The group to started to search for a campsite as soon as Silock left. They intended to find one & move within next 36 hours. They were also planning to make their current camp a decoy one. This was suggested by Ben. He said that they should perhaps retain a skeletal form of this camp so that others will mistake this for a regular camp upon preliminary inspection. So by using some arrays and inscription arts they created the illusion of protection & left some items , to fool anyone with bad intentions. Their next campsite was found by Azurbaan. It was a cave with a somewhat small entrance and a large interior. It was also facing a stream. All these made it a convenient location for camping and defence and daily needs. It also had some trees and thickets nearby giving them a cover. They moved all the important things to the new location quickly and cautiously. According to their plan they also left behind some unimportant stuff back at the old campsite, maintaining a skeletal camp structure to act as a decoy. They then came back to the decoy location for final touch ups for the decoy location like setting up the array.
Azurbaan suddenly perked up and looked in a direction. That was followed by Vishok and Mahaansh. Seeing all three look in the same direction, Ben also looked. He could not sense anything at first. Then he sensed 6 energy signatures. The energy was suppressed , clearly for an ambush. Vishok said loudly, " Your pathetic skills can't hide you from us. Come out. If not, you will be considered hostile." They waited for some time, but there was no reply. Then without warning Azurbaan attacked. Once everything was cleared, a group of 6 people were standing there. Ben quickly identified that one of them was Knight rank and another in noble rank. He could not identify the power level of others 4.
Mahaansh: "That is 4 martial lords & 1 noble rank & 1 Knight rank."
Vishok: "The line up is unusual."
Ben: "They are not here with any good."
Mahaansh: "That they are not. But the question is how they reached this deep in Gygax territory."
Ben: They could be Gygax nationals themselves, who infiltrated the nation.
Mahaansh: Yes that should be the case.
Vishok: We can think about all that after we subjugate them.
All of them combat ready. In Ben could not even fathom what was happening. All he heard was a sonic boom and he saw the Knight ranked person looking at the dead body of the noble realm person. He could not even see the Mahaansh was blocking two lord class enemies. Vishok & Azurbaan were blocking the other two. Ben did not wait. He was trained well by Mahaansh. He sprung into action. He activated 'Jamadagni Bhavana' & 'Vashishta Vachanam'. Ben's Mental Faculties reached its peak & he unleashed his power. He attacked the Knight level warrior with a punch. His opponent was still in a daze & was caught off-guard. He was sent flying & crashed into a tree. But to his credit he had guarded himself with his hand and used his aura. This cushioned the impact and reduced his injuries. The terrorist quickly regained his wits. Ben followed his attack and punched again. The terrorist counter-attacked with a punch. Ben easily dodged it. His opponent seemed to have anticipated it. He stopped himself and opened his palm. From his palm a force struck Ben. Ben used his aura and spread the impact using his hands and legs, skidding back a few meters.
Ben unleashed his claws & moved towards his opponent. The terrorist attacked with shock waves which Ben dodged. Even at close range Ben's nascent spatial sense allowed him to dodge the attack. Both of them paused for a few seconds. Then they resumed their fight. The terrorist understanding that Ben did not have long range capabilities began to keep him at a distance using the shock waves. At first the ripples were large and destructive. Then they became less powerful. Ben was not that well versed in combating with people. So he assumed that his opponent was getting tired. Ben quickly tried to close the gap with his speed intending to take the attack head on, seeing that it lost its power. He dodged a low power shock wave intending to take the other one head on. Then his senses tingled. His nascent spatial senses activated and he dodged at the last minute. But not fully. The shock wave affected him but only a little. He was sent skidding a bit. Behind him several trees were destroyed. He looked back at the destruction caused by the attack.
Ben could not think of any way now. He had let his guard down. He did not think that his opponent would resort to this trick. Now he did not know what to do. His opponent seemed to have smirked. Ben now got frustrated.
Ben then thought of an idea. He suddenly activated his claws. He consolidated his claws and made it stronger. It extended almost 30 cm from his base hand. Then he rand away from his opponent. His opponent was confused. But he did not let his guard down. He attacked Ben. Ben went to the destroyed forest. He then used his claws as a fork and picked a large boulder after dodging the attack. Then threw it at his opponent. It flew at him at high speed. This stunned his opponent. He dodged it somehow. But that gave Ben a chance. He quickly closed the distance between them and punched his opponent. The terrorist was stunned at the power of the punch. He coughed up blood. Ben did not waste his time and followed up with a combo.
His opponent had enough combat experience. He used his shock waves to open distance between them. Ben had no choice to defend and he also skidded back. Ben then used the trees that fell during the previous attack and the large rock nearby to launch projectiles at the terrorist. All of them were thrown at such speeds that, wherever it landed was obliterated. The terrorist could not destroy or deflect most of the projectiles and had to dodge. Ben also had to dodge from the attacks of the terrorist as he was unable to differentiate between the real attacks as well as the feints. But he was getting there. One of the trees that Ben launched did cause a flesh wound on the terrorist and was bleeding.
Thus both of them reached an impasse. They paused again. Both of them were tired and were running out of aura. Ben was in a difficult position. He was at a disadvantage when it came to techniques. He did not have an attacking technique to cause significant damage. He did not have a defensive technique. He did not have a movement technique to close the distance. He did not know what tricks his opponent had.
His opponent was also evaluating Ben. He decided that it was time. He had to utilize the martial techniques that he had. He was not going to use something which could give away his identity, but something that is more universal or will appear to be universal. Suddenly a red color light covered the terrorist's body. It was pulsating and covered his body closely.