28 One man army (1)

Leroux made a somerassault and jumped backwards, landing with the tip of his toes and creating distance between him and the lance squad. All the families and soldiers were dumfounded, from the moment he attacked to the moment he retreated, not more than mere second had passed. He continued to bounce in place, moving from side to side as a boxer would do.

"What's going on guys? If your lances are bent or broken you don't have a spare way to fight? I am waiting to squeeze as much information out of all of you as I can before truly fighting" the grin on Leroux's face was distorted, he was having a lot of fun and it could be seen that he was playing a cute game but deep inside his mind, his thoughts were clear and his experience told him that beyond this measly strenght that Kyus had, they possesed a card under their sleeve for extreme situations. When visiting the families, some of the lower positioned members were afraid of him but the ones with higher place in the family were wary but ready. Ready for what? That was what he told Leon and Leon gave him permission to investigate. His goal this time was to make them reveal it. That was the reason behind his pouch. He never underestimated his enemies, be it plant or beast. He always kept his guard up till the last moment and even after the fight was over he was always wary of everything in his surroundings.

It was normal for small and fast predators to wait in the shadows and attack swiftly and decisively when the injured victor tried to rest. That's why Leroux would never put his guard down, not even inside Kyus did he put his guard down. It was his bad habit, but it was a bad habit that helped him many times in his life. With a nimble movement of his feet, he shoot towards his left side with thunderous speed. What surprised everyone was the way in which he moved, he was still facing the lance squad but moving sideways like a crab. To his left the heavy armor squad was closing his escape routes. As Leroux closed in, they raised their shields and got in positions to collide with Leroux but when he was close to them, as close as a few centimeters from clashing against their shields. His feet dug deep inside the ground and shoot himself to his eleven. He wasn't running towards that position, he was floating barely abobe ground as if he was launched by a cannon. Mid air he turned facing the position he was going towards and putting his fists forward, but all there was in that place was a building. A plain and boring building with no windows that could be seen from his side. Despite that, he crashed against the wall and a big cloud of dust blocked everyones vision.

"What is he doing? He is clearly in a weird mood and wants to destroy things..." said Lufti with a monotone tone, clearly failing at making himself believable.

"You know what he is doing, stop trying to make them confused and explain it properly" replied Leon as a retort, letting out a small giggle as he found it funny for Lufti to be bad at something.

"Well... normally someone would rely on their eyes and ears too much, but we've learnt to use all of our senses when we fight. For example, when we fought the yellow Ox with which we made Leroux's boots, we had a big surprise in for us. That Ox was a variant..."

"What is a variant?" asked one of the family heads with a puzzling look. All of them thought the same way. Variant? Aren't they colored beasts?

"A variant, is a beast that can use more than 2, 3 or 4 elements. They can have one color, but their real strenght and abilities are those of another color. The yellow Ox we fought had red capabilities in terms of strenght, could ooze poison from its tail and also left me with this" as he talked Lufti raised his shirt and showed his abdomen, where a circled scar could be seen. It looked almost like a gun shot but it was smaller "It shot water like a blue wolf or a blue eagle, a small but powerful stream of pressured water made a whole that came out from the other side of my body. That variant was really strong, but it wasn't the strongest we've faced till now. You may ask yourself what does this have to do with using all our senses? Well, variants bodies are hotter than other species. This yellow Ox skin was hotter than a red iguana's skin and we know how much they love to dip in lava or hot springs. That is why we trained our sight, our tact, our hearing and even our sense of smell. We feel the wind in our skin and try to understand why the wind blows that way. Sometimes there is no real meaning to the wind moving south or the smell of wet dirt. It just happens to be a coincidence, but we've trained ourselves to take all those things into consideration and judge by ourselves if they are real threats or not. Since the beginning of the fight till now, that building has been emiting a weird smell... one that reminded me of gunpowder, a weapon that a city east of Kyus often uses to fight beasts" said Lufti with a grim look on his face.

As soon as the cloud of dust dissipated, Leroux came out carrying people from the collar and throwing them in the middle of that improvised ring where he was fighting. His face showed his anger and his teeth were gritting against each other as his body showed a small puncture. He was shot and his blood stained his shirt.

"So this is what you guys had. Now that you've revealed yourselves I can start playing with you all" Leroux took a pill from his pouch and broke it in his hand, applying it against the bleeding hole in his stomach, making it transform from a hole to a healed wound in mere seconds.

"The Kriger were always greedy and aloof, to know they had gunpowder makes me feel uneasy, but also makes me really happy. Because once we destroy them, we will get our hands in another way to protect Kyus" Leon said as he started laughing, his head already preparing thousands of ways in which the gunpowder could be used.