Enigma

As Ralf heard the voice, he was shocked. He had kept his mental power spread out in his immediate surroundings, no one could come this close unnoticed. He wanted to quickly turn around, however, before Ralf could even do anything, that something had grabbed his shoulder, and yanked him to the side.

Ralf was thrown off the ship, he skipped across the sand like a stone skipping on a lake. Finally he crashed on the paralyzed Cloud Komodo, landing squarely on its tail, making the beast wail.

"AHHH, I've had it, who is intervening in my affairs now." Ralf shouted as he got up and jumped into the air to get a better look at his assailant. "Who the hell…"

Ralf was shocked. He could see the individual on the ship, it was a humanoid creature adorned in an unfamiliar full body Armor. However that was not the shocking part, what made Ralf shake down to his very core was that this individual, could not be 'seen' with his mental sense. He kept releasing his mental wave, but it detected nothing, as if it was his eyes that were seeing a false image.

'Is it an illusion.' Ralf thought. 'No, it can't be an illusion. Illusory abilities are the mainstay of the Raavi. I should have detected the controller nearby, meaning this person has some skill to mask himself from my mental powers.'

While Ralf was in the air, contemplating the identity of his attacker, Koren was panicking, worried that he might have been too late.

"Why are they all sleeping, are they hurt, will they be ok." Koren mumbled. "What do I do now, what do I do."

"Calm down Koren, they are fine, except for the Bald one, he took some serious damage to his prefrontal cortex, but nothing I can't handle." Hope's form appeared in front of the rattling Koren. "For now you need to decide what to do with that guy."

Koren snapped out of his unnerved state, and raised his head to look at the floating Ralf.

"So, this is what a Raavi looks like, reminds me of the large cats from earth." Hope muttered while staring at the floating Raavi with an inquisitive look. "Don't go all out, test him out a bit, I want to collect more information about the Duality Path of the Raavi."

"Fine, but first I will heal Senior Sappa." Koren raised his arm, and the metallic butterflies squirmed out, and flew towards Sappa. They settled over him, releasing a warm light.

Koren turned to look back at the Floating Raavi, and slowly floated off the ship with the help of the repulsors, keeping his eyes glued to his opponent the whole time.

As soon as he was at level with the Raavi, who was looking at him with confusion, he willed his helmet off.

"HUMAN!!" Ralf Yelled out in shock. This armored individual was able to approach him in complete silence, and throw him back with such force, that he never even had an opportunity to counter. However, this individual was not a Raavi general or a Lizard, but a human.

"You… Are you from the Icy Mountains." Ralf couldn't help but blurt. "We have a treaty with your cities, you can't leave the Luna Range."

Ralf stared at the young face of the human warrior and tried to calm himself. In his long military career, he had crossed paths with many human warriors who follow the essence path, but apart from the City Lords, no one was able to match him in the same level. Yet he couldn't even feel a hint of essence from this youth, not even a trace.

Koren didn't bother to answer the Raavi, instead he returned a chilling smile.

Suddenly, the repulsors on Koren's back fired with a raging sound and he rocketed towards the Giant Cat like person.

Ralf's feline ears became erect as soon as he saw the human smile, and he became alert, wrapping his tail around his waist, he prepared his defensive shield.

His intuition was proven right, as in the next moment, the human flew towards him with incredible speed.

Ralf made a few gestures and the transparent shield around him started to shrink. The shield continued to shrink until it was only a thin transparent layer on his skin.

As a Raavi, Ralf knew that his mental power was strongest when it was close to the source, and as it is spread out, it becomes weaker, especially in the case of defensive abilities.

Koren appeared right next to Ralf, and smacked him right across his face.

Ralf felt helpless, the speed of this human's movements were so fast, that even he could barely make them out. As soon as the human's slap connected with his face, the thin, invisible defensive layer buckled under immense pressure, and shattered.

While Ralf stood there shocked, Koren smiled and then used his other hand to slap him again and again. By the time he finally stopped, Ralf's face looked more like a porcupine than a Noble Raavi.

"You...you…" Ralf was fuming, but he couldn't do anything about it. In front of this human, his Noble demeanor was nowhere to be seen. "You can't do this to me, I am Ralf Arvo, I'm a Raavi General. We…"

slap…slap…slap

Three more slaps and Ralf was silent. He found this individual to be unreal, an enigma that shouldn't exist. No essence power, no spiritual power, no mental power, yet strong to this degree, even artifact Armor's need spiritual runes and immense spiritual power to manipulate.

"That was for what you did to the Human's on that ship, and this…" Koren eyes burned with rage as he grabbed the tail wrapped across Ralf's waist. "…Is for Sappa"

Ralf didn't even have the time to process what the human said, before he felt a tug on his tail, and he was tossed around like a toy, his surrounding's constantly changing. He tried to use his mental strength to go free, but no matter how much power he poured forth, he just couldn't get rid of the human.

"Hey Koren, let the poor kitty go, this is animal cruelty." Hope snickered while looking at the wailing Ralf. " Let him attack you a bit, I want to see more of the duality path."

