"What's a magic beast?" Sonic asked
Malena opened her mouth but the red knight extended its right hand to silence her. But that didn't stop Joachim from shouting: "ITS YOU!!!-"
"Joachim, that's enough!" A feminine stern voice emerged from the red armor
"But your highness-"
"Do you want to disobey my order and incur this magic beasts wrath?"
Joachim went silent for a moment then sighed.
"No, your highness,"
The red knight turned her head towards the hedgehog.
"Do you want to know what a magic beast is, little one?" She spoke with a soft voice and a hint of hesitation.
"Yea, I'm new here," Sonic replies with a shrug.
"Well. A magic beast is an animal or a plant who absorbed a tremendous amount of magic power and undergone a successful transformation. These creatures are rare to find, also they are hard to fight with. Magic beasts a high quantity and quality of magic power, detailed appearance and a spirit mark."
"What's a spirit mark?"
"You can take a look at your forehead"
Sonic stared at the surrounding and found a crystal clear lake. He went there to look at himself.
The hedgehog was glad he was still himself but something different: A golden ring with green brilliant cut and a blue six toothed sawblade illuminated on his forehead.
By surprise, the blue blur jumped a few feet back.
"Whoa, is that a spirit mark?!"
"Yes," the red knight replied. "All magic beasts carry a spirit mark, but only a few of them has two. Three spirit mark magic beast has never existed in Fantasia history record. As I told you, magic beasts are rare to find so those with an extra mark would unlikely appear here."
"All right, but can a magic beast talk?"
"Normally? No. In legends? Yes. There were those who-who could talk, but the hero killed the last one a millennium ago."
"Wow, that's something big..."Sonic rested his right cheek on his right palm.
"But... to have a magic beast... who not only can talk but behave like a human being... I find this unacceptable," the last part the red knight's voice trembled.
"Unacceptable? Cmon man~... I just got here... well, the good thing is that I am a hero too, you know~, fighting certain mad scientist who wants to take over the world and other baddies in my life. " Sonic grinned
"What! What nonsense is this?! Who are you?!" The princess in armor suddenly raised her voice.
"Hehe, I am a guy who loves adventure, I am Sonic the Hedgehog," sonic grinned and gave a thumbs up.
The princess couldn't move her lips, she was too shocked to witness a magic beast who not only have human qualities but also carried a name. A lot of thoughts came into her head.
"Sooo~ you are a hedgehog huh?, I can now understand why you have those blue long things, they are your quills, am I right?" Coleo walked slowly towards Sonic while tightening his arm muscles.
Sonic sensed that the man was a malice, yet he didn't flinch at Coleo's approach.
"Coleo, stay back" the princess ordered the yellow mage but her words didn't enter his brain.
"And~ your name is Sonic right~? I have never heard a magic beast who would carry a name, nor have guts to confront us directly~. normally when a magic beast sees a mage or more, they would normally flee." the yellow mage said calmly, but the hedgehog already knew the wickedness behind his words.
"Coleo, that's enough! Stand back or I will deal with you myself," The red knight warned.
But Coleo kept ignoring her and still advancing towards sonic until he was less than 3 steps away.
"So Sonic the Hedgehog, die and give me your magic soul,"
"And~ why would I?" Sonic questioned with narrowed eyes.
The thunder mage snapped his finger and suddenly, a huge pillar of light flashed along with the deafening roar and smashed the ground where the hedgehog stood. The force and electric energy were great enough to rip off huge chunks of earth along with large tree trunks and boulders.
When the dust cleared, the area where the lightning struck was devastating: the crater had lots of burning soils and molten stones. His other comrades including the princess could also feel the heat from this distance. But no hedgehog.
Coleo used his best attempt to locate the magic soul until he heard the voice: "Yo! that was dangerous! Are you planning to burn the entire forest?"
The thunder mage turned his back towards the crater only to spot Sonic standing beside an elf knight.
The elf with blue hair and light silver armor soon turned his attention to his right side and unconsciously took a step back.
Coleo turned his lips downwards and yelled at the elf: "Arrhenius! What the **** are you standing for?!! KILL HIM!!"
The elf with short blue hair Arrhenius swung his silver blade at the hedgehog without a second thought.
His heart felt with content when his sword was a hair's width close to Sonic but that said heart broke when the blue blur disappeared.
"What?! Where did he go?!" Few cold sweats broke out from Arrhenius' head as his mind was screaming with panics.
"I'm right over here" everyone turned their attention towards the source of the voice.
"Well, I am not in the mood of taking hits so easily~ I can say one thing: I die hard, hehe~," sonic stood on a tall thick branch out of the groups reach and gave them a mocking smirk.
"When did he?!, even I can't be this fast!" A beast woman with orange fur exclaimed.
"What do you mean Linda?! I thought you can dodge arrows and sword strikes at point blank!"
"Yea, but not when the distance is less than a hair's width!"
"Yo guys, since you started to attack me, let's party!" Sonic said out loud and bent himself into a blue sphere with spikes protruding from it. As Sonic started to spinning and emitted neon blue light, he dashed off from the former position and rammed straight into Coleo's abdomen.
