Surprise

Matthew had been following the general walking through the forest for about 5 minutes. And along the way, the general had been asking questions at Matthew such as,

"Why do you look different from other kobolds?"

"Where did you come from?"

"How did you become invisible?"

"Where did you learn to speak the human language?"

But Matthew didn't answer any of them since he didn't want to give the humans any information even if it was only false information that he thought up himself.

'If I said I came from another kobolds settlements somewhere outside the forest, these humans can really search the outside of the forest and if they found an unfortunate kobold settlement somewhere and decided to kill all of its inhabitants because they thought they're all able to turn completely invisible and massacre a whole small army like me, I would be part guilty from giving them ideas that other kobolds like me exist in the first place.'

'And I couldn't just tell them my real origin and where I got my abilities, it's all from the system after all. So, keeping my mouth shut is really the best thing to do for now.' Matthew thought to himself.

"Not quite a talker are you? Or maybe you still don't completely understand the human language? I'm sorry since this is the only language I'm capable of speaking. I do know some elvish and dwarvish languages, but I don't know them well enough to speak them."

"Elf? Dwarf? Did they really exist?" Matthew's mouth opened for the first time.

"So you're not from outside the forest then, thank you for telling me. It will be inconvenient if there's a lot of kobolds like you roaming around the outside world after all." The general said while still walking forward without looking in Matthew's direction.

"Tch" Matthew clicked his tongue and did a facepalm as he realized what he had done.

The two then finally arrived at a small clearing in the forest, not too big to fit an army, but it is big enough to fit a small squadron of 10 men.

The general stopped walking in the middle of the clearing before he turned to face Matthew. Matthew then followed the commander to the clearing while keeping his guard up and preparing to go invisible just in case the general set up an ambush.

'If they went for my back then my scutes will be able to deflect their swords and the worst-case scenario is that there will be archers surrounding me from all sides. But balling my body up and covering the front side of my body before quickly activating the aura ability is a very viable thing to do. But whatever it is, my scutes will give me some kind of protection and enough time to go invisible and disappear from their radar.' Matthew thought while feeling his aura core and preparing to turn on the chameleon's aura ability.

Fortunately, his caution and preparations turn out to be useless as there's no ambush waiting for him even though about 1 minute had passed and he is now faced to face with the commander with only a few meters away between them.

But little did Matthew know, when he walked through the edge of the clearing, a really small, faint glow appeared on the ground, right where his legs were stepping on. And if Matthew could see it, the glow came from the many symbols that were subtly carved onto the ground right beneath his feet, hidden by the blades of grass that were as tall as his ankles.

"Alright then Matthew, I thank you once again for accepting my desperate offer and agreeing to do this duel with me. Now then, shall we start?"

"I hope that you will keep your promise, human."

"Of course, I have no reason to lie since my life is on the line anyways."

"Since I'm the one who initiated the duel, you can go first, Matthew."

In response, Matthew gave a brief nod before using his strong monkey legs to launch himself forward at an incredible speed.

The general's shocked face could be seen for a split second before quickly returning to its normal state as he brandished his sword towards Matthew.

Matthew had expected the general to have a quick reflex and at least decent ability since he proclaimed himself to be a general. And he dashed forward with the expectations that the general would be able to give a proper response to his attack. So when the general slashed his sword towards him, who is currently half-flying towards the general, Matthew wasn't surprised at all. And he, himself, had already prepared his own response to it.

Matthew put up his right hand and used the crocodile scutes covering the upper part of his right hand to clash against the sword.

As if the sword had been clashing against a rock, the metal made a dull sound when it made contact with Matthew's scutes. But that wasn't the end of Matthew's attack as he had thrust his left hand towards the general's heart with his claws at the forefront of his hand.

But Matthew's second attack wasn't successful either as he miscalculated the full body armor's strength. His claws were tough enough not to crack or break, but it wasn't sharp enough to pierce a hole through the steel armor as it only succeeded in making an inward dent on it.

After seeing his attacks had failed, Matthew then jumped backward to avoid being counterattacked by the general.

"I didn't expect that you would suddenly start attacking me." The general said,

"Why don't you go invisible like last time?" He asked.

"I'm trying stuff out," Matthew said before dashing forward once again.

Matthew attacked once again but with different angles and different timings. One time he attacked right after charging out while the other time he dashed sideways before launching his attacks and another time he ran in circles before aiming at the general's blind spot.

