Thalia instantly noticed his changed expression and wondered what was going through his head when James turned away from the stalker and looked behind.
Following his line of sight, Thalia did the same but noticed nothing. However, she knew James wouldn't act that way if he didn't sense anything.
'More intruders?'
"Get ready, we have company."
James said without taking his eyes off the direction his gaze was in.
Thalia nodded with a solemn gaze, retrieved her mage staff and got her spells at the ready. She hadn't done much since they got here, and if possible, she preferred it that way.
'But leaving all the fighting to James would make me look like a damsel, and that is the last thing I want him to see me as.'
The stalker having seen James turned his head away looked towards the sides as he weighed his chances of escaping with his life.
'I could make a run for it. But that could be my end if he is intentionally turning his back on me.'
Looking at James's imposingly tall figure and expression, he swallowed down the saliva in his throat and decided to stay put, and as if by design, he saw James grin slightly in his direction.
'I knew it!'
...…..
Feryn and his men moved through the forest at breakneck speed the moment they received the notice that someone had spotted James Allan.
Some time ago, after Zarek had shown him the face James was currently wearing, he commanded one of his men to make a poster with that image and dispatched some of his people to spread the posters.
He even made sure to send a copy to his young lord, but the response he received was to not mess this up as they would send reinforcements to intercept his path towards the main grounds while they waited there.
Zarek himself had separated from the squad as he explored his own opportunities and would join them once he was done. His only condition was that they spared the woman moving with James.
"Remember, our target is at the Stellar Attunement level like all of us. Under no circumstance are you to underestimate his abilities.
"We go in fast and finish him before he knows what hit him, am I clear?"
"Yes, captain."
His team affirmed their understanding as they got closer to the location of the stalker. After a few minutes of manoeuvring through the forest of trees, they got close enough and came to an abrupt stop.
With narrowed eyes and guard up, Feryn moved in slowly with his team behind him. The location was just a few meters away and they needed to be as stealthy as possible.
He made hand gestures for some of his men to spread out and circle the area while the rest moved in.
Soon, he spotted the silhouette of someone with the stature of a male and deduced it was James. He slowly retrieved his sword and then signalled his men to get ready when he lost sight of James.
"!!"
Feryn's eyes widened in horror as he saw James appear right before him with a clenched fist and a vicious grin on his face.
He didn't even see him move!
"Don't bother!"
His heart skipped a beat at that moment as he quickly attempted to bring his sword forward to block the punch.
The blow landed on his sword and instantly snapped in two as the momentum carried the fist forward and connected with his face.
*BAM!*
His facial bones cracked under the weight of the blow and his jaws dislocated, turning his face more than 90 degrees before being sent flying.
*BOOOM!*
Feryn slammed into a large tree to his back as it exploded at the point of contact, bringing the tree and the ones around it down with him. He couldn't feel his face nor could he tell whether he was conscious as a helpless moan of pain escaped his broken jaw.
"CAPTAIN!"
His men bellowed as they ignored James and rushed towards him. They had forgotten their training in that moment of shock. Even the ones that went sent to surround the area forgot their task and rushed back, fear gripping their hearts.
But that was a mistake.
James did not have any sympathy left for anyone associated with his enemies and be they male or female, he would treat them equally: kill them without mercy.
"Big mistake!"
James bellowed and retrieved two daggers and closed in on the others. His shout returned some of them to their senses and they turned in his direction.
But what they saw was something that left them frozen in fear as their stomachs churned in abject horror and revulsion.
James had appeared before one of the men and carved them with the expertise of a butcher. His daggers moved swiftly, with absolute precision and aim.
He slit the throat of the first one leaving a large cut that left no chance for a healing spell to fix before moving to his next victim.
Then appearing by the next person, he plunged one of the daggers directly into their head and swiped out in a reverse grip that split the man's head in two as brain matter gushed out like a fountain.
Not waiting around to inspect his handy work, he moved towards the next person and killed them in the most brutal and horrifying ways imaginable; ways that even trained knights couldn't stomach.
Blood flowed and gushed out like a broken fountain as the ground and small plants were bathed in it.
The cries for help and pain resounded through the forest like an ongoing festival jam. The men couldn't move, not only out of fear but from something else that planted them in their spots.
James's aura was suffocating!
That and the vicious grin and glint in his eyes made it all the more overwhelming. It felt like they were carrying the weight of the entire world on their shoulders and when their eyes met his bright red ones, they shuddered.
'What is this…?'
One of the men felt like crying as he watched James kill men he called brothers. He was paralyzed as none of them expected this from the man they had known to be kind and noble.
Nothing about what they were witnessing was remotely close to what they remembered of him. It was like an entirely different person at work.
Soon, James came to a stop when there were just a few of them left. From the numbers of over 20 knights, now down to seven when Feryn was included was what was left of them.
Slowly, James turned around with his figure bathed in the blood of his kills with pierces of flesh sticking to his body.
His red eyes glowed brightly and his aura flared more wildly as he slowly walked towards the rest of the men who could move their feet, shaking like leaves under the might of the wind.
*Gulp*
A collective gulp was heard the moment James arrived before them. Most of them were at the Stellar Attunement level, yet the prowess James displayed was beyond what they knew.
Feryn himself was close to the peak of that level, yet he was taken out with one punch.
"Do not blame me for what I'm about to do to you. You have done no wrong and simply followed the will of your masters.
"But…
"A price has to be paid for coming after me."
His voice was cold and devoid of any emotion besides indifference. Yes, he did not feel a thing for the men he just killed. He wasn't even aware that he had a vicious grin on his face while he killed the lot.
One of the men who managed to recover a bit from the overwhelming pressure gritted his teeth and spoke.
"Y-you… what happened to you?"
There was no point in trying to plead with James as he knew he wouldn't space them. After all, they came with the intent to kill. They needed no reason other than the ones their lords gave them.
Glancing his way, James's expression remained stoic.
"You should have asked your masters. But do not worry, they will be joining you soon enough."
Without further ado, he killed them all by plunging his daggers into their heads from the chin, spraying blood everywhere.
His movements were swift and precise as the men couldn't even see him make a move. Their eyes widened in horror as blood spilt from their head orifices before falling to their knees and on the ground.
Their death wasn't a slow one as the men choked on their blood and struggled to breathe. They wriggled on the ground for some time as the death slowly claimed them into its cold embrace.
James watched all this with an expressionless face. He felt nothing, nothing at all. Maybe a bit of anger for being the men of his enemies, but nothing.
'But I didn't have to be this brutal, did I?
'But it's useful. This way I won't feel bad for killing them.'
He questioned himself and stared at the blood-stained daggers in his hands. He didn't quite understand why he chose their heads when there were other ways of killing them cleanly, it just came naturally to him.
With one last look at the now dead men, he turned towards the captain who was still out cold and slowly walked towards him.