CHAPTER 5: Conflict in the forest of doom (Part 2)

"Sir Kyle and Sir Isaac, the highness has ordered your presence. She has something to tell to the both of you" The maid Catherine said appearing behind both Isaac and Kyle.

"I see, let's go Isaac"

The both of them entered the witch's chamber and inside is a room full of luxurious sofas and tables made of gold. In the ceiling, the crystal chandelier is glowing a light violet color that gives the room light. Paintings and sculptures are scattered all around the room and the red carpet is laid down on the floor. On the far north of the room is a throne made of bones of humans, beasts, and other monsters. Behind the throne is a skeleton of a dragon.

"Your highness, they have arrived" Catherine bowed before walking towards the throne and standing beside it with her violet eyes gazing at Isaac and Kyle. Noticing this, Kyle decided to bow on one knee with his head facing the ground as a sign of respect and reverence to the witch. Isaac also bowed like Kyle before the both of them stands up.

"Who told you to stand up?" the witch said playfully with a mischievous smile. Both of them froze and stared with wide eyes. The witch giggled before clearing her throat.

"Anyways, the knights decided to attack the forest. Do you have any idea why~?" the witch snickered

"It seems like they are looking for someone, you know" the witch continued

"Your highness, I don't know what you're talking about" Kyle replied. Kyle clenched his jaw tight as the witch is planning to order them something they can't refuse. Although both of them agreed to a deal that he will tell the location of the pearl of purity and the witch will give them a year of protection, it was not stated that the witch needed to keep it a secret. She can just tell to the Lederion Kingdom that she was protecting them for only a year and when that time passes, the knights can capture them quite easily. They can even encircle the forest and wait for a year. His advantages to his pursuers are that they didn't know that the witch is currently protecting them and only assumed that they hid inside the forest.

"I have two orders for the both of you if you want to keep secrecy in our deal, first is to fight the knights with the monsters of the forest and follow me in retrieving the pearl of purity" the witch said

"We are merely level ones, your highness. Besides the location of the pearl of purity is too dangerous for anyone lower than level 40" Kyle informed with a fearful expression on his face. Deep inside, he was just acting to avoid fighting level 40 enemies and besides a year is too short to reach level 40. Leveling up is a way of breaking one's limits. You will never level up if you keep on fighting enemies weaker than you but you might level up if you fight hordes of weaker monsters until exhaustion. You will never level up if you learned new spells and skills but you might level up if you improve your skills/spells and gain mastery. That's why the most common cause of death is attempting to level up, the majority of people are contented with their level so that's why they didn't improve anymore while being stuck to their level in their lifetime.

"Don't worry, i will teleport the both of you if you faint or dying back here. Secondly, i will protect both of you when we go to the location since they are only level 40. I can handle the useless baggage" she smiled menacingly, it's like she won't accept a no. Kyle just decided to gave up, it's meaningless anyway to argue back. The location is not dangerous for the witch but only dangerous to them. The both of them can only get stronger so they can at least retreat. Besides, they need to fight the normal knights to have a chance of leveling up.

"Yes your highness" Kyle bowed, meanwhile Isaac just glanced at Kyle before bowing. He needs to be strong in a short amount of time. He would even risk his life just to become stronger. He also needs to collect blood for experimentation and improving his skills.

"Get ready in an hour, i would teleport the both of you outside the illusion array" the witch said as both Isaac and Kyle left the room.

"Your highness, why would you let them fight the knights?" seeing that both of them are alone, Catherine asked

"I wanna see if they're worthy enough to serve me" The witch replied

"I can see it in their eyes that even when bowing, they don't have any willingness to work for your highness" Catherine said

She was baffled when the witch ordered them to fight the knights of Lederion Kingdom. Although the knights are mere insects for her, the average levels of the knights are between 10 and 15 which is vastly higher than the level one otherworlders. She doubted that if they can even take a swing from one of the knights, more so actually defeat them. The otherworlders have strong weapons but without any spells, skills, or even weapons arts. They would be like a headless chicken in the battle.

