"Well, that"s not true… The sun has gone down… So I got that going for me… Which is nice…"

His body was covered in cuts where frozen blood was about to leak out of, the 300 elite knights were attacking him in s.h.i.+fts and thanks to the relentless f.u.c.king barrier that was around them Mike had not managed to kill even one of them as they slowly wore him down over the hours, attacking him all the time without leaving him anytime to rest, Mike had long since sheathed the knife, he knew he was unable to cut through the barrier that protected them so he simply focused on dodging as an overhead swing shot down upon him he dodged by sidestepping to the left before he suddenly twisted his body and dodged a sneak attack from behind, outside the formation stood the commander and watched Mike

"Commander?"

"Oh, sorry about that…"

She sat on a rolled up bedroll and watched Mike fight for his life for a bit longer before she dragged her eyes off him, they had been at it for about five hours now and she had begun to respect Mike a whole lot, sure they were enemies and his perseverance had slowed them down a whole lot, but she still found the man more and more charming to look at the more he fought for his life

"I made up my mind"

"Are you sure this is a wise move commander?"

The commander gave a nod

"He"s the kind of soldier we"re looking for frankly he has better control over his body than me and I have been trained since I was three years old"

"...Is it talent perhaps?"

"Might be... "

The commander stood up and began walking over towards the encirclement before she called out

"Halt!"

The soldiers that made up the encirclement paused their attacks and drew back giving Mike room to breath as she walked forwards

"You"re persistence impress me"

Mike breathed deeply as he used every moment to catch his breath, meanwhile, the commander continued speaking

"Seeing your persistence I have decided to give you an offer… Join us"

A cold glint flashed through Mike"s eyes before he asked

"Just like that?"

The commander gave a smile

"Well, you"ll be a slave for the first three years, if you survive you will officially join the ranks of my knights!"

A red light flashed through Mike"s eyes as he spoke out

"No way… I am not going back to being a slave, not when…"

Mike suddenly paused before he turned and looked back completely ignoring the commander, the commander was perplexed by his sudden silence but suddenly she felt something, something familiar and walked around the encirclement to the other side and kneeled down on the gra.s.s, soon two riders crossed into the light of the encampment, they had spurred their horses so much that they were clearly about to die from exhaustion and were frothing at the mouth before they stopped and dismounted, as they did their horses collapsed, they were two women both of them had vermilion red hair, one of them had short shoulder length hair and the other had long hair that reached her hip, both of them walked towards the center of the encampment, the knights kneeled down when they saw them as, for the reason, they could feel a suppressive sensation when they looked at them, the sensation of mana. And it was in abundance.

The two women walked straight up to the encirclement where the commander was kneeling, the commander hurriedly spoke up

"Venerable ladies, forgive me for my late introduction, I am Harly of the great house of Gelvin, commander of the 3rd elite knights, please allow me to…"

The commander stopped talking as she realized that the two venerable ladies completely ignored her and walked past her into the encirclement and kneeled down in front of Mike before the two of them spoke in unison

""Master""

Mike showed a slight smile as he spoke to his two servants who he had not seen in over three years

"Elina, Rebecca… It"s good that you both are here"

The two servants lowered their head for some time before Elina looked up and asked Mike

"Master… Forgive me for asking but… Who gave you those wounds?"

Mike chuckled before he spoke

"The knights around me of course, they have been trying to kill me for the last five hours… Oh that"s right until that one proposed that I could become her slave if I wanted to live"

Elina trembled slightly, so did Rebecca, the sky above them suddenly turned violent as their mana inside the two servants began circling around, churning with violent intent. Then as the knights around them that heard what Mike said was saying their prayers Rebecca spoke

"Do you have any orders for us master?"

Mike thought for a moment before he pointed at the commander

"Let that one alive, as for the rest I want them disabled and lined up"

""Yes master""

Elina stood up, as she did she tapped the necklace she wore and then suddenly liquid flowed out of the necklace covering her body before it formed into sinister armor before she stamped the ground with one foot, a shockwave flowed out from where she had stomped the ground until it reached the edge of the camp and then the earth rose up forming a 15 meter tall wall around the camp, then Rebecca"s shadow lengthened before it suddenly turned into tiny pieces and scattered all over the encampment as it cut into the knights, the shadow went right through the barriers they were so proud of and outright maimed some while it at least injured the rest, there were cries of despair all around Mike but he just stood with a calm smile on his face while his servants dragged the knights and lined them up in a row, all 299 of them, meanwhile the commander was muttering to herself

"This is a bad dream… Just a dream... They can"t hurt me…"

Then Mike bright the knife to all 299 of knights stabbing them in their throats while ignoring their pleas for mercy and curses alike, then when he was done with the last person he muttered

"[Drink]"

As the knights dried up the usual headache came he ignored it for a moment before it suddenly intensified, it literally felt like his head was splitting, he kneeled down on the ground before his vision swayed and he blacked out…

When Mike opened his eyes again he saw the inside of a tent, he was tucked into a bedroll, he sat himself up and looked around inside the tent as he struggled to remember what he had been doing before he fell asleep, then he reached up to scratch his head but suddenly pulled his hand back as he felt something sharp poke it

"Ouch..!"

Mike looked around for the sharp object for a bit before he gave a shrug, then he saw that someone had laid out some clothes for him, he looked down and saw he was b.u.t.t naked

"Well… at least my b.u.t.t doesn"t hurt…"

Mike put on the pants before he pulled the s.h.i.+rt over his head, but when he did he heard a ripping sound

"That doesn"t sound good…"

Mike paused and removed the s.h.i.+rt again before he examined it and saw that there were two tears that went perpendicular to each other around the middle of the s.h.i.+rt

"Don"t tell me…"

Mike reached up and touched his forehead ever so carefully before he let out a groan and muttered

"Why the f.u.c.k do I have horns..?"

While they weren"t big they were definitely there about seven centimeters long each situated with about three centimeters right and left of the middle of his forehead the horns pointed upwards and were very sharp

"Whelp… Might as well roll with it…"

Mike looked around for another s.h.i.+rt to wear but found nothing so he gave a shrug

"At least I am wearing pants…"

Mike walked out of the tent and was met with the blinding sunlight of the midday sun, taking a few seconds to adjust to the light Mike looked around as his eyes regained the ability to see and found that he still was in the open plain and that the 15 meter tall rock wall was still around the basecamp, then he heard a voice call out to him

"Master!"

Mike looked over and saw Rebecca kneeling down, Mike gave a nod and asked

"How long have I slept?"

"About 12 hours"

"I see… Did you keep that commander alive?"

"Yes master"

Rebecca looked up and saw Mike"s new horns and gave a gaps before she lowered her head again and muttered

"So the visions were true…"

Mike narrowed his eyes and asked

"What visions?"

Rebecca paused for a moment before she spoke

"We all had visions of you Master… and in all of them, you had horns"

"I see… That"s not ominous at all"