17 Battle Begins

Seeing their enemies making move against them, Martin, Jack, and Natalia all made their moves as well in response.

As Natalia started to chant her strongest spell, Jack met one of Jacob's underlings in close combat, while Martin took on Jacob and the other underling to give Natalia more time.

Jack's opponent was more of a defensive type. She had no weapons, but used arm guards to both attack Jack, and to block his daggers. Still, it seemed as if Jack still held the advantage with his speed and precision.

Jack, using his speed, tried to constantly circle this woman as he tried to make calculated attacks against her. Leo did not know this, but Jack was trained at a very young age concerning the body. Being an assassin type, Jack knew every weak point when it came to the human anatomy.

Every household within their city, had different specialty types when it came to both weapons and warrior class types. For Jack, his household was the assassin type, which meant that Jack was trained to not attack enemies head on, but rather, to remain in the shadows and strike with a killing blow.

Jack, unfortunately, did not like fighting his opponents with that type of method. Adventuring so long with Martin, Jack realized that assassins could fight in a more up front and close combat styled battle. Changing his fighting methods over the years, Jack finally came up with his own strategies to fight his opponents.

After several minutes of fighting and trying to take advantage of some openings, Jack was finally hit backwards by the woman's attack. It was almost as if this woman allowed Jack to tire himself out while thinking he held an advantage, while she waited for an opening herself to finish him quickly.

Being knocked back with only a single hit, Jack started to feel extremely uncomfortable. Scanning his opponent more closely, Jack realized that all of his previous attacks had done no damage. "Chain mail?" realizing that his opponent wore armor that his daggers couldn't pierce through, Jack decided to change his battle tactics to a battle of endurance.

On the other side of the battlefield, Natalia was able to unleash her strongest spell which landed a direct hit onto Jacob's other underling. Unfortunately, due to fighting off both Jacob and the underling, Martin's endurance was slowly fading.

Natalia, quickly chanting many spells, in what could only be considered a chain, was able to subdue Jacob's other underling for a short period of time. This underling was rather frail, but used his scimitar with his high speed against his opponents.

Natalia found herself unable to pause her spells for even a single breathe, because her opponent was not only fast, but he was able to use his weapon to break out of her spells with ease. If Natalia was more experienced and had higher spell capabilities, she could have made this battle last for hours, however, she was still only an apprentice!

It seemed as if Jacob's underlings had more battle experience compared to Martin's group. Using his scythe, Jacob was able to continuously push Martin back while damaging his full suit of armor.

Knowing that Leo was hiding a short distance away, Martin did not give up while fighting now in a one on one battle with Jacob. Though continuously being pushed back, Martin did not allow Jacob any life threatening openings.

"Hahaha! Die die die!" Jacob started yelling out battle cries towards Martin as he saw Martin slowly being pushed back by him. Jacob was not a paladin type of warrior, but, he felt rather strong being able to push back a brute like Martin all by himself with just his raw strength alone!

"Martin! You will forfeit your life today. You do not even have the ability to bring out my full power!" Jacob cried out as his next several blows started to send Martin flying against many trees, causing them to break apart. Martin was now in a dire situation and could now see how bad things looked for the rest of his squad.

However, at this moment, Martin from the corner of his eyes, saw a fast shadow heading towards where Jack was fighting his opponent. "So he finally made his move?" Martin thought as he started to drink some liquid from a small bottle on his side.

"Hey Jacob, are you ready for round two?" visually healing, Martin was back to his full power and started to charge towards Jacob's location several yards away.

"You had a vitality potion this whole time? So what, do you really think that will change your fate of dying by my hands here today?" shouted Jacob as he charged towards Martin once again. However, this time both Martin and Jacob were now evenly matched.