"You don't understand Catherine, that Kyle was able to create a portal towards here. No normal otherworlders would have the ability to learn such advanced spells while being a level one. Also, Isaac was able to create and improve his skills. Throughout their walk towards the edge of the forest up to the illusion array, that otherworlder was able to continually cast magic control and magic manipulation on his own blood without chanting it" the witch said with a mellow tone while glancing at the door.

Catherine was shocked to hear that those idiots have the ability to impress her highness. Those things are hard to do even if a genius tried to recreate those feats. She shook her head, still thinking that in a battle. Absolute power and experience will triumph in a deadly battle.

Seeing the doubt in the eyes of her maid, she can only smile. She is hoping that they can fight better or at least put up a fight against the knights. Besides, it's not like they are the only ones attacking the knights. Monsters and beasts will also attack so they might just support from behind.

She remembered when a portal suddenly appeared in the forest only to see two otherworlders with the cursed sacred weapons. She was elated to see them still holding the weapons so she decided to kill them only to hear them speak. The surprise she received still made her chuckle now. Not one but two otherworlders who suppressed the ego of the weapon was a very rare thing to happen. She heard that to suppress the ego of the weapon, someone needs to be tough mentally that almost borderlines insanity. The fact that they were able to suppress the ego interested her. That's why she allowed them to enter the array without any monsters blocking them. She smiled just thinking about the future that they will bring.

Meanwhile, at the room where Isaac and Kyle stay. Both of them sat to their bed, only separated by a wall. Contemplating on what to do. Isaac is still unsure whether they can do it. Fighting an armored enemy is his weakness since his weapon is a slashing one. It does a great job if the enemy doesn't have any armor since the jagged spikes can rip off the flesh which allows him to control the blood of the enemy. Still, it's only a theory since he doesn't have any chance to properly practice it. That's why it's important for him to join this battle. His smile deepened as his hands shake in excitement.

"Hey, you there?" Kyle asked

"Yes"

"Can your reply get any duller? i feel like you can only speak fluently when antagonizing someone." Kyle sighed, this is not what he wants the conversation to turn to. He needs to plan ahead to not get killed by the knights so that's why he needs to discuss their strategy.

"Anyways, does your blood spike work? i don't want it to happen when your deadly blood spike turn to a mildly annoying blood spike during battle"

"I'm not sure, we can only see"

"We won't be seeing anymore once we dies" Kyle sighs once again. Isaac is really hard to handle, and it's pissing him off. He swears that after this, he's gonna fight him so he can release some stress.

"By the way, why aren't you using that mind tal-Kyle quickly blocked his mouth. He can't afford to let the witch know that he can also do telepathy. He might get imprisoned and forced to answer any questions from the witch and reveal his secret. Since the witch is a cruel and devious woman but the worse is she gets overly interested in someone who is clearly hiding something. He cracked his neck to release some tension before deeply breathing. Because of this idiot, he rushed towards him to block his mouth.

"We should probably plan ahead, i'll tell you what I can do in this piece of paper" Kyle snickered as he revealed a piece of paper in his hand. This is a sure-fire way to keep secrets to the witch. He's sure that the witch can see every move they make and can listen to any conversation they had. What's worse is he can't use telepathy since the witch can pick up any magic being used inside this mansion and learn what type of magic it is. So with a piece of paper, they can write in earth's alphabet since there's no magic that can translate the words written on paper but there is an advanced magic that can translate any words being spoken. He wrote what he can do and what skills he has to plan ahead. Isaac started writing too before giving it back to him.

"Oh, only one spell huh. Well you're just a beginner so here's the plan" as Kyle smiled

In the forest, the 5 knights are fighting against a treant. A tree-like monster capable of brandishing countless whip-like branches and large wooden limbs. A knight advanced with his claymore while swinging it towards the knee joints only to be blocked by a wooden arm before a branch wrapped around his neck as he was being pulled closer only to meet a punch straight to the stomach as the knight flew towards the trees with his armor dented. His neck hanging low and blood dripping from his armor.

