“Captain Launce, are you sure that this many of us should fight at once? If needed I can sit this out to make sure that Lady Irene is not overburdened.” Samson, the lowest level and most afraid knight said.


    He was level sixty, and while that was strong by most standards, his instincts told him that no good was going toe from this battle.


    This is how he had lived so long and made it to such a high level. By trusting his gut and never getting into terribly dangerous situations.


    “No, it will be fine. Lady Irene asked for all of us to fight and I am certain with her skills she will be fine. I watched her battle in thest kingdom tournament, and back then she was already quite strong. I imagine now she is even stronger.” Launce replied.


    A few momentster after putting on his armor and activating his shield, Marcus called out that he was ready to begin whenever the knights were.


    To start they got into one of their practiced formations with two tower shield users in the front, followed by Launce right behind them with hisrge broadsword.


    To the left and right where two knights that each wielded polearms, one with a ive and the other with a halberd.


    Finally in the back was Samson with his rapier and buckler, and another knight whose name was Dickory who wielded a bow that’s limbs also doubled as des.


    Overall, it was a pretty good set up they had, and it would be difficult for most people to break.


    ‘This should do for an opener.’


    Swinging his scythe down from above Marcus released an intense st of mana from his scythe that cut straight through the earth and towards the knights.


    In response Launce jumped forward and unleashed his own attack to try and counter, employing one of his strongest attack skills.


    To his surprise, when the attacks met his was overpowered in just a couple of seconds, and he made a hasty retreated behind the shield users._.


    The other knights sent out their own attacks as well, to slow Marcus’ down, and then the two shield users braced themselves.


    As the sh of mana hit them, they used numerous skills to block the attack, and after being pushed back a few feet they finally dissipated it.


    Still, this had just been Marcus’ opening move, and he quickly appeared to the left side of the knights.


    With his scythe’s pole he swung it into the shield of the nearest knight and pushed him aside and off bnce.


    Then using the centrifugal force, he spun around and aimed a powerful sh at the knight he had just caught off guard.


    In response Launce jumped in front with isrge broadsword and received the attack instead.


    ‘Heavy.’


    However, even with all his skills active and impable timing he was thrown back by the power behind Marcus’ attack, and now there was a notable nick about an inch deep in his thick adamantine sword.


    Pushing the attack Marcus jabbed towards Launce with the butt of his scythe’s pole and aimed right for his head.


    Yet before he made contact the other shield wielding knight jumped in and protected his leader while the one with the ive took a wide swing at Marcus.


    Spinning his scythe back around Marcus caught the ive and batted it away with his scythe while also jumping back to avoid the charge of the shield user.


    BANG!


    At the same time as his parry against the ive, from his blind spot the archer Dickory fired a high-speed arrow at Marcus. But his adamantine shield automatically flew into guard him.


    Marcus then twisted his scythe around and it began glowing with light before he shot off arge shining ball of energy like a cannon st.


    The attack moved so fast that Dickory was unable to avoid it and waspletely engulfed by a huge explosion that rocked the area.


    “Falling star!”


    “Three-fold spiral thrust!”


    Staying calm and continuing to attack Launce and the knight wielding the halberd attack Marcus with some of their best attack skills.


    Each one had a lot of power behind them and would be able to fell most monsters even higher level than fifty in one move.


    Still, they were only average looking attacks to Marcus’ eyes.


    ‘Death Dance.’


    Suddenly elerating and spinning on his toes Marcus whipped around and caught Launce’s falling star attack.


    He hooked the de of his scythe around Launce’s broadsword and twisted him away, so his attack hit into the ground instead. And with his continuing momentum he came around and met the other knight’s three-fold spiral thrust and smacked the halberd away with the tip of his scythe de.


    The ground rumbled and fractured where Launce’s falling star attack skill hit, and arge spray of dirt and rocks sted up around the area.


    Jumping back Marcus avoided the explosion but found that the two knights with shields wereing at him quickly, and the one with the ive had repositioned above him to cut off his escape.


    Of course, Marcus could have easily muscled his way through their formation with magic or a few other shy moves, but he was testing out his scythe, so he wanted to see how he could go with his martial skills and its abilities alone.


    Swiftly analyzing the situation, he ran towards the nearest of the shield wielding knights and began lowering his body.


    This made the knight think that Marcus was going to try and slide past him, so he repositioned and lowered his shield to catch him.


    But this was just a feint by Marcus, and instead he jumped towards the knight’s shield and as they unleashed a shield bash towards him, he leapt off and used the momentum to propel himself.


    He shot right towards the other shield wielding knight who as caught off guard momentarily.


    ‘Perforation strike.’


    Using his armor piercing attack skill, Marcus jammed the de of his scythe right through the thick adamantine shield and nearly into the knight’s torso.


    Though before he was pieced, the knight realizing his shield waspromised tossed it aside along with Marcus’ scythe and swiftly pulled out his longsword and used an attack skill.


    Repositioning his scythe Marcus caught the de in the center of his pole but was blown back as he currently had no solid footing.


    He went flying right towards Samson who so far had not done anything in the fight and was still trying to get over his nerves.


    Nevertheless, he was a long-time knight and his training and skills kicked in and he lunged towards Marcus.


    “Sonic Thrust!”


    Using his fastest attack he jabbed his rapier right toward Marcus’ torso as he was flying through the air.


    CLANG!


    However, his attack was met by Marcus’ shield that was automatically moving around to defend him, and at the same time Marcus spun his scythe around with the other knight’s shield still attached to it.


    With a loud cracking sound Samson was hit in the side by the heavy adamantine shield, and along with it he was flung far away from Marcus.


    PWHEEEE!


    Hearing a loud whistling noiseing from above him just after he hit Samson, Marcus nced up just in time to watch three glowing arrowsing down right on top of him.


    Quickly he repositioned his shield above him to block them, but as the first one hit it began expanding into a powerful explosion.


    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!


    The three arrows exploded around Marcus like high yield missiles, and a huge plumb of dust and dirt shot up around him in their wake.


    ‘That’s a high-level knight for you.’ Marcus thought as he waved his hand in front of his face to push the dust away.


    The archer Sir Dickory even after taking the light attack from Marcus was still able to get up after a few seconds of time to recover. And while he was bleeding all over. He had still managed to counter attacked with a power barrage of explosive arrows.


    ‘If I had not noticed them, I could have been in trouble.’ Marcus thought


    In response to the explosions he had deployed his mana barrier. But even as strong as it was, it had a number of cracks running through it from the powerful explosion caused by the three arrows.


    Still, while Marcus was praising them for their efforts in his head. When he walked out from the cloud of dust they all were dumbfounded to see not a scratch on him.


    He had taken a direct hit from an attack that definitely would have left their weaker members heavily injured, and even Launce would have taken enough damage to slow him down.


    “Back into formation. We can still push our advantage in numbers.” Launce shouted out.


    Swiftly all the knights even Samson who had been sent flying got back into a new formation and they charged Marcus to prevent him from going on the offensive again.


    ‘This will be a good test.’


    Running in with his scythe firmly held in both hands Marcus met their charge and began blocking their attacks and countering.


    Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that Marcus was not going to be able to win on only his martial prowess and scythe’s abilities, as the seven knights were quickly overpowering him.


    He had already taken a number of ncing blows that if not for his armor and mana barrier would have caused him a fair amount of damage.


    And now that he did not have the element of surprise and the knights were getting more used to his speed and strength. They were countering him far better and with their impable teamwork they were beginning to overpower him with their numbers.