Koren listened to Hope and let go of the tail, hurling the Raavi in the air.

Ralf, who was praying to the mighty Rayvus to end his suffering, was beginning to think he might have to cut his own tail. Needless to say, he was ecstatic when the human finally released him. He quickly stabilized himself in the air and didn't waste any time to turn around and fly towards the city at the fastest speed.

"Look, you scared him, he running now." Hope pointed towards Ralf who was getting further and further by the second. "Come on dummy, stop him, we need to get more data on the duality path."

Koren disappeared from his original location, his figure blasting through the air, and fast approaching the fleeing Raavi.

Ralf turned his head back to see the smiling figure approaching him at a leisurely pace.

'I… I can't run. Just what is this monster' Ralf's brain was working overtime, trying to find a way out of this situation. 'That draconian, and now this human, If I can bring this information to the Emperor, I will have the opportunity to rise, but if I die here…"

Ralf clenched his teeth and came to a stop.

Koren was surprised and came to a stop just a few meters from Ralf. He was about to increase his speed to catch up, and didn't expect the Raavi to stop on his own accord.

"Wha…What do you want." Ralf muttered, his whole body trembling with fear. "If you kill me, then all the humans who live in the Empire will suffer. I don't feel any essence from you, I know you are not from the Icy Mountains, let me go and we can come to an agreement, I am very wealthy, my family will give you whatever you want."

Koren looked on as the Raavi tried to offer him all sorts of benefits, and smirked.

"Attack me" He roared, his overpowering voice immediately silenced the rambling Raavi.

"Wha… What" Ralf muttered, unable to believe what the human just said.

"I said, ATTACK ME." Koren said in an impatient tone. "Attack me with your strongest move, and I will let you go."

Ralf staggered in the air, his breathing was getting heavy, sweat was dripping down from his chin.

'This lunatic wants me to attack him!!' Ralf thought. 'I am Ralf Arvo, a general of the Raavi Empire. If I can't even hurt him a little, then what the hell have I been doing my whole life."

Without saying another word, Ralf started to gather his mental power, veins started to popup on his forehead. His soul stone started to give off a brilliant light blue gleam as the several glass swords started to form around him.

"Interesting, this guy seems to be using some sort of telekinetic ability. The air molecules are being compressed and held together by a force field of some sort. Once those swords come into contact with an enemy they will not only do piercing damage, but also explode as the air pressure is already unstable." Hope's eyes were fixated on Ralf, her inquisitive glare able to see all of his moves with absolute attention. " That glowing thing between his brows seems to be the center of his telekinetic abilities, so interesting. But he is so unfortunate, the Godless also had such abilities, that's why the Guardian Armor has tech incorporated into it that makes it essentially 'invisible' to such skills. However, the bursting damage might throw you off a bit."

"Its fine Big sis, right now I feel like I could take ten of him." Koren exclaimed with gusto, his breathing starting to get heavy.

"Koren the Armor is powerful, but its not your power." Hope emphasized. "You fused with the Dimensional Core, you were born to become a Path Walker, but don't get ahead of yourself, you are still a kid."

"I know sis, I know. It's the Armor, every time I 'Grow Up', I feel different." Koren said, reassuringly. "It's like I can do anything. Thanks for reminding me Big sis, that I'm still 9, not 20."

While Koren was talking with hope, his outer gaze was still fixated on the Raavi and the intense mental fluctuation around him.

Ralf looked at the Human and his fixated look, he had poured every ounce of mental power into this attack.

'This has to do some damage, this guy can't possibly be that strong.' Ralf Thought. 'He's not putting up any spiritual defense, does he think he can take this head on.'

Ralf was fuming inside, but his body was still shaking from the earlier exchange. He clenched his teeth and yelled. "Sword Union!!"

Suddenly, all the glass like swords started to come together and fuse until only one Large sword remained. Ralf gestured with his hand and the sword bolted towards the Armored Human.

************

Far off into the distance, only a few kilometers from the Oasis, a green portal suddenly appeared and a draconian figure could be seen hurling out with incredible speed, till he finally fell on the sand, creating splash.

Uther looked at the state of his own body, his Armor was almost completely obliterated, and his scales were broken leaving a huge gash on his chest where the Raavi's attack connected.

Clink…clink…clink

Uther slowly started to take the chest plate off, followed by the rest of the Silver Armor. Meanwhile the sinister green mist that made up the portal slowly poured back into Uther's body. The wound on his chest started to heal at incredible speed, and within a few minutes, he was feeling better than ever.

"It seems you got a lot of benefits from her blood." Uther said as the green mist slowly retreated back into his Spiritual Core. "The stronger you are, the better it is for me, but don't forget, my spiritual mark is still on the core. If you want to be free, my ascension comes first."

The mist didn't reply, it slowly released fluctuation in his spiritual core, as if to say yes. Uther smirked, and looked around him.

"I shouldn't be too far off from the Oasis, I wonder if Andre achieved his mission." Uther muttered as he started to sprint towards the Oasis.