The best Knights of humanity (2/2)

Two people in a bar were talking while eating.

''Huh? The strongest Knights of humanity?''

''Yeah, this is what they call you now, is it true, are you really that strong?''

The Knight of Cleppe laughed, ''These are just rumors! Even if Ludovic did train here, it does not mean anything. However, if you were to count weapons... then it may be true, yes.''

His interlocutor thought he was exaggerating a bit and decided to search more deeply. ''But then how come there are no Paladins in Cleppe?''

''Hey! Do you want to know a little secret?'' He asked with a slight smile on his face.

''I'm all ears.''

''This isn't an energy problem, nor is it a question of departure. The only reason there's no Paladins is that we don't want to.''

''How could one be unwilling to have Paladins?''

''Well... getting strength isn't always the right choice, especially for Cleppe and the family that runs it.''

An air of realization appeared in his interlocutor. It was a fact that if Cleppe did not increase its power, it didn't decrease either. Throughout the years, there weren't any records mentioning something like a power shift. Cleppe's family had maintained its power and stability over the centuries without ever-changing, an extremely arduous feat that even the imperial family hadn't been able to achieve.

'Even they did change several times, the last one caused by the failed revolution.'

''But still, don't you think it would be better for Cleppe to strengthen itself? Strength is, after all, an assurance of safety, and even if these Knights are strong, Cleppe has few and rather low-level Knights. Will your technology enable you to resist, or will it not be an object of covetousness leading to your ruin?''

''Everything can be fixed with money and technology, believe me, Cleppe won't stop existing as long as these 2 factors are well managed, that, and our power.''

***

'Pre-awakening: Amplified thoughts.'

In an instant, the world seemed to stop before his eyes. The demoness in front of him appeared frozen, still prepared to rush towards him. The soldiers holding the Knights were still resisting to block them despite their injuries and fatigue clearly visible by the sweat emanating from their bodies. As for François, he was about to inflict the final blow on his opponent. The front guard was a little too far away for him to know what exactly was going on there. But he knew that they had already started to fight, seeming to bellow like pigs - which he couldn't hear. What he did hear, however, were vibrations. Whispers that were extremely thin and continuous, coming from the air as he sprints towards the demoness. Alongside, the noisiest sound was coming from his body.

This frozen world wasn't one. Things weren't immobile, and their speed hadn't change the slightest. He just feels it differently as he was actually using the best pre-awakening possible, which was also the hardest.

He remembers the joy he had at his first transformation, which was followed by hell. Everything around him became frozen. No, everything seemed to freeze, including his body and reactions.

Can one imagine how he felt? In this world, it was as if he was handicapped. Even though his thoughts were amplified, his body wasn't.

Each movement would take him between minutes and hours to take, and giving contradictory orders may twist his body. He could still change his path at a phenomenal speed, but he'd need to cancel the first order which would necessarily mean to pass more time in this world.

Still, this allowed him to master his energy efficiently, at least doubling his attack speed in this regard. That wasn't all. This ability allowed him to analyze each scene and come up with the rightest way to respond to it. In this form, he would no longer make mistakes and he'd be able to use any technique more fluently.

People would have a hard time imagining the solitude felt in this world. But it doesn't matter. As long as Cleppe wins, then it doesn't bother him that much. The true problem is that it gave him time. Too much time, a time he wouldn't want. Because he knew that his boredom in an already predictable fight would let his thoughts wander. And that would lower both his motivation and spirit.

'I... have I really made the right choice? This isn't too late to change.'

Again... That was happening again...

He needed to fully concentrate on this fight. That would be much more enjoyable since he's been trained to do that, whereas no one really taught him to think explicitly.

…

''The only reason you're a Master Knight is that the requirements are way too laxist. Giving up your past will not do you any good, and I shall prove you that today.''

She has heard that every member of Cleppe and particularly the important one were all crazy. At first, she didn't believe it. Then, she saw it. The tracking team of Cleppe. No matter who dares to kill even a slave of Cleppe would be followed till death. The worse being: all those of the tracking team were 'protectors', meaning, they shouldn't obey anyone.

Particular rules were made in wartime, and they did not resent anyone who'd kill normal soldiers – as long as they judge it 'right' – but no matter what, no Knight should be killed.

But this was no usual wartime. If she didn't kill him, then she'd be the one to die.

Still... this was strange. Cleppe's soldiers weren't barbarian or war-loving madmen. They could accept a truce or any kind of arrangement as long as Cleppe's safety wasn't compromised.

'What had happened ?' She told herself this question since meeting them. Theoretically, no Knight of Cleppe would fight to the death. They couldn't accept it as they'd no longer be able to defend Cleppe.

'Is it related to the explosion ?' This was most likely the case. Maybe they just hadn't been pushed to the extreme till now and she had assumed something wrong.

