Chapter 11: Chapter 11: Tis Quite Special

While Marshall, and the others were getting all cozy in their prison cell, Hans and Marco are nearing on their location.

A couple hundred meters away from the outpost, running at full speed Marco, and Hans stopped. As an iron spiked ball headed towards them. ["This is the second one, we must be near their camp."] Marco transmitted to Hans, nodding at him.

Whoosh!

Hearing the familiar sound, Marco instantly rushed at the direction the spiked ball came from. He soon saw another Mage Warrior, donned in a gray hood, dark blue robes that have diamond patterns at the end of the sleeves. But compared to the bronze warrior, this guy has a big, and muscular physique.

"Oh? Just a kid? Didn't know Clover was that desperate. Why don't you come with us kid, unlike Clover, we raise our children quite well..." The Mage Warrior said, wearing a conceited expression, as he saw Marco's appearance.

Marco on the other hand, scanned his opponent, not bothering to reply. He then jumped, and gave the warrior a swift kick toward his temple.

The warrior raised his arm, blocking Marco kick. Different from the usual Mage Warriors, he was quite capable in terms of hand-to-hand combat, expected from someone with a developed physique.

Although he successfully blocked the kick, Marco's physical prowess was already at the peak of human standards. The warrior's arm, expectedly received severe damage.

"Argh! That hurt, you brat!" He gritted his teeth in anger, and pain. The pages on his grimoire flipped, preparing to cast his spell.

"Iron Creation Magic: Morningstar!"

He then summoned a large iron ball filled with spikes outside. It then headed for Marco, but he quickly dodged it.

Just as Marco prepared to counterattack, the warrior immediately closed their distance, and prepared to hit Marco with another Morningstar in his hands.

'Damn!' Marco was slightly caught off guard by the warrior's tenacity. The warrior swung his Morningstar, but he was then blocked by a mud wall that suddenly appeared between them.

He was surprised, but still chose to swing his weapon, confident that it will break the mud wall.

Boom!

The mud wall exploded from the force, which allowed the warrior to advance through.

Ding!

He was shocked as he saw Marco stabbing his chest with a dagger. "Haha! Good thing I wear armor." The warrior laughed out loud in relief, as he couldn't react to the fatal weapon since the mud wall blocked his vision of Marco. The dagger stopped, as it couldn't pierce the iron plate under the warrior's robe

He peers over to Hans with a hovering grimoire.

"...Play time's over huh... Iron Creation Magic: Iron Guardian!" He now remembers that he's alone in this fight, so he decides to go all out. Iron Guardian, produced armor covering every inch of his body.

Soon, his head was covered by a helmet, resembling a Knight's helmet. "Hehe! Give up now you two. You won't be able beat me anyways." Just as he was about to start monologuing about how undefeatable he was, Hans suddenly ran away, leaving Marco to fight him alone.

"Wha-" The warrior was shocked as he couldn't believe that the kid was left alone to fight him.

"Play time's over right?" Marco suddenly asked, as he removed his fur cloak. Staring straight into the warrior's eyes, he went into a fighting stance, reversely gripping the iron dagger.

Looking back at Marco, the warrior instantly focused on him. He quickly forgot about the supposed ally of the kid left him, as his gut immediately told to take this seriously. He then thought about the kids in their kingdom, and how they were trained in a facility to fight. He then realized that, even though Marco is a kid, he might also be a trained combatant.

"Hmph!" After a second, the warrior immediately rushed towards Marco.

Marco let out an audible exhale, as he vanished from the warrior's sight. The sound of metal clashing was heard multiple times, as Marco revealed himself behind the warrior, frowning as he looked at the dagger.

Crack!

The blade of the dagger suddenly broke into countless pieces. While the warrior's armor had slash marks all over it. In a single moment, Marco slashed him many times over, but not only could he not do any significant damage, his dagger even broke, rendering it useless.

The warrior stood still, frozen in shock, confusion, and a hint of fear, pondering over Marco's overwhelming speed. In the next second, he flinched as he heard the sound of the dagger being thrown, and hitting the ground. He took a deep breathe as he looked at Marco's figure.

In the next moment his eyes widen, underneath his armor, his body sweating buckets. Right now he saw Marco's body being covered by gray mana, making him glow slightly.

Mana skin!

'T-t-this is... What the fuck?! This kid is bad news... but so what? he doesn't have a weapon anymore, and he can't do damage to me.' The warrior was very bewildered at first, but then calmed down, as he created another Morningstar, showcasing his mana reserve. He then prepared himself as he anticipated Marco getting near him.

Although the warrior was prepared, with Marco enhanced by mana skin, he could now move even faster than before.

At the next moment, Marco suddenly appeared in front of him, about to punch his chest.

"Wha-" Before he could react, Marco's punch connected, making him spit out blood. He coughed out violently, as his legs staggered barely keeping him standing. He slowly backed away, looking at Marco in fear.

"Y-you... how..." The warrior said as he clutched his chest, in pain. He then flinched as he saw Marco walking toward him.

"Hmm... my mana skin... is quite special you see." Marco smirked, as he looked at his opponent, fear plastered on his face. He recalled this guy's conceited behavior earlier, and now helpless before him.

With Marco's superior speed he rushed at the warrior, striking him with punches, palm strikes, and kicks. In the next moment then the warrior fell to the ground possibly dead, as his armor was spilling with blood. Marco looked at his second kill, sighing as he looked back at the fight. "This was a good one." He remarked as he moved on toward the outpost.

"I just hope Hans can do it without getting caught." He thought about earlier, when the warrior had a transformation. While the warrior was turning into his Iron Guardian form, Marco conversed with Hans, using Sound Transmission. He told Hans to make a noise distraction, since he felt that they were close to the outpost, assuring Hans that the fight would be finished quickly.

Marco sighed in relief: "Heh! As soon as I saw that armor, I knew he was done for. Just a bad match with me." He then thought about his "special" mana skin. A year ago, when he first used mana skin at Randall, he coughed violently, as he suffered an internal injury.

In the year that passed, Marco already grasped what this specialty was. When he hits an object while using mana skin, extra vibrations would be produced, and travel toward the object. When hit against the human body, the vibrations would damage the inside, and when used against an armored body, it would go through the armor, directly damaging the body.

Armors don't actually matter to Marco anymore, the most practical defense against him would be through magic, or another type of force.

With that, Marco picked up his fur cloak, then climbed up a tree, and with his physical agility, he jumped at the following tree branches, as he followed the sound of human activity. With his mana breathing technique that eliminates sound from him, he was just like a ninja, heading straight for enemy camp.

Meanwhile, in the diamond outpost, a hooded figure sat in front of a transparent crystal ball, illuminating the room filled with paper charts, and records.

"Hmm? Rocko got killed? Is it Clover or Heart?" The figure muttered. After thinking for a while, he heard consecutive knocks at his door.

"Come in."

A mage warrior came inside the room, and kneeled down. "Sir Harriet, a report from sentries up north arrived. They said they are battling with clover militia."

"So it's clover..." Harriet peered at the crystal ball reflecting his green emerald eyes. "Call back our scouts, and get ready to relocate, you don't have to deal with that clover militia, magic knights might be coming now. Also gather some of our capable combatants, we're going to send something important back home."

"Yes, Sir."

Harriet took a deep breath as looked at his crystal ball again, revealing the image of Lolopechka chatting with Marshall, and the others, while Gadjah quietly observes them.

'Heh! How lucky... we actually nabbed Heart's royal princess... But because of that we're in more danger. I need to take her back to the kingdom as soon as possible.'