92 Standing Alone

However, Kastan blocked Luna's and Silas' path. He said to their dark-skinned scout, "Asur, check behind trees."

"What? Why are you listening to that beggar? Let's go!" ordered Silas, taking the lead by moving forward. It was at that moment though that a rain of arrows flashed behind the trees they were about to head to. They all turtled behind the shields they were holding, however, one of the arrows passed through the gap and pierced Asur's shoulder.

"Back! Back! Tighten the formation!" roared Kastan, protecting Luna beneath his shield. Slowly but surely, the expedition group's casualties were increasing over time, especially within the numbers of the paid fighters. All they could hope for now was a miracle to arrive. "Forgive me, lady Luna. My inadequacy caused us to be trapped."

Emery was fighting on the front lines side by side with Gregory, however, a stray arrow pierced Gregory's leg, causing the giant man to fight with one knee on the ground. Emery did his best to fend off the incoming attackers all the while not killing them. However, battling with the intent of only rendering the enemies unconscious was much more difficult than striking the vitals.

Kastan called for Emery. And once the young man was within the encirclement, Kastan said, "Merlin, it seems you have better vision than any one of us do in this darkness. I'll leave the protection of Lady Luna and Master Silas to you as I lead the enemies away. I know I don't have to right ask you to lay down your life for them, but please, lead them to safety and back to the mansion. I am sure Master Quintin will reward you handsomely. Can I trust you with this?"

"No," said Emery in a heartbeat.

"I see…" Kastan's face fell.

"You ungrateful beggar!"

"Silas! Stop with your prejudice!" rebuked Luna to her younger brother. She remained calm and proceeded to ask Emery the reason for his rejection. "Why? Do you have something else in mind, Merlin?"

"Yes, I have a plan where Mr. Kastan doesn't have to sacrifice his life." Emery then pointed behind another treeline. "I have something on me that'll create a distraction. Once that's done, Mr. Kastan, please lead the way in toward that direction and keep running."

"That's opposite the direction of the exit! Are you in collusion with these damned Chrutins, beggar? If so, I'll kill you right—"

A slap whipped across Silas' face. Luna snapped, "Stop! Don't forget we're here because of you! If you're not going to say something helpful, then keep quiet!"

Silas still in disbelief as he rubbed his cheeks.

"Master Silas had a point though, that's leading us in not outside," said Kastan.

Kastan and Luna exchanged glances. Once Luna nodded, Kastan stood up and said, "Prepare to retreat, men! On me!"

The guards and paid fighters started gathering in a central location and made their circle formation smaller except for one person. That person didn't conform with them and proceeded to stand alone in the middle of the expedition group and the Chrutin warriors.

"Merlin, what are you doing?" shouted Luna.

"Creating a distraction," said Emery as-a-matter-of-fact, not looking back.

"Hmph, again at least that beggar knows his place. Luna, Kastan, let's go! Let's leave him" beckoned Silas. 

"No, Master Silas. Let's wait for his signal," said Kastan. 

A single, one-armed, man standing alone certainly stopped the relentless attacks of the Chrutins. That didn't last long though as an arrow from behind a tree flew straight, whistling in the air, to Emery. 

"Watch out!" cried Luna. The shattering of wood answered her call. Everyone became silent as the stone arrowhead thud on the ground.

"He's not hurt!" exclaimed one of the paid fighters.

The Chrutins then started making animal noises as if they were communicating with each other and proceeded to fire more rains of arrows. Still, no matter how many arrows they had released against Emery all of it simply deflected on his body. 

"How is that possible?"

"It's likely he's wearing metal armor underneath his mantle."

Speculate all they want but they would never guess Emery had used the spell [Stone Skin] making his skin harder than the average rock. This skill didn't completely take the sense of pain though, underneath his scarf, he was gritting his teeth.

Seeing how ineffective the arrows were, the Chrutin warriors proceeded to charge Emery with their primitive weapons. Of course Emery didn't simply stand there and took the stabbing and hackings of the Chrutin warriors, such attacks had greater behind compared to the arrows, so he dodged them but of course he wasn't able to parry all of them. Some attacks from these warriors struck him. 

Luna, Kastan and the rest expected Emery to fall, however, they watched in disbelief, just like the Chrutin warriors to see the situation was still the same. Emery was fine despite the countless hits he had been receiving. 

Emery then raised his left hand, and out came a huge cloud of black smoke covering the entire area around him. 

Kastan figured this was the signal Emery had been referring to, so he shouted, "That's it! Retreat!"

The [dark smoke] spell rendered everyone inside it unable to see except what was literally in front of them. With the cover darkness of the night as well as the dark smoke, the expedition group led by Kastan escaped toward the direction Emery had pointed them earlier. 

"Kastan! What is that just now?" Luna asked.

"It appears that Mr. Merlin is a wizard," said Kastan.

"A wizard?" Luna repeated. In the world of normal people, being labelled wizard and witches would normally strike fear as they were usually seen as people who brought great disaster with them. However, for Luna, not a sign of fear traced her face, instead a smile appeared. 

When Emery had heard Kastan's command to retreat, Emery started to unleash his real strength against these Chrutin warriors. He didn't transform but since there were no people for him to consider protecting, Emery tried to knock unconscious as many Chrutins as possible. He knew that some of these Chrutins would continue chasing the expedition group and ignore him, but his plan was never to defeat all of them single handedly. Rather it was to give the expedition group a larger space to fight as well as regroup and reorganize themselves so they could manage the smaller number of enemies.

After he had defeated about half of the Chrutin warriors, Emery proceeded to dash toward the direction he had asked the expedition to head to.

Unfortunately, increased physique, didn't mean increased agility. To get through this dense forest as fast as he wanted to, he needed to have more agility to easily pass the obstacles blocking in his way. So, as he ran, jumped and slid, he thought about training this trait too once he had the chance.

Emery followed the tracks left by his comrades and Chrutins. And based on the increasing number of dead people, both Chrutin and the expedition group, he had been passing by, he knew he was getting closer.

Soon enough, his path was becoming clearer with lesser obstacles and he began to run in a straight line, picking up speed; however, in the corner of his eyes, a giant shadow of something appeared to be running as fast as him! 

"What is that!" Emery exclaimed.

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Author Note

Thank you to my readers who came to the event in discord. 

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