Ezra woke up just before sunrise and hid. He controlled his vision and senses so that he could see and hear the movement of the knights and the regular soldiers as they separated. It was a good thing he was small, he was fairly inconspicuous.
At sunrise both parties parted ways, Ezra tailed the knights from behind, they were going around sixty to sixty-five kilometres per hour, faster than the average horses on earth which could run about forty to forty-eight kilometres.
Ezra maintained a healthy distance from the knights running around fifty kilometres per hour and speeding up when he lagged behind a certain distance. With his magic capacity he was not tired or strained at all, he tried to make the lactic acid build up levels to a minimum and tried to get as much oxygen as possible. He also simultaneously relieved his limbs as he ran.
He had done many experiments on his body the past two years, he tried to see how long he could run in his room and made a makeshift treadmill for the experiment on how much magic he could consume while running for the longest amount of time which baffled Evan but he did not ask what he was doing.
However, Ezra was so bored that he explained it to Evan anyway, it surprised him that Evan understood the concept fairly quickly and even added that he could use such a mechanism to train himself for endurance while guarding Ezra.
It seemed that magical ability was directly proportional to intelligence, although Ezra could not determine which attribute affected it the most, was it purity? Capacity? Range? Or Cast speed? This experiment was reserved for the future in the meantime.
Ezra also noticed that he could control his body much more than knights ever could, he surmised that it was because he knew more about the anatomy of the human body more than anyone. His magic consumption was more efficient as he could target key muscles in the body to prevent them from fatigue when doing a task, but this was minimized if he was doing a lot of other things simultaneously.
He also let Evan teach him basic combat, he was surprised at how flawless Evan would execute some of his sword techniques which had very little drawdown, but sometimes Ezra found that he could actually improve on a certain movement to get the full force blow and execute as much damage as possible.
With his memory, he only needed to see a move once, especially with amp he could see the amount of force, angle and the exact motion a move was executed, with that information he could practically mimic any type of bodily movement with the aid of both AMP and his body as he used magic. Because of this, he became confident that he could practically do anything physically possible and even more.
He kept on running for around two hours with very minimal fatigue. The knights then slowed down as they saw the outskirts of a dense forest. Ezra saw birches, beeches, chestnuts and conifers from afar with his augmented eyesight but he also saw trees that he did not know, but he could not be too sure because he was too far to investigate.
The knights went through a dirt road a few meters wide, Ezra was tense because he might lose them inside the forest and he could not use his magic to probe them because he was going to be found out, so he sped up as soon as all of them entered. He quickly went up a tree, thankfully the knights were slow enough
The forest was dense and minimal sunlight came through, the sounds of nature could be heard and various animal noises and the rustling leaves in the wind as well as the bird cries. Ezra felt at peace inside the forest. But he continued to tail the knights, who seemed really cautious. The demon hunter suddenly issued commands.
"Rycharde and Evered will be beside me," Deimos beckoned to the two knights who had the war-hammer and the mace. The knight who used the war-hammer was Rycharde, he galloped to the right of Deimos while Evered went to Deimos" left.
"Galwell, stay in the middle,"
Galwell did not use his spear, instead, he donned a bow and a quiver of arrows was beside him.
"Oswyn and Dynham, ride beside Rychard and Evered since Galwell is the most perceptive he shall be tasked to detect incoming creatures."
"Yes," the five knights responded at once. They were in a triangular formation as the traversed through the forest.
Ezra was still on the treetops jumping from branch to branch, holding his dagger. While he did not know what exactly made the knights so cautious, but if they were alert, so should he. His tweaked his senses to the limit of what was presently possible. Vision, smell and hearing were the ones he gave priority to.
After half an hour through Irriton Grove, the knights became even slower and more cautious. Sunlight on this part of the grove was barely going through, because of this it was dark, but Ezra"s sense of sight was outstanding in the dark so it was no problem for him.
Suddenly there was a deafening roar. The knights stopped, Deimos dismounted and gestured to the knights to stay still. Deimos drew his daggers as a bear the size of three men appeared, it was enormous. But its frame did not seem to slow it down in the slightest bit, it ran around forty kilometres per hour as it charged at Deimos.
Galwell was about to shoot but Deimos stopped him with a gesture. The bear charged again and swiped at his feet which Deimos dodged with a somersault as he flung his dagger toward the bear. The dagger hit the right shoulder of the bear, it was furious and charged again.
This time Deimos drew his whip and hit the bear on the face. The bear seemed to be faster now and kept on attacking Deimos with its paws. It also attempted to bite him several times but Deimos was swift.
To Ezra it seemed he was too swift that the bear could not even land a single blow at Deimos, he was thoroughly impressed.
Deimos drew his whip again and kept on hitting the right shoulder of the bear where the dagger was embedded, it kept on getting deeper and deeper, as the howls and growls of the bear became more frantic.
Then somehow the bear became faster and charged and hit Deimos with a head-b.u.t.t. It hit Deimos in the chest, which sent him flying but he recovered with a flip as he drew his hand crossbow and shot at the bear"s eye.
The bear a.s.saulted him again, but this time Deimos was ready for him he sidestepped to the blind-spot of the bear and used his whip to lodge a knot around the dagger and then he pulled the whip. The bear struggled but it was now lethargic it could not even come close to Deimos. After a few minutes, the bear choked.
"Looks like we are having bear meat tonight," Deimos grinned.
As soon as Deimos finished with the bear, Ezra sensed an abnormal wind current flowing on his back. When he looked he saw a huge hawk with wings spanning four meters charging toward him.