The devil-like creature made the knights shiver. They froze in place at the sight of this fiendish figure.
The black flames that surrounded Idris began to burn the grass around him.
His power was around the 5th layer of Body Tempering Realm right now. The soldiers in front of him had no chance against him. Even their commander wasn't sure if he could win against such an formidable opponent.
The creature was calmly floating a few centimetres in the air, its face directed to the ground.
As Idris came flying down slowly, his power began to rise again. Even more grass started burning and a foul smell was coming from under everyone's feet.
When Idris landed on the dry earth, his power exploded. A shockwave was emitted from inside his body, materialized and repelled.
The shockwave was so strong that all the knights could barely stand on their feet anymore.
It was also hot. So hot that the houses in their sourrindings started burning.
Smoke rose from the fire into the skies, forming a big cloud.
Meanwhile in the city, some people could see the smoke. They reported it to the authorities to act against the threat that they thought would be a beast.
Idris who had looked at the ground until just a moment ago, lifted his head.
His red eyes emitted unfathomable pressure. The knights were shocked once again. They had only ever felt so intimidated by the generals before.
A fiendish smirk formed on the face of the devil-like creature. Its mouth had no color at all. It was just white. No teeth, no tongue and no lips.
The smile reached as high as to form its eyes into an even more devilish face.
The knights were done. They began to move again and flee. Even their commander screamed with fear in his voice: "Retreat! Everyone retreat! Fast!"
"Hahaha. It's already too late." Instead of his sweet, childish tone, came a dark and threatening voice out of his mouth.
Even Idris himself was surprised.
He charged in at the fleeing soldiers. Commander Hermann made himself ready to fight and took an unusual fighting stance.
After all it was the duty of a commander to protect his subordinates and rescue as many as he could. If he should still live after this fight it would be good for his career too.
He had been prepared for this since the moment he entered the military.
He held his sword in front of his body and waited a short moment. Then he imbued his blade with earth magic. It began to shine brown and emitted a blood-freezing pressure.
As Idris came into the range of the long sword, commander Hermann swung down his blade. When it was about to cut into the black flames and fulfilling his plan in cutting him in half, it was suddenly pulverized by the heat of the fire around Idris.
When it disappeared, commander Hermann was dumbstruck. How could it be that it is so hot to just burn his special-made long sword?
But he didn't have the time to think about it, as he received the powerful blow of Idris.
When the fist touched his chest, one could hear the cracking sound of bones.
Commander Hermann flew backwards into the remaining debris of a house , while spitting out blood.
The punched was so strong, it penetrated his defense and broke his bones. The splinters of the bones hit his lung and injured it.
He had inner bleedings and couldn't breath normal anymore. Even so, he still stood up again and got into a defensive position. He couldn't receive another of these blows or he would surely die.
The defensive stance was not only for defense, but also for attacking. It wasn't as effective as any other offensive stance, but was very powerful with its added strength in defense.
He gathered all the elemental earth energy he could find in the area,... only to notice the rapid decrease of the energy.
Even so, he used all his stored power from inside his body and imbued it into his hand.
Meanwhile inside of Idris. Idris had felt the increase of the elemental energy inside of him. His transformation allowed him to absorb more of the energy than under normal circumstances.
That's why he stood still and tried to help himself progress further. The energy streaming inside him became richer.
Suddenly an explosion happened inside of him. If he wouldn't have been transformed, he would have fallen down on his knees and groaned in pain.
But the pain was annulled and he felt nothing at all.
He had forcefully broken through to the 2nd layer of Body Tempering Realm, doubling his strength.
A surge of energy could be felt outside. Commander Hermann hadn't anticipated him to brake through to the next layer so fast. Normally it would take about one month to breakthrough the 2nd layer. Even a genius would take a few days.
Idris formed a black ball in front of his fist. It was a sphere of darkness energy compressed into just a little dot.
As he swung his hand at the commander, that wore a pale face, a shield appeared in front of him, protecting him from the blow.
Even though it stopped his fist, it still crumbled.
Who could erect such a powerful barrier? Everyone wondered at first. The knights that still remained until now to watch the fight, turned their gazes. The magic that was casted came from behind them.
"It's general Hopkins! What's he doing here?" One of the soldiers exclaimed.
The crowd started to mumble at his sighting. Behind the general were several hundred of knights. They came as reinforcements.
"General, sir, what are you doing here?" Commander Hermann asked curiously.
"I heard there would be a fire. But still... I didn't think it would be such a mess." His calm eyes observed the scene. He wandered around looking at the houses. Everything was burnt down.
He then resumed and turned his gaze towards Idris.
Pressure emanated from him, greater than Idris had ever imagined. His blood froze and he became stiff. He knew that this person was several times stronger than him.