118 The Start

Although the general was standing still in an invulnerable position right in front of his eyes, Matthew wasn't able to do anything due to the general's unexpected action.

Not only was he speechless and dumbfounded by the event, Matthew could only stand still and also missed his chance to actually inflict a fatal wound to the general who had exposed his back to him.

The general jumped forward and gained some distance between him and the invisible Matthew.

After getting over his shock, Matthew then focused on his own body, particularly his mana core, and saw that he was indeed still indeed using his chameleon aura ability and the invisibility should be working just fine.

But the fact that the general is still looking straight at him right now, who supposed to be invisible to the naked eyes and even undetectable by the snake's heat sensor, makes him doubts whether he failed in using his chameleon aura ability or the general had the ability to see through his invisibility.

The general only stood still and looked at Matthew with a slight smile on his face while Matthew was busy checking his own body.

And when Matthew finally calmed down and put his focus back on the standing general in front of him, the general finally spoke,

"Are you finally done checking your own body? I was getting quite uncomfortable being left alone and forgotten here."

"And if you are still confused whether your ability is broken or something, don't worry about it since it's not. I only happen to bring the right countermeasure for the right problem."

Matthew still didn't have a single clue how the general did it and exactly how he was able to see through his invisibility.

'Did he have a special ability like the system's scanner function?'

'Or was it an aura ability that especially counters the chameleon's aura ability? Did the humans know about the chameleons beforehand? No… he said that he only knew about creatures like me exists just earlier… But how did he prepare such a specialized counter for my ab…'

'Of course, it was from the survivors, you dumb idiot…'

All kinds of thoughts were running on Matthew's mind, but only one word comes out of his mouth,

"How?" He asked the human general.

"Do you think we will fall for the same trick twice? This is why we, humans, are different from demihumans like you, we have this." The commander said while pointing at his head.

"We learn from our mistakes and we won't repeat the same blunder twice."

"There are some people with similar abilities like you, Matthew. And this magic weapon is one of the countermeasures we have for dealing with someone that has an annoying ability such as invisibility. The moment your blood touches this sword, no matter what method you use, there's nothing you can do to escape its detection."

"And knowing that creatures like you exist in this forest, I guess we will have to do more preparations before venturing deeper into the forest. Thanks for the heads up, Matthew. We will remember you as one of the top contributors for the success of our expedition into the forest."

Matthew gritted his teeth, but he wasn't able to say anything since he also realizes his stupidness and his actions so far weren't thought out properly and he could only regret it right now.

"Why don't you just surrender here, Matthew? I will keep our promise earlier and let you be the mediator between the humans and the kobolds. We can just let bygones be bygones and start our cooperation on a blank canvas. We could certainly use a guy with an ability like you. Well, the other kobolds should pay a little since they caused us minor inconveniences and they can't give real, significant benefits for us."

The moment he heard what had come out of the general's mouth, several things popped up in his mind, and his hands were starting to tremble after strange sensations started to fill up his chest.

'Minor inconveniences on your side? You're the one who suddenly appeared one day and started massacring the kobolds…'

'The first kobold kid's and the twins' parents were all dead because of you and they are the ones who are at fault because they tried to fight back and defend their village?'

'You want them to pay you back because they tried to protect themselves?'

'They didn't have any real use? Then what the h*ll are you thinking in the first place when you decide to start attacking the village and killing them?'

Seeing Matthew was silent with his head dropped down and looking straight at the ground below, the general asked,

"So, how about it, Matthew? I will even give you additional benefits than what we've promised earlier if you want to end this unnecessary duel earlier and save both of us more time."

But Matthew didn't answer the commander's questions, instead, he dashed forward and started attacking the commander. The commander clicked his tongue and looked at Matthew with an annoyed gaze while he repelled Matthew's attack and slipped in attacks here and there whenever Matthew created gaps in his attacks.

Matthew ran around the general, swung his claws at him while aiming at his neck since the general's face is the only exposed spot under the coverage of the general's full body armor.

But every time Matthew attacked, the general was able to easily defend against it. And now that the general started counterattacking, more and more wounds started to appear on Matthew's body. The only thing that keeps Matthew from even receiving more wounds on his body is his crocodile scutes which can only be pierced by a thrust.

However, the downside is that the crocodile scutes were only covering the back parts of his body and when he failed to use his crocodile scutes to deflect the general's sword, a slashing wound would open on his soft scales on the front part of his body.

Matthew tried and tried to find ways to go past through the general's defense, but no matter from which angle he tried and even when he tried using his mobility to launch an attack from an unexpected angle, the general was always able to defend against his attacks.

As time went on, Matthew's front side was already decorated with wounds all over and some new wounds were also found between his crocodile scutes, but in contrast, the general's body was free of any kinds of cut or injury, and the only thing that coming out of his body is not blood, but sweat.

"Come on, Matthew. I know you're quite smart for a demihuman and we both know that we were only wasting our time here."

"Without your invisibility, you wouldn't be able to do anything. Even my lieutenant that you killed back then was enough to deal with you if you didn't have that invisibility. You defeating me here is nothing but an unachievable dream. Look at yourself then look at me, isn't it already enough to see what the outcome would be if we continue this?"

But Matthew still didn't answer the general's question and kept on attacking him.

Just like what the general had said, Matthew's attacks weren't able to scratch the general as new cuts were appearing on Matthew's body.

"You've got significant power, but no control."

"You are using flashy moves that are wasteful and full of unnecessary movements."

"Even your timing was off a lot of times. Do I need to spell out more of your flaws so that you'll understand the gap between us?"

The general kept on defending while Matthew kept on ignoring what he said and didn't stop attacking him.

And suddenly, after his wounds and fatigue keep on stacking on top of each other, Matthew totally missed his attack and the general sent Matthew flying once again with a kick.

Although the general didn't use the same kick that sent Matthew flying 7 meters away earlier, with Matthew's weakened body, even a well-timed ordinary kick is sufficient to knock him down to the ground.

"This is only wasting my time. If you want to surrender, stay there on the ground and don't stand up. But if you decide to stand up, I will take it that you refuse to surrender and decide to forfeit your life. And this time, I will finish this for real."

The general looked closely at Matthew whose body was worn out and looked even worse than a beggar as countless small wounds covered his body and the cloth from the kobolds that he used for covering his lower body had already been torn into pieces as the general also slashed his legs whenever Matthew gave him a chance.

Even though Matthew was covered with wounds, the majority of the wounds were small cuts that didn't cut deep enough to make his blood spurt thanks to the soft scales that also covered the front part of his body. Although they were called soft scales, scales were still scales as they were generally tougher than skin.

But still, even with that, Matthew's body is in no way in an optimal condition to fight. And he couldn't even breathe properly as some of his ribs were broken and prevented him from taking a full breath without causing pain in his chest area.

Nevertheless, Matthew still decides to stand up. With a sense of responsibility in his heart and with a knowledge of knowing what would happen to the kobolds if he gave up here, he started getting his battered body up.

"I see, if that's your final choice then so be it."

And that is the sentence that started the whole thing.