"Into formation!!!" Heath shouted.
All 12 Sohei immediately started getting down from their horses.
As they were still recuperating from the shock, trying to get into battle stances, another Sohei was hooked off his horse into the dark night also with a loud cry and then silence.
"Who's there! Show yourself!"
Heath shouted.
Only the chirping of crickets could be heard.
"Fire art!, Breathing dragon technique!"
Heath jumped off his horse and performed one of the famous strongest fire techniques which involved him releasing air slowly from his mouth and manipulating his chi to forge a very large dragon-shaped flame out of his breath, lighting all the trees around on fire.
As the trees burned, the area around them was lightened and a shocking revelation hit the Sohei.
Just right above them, in mid air were figures dressed in long robes and black masks, surrounding them.
The had crack-like patterns on their clothes and an oval on their chest just like the shape of an eye where the cracks terminate.
One of them held onto a staff which was longer than him.
"It's the mages!!" A Sohei shouted.
"Attack!" Heath the leader shouted almost simultaneously.
Suddenly the mage with the staff, pointed his staff towards them and the other mages started floating speedily towards the Sohei with an attack posture.
The Sohei fought with all their strength. More mages kept coming out of the shadows as they were knocking them out.
"Dark lightning art! Dragon seal release!!".
Evro, the lightening master, manipulated chi and created an avalanche of lightning, which formed the shape of a flying eagle. It started soaring in mid-air, rapidly taking down the enemy as it cut through them with it's wings.
Then a mage suddenly formed a magic bow and arrow, aimed and shot the dragon in it's head and it dissipated. A tornado created by a Sohei showed up from behind and swept the mage, swirling him around until he hit a rock hard. A spear thrust through the Sohei's chest.
"Nooo!!!"
One of his squad members shouted.
He jumped forward carelessly in anger charging at the thruster of the sharp javelin and was struck down by two hits of a sword from above. He landed on the ground lifeless.
Wide-eyed at what he just saw, a Sohei, the one who had stressed how much he would love to rest all night, tried to retreat a bit to launch a counter attack.
As he turned and was running, he suddenly stepped his lead foot into a hole.
There wasn't any hole in the ground, but it was portal-like effect created by a random mage above and the knight fell into it. As he entered it, the portal suddenly opened from above, a few meters above the ground and he fell out straight into an already positioned sword by a mage in mid-air and it pierced right through his head.
Evro fired a lightning infused bow and killed that mage. And from behind another mage struck him so hard knocking him off the top of the tree he was standing.
He immediately gained balance with a chi-generated wind current, swerved and struck the mage hard killing him with a single chi-generated fire blow.
He went ahead on wind and struck the next. While still levitating on wind, he struck another mage, and then another. Then he was approaching the one with the staff and as he aimed flying towards him at full speed, a mage from the adjacent angle knocked him hard away and he hit a tree. As he was still down the mage launched towards him at full speed and was about to strike him with a spear when Heath suddenly jumped in-between them and knocked the mage with a devastating blow, redirecting all the energy he created flying at high speed back against him which left him flying off in another direction.
A wind arrow dashed straight at them and they rapidly shifted making it land in-between them hitting the tree.
They got up and continued fighting.
Heath fought gallantly, taking on two, three or five mages at a time.
There was simply no end to the appearance of the mages. They seemed to be ubiquitous.
Arrows fired, swords clanged, blows were exchanged.
Heath fired a gust of chi-generated wind to repel a charging mage.
The mage flew backwards and was slain by a Sohei's sword.
The mages were reducing in number.
"Ulma fatugi ironiichiii oriiea!"
The mage with the staff chanted.
A thousand flying bats appeared from nowhere and started spitting acid slime that could melt a log all over the place.
Arrrrgh...!!!
Three more Sohei screamed as the slime immediately hit them and melted them to death.
"Thunder art! Cloud of a thousand lightning bolts!!"
Evro flew and performed the technique with a loud shout.
The cloud suddenly grew darker and began to spin slowly.
As it spun, it started releasing lightning bolts rapidly killing the poisonous bats as well as the mages.
One mage who just struck down a Sohei and was about to be hit by lightning suddenly picked up the Knight's body and shielded himself, the lightning striking the Sohei dead on the spot.
"Noo!!"
Evro screamed and charged towards the mage carelessly.
As he was about to hit him, a portal opened right in his front and he unconsciously flew into it unable to quickly stop himself.
The portal closed and he disappeared out of sight.
At this time the knights were down to only three; Heath, Thoma and Usher.
The mages were few too and they cleared the remaining mages.
The ones left were the one with a staff and another one floating right beside him. They seemed to be very tough.
"ILma kargo rikchii samauna renkogan faruuzei!"
The staff mage chanted again.
Three arrows suddenly appeared at his front.
They moved at a speed faster than light, struck the three Sohei and they fell to the ground.
On seeing that their mission was complete, the mages immediately dashed off and disappeared into the dark night.
It appeared that they had killed the Sohei and their horses, well, except for one.
Usher wasn't struck directly in the chest as others were rather he was struck at his flank.
There was the sight of a ruined forest with destroyed vegetation, lots of dead bodies, and blood all over the ground and trees.
It was a gruesome sight.
After the two mages were gone, Usher staggered to his feet.
As he stood, he looked around, dazed at the sight of his dead teammates.
A tear trickled down from his eyes to his cheeks.
Everything happened so fast.
"I will have vengeance" he said under his breath.
He started staggering towards the temple.
He was the only Sohei survivor.
He came out of the forest and headed north east before he would then head west after walking about 60 meters and then would appear at the the gate of the temple.
As he was approaching the gates of the monkogon temple, from a far distance, the guards spotted him and one of them started running towards him.
Before the guard could reach him, Usher collapsed to the ground and fainted.