Chapter 41 | Forest Skirmish

“Team 17 and Team 16, head out the Eastern Gate immediately and start the encompassing maneuvers. Don’t bring shame to His Majesty, The King, and The Emperor.”

“For Vandreth!” The two Knight Captains slammed their gauntlets onto their chestplates and left. With that, all seventeen teams were done with their orders. With the limited amount of time, they couldn’t spend time formulating a plan.

“I am sorry for the unsightly situation at hand, Sir Mage. Please rest–”

“We’ll join the war efforts,” Satou cut the Lieutenant off. Both Theo’s and the Knight’s heads snapped toward him, surprised by his sudden words.

“This is..?”

“I am Satou, Theo’s bodyguard,” The Assassin said with his arms crossed. Lieutenant Gerard’s mouth opened and closed. He seemed to be picking his words carefully.

So far, Satou had hidden his prowess. Gerard could probably sense he was trained somehow, but he couldn’t pinpoint how much. If he were to overestimate him and speak cordially, it would cause an awkward situation. If he underestimated him and spoke in a casual tone, it could offend the man and cause a fallout.

“We don’t want to endanger Sir The–” Before he could finish his sentence, however, Satou seemed to get tired of his indecisive attitude. He released his aura, causing the Knight Lieutenant to reel. His eyes widened as he took a step back.

When it came to sheer volume of aura, Lieutenant Gerard was above Satou. That, Theo could figure out in a single look. But Satou’s aura had this certain quality to it that made it as sharp as a blade’s edge.

“I see. Then I can assume that you will shoulder the protection of Sir Theo in all circumstances, right?” The Knight Lieutenant grabbed the pommel of his sword hanging from his waist tightly. Gave it a squeeze.

“Have no worries. I am good at my job,” Satou commented. And that probably wasn’t wrong. Surprisingly, being an assassin also consisted of protecting people as a mission quite frequently.

“Great then. We will want to take this fight outside the outpost. The defenses aren’t complete yet. We do not want to prematurely have our efforts destroyed. Instead, we will meet them in the forest.”

“Won’t it be hard to face the bandits in guerrilla warfare in the forest?” Theo asked with his arms crossed. Sir Gerard turned to face him.

“Many think we knights are used to fighting in formations, but that isn’t strictly true. We might be foot soldiers, but we are also trained task forces. We are no strangers to guerrilla warfare,” Gerard said. Theo nodded.

“I would like you two to tail the teams 13 through 15. They will need a rear guard in case the enemy has more numbers than we have scouted so far.”

After getting filled in with the details, Theo and Satou departed with a quick dash. Dexterity and vitality galore, Theo could keep up quite the fascinating amount of speed as they ran through the woods.

This was the case for many warriors. Even this technically small-scale skirmish that wouldn’t reach a thousand people, even with the numbers of both sides, took place in an area of five kilometers or so. The obscene power levels of the aura-enhanced warriors made such massive distances meaningless. They could sense each other from meters away, run at breakneck speeds, and jump several times their height.

Consequently, such skirmishes with superpowered people took place on a bigger scale than a normal battle.

Quickly, Theo and Satou settled into a comfortable pace behind the three teams, consisting of about thirty people in total, spread out in an arrow formation. The team was mainly composed of third-rate warriors.

Even after seeing the duo, they didn’t react much and kept their pace.

“They are good,” Satou commented.

“Hm? Who is good?”

“The knights. Even the third rates are strong. I bet they could take on a second-rate warrior of independent factions while working together in groups of two or three.”

“Really?” Theo asked. Jumping grades to fight higher-leveled opponents was something that was usually reserved for main characters. Not some knights running around in plate armor.

“Yes,” Satou said. “They are just that good. Their battle expertise seems pretty good, but the real reason I’m telling this is because of their awareness. They won’t ever be not ready for a fight.” He emphasized the word ‘awareness’ for some reason.

“Awareness?”

“Yes. Awareness. It’s the ability to utilize your perception and understanding of your surroundings. Look at their eyes, I’m sure even you can see it,” he answered. Theo nodded and paid attention. Truly, there was an eerie feeling emanating from their gaze. As if their looks were penetrating their surroundings. It wasn’t something Theo had paid attention to before, but now that he noticed it, it made his hair stand on end.

“Makes you uncomfortable, right?” Satou asked. Theo nodded indecisively. “It’s because you are not used to it. There is no modern person back on Earth that has awareness like that.”

“What about you?” Theo asked.

“My awareness is beyond that. I don’t really use my eyes for it,” Satou shook his head. That made sense, as Theo hadn’t felt this discomfort while facing Satou before. “By the way, your awareness is absolutely horrendous. Even for the average modern person.”

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“Hm?” Theo couldn’t help but be surprised. With his heightened perception, he thought he would have been really good at this particular subject. “I have really good eyes, though.”

“I know. I have realized that your perception is probably even better than mine, by magnitudes at that.”

That was probably true. No matter how hard the training, unless aura was involved, even warriors only had slightly better than average perception.

On the other hand, assuming that the stats in his interface worked linearly, Theo had seven and a half times better perception than the average human.

“Still, it’s like having a really long sword while being unable to wield it properly. It’s not about the size, it’s about how well you use it.”

“Yeah, I would rather you not word it like that,” Theo pursed his lips.

“Stay on topic,” Satou didn’t bother answering. “As I said, your awareness is horrid. You constantly blank out, lose focus, your eyes are like those of a prey. I really want to ask what you exactly did in your past, but I feel like you lived a kind of life I can’t even imagine.”

“Uhh… I would rather not answer that,” Theo smiled bitterly. He had told Satou he was a shut-in, but it seemed Satou was unfamiliar with how the lifestyle exactly worked. “So… How do I exactly get over this problem?”

“Let’s deal with the matter at hand first. Ready yourself. You won’t have the time to deal with the shock of a real fight once you are in it,” Satou said with a frown. “Keep your eyes open. Do your best not to blank out. Don’t let your thoughts wander. Consider this a part of your training.”

“Mhm,” Theo nodded as a serious expression settled on his face.

They accompanied the knights in their journey.