Burning Soul

Theo was certainly looking forward to what the next camp was like. He had not scouted it yet!

“So, there’s a catch in this one, the next camp has more enemies, if I were you, I’d be more than just prepared!” Aeneas certainly knew a thing or lot.

The time to reconsider moves was already over and now it was time to move. The next camp was not so far from the last one he had dealt with.

“Anyways, if anything goes south, just get me out! I don’t want you going and taking them down, I will be the one to do that! Still, I don’t think that you’ll need to even move!” Theo rubbed his nose while answering him with confidence.

‘As expected of you!’ Aeneas looked at him while thinking, “We are here!”

They stood next to a bunch of high bushes, certainly, the camp was right next to the bushes. The thick long bushes were natural walls for them, a perfect hiding place also it’d create difficulty for swordsmen. The bushes were quite close to the camp and there was very little space to fight in there. With so many enemies, it was not going to be easy for attackers to use long weapons like swords, and spears to be exact.

“What do you think? I’d say the first strike will decide how it’ll end.” Aeneas scratched his head as they both examined the place.

…

After thinking for a while, Theo was quite sure that what Aeneas just said was the truth. If the ambush failed, he’d be forced to fight multiple enemies in a constrained place.

“It’d be a bloody battlefield if it goes south! But I’ve found something interesting!” Theo pointed at a very tall tree standing firm just near the camp.

‘Oh! Looks like he learned his lessons!’

“I’d like to know what I’m fighting with, not that I have any other skills that I can use but using them effectively will prove better in this situation! What do you say?” He was being cautious this time as he had figured that their intelligence and response time must have increased even further than the last time.

“A wise move, in any battle you must know your opponent!” Aeneas crossed his arms and stood answered like a proud veteran, which he was.

“I’ll get moving while looking for a vantage point, I’ve discovered something about this skill!” Theo was getting ready as he spoke,

“What may that be?” Aeneas got curious about what he said.

“That, you don’t need to use your whole skill to attack and, if you repeat, it’ll be deadlier!” Saying so he looked at him with a smile.

“Shadow Step!” Whoosh, he disappeared again into the shadows.

“That skill!”, Aeneas hadn’t seen it a while.

Shadow Step: While standing on any shadow cast by any other object than the user's one can swiftly enter the shadow realm and emerge from another shadow.

‘Damn, he’s already figured so much! Why did he never try learning how to fight?’ Aeneas certainly knew this perk of the skills but figuring and modifying skills was not an amateur’s thing.

…

It took him no longer than a minute to reach the bottom of that giant tree. Without wasting any moment, he began climbing, his agile body allowed him to climb faster and that too being quiet enough to not let anyone notice.

“Whoa, that kid’s gotten so damn faster, it’s more than just a bit impressive!” Aeneas was looking impressed by his swift actions.

‘Now, let’s have a look at what we are dealing with.’ Theo looked for the camp after reaching the top. “Let’s use this new skill I got recently!” He was eager to test his newly developed skills.

Mana Sense: It allows users to sense any nearby enemy giving a vague Mana Signature of them as well in approx. 15-20mtrs

‘Whoa it’s damn impressive, I can even use it at such height. Now for the camp,’ Just as he was being impressed by his skill, he noticed something. “That isn’t good, there are only 6 enemies but they are a bit stronger. That is less concerning than that of the one that tipped off his senses, it was significantly stronger than the rest of them.

‘That’s why he said it’d be difficult’, he got it right away that underestimating the strength of this pack would cost him dearly.

…

After looking around for a while he returned to Aeneas using the same Shadow Step skill. Looking at him Aeneas was not surprised but the fact that he looked as if he hadn’t spent any effort which wasn’t true. “So found anything?” He asked Theo knowing that he had concluded his scouting.

“You are right! I need to take care of those 6 guards right away before dealing with the main element! They appear to be guarding someone! If I don’t take them out in one sweep, that’s not going to end well.” Theo answered him calmly while checking his equipment.

‘We need to go a lot further, stay by me!’ he looked at his set of swords as they looked on the verge of breaking but were holding quite well.

“So, any vantage point? Is there any place you can take them all out?” Aeneas asked him the obvious question testing his scouting skills.

“Yeah, surprisingly there are quite a few!” He sounded confident. “The bushes around are no good, any sound and they’ll be on their guard. I’ll use Shadow Step to take them by surprise!” He seemed a lot confident in the tactic he described.

“But the only skill…” Before Aeneas could continue Theo stopped him with a reply, “I’ll be using only that skill, but a bit differently!” It was getting more interesting to see now, Aeneas was looking forward to what was going to happen.