But somehow, no matter what Matthew is trying to do, the general succeeded in either avoiding or blocking Matthew's attack. 10 minutes went by and the stalemate didn't change. Matthew kept on attacking while the general kept on succeeding defending against Matthew's attack.

"Come on, Matthew. Stop playing around and show me your real strength." The general said with a bored-looking face to Matthew who is already starting to feel fatigue creeping up all over his body after moving it around non-stop for 10 minutes straight.

"I'm already serious though. Then what do you think about this?"

This time, Matthew repeated his first pattern of attack where he just ran straight as fast as he could towards the general with his claws pointing straight at the general's heart.

The general sighed in response after seeing Matthew doing the same thing again. This time, instead of slashing his sword from the top of his head, the general thrust his sword in a straight line aiming his own sword towards Matthew's chest in the last seconds before his sword clashed against Matthew.

This time, Matthew was the one who was surprised as he didn't expect the general to suddenly change his way of defending. Fortunately, Matthew's superior eyes were able to clearly see the general's sudden movement and Matthew was able to use his left hand which is closer to his body to block the thrusting sword.

However, the pressure from a thrusting sword is different from a slashing sword. While Matthew was able to deflect a slashing sword just fine with only leaving a slight numb feeling afterward, when all the sword's momentum and force was gathered and directed at its pointy tip, the sword was able to pierce through Matthew's scutes.

Matthew's expression becomes twisted as it was the first time in a long time that he had received an intense feeling of pain. The feeling of something tearing into your own flesh is not something that Matthew felt often. In fact, it is his first time receiving a cut on his body.

Matthew wanted to pull out his left hand that was still embedded by the general's sword as fast as possible, but at the last moment, he remembered why he would do something stupid like repeating the same sequence of attack and the simplest one at that.

Gritting his teeth to fight against the pain, Matthew launched his tongue towards the general's legs as fast as possible. And with only an arm's distance away from each other, there's no way that the general would be able to dodge his tongue that came out of nowhere without any warnings.

Or at least that's what Matthew thought when suddenly, he saw there's a faint glow on the general's leg that he was aiming for. And in the next moment, without even a second to react, the general's leg was already directly in front of Matthew's chest.

Matthew felt a strong force was pushing against his chest right before he heard a crack coming from the same place. The general's kick succeeded in hitting Matthew's chest.

The general's kick was so strong that Matthew was sent flying 7 meters away from his initial position. And call it lucky or not, but the ribs that were broken from the kick were not the ones that were directly in front of Matthew's heart and the blow wasn't fatal for Matthew. But it still affected him as Matthew felt his chest hurt slightly every time he took a breath.

However, that's not the only thing that bothered him as Matthew felt his left hand sending him a pulsing pain and as he turned and looked at it, he saw his own red blood flowing out of the open wound caused by the general's sword.

And the fact that he saw something that is similar to aura wrapping around the general's leg before he sent out the powerful kick, is also bugging his mind.

'That must be aura… there's no way his kick would be so powerful without using aura…'

Sending one and a half meters tall Matthew flying 7 meters was no way an easy feat that was achievable by only counting on an ordinary human's leg strength.

'Does that mean that the human's aura ability also gives them enhanced strength like the wolves? Wait, I can think about this later, I need to finish this quickly.'

As he felt the constant pain coming from his left hand and his chest with every breath he took, Matthew was reminded that there's no time left to play around because his wounded body might get worse and it will be more dangerous for him as time goes on.

"That surprised me for the second time today! You really are a unique one, Matthew! But that's nothing more than cheap tricks. I've played around long enough and I think I've seen enough. If you insist on keeping doing this, I will make sure that my next attack will leave more than a scratch on your hands and a small dent on your chest."

Before the general made any move, Matthew activated his chameleon aura ability first and made sure that he went completely invisible.

Matthew then made sure that the wound on his left hand didn't drop a single drop of blood onto the ground and moved very carefully towards the general, making sure that he didn't make a single sound as he walked closer and closer.

Matthew finally arrived at the back of the general. Looking at the general who was constantly turning his head left and right, Matthew calmed himself down and made sure that his next attack would be quick and fatal so that the general won't be able to retaliate anymore after his attack.

Aiming at the general's neck, Matthew raised his right hand slowly, taking a deep breath, before putting all his strength on the claws on his right hand.

However, just when his claws were a few inches away from the general's neck, the general suddenly tilted his body and narrowly dodged Matthew's claws.

With his body still facing the other way, the general turned his head and looked at Matthew.

With a clear and apparent smile on his face, the commander said to Matthew,

"Surprise!"