Rise of the Legendary Emperor

Chapter 10: Out of the woods

"Glad you understand Knight".

"Just try not to kill too many people in the Slave city''

Knight said with a grin on his face as Don shrugged

"You know about me,"

"That's what I am afraid of" Knight said as he ruffled his hair and let out a small laugh.

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After a while of waiting, Uncle Dior packed the things for the journey and came to meet Don near the hut, Amaryll was also present at the place with Elrond.

Uncle Dior wore a black robe with a hood to hide his pointy ears and face.

"Uncle Dior, is everything ready for the journey?" Arwen couldn't help but ask since the forest was equally as dangerous as it was beautiful. And Arwen didn't want them to be unprepared.

"Yes, We can depart when Don arrives" everyone looked at Don's hut and expected him to come out.

"What is he doing?" Amaryll was not good at waiting so she wanted to go inside the hut and drag him out but before she could do that, she had a bolt out of the blue as a strange youth came out of the hut instead of Don.

Obviously, everyone expected Don to come out but the one stepped out of the hut was definitely not Don. The strange youth before them had brown long hair and he was not as handsome as Don but just an average looking guy wearing a worn-out brown robe that matched his hair color.

The elves were startled to see the strange youth but they quickly recovered from the initial shock and got into a defensive position.

Arwen immediately took out his old bow and nocked an arrow aiming at the youth while Amaryll took out a dagger and shielded Elrond with her body and Uncle Dior took out a weapon which looked like a small-sized crossbow and aimed at him.

"Relax it's Don" suddenly a lazy voice came from the hut as Knight stepped out.

The elves looked at Knight then the youth whom Knight claims to be Don but the elves didn't seem to let their guard down.

Seeing the elves, Knight realized that the elves didn't believe him as he shook his head and said

"Don take out that mask before they hurt themselves with those weapons"

Don nodded at Knight and took off his mask to reveal his real face. The mask flickered light when he was removing the mask. The mask looked like it was made of porcelain, there was no hair attached to the mask but the brown hair they saw just a moment ago was a magical feature of it.

The elves were visibly shocked and surprised but seeing Don made them drop their guards and relax as Arwen lowered his bow, Amaryll unsheathed her dagger and stared at the mask with sparkling eyes while Uncle Dior hid his crossbow and loosened up his tensed body.

"How how do you? what what is that thing" Amaryll couldn't finish the sentence since she was too excited as she ran forward to Don and grabbed the mask out of his hands and started to inspect it like She first tapped the mask with her fingers and then feel the surface of the mask and held it over her head to look at in the sunlight.

Don knew about the curious nature of this elf so he let her play with the mask for a bit while Arwen looked a little embarrassed seeing his sister's attitude.

"So what is this thing?" Amaryll asked again.

"It's a magic mask," Don answered. "Obviously" Knight retorted looking at the elf but the elf didn't seem to mind as she tried to put the mask on her face,

Arwen and Uncle Dior watched this scene with an open mouth, she didn't even ask Don's permission to look at the mast let alone trying it on.

Looking At Amaryll, Arwen wanted to pinch Amaryll's pointy ears with all his might, he was too embarrassed.

"You can't use it, the mask only works with battle energy"

Amaryll seemed disappointed at Don's answer as she held onto it for a moment before she handed over him the mask with a slightly embarrassed smile on her face.

Don took the mask from Amaryll's hands and placed it on his face again. The moment Don put the mask on his face, the mask let out a small glimmer of light and altered its size to fit his face.

Visible to naked eyes, Don's face started to transform into the previous youth's face while his raven black hair disappeared and the brown long hair started to grow.

"Uh uh" uncle Dior cleared his throat after seeing Don's face been completely changed

"Can we go now? We have a long journey before us" Uncle Dior said as he started to slowly walk away from the camp.

Seeing Uncle Dior departing, Don nodded as he took off his ring and threw the ring to Knight.

"Use it if you face any dangers that you can't handle '' Don didn't wait for Knight to answer just as he put his hood on and followed uncle Dior in the direction of the Slave city.

