Imperial Army makes its move 4

It was in the dead of the night within the southern jungle. A group of forty men was hastily dashing through the thick vegetation. It was naturally Mago and his squad.

Mago was out of breath. It had been four days since he left T'cammen and regrouped with his squad. They had been constantly on the move, trying to get as far as possible before being spotted by the search parties sent out by the nearby villages. Sadly, they had been caught right after the first day of their retreat.

A group of hunters from a nearby village had caught sight of them, and they had immediately left to alert the nearby villagers before Mago had a chance to react. A day later Mago had caught the presence of several hundreds of men moving in their direction. Thus he and his squad were forced to move without any rest. If they stopped to rest, the enemies would quickly catch up to them, and they couldn't afford a prolonged battle in the enemy territory all the while being chased.

The rest of the squad was far worse off than Mago. While all the scouts he had brought with him were Warriors, were they only at the yellow or green rank, far from Mago's level. They were all heavily panting and signs of exhaustion could be seen on their faces. As much as Mago wished to give them a chance to rest, they simply couldn't afford it.

Frowning, Mago continued running through the forest while trying to find a solution to their predicament. While they were running and passing by a small village, Mago noticed that the villagers were hastily evacuating under the orders of some of the tribe's soldiers. Seeing this his eyes slightly lit up. If the tribe was evacuating, it meant the army was on the move. While he didn't exactly know how far the army currently was, they couldn't be over two days off, since that was the original estimation of their location that was given to Mago by his Colonel before he set off.

'But the men can't hold on for two days. A day at most and they will fall from exhaustion.' Mago pondered. The fact that the army was getting closer didn't exactly help their current situation at all. The enemies would surely chase them all the way until they reached the Imperial forces.

Suddenly Mago felt three mana signatures coming from the village, all of them quickly dashing towards his location.

"FUCK!", Mago cursed while turning around to face the incoming enemies. His shout made the other men hastily come to a stop and turn to look at him.

"MOVE YOU, MORONS! YOU WILL BE JUST DEAD MEAT IF THE SHAMANS GET THEIR HANDS ON YOU!", Mago shouted while inwardly cursing that he didn't have his signature greatsword with him, he just had two short swords that were the standard equipment for scouts.

"But Captain, we can't just leave you all alo-", started one scout but before he could finish Mago interrupted him.

"I told you to move, do you want me to cut you down right here for insubordination?", Mago spat out through gritted teeth. He didn't have any time to waste with them. They had to get as far away as possible. He didn't know if he could hold all three shamans here by himself, and the exhausted men were in no condition to fight. They were like lambs just waiting to be slaughtered.

Begrudgingly, the men looked at each other and continued to run away. Seeing this, Mago slightly sighed in relief. He was worried that they would be stubborn and get themselves foolishly killed.

'Now, this is my first time facing the shamans of the tribe. I wonder if they live up to all the hype I have heard of them.' Mago thought while brandishing his two shortswords, and lowering him into a slightly crouching position, and bringing his swords up to a guard stance. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through him, excitement filling him and pushing aside his earlier anxiety. It had been ages since he had fought a strong opponent. In the academy, no one came close to his level and when he got back to the Empire, he had no time to spar with anyone.

This would be his first chance to go all out in a long while. Soon the three mana signatures were almost upon him and Mago started to circulate his own mana within him, power swelling inside of him, and his body began to glow with a light cyan hue.

Through the trees in front of him, three figures dashed out. They were all men wearing traditional tribal clothes, but what made them stand out from the ordinary tribes' men were the different piercings and accessories on their faces. Only shamans were allowed to have them.

Mago quickly scanned them to see if he could figure out their different beast powers. The first of the men who was on the left had an eagle carving hanging from his left ear and what Mago assumed to be a tiger from his right ear. The second at the center had a snake and a beetle, making Mago confused. A bug? Really? You are the Beast tribe, not some Insect tribe! The third one who was on the right had a scorpion and a gorilla.

'So possibly two that have some poisonous attributes, so I need to be careful around them.' Mago figured while charging forward, his feet making the ground below them crack from the force he exerted.

The three shamans had their eyes slightly widened upon seeing the foolish lone man charging at them. They had thought he would try to play it safe and buy as much time as possible instead of foolishly charging towards his demise. The middle one slightly snorted and stabbed at Mago with his spear.