'But what is this power ?' In an instant, he seemed to have changed. His speed had exploded and now, even she felt threatened. So much that she preferred to not take any risks.

'Pre-awakening: Absolute area.'

What if one could continuously 'see' all around him by using both his physique and energy? That person would be almost invincible if their fighting ability was the same. They would be safe no matter the situation as they would have a 360° vision - one even better than normal. Her sense being amplified, she was now able to see the energy composition of an attack and respond perfectly to it. The same worked with non-energized attacks as they'd create fluctuations.

Although she couldn't use it to keep safe her allies as it has a 50cm range around her, this was still a god-like ability on a battlefield.

Rushing toward her, Jean directly attacked with his weapon with an absurd amount of energy – one he shouldn't have given his pure energy reserve.

Without waiting, she analyzes the composition and quickly defended it with minimal energy consummation as she made the energy collapse around itself.

Stroking his sword with her's, she tried to push him back before noticing stranges rays of energy coming at her back as well as some energy bombs threw to her left.

She instantly pushed back the energy bomb with some energies flux – analyzing them would have taken too much time – and prepared herself to face the energy.

There wasn't much energy in each of the rays but their numbers were formidable – around 100 of them, and each of them didn't make much fluctuation. If she didn't develop this pre-awakening, she'd likely have failed to realize it until they were a few centimeters away. (each ability awakening is just the expansion of a normal capacity.)

1, 5, 10, 80 she soon destabilizes all of them but as she was doing that, Jean had already make another move. His right leg was directed to her stomach – filled with an energy of unknown origin. Responding with her own leg, she profited from this small timeout to attack him with newly formed energy rays directly towards his head.

' !'

Incoming rays of energy were coming from her back, only a few centimeters away from her body.

'Why didn't I noticed them sooner? No… these are the same as before but… what is this type of energy ?'

The blue energy that once existed had completely dissipated replaced by a dark one. She didn't have the time to analyze it, but... she knew this wasn't your usual energy.

'How come this energy doesn't have any energy fluctuation?'

The only fluctuations they did emit were physical ones and small enough to be forgotten. Hopefully, her sensible zone was barely able to sense them.

She instinctively put an energy shield to counter each of the 20 or so energy rays but coming into contact, each one of them broke.

Without hesitation, she creates a dozen more shields to cover each point before the energy finally stopped. Still, this comes with a cost. Not only had her demonic energy reserve shrink crazily, but her spirit was beginning to shows signs of exhaustion. Sweat was covering her red forehead.

Putting on a strange smile, Jean instantly formed two hundred more energy rays which shocked the demoness.

'I need to gather energy !'

demons clearly had an advantage over humans. Not only was their energy more maneuvrable, but they also did not differentiate pure from impure energy. This means... each demon could recharge their energy during a fight.

'I've already gathered energy 2 times in a row during this fight but… I should be able to resist it.'

Even though she was at the energy surge level, this Cleppe's knight had an insane amount of energy and taking into account his pills, he had made her use of an absurd amount of energy.

Not hesitating, she used her body to her maximum capacities taking as much as 3 times her energy to parry each one of them and prepared to counter-attack. A sharp pain slashed throught her heart. She gasped. She could no longer gather demonic energy in this fight or she'd die.

'But that should suffice.'

Using a good part of her last energy, she attacked Jean's heart. To which, Jean didn't respond. He just used his strength to move his sword striking at her head.

'I'm the fastest !' She would kill him and then quickly defend herself.

Reaching Jean's heart, the frightening energy shocked towards the uniform before getting dissipated. Her morale had taken a major blow but she quickly recovered.

'I just need to attack another time !'

The shock had allowed her to feel the uniform's energy and it had used more than 70 % of its energy capacity to block this one move.

Quickly creating a series of shields around Jean's sword with the little amount of energy she had left, she successfully blocked his sword.

But at that moment…

Jean's sword expanded and an extremely quick black energy flashed towards her heart, breaking all barriers like her armor before reaching its objective. There, it began to ravage her body.

A second later, she finally fell.

And just a moment later, Jean fell to his knee heavily breathing. He may have won this fight, but this sure has exhausted him.

''Jean ! Before you !''

Jean lifted his head at François' familiar voice and saw five figures leaping at him: Knights to be more precise. The second he had beaten the demoness, all of them broke through the 5 men formation, even if it means obtaining severe injuries. Of the 2 other demons Knights, one had fallen from fighting François while the last one decided to run away and regroup with the other demons.

'Fuck… should I use this ?' Jean pondered but decided not to as he saw François slashing away the demon's Knights from him – getting severely injured in the process.

In this short time, the 5-men teams regroup and killed the demon Knights.

This was an unexpected victory but

There were always casualties in war, and this squadron wasn't an exception.

- - -

Jean had a 95% of winning. The next chapter will be extremely important.