Knight too didn't say anything as he touched the ring on the floor and just when Knight touched the ring, it started to shine and coiled around Knight's leg. Knight lifted his ring leg to his eye level and examined it and said

"Hmm fits well"

Then Knight joined with Arwen who was staring at the direction Don and Uncle Dior went and waited till their figures faded into the woods.

"Let's go" Arwen took Elrond and went to his hut leaving Amaryll and Knight behind. Arwen would have taken Amaryll too but he saw that sparkling eyes of her pop up when he saw the ring that Don gave it to Knight, so he knew his sister wouldn't come with him even if he asked her to.

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Don and Uncle Dior were walking through a dense forest filled with the chirping of the birds and chitter-chatter of diverse insects.

The duo was traveling in silence admiring the elegance of the surroundings.

The sound of water falling and the smell of the lush green plants, the fragrance and the beauty of wildflowers were so refreshing for them.

Don wanted to protect this forest and the beings living in it because he knew sooner or the human empires will try to conquer the outer lands and when they do, they will just destroy everything for their selfish reasons. And Don didn't want that to happen because keeping the forests and the magical beasts in it would be far more favorable to Don than destroying them for short term benefits.

While they were traveling, many magical creatures as well as normal predators, tried to hinder their path. Normal predators couldn't feel the magical fluctuations or use their intelligence, they just do whatever they supposed, 'Hunt'. Uncle Dior didn't make any move against them as he wanted to see how Don is going to deal with them.

Small predators such as snakes and raccoons didn't dare or they knew that they couldn't handle this hunt but some big predatory animals such as cheetah, bobcat, cougars were brave enough to pick a fight, however, Don didn't kill them right off the bat but he just knocked them out by manipulating the old logs or tree branches around him.

As for the magical creatures, they thought the duo would be an easy kill since Don had no magical fluctuations around him when he was knocking out the predators and their instincts told them that Uncle Dior was just low-level magi, they made their move against Don and Uncle Dior without considering much.

Uncle Dior looked at Don who was traveling beside him as he saw Don watching around their surroundings for any threats.

"There are no magical beasts above the peak master level in this part of the forest so you can relax" however before Uncle Dior could close his mouth,

A Big black panther jumped down from one of the trees and stared at the duo,

"What the!"

The black panther slowly started to move towards them while Uncle Dior took out his small-sized crossbow without a sudden movement as Don slowly walked backward

"Do something" Uncle Dior hissed.

Any sudden move could make the panther agitated so Don made his move very very steadily and slowly. And while he was walking back, he moved his hands to his back and with one hand, he controlled the logs leaves and dust around him while on the other, he retrieved a small throwing knife from his sleeve.

If he was alone, he could just take his sword and go kill it but he was here with Uncle Dior and even though it couldn't kill him, the panther could easily attack uncle Dior in an instant so he manipulated the surroundings to confuse the panther which could buy him some valuable time to save Uncle Dior and kill the panther.

The Black panther confirmed that the two prey in front of it did not pose a threat to it. So the panther finally bared its teeth and dashed forwards, unanticipatedly to the panther, the logs, vines, leaves, and dust wrapped around it and confused the panther as without wasting the opportunity, Don threw the throwing knife straight at the panther. Since the knife was controlled by battle energy, it flew so fast like it could cut the wind itself and pierced through the panther's head.

Finally, the panther died with opened eyes. The panther couldn't have known how it was killed, everything has happened in a flash.

"What the heck is a mid great master beast doing here!" Uncle Dior said with the gritted teeth, his face showed a concerned look.

Noticing the panther's lifeless body on the ground, Uncle Dior knelt beside it and inspected the body

"Shame such a majestic beast, let's take its magic core it will fetch us a good price"

It took several minutes to cut open the beast and retrieve its magic core,

The pure red core was glimmering in Uncle Dior's hands and he was smiling at the core.

"Let's go before any more damn beast comes" Uncle Dior put the core in his side bag and moved hastily.

The denseness of the forest gradually reduced and some man-made paths have begun to appear at long last they were out of the woods literally, by the time they were out, the sun started to set and the sky turned into a golden red color, some man-made structures could be seen, at the far distance, Don could see the big walls.

The Slave city of Outer lands