Two days later, a group of 10 stalked through the woods toward where Ray and Erith had killed the commander. After learning about the accelerated timeline, over half of their members had decided not to participate, leaving them with a smaller group.

  They entered the clearing made by their fight with the commander and came face to face with two figures. One stood tall, wearing a ragged-looking cloak, and had apparent skeletal-like features made of some polished metal. The second one wore bright golden robes meshed with glowing golden hair that stretched down to his shoulders, held in place by a simple crown. He held a staff that emanated a dull heat as an orb that looked like the sun, if it didn’t emit much light.

  He stepped forward. “Hello, my future subjects,” he said in a melodic and childlike voice.

  The group got into a ready position, tensing for a fight.

  “Hold now, I do not wish to fight you. I only want to talk and hopefully show you why you should obey my rule.”

  The group shared a glance, with a few of them shrugging.

  “Alright, then talk,” Ray said, slightly relaxing but keeping a firm grasp on his weapons.

  “Well, as I’m sure you have surmised by now, I am the king of the Solis empire, hailing from the planet Tares-7.”

  Someone let out a short laugh before covering their mouth.

  The king scowled and pointed to the laughing man. “An example.”

  Before Ray could move a third figure clad in full plate mail holding a sword made out of pure light knelt before the king, holding a severed head.

  “As you wish, my king.”

  The king placed his hand on his head and muttered a short prayer. The dead man’s body vaporised in an instant as soon as the prayer finished, and he turned back to the group. A tear fell down his cheek as he cocked his head to the side. “It pains me deeply to kill one of my subjects, but I cannot let a blatant insult slide.”

  Ray scowled. “Another madman who thinks he can do whatever he wants just because he is strong.” An incantation spilled from his lips, and Horde Breaker transformed, infusing him with lightning.

  He rushed at the king at full speed, but the warrior in plate mail intercepted him, blocking his strike.

  “Your king just expressed his wish to let you live, and this is how you repay him?”

  “He’s not my king,” Ray growled, and his spell hand began sparking with power.

  The warrior tried to break through Ray’s guard and prevent the spell from completing, but even with all his speed, he could not keep up with the mage.

  “I’m stronger than last time!” Ray roared, and a blast of energy shot after the warrior, colliding with the ground beneath his feet.

  The blast consumed everything in a 20-foot radius, leaving a large corridor with no sign of the warrior left behind.

  Ray smirked and let out a soft chuckle. “To think I had to run from you two months ago.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Impressive!” the king said with a slow clap. “Sol-7, do you think you could subdue that one without killing him?”

  The mechanical creature standing beside the king gave a slight bow. “Yes, sir, shall I have the archmage proxies handle the others?”

  “Hmm, increase their power consumption by 100% and then yes.”

  “Yes, sir.” The creature raised its head and pressed something on its wrist.

  Ten mechanical creatures walked from the treeline behind the king, their bodies twisting into humanoid forms. When they arrived, the king rose into the air, and a throne of gold manifested high in the sky, giving him a bird’s-eye view of the conflict. Ray fell back beside Erith and Chio.

  “You ready?” he asked.

  They both nodded.

  Ray raised his hand high and dropped it, signaling everyone to engage. As soon as he did, an arrow flew from deep in the forest and collided with one of the archmages with a spider-like appearance, piercing one of its mechanical eyes and sending it crashing to the ground.

  With a shriek of anger and a round of insults aimed at their fallen comrade and Ray’s group, the nine remaining archmages cast spells as Sol-7 slowly walked toward Ray. In the blink of an eye, the creature burst into motion, instantly closing the gap between them. It placed its hand on Ray’s shoulder, and they disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing around 3 miles away.

  “Now we won’t be interrupted,” the creature said.

  “Good,” Ray said with a smile.

  He flashed away, creating distance from the creature, and cast another spell. It closed the distance in less than a second, seeming to teleport with every step, and slammed its fist into Ray’s barrier, shattering it and continuing the strike into his stomach, sending him flying back and through several trees. His barrier absorbed most of the impact, limiting the damage but still leaving him winded. The creature closed in again, and Ray raised his weapon, waiting for the creature’s next step before dashing forward and unleashing a short barrage of strikes, aiming for joints and other weak points. The blades shattered on impact, and Ray cursed, jumping away from a return strike from the creature. He threw the weapons into his bag and began casting another spell while mentally noting that he would need to upgrade or replace the weapons if he survived this fight.

  Sol-7 continued charging him at full speed. Horde Breaker transformed again, turning to several tendrils with sharp blades at their tips and slashing at the creature, keeping it at bay while Ray finished his incantation.

  A glowing electric blue weapon, sparking with violet and kicking up a whirlwind around it, manifested in his free hand, and he dashed forward. Ray joined the fight with Horde Breaker, interlacing his attacks with its assault and forcing the creature onto the back foot. It continuously teleported, just barely avoiding Ray’s attacks.

  Explosions echoed out in the distance as every swing of the blade sent chaotic energy shooting into the forest. Ray’s attack was relentless, but Sol-7 soon began adapting landing strikes of its own, causing Ray to fly back a cut opening on his cheek. He wiped the blood away and smirked, launching back into the fight. An incantation fell from his lips, and as the creature attempted to teleport away from his next attack, he finished the spell.

  It teleported away, but Ray appeared right beside him, finished the attack, and split the creature in two.

  “H-how?” it asked.

  “What, you have never had an opponent reverse engineer your technique in the middle of combat before?”

  “Imposable,” Sol-7 said. Attempting to push itself up.

  Ray brought the blade down again. A shockwave rippled out as the creature’s head fell from its body.

  “Objective completed: kill horde lord 1/1.”

  He pulled a stamina potion from his bag, downing it, and turned back to where he could see the golden throne. He appeared back beside his friends with a few uses of his new technique. All but one of the archmages had been defeated, and only two casualties had been suffered on their side. Ray bowed his head in reverence of those who had died, and in a flash, he appeared behind the last archmage who was in the middle of spewing some nonsense about being the only one his king had complete trust in, and with a flick of his blade, its head fell from its body.

  The king sighed and descended from his throne, standing before Ray. “Impressive, but I must ask that you surrender here.”

  “And why would we do that?!” Erith shouted.

  “Because I’m not good at holding back, and I can’t guarantee any of you would live without even seeing a demonstration of my power.”

  “We just defeated all of your lackeys, and you’re still this confident?” Ray asked, reading his blade.

  “Yes,” the king answered plainly and held out his hand.

  The corpses of the archmages all turned to light and filtered into his palm.

  “For why would I compare a fraction of my power to the real thing?”

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