Demon's instinct.

Recap - The princess got kidnapped by a black cloaked assasin cum part time mage. The barbarians covered the assasin's retreat by blocking the way to the forest.

The only way to save the princess was now to defeat the barbarian leader in an all out deadly duel .

Now - 'Now come at me before i change my mind ' yelled the monstrous barbarian leader. I barked out 'You really wanna do this , you'll be disappointed when i'll beat you within a few seconds with my lightening bolts. I was barely buying time while restoring mana from the kerylium metal (which take a couple of minutes to fully charge up my reserves). On my remark he just grinned and said ' well I will just have to be careful to not to get hit by them'.

He just made things worse. Either he was an idiot who thought that he could block or evade my bolts or he was a genius who could really block or evade my bolts. Anyway time for talk was over as he ran out of patience and charged at me with a deafening battle cry .Not to sound worried but it was a bit scary to be the one being rushed at by that man. I tucked the metal back in. 'Charge mode : activate ' and my mode flared up from the use of fresh mana. He attacked with his biggy hammer and i barely avoided it in time.The soldiers and barbarians alike cleared the area forming a temporary circle and cheeeing for their representative fighters. The leader was adamant on winning since he was literally raining blows . I was able to keep up with my charge mode and after a couple of evasion I also activated my heightened senses which gave me an extra edge. Third incoming spell was armour of air and while i was still in the process , one of the blows got past my guard and I was already preparing for a K.O. .

But this time for real my sheer luck sparkled and the hammer got stuck on the wagon's roof behind me instead of my head. I swiftly got out of reach and zapped him once, then twice and then thrice just to make sure. Yay, I won or so i thought ....A few seconds later, I was hit and flung to a nearby tree . You may want to know ' What happened ? ' . Well he left the spot unscathed and that meant my bolts didn't work. I coughed up blood and stood again despite the hurt. My armour didn't fully deflect it but it saved my life since nothing was broken . The leader started his mockings like a predator teased its prey before killing it and that was when my instincts took over. My vision got blurry but then I evaded his attacks with such precision it even shocked me. I could hear my heartbeat and then it would go silent and at last I could hear the swishing of air made by the attacks of the barbarian's warhammer .

Flashback : ' Demon's instinct , that is what it is called ' said Alice casually. Everytime you fight, if you take much damage or are scared it will take over to ensure your safety by creating a sense of fight or flee. It can make you faster , change you into a killing machine or help in escaping swiftly. Even I am not sure what are the exact effects . As much as I have seen I can tell you that your consciousness will slowly fade and you won't be able to control your body until the sense of danger passes . It all started after we took down an ancient relic Guardian name Creeper back on Earth.

DEMON'S INSTINCT + CHARGE MODE =

COMPLETE SLAUGHTER

The Barbarian leader was now having a hard time keeping track of my movements. He was slowing down due to exhaustion and confusion . Whenever he left his guard down or gave an opening a wound would open on his body made by the slash of a small dagger in my hands. His giant body made an easy target out of him, so missing was impossible. ( daggers : wizards always keep them for melee). After getting more than a dozen hits the barbarian exploded with rage and attacked with a new fury . I ducked under an incoming blow and slashed hard on his right knee opening a wide gash. This made him fall to the ground while screaming in agony.I pressed on but the old guard stepped in between and took the hit. This made my instincts to break down and my senses returned to normal once again. He was fine but the slash was so powerful it cut through his platemail cleanly on the chest . He grabbed me and murmured in my ear 'the leader knows the whereabout of the princess , you must not kill him now '. He was right and I apologized about attacking him. Surprisingly , he said ' the way you were fighting had everyone so horrified that they shut their mouths and watched in complete silence fearing that any noise may attract your attention to them. You were fighting like a wild beast, what exactly happened?' he asked in confusion. I told him that we will talk later and went to the barbarian leader who was now getting treatment from the king's own healer. He thanked the old man for saving him and the king for showing a noble heart. His squad left feeling dejected in their leader for getting defeated by a stranger. The Barbarian leader was bleeding from a variety of spots and the healer was working in tension.The barbarian leader told me that his name was 'kazal skur'. He said that I was a decent fighter even though I was a mage and I asked him about why my lightening did not have any effect. Kazal told me that it was because of his sungod's warhammer which was also a magical item. But the only thing that it could do was to nullify any incoming magic, so whenever I threw my lightning,it would just not reach him because the effects where negated by the warhammer . kazal says ' these kind of magical items are very rare but still a couple of them are held by other barbarian leaders in my clan who received them from their ancestors', ' but since in today's age there are not many mages left so it is not much of a use'. With the last words he starts to twitch and then convulsions shake his giant body like an earthquake. After he gets restrained, he passes out leaving everyone hanging for the intel on the princess.