"Shit! this monster is too strong. We needed some mages! Our attacks doesn't work on it" one of the knights shouted.

"Let's retreat! You! and you! bring him. We're leaving" A knight shouted as he points his finger at the two knights before running away as the two knights carried the injured knight.

Inside the forest, a headless enormous wolf and a carcass of a metallic rhino full of cuts and burns can be found as two individuals can be seen panting and coughing near it.

"Dammit! where are those bastards! it's been an hour already! Hey old man. Are you sure your spell is working?!" the red knight shouted angrily at the priest. Obvious marks of dents and blood can be seen in his armor.

"They should be close already, we just need to head further north" the priest is already agitated, not only is his spell not working and monsters keep on attacking them. A loud and annoying knight keeps on pestering him. After he's done with this, he'll make sure to separate his head from his body

"You keep on saying north and north! do a better fucking job alright?" the knight said loudly. The priest can only calm himself as he needed him since he can't fight alone.

"Light Magic: Heal" A green glow appeared in the red knight's armor as the blood vanishes and the wounds inside the knight are reducing significantly. With one goal in mind, they pushed forward.

The sound of battle echoed through the forest as the knights fight desperately against monsters and beasts in the forest. Meanwhile, hiding in a bush are Isaac and Kyle are waiting for an opportunity to strike. 5 knights just fought against a treant with one heavily injured while one is fighting off the treant. Kyle nodded as he suddenly stands up and aimed at the one running in front.

"Spear art: Accurate Throw" explosive energy entered his arms as he rotated his hips and shoulder towards the knight to make the spear faster and stronger before letting it go. A sickening clang echoed through as the spear hits the armor of the knight. The knight was surprised as a dent appeared in his armor before getting pushed back towards his fellow knights who is carrying the injured knight. They tumbled and tried standing up before hearing someone shout.

"Isaac now!" Behind them, a black-haired man wielding a jagged katana appeared. Using the blood of the injured knight, he manipulated it before turning it into blood spikes aimed at the knights

"Blood Magic: Blood Spike" the blood spike moved quickly towards the holes and joints of the knights' armors. Still, Isaac can see that his blood spike is not sharp enough to pierce their armor or skin but it's enough to worsen their injuries. He continued using the spell with his hand stretch in front of him as any blood that drips from the knights is being manipulated to turn into spikes that drill into their armor. The injured knight is still alive but at a cost of the other two knights putting all their effort into blocking the blood spikes as they swing and slash to destroy the barrage of blood spikes. No matter how many times they swing and block, there would always be a blood spike coming to them. The more they bleed the more powerful the blood spikes. Seeing this Isaac smiled wildly, as he continued to hammer them with his blood spikes as it grows stronger the more blood is being manipulated.

On the other side, Kyle is fighting a knight who seems to be the leader of these five knights. His spear thrust in great accuracy and speed, but the knight was able to shrug it off with his amazing armor while parrying most of the flurry of stabs and sweeps. Still, the dents of the armor started appearing as the spear lunges forward towards the knight's chest as the knight was pushed back. In retaliation, the knight charged forward

"Knight Style: Charge " the knight suddenly burst forward. With all of his strength, he jumped sidewise as the knight's back was revealed. With a quick movement, he aimed his spear at the back of the knight.

"Spear Art: Reckless Throw" the spearhead was released as it spins but before Kyle was able to throw it, his arm nearly turned the other way but luckily he released his grip on time. It drilled the knight's armor before puncturing the knight's spine and breaking all of the ribs inside. The force penetrated the corpse to the tree while the blood started dripping to the ground. He walked forward solemnly before removing the spear from the corpse as it slides to the ground to bath in blood. He looked at Isaac who was able to kill the knights as each of their armor was dented in an unnatural way. Caving inside their body as their limbs were broken and misshapen with their vambrace and greaves. It seems like they were hit by a blunt weapon. The blood flowed in the ground to create a small puddle as the smell of blood is lingering around them. With a nod, they moved together to the west where the sound of battle can be heard as they will hunt the knights who are aiming for their freedom and life.