field of Death is just like the basic awakening or arise spell. It turns corpses into mindless undead. The burned corpses of the bandit stood back up and swarmed the Ice Mage, who was forced to focus on the undead. He activated all of his arrays at once, leveling my undead as fast as I created them
After I created a distraction, I used the Rank 1 level 5 firespell: 'Propulsion' to catapult myself into the air. While flying through the sky, I saw how the ice mage decimated the undead. They never stood a chance.
I dropped from the sky with two swords in my hands. I used a technique that I got from Jeremy. After I set my direction, I started to spin my body around as fast as I could.
It was hard to watch the fight while I was spinning around at high speed. I felt that I had cut through something, and then I stopped rather abruptly. By the time the world stopped spinning, I was in a cloud of dust and debris.
I stood back up and entered a combat stance vigilantly observing the dust cloud. I was barely able to see the tip of my swords. Only after the dust settled did I realize that I stood 3 steps away from a badly mutilated corpse. I hit the ice mage, but my momentum didn't just slice him up it ripped him to shreds.
I felt mildly exhausted and sore after this stunt, so I used the time to use a skill Jeremy had learned. It was called 'Soul conversion'. It gathered the souls or the fragments of soul in the area and compressed it into one soul. Which I consumed directly. Most of the exhaustion and soreness I felt vanished instantly.
The soul conversion had kicked up a small wind that cleared the rest of the dust cloud away. I wasn't sure how much Kulum had seen, but I was sure it was enough.
After I consumed the Souls of my victims, I not only gained new strength, but I also got glimpses of their most treasured moments. Most of the things I saw were about fighting, looting, and sex. I was glad that I didn't feel those fragments the way I felt Jeremy's memories.
This way, I gained knowledge about the Bandit Leader, Gerak Palarius, aka the Bandit Lord, and his Unique Hell-flamme affinity. I also learned about the extent of Loot that was stashed away inside this cave.
I turned towards the sealed cave entrance. But before I could forcefully remove it, it vanished on its own.
In front of me stood the man, the myth, the legend, Gerak Palarius the Bandit Lord himself. His appearance was rather unsatisfying, after I saw the memories of those that worshiped him like the incarnation of a motherfucking God.
Gerak Palarius was a short and scrawny man, his frame looked like someone had kidnapped a kid and refused to feed it. But looks can be deceiving. I saw what his black flames are capable of.