Mago easily evaded the spear by slightly tilting his body to the right. Then he brought his sword up and pushed the spear towards the left, blocking the first shaman from charging at him. Seeing the third shaman swing at him with what looked like a sickle, Mago slightly crouched, feeling the blade cut the air a few centimeters above his head.

Springing back up, Mago used his full strength to propel himself at the second shaman in the middle, kneeing him in the stomach and sending him flying for ten meters, before hitting a tree. Seeing his comrade being so easily sent flying, the first shaman used all of his strength to swing at Mago with his axe. This time Mago didn't bother to block, instead deciding to take the blow head-on. The axe barely pierced through his skin, before it felt like it hit a steel wall, not moving any further.

The first shaman's eyes widened in shock and he tried to hastily pull back his axe, but Mago just gave him a mocking sneer and slashed his throat with his shortsword.

'Disappointing.' Mago thought while circling his mana towards his lower back, preventing the third shaman's sickle from even breaking his skin. What Mago didn't know that these shamans who were from a nearby village were at the bottom rank amongst their brethren. All the powerful shamans would leave their villages to make a living within the larger settlements of the tribe, not content in staying in a place where their talent couldn't shine. If converted to the regular mage standards, these three would be average Mage ranks so naturally, they couldn't pose a threat to someone of Mago's caliber. Besides, the Beast tribe was the weakest of the three major tribes of the jungle, so naturally their shamans couldn't compare to the ones of the other two tribes.

Meanwhile, the second shaman had finally managed to pull himself up from the ground, his head still slightly spinning from the flight. When his head finally cleared, it shocked him to see one of his friends clutching his throat on the ground while bleeding profusely.

Rage started well within the second shaman and his pupils turned into slits and two sharp fangs that dripped venom sprouted within his mouth and a hard black exoskeleton quickly covered his body.

Seeing his companion go all out, the third shaman decided to go all out as well and took some distance from Mago while a tail with a stinger quickly appeared from behind him and his muscles started to swell and hair started to quickly grow on his body.

Seeing their transformation, Mago excitedly licked his lips while his eyes gleamed. He looked like a predator that had finally found a prey worthy of hunting. The two shamans felt a chill go up their spine and hesitated for a second before charging towards Mago.

With the two of them charging at him from different directions Mago just simply stood there until they were nearly upon him, before quickly sidestepping a stab from the second shaman and using one of his shortswords to block the slashing sickle of the third shaman and pushing him back. Mago was slightly surprised by the increase in strength that the third shaman had after the transformation, but against his cyan core cultivation, it was pretty negligible. Then he concentrated his mana towards his left arm and slashed at the chest of the second shaman, but the sword harmlessly bounced off of the exoskeleton, only leaving a scratch.

'That's a bit troublesome' Mago frowned and dashed towards the third shaman.

The third shaman who was still off-balance from Magos's push didn't time to block the incoming stab from the shortsword and counterattacked with his poisonous tail, hoping to bring down Mago with him. But Mago simply reinforced his skin with the mana inside of him and the tail harmlessly bounced off, while his sword penetrated the heart of the shaman.

'I still have around half of my mana left.' Mago thought while turning to face the last shaman standing.

The second shaman had an expression of grief etched on his face. He had grown up with the other two and they were highly respected within their village and had thought themselves far superior to these foreign invaders. It shocked him greatly how easily this man in front of him dispatched his comrades one after the other.

Letting out a shout, he brandished his spear and charged at Mago once again. Mago just slightly smiled, sheathed his swords, and grabbed the incoming spear. Seeing that he couldn't move the spear even an inch, the last shaman quickly let go of it, grabbed Mago's arm, and bit down with his two fangs.

"Idiot. If the tail didn't manage to pierce through and neither the axe, what makes you think your little teeth will manage to do so?", Mago muttered and watched the shaman with an amused look. Just as he expected, the fangs didn't leave even a scratch on him. Mago simply grabbed the head of the last shaman and used all of his remaining mana to squeeze it.

Soon cracking sounds could be heard as well as howling coming from the shaman, before a slight "squish" and "splat" sounds appeared and blood splashed on Mago's face. Afterward, the whole jungle seemed eerily quiet, as if paying its respect to the blood-soaked man standing in the middle of it, surrounded by three corpses.