Fortunately, Coleo was well armored, so he didn't break a single bone in his body and Sonic did not make his trademark Spin Dash lethal, when he sends the thunder mage flying into the tree.
"That's one, Score one to Sonic and zero to you" the speed demon dusted his gloves off and while taunting his opponent.
"Why you..." the princess in knights armor leaped forward and swiftly drew her well-adorned sword.
Everyone could not move but stare this horrid reality.
According to legends and witnesses, the princess was a formidable warrior. There were once when she turned the tide of a one-sided warfare all by herself, there was also a time where she took out all bandit hideouts single-handedly without breaking a sweat. But this was different.
No matter how hard and fast she swung, the hedgehog sidestepped ducked or jumped from the strikes.
"Cmon princess, you know you can do better than that~" the hedgehog taunted infuriating the female warrior even more, to the point she almost losing self-control"
"WHY WON'T YOU STAY STILL?!! *pant* HOW CAN YOU BE THIS FAST?!!" The princess gasped for air as confusion slowly took over her. Her strikes became less and less sharp.
"Let's just say that I am gifted with speed" Sonic shrugged while dodging her attacks.
Malena, Joachim, Ludwig and some other people broke several cold sweats when witnessing Sonic toying their "invincible fighter"
"Priestess Malena, lady Lanani, heal Coleo. Linda, Fenrir and I help her Highness Emerris." A white-bearded dwarf named Buttersteel ordered the human and elven mages to help up their downed comrade. Both nodded as the reply and rushed towards Coleo and begun healing, much of their surprise; Coleo only lost his consciousness, no wounds and broken bones were visible, only a light bruise.
"H-how" Malena muttered
"He should be dead, right? Then why didn't the magic beast finished him off?" Lanani asked
"Maybe this magic beast is different from rest,"
Both blondes mages then stared at the battle. The princess painted and swung her sword aimlessly which already seemed fruitless.
After a good five minutes of dodging Sonic became bored: "you know, I really really dislike when someone uses only same tactics over and over again!"
He then burrowed his right feet at Emerris' abdomen and send her skidding towards the group.
"Princess!" Joachim yelled and ran to her.
"Princess, are you fine?!"
Emerris inspected her wound on the abdomen. No harm happened to her. Until she snapped out of her thought.
"Yes, but I am better than fine..."
"Your highness..."
Meanwhile, Buttersteel charged at Sonic with the battle ax above his head. The hedgehog sidestepped and tripped the dwarf, forcing him clumsily tumble towards a large tree trunk and crashed.
Linda followed with razor sharp claws and swung her arms with full might. Unfortunately, this attack only met with Sonic's ultra-sharp quills.
Fenrir saw his cat ally screaming in pain and growled. With his full strength, he folded his hand into a fist and shot towards Sonic's head, hoping for that his skull would crack and render him immobile.
But the hedgehog saw the handsome human with wolf features' fist coming at him, so he parried it with his right hand and stopped the attack. Without wasting another second, Sonic delivered a roundhouse kick to Fenrir's right chin and sent him flying towards other.
"RAAAAAAAH!!!" After recovering from the crash, Buttersteel again charged at him. This time the dwarf slashed. With this force behind, no knights, beasts, and monsters would survive, even if the weapon was a light club. But a pair of gloved hands caught his blade. What surprised the dwarf, even more, was that the fact the hedgehog had a great amount of strength to resist the dwarven force.
"Whoa... *grunts* your strength is just like Knuckles! Cool!~," Sonic admired Buttersteel's tremendous strength.
"What! *grunts* you have... ugh... a friend with a dwarf like strength?!" The white-bearded dwarf grunted even harder.
Sonic finally felt the ax's pressure increasing, and he has to end this quick.
Fortunately, he saw Fenrir and Linda with gauntlets on their fists. With a swift move, Sonic let both beast men collide with the dwarf captain.
"Too easy~,"
Meanwhile, Coleo opened his eyes. His lip turned downwards when he noticed the others paralyzed at the fight. Because none of his comrades were close to Sonic, he raised his voice: "What are you bastards staring at for?!! GET HIM, ATTACK HIM, OPEN FIRE!!!"
All archers drew arrows from quivers and launched them from their respected bows. beside Emerris, Malena, Ludvig, Lanani, and Coleo himself, all other spellcasters summoned all types of offense magic.
These projectiles can devastate against an army of several battalions or even a powerful magic beast. Enchanted arrows with homing magic would make a nimble person harder to dodge and explosive shots would damage anything at least 10 steps in radius.
But for Sonic, these ranges attack moved like snails. Thanks to battles with his arch nemesis Dr. Eggman and his machines. Sonic had dodged bullets and missiles, which were least thrice as fast as sound. Although Thunder Shots, Holy Sparks, and spells that shoots lightning and light proved a challenge for him, once he realized the situation he is in, this moment became a piece of cake.
No matter where they aimed, none could ever lay a close hit on the Blue Blur.
From their perspective; the target was like a blue light streak that bounced everywhere around the forest. A situation like this was completely unknown to Fantasia.
Emerris saw this and frowned. She had to do something quick otherwise their Magic Beast Hunting Expedition would be fruitless.
Fortunately, Ludwig was beside her so Emerris wouldn't have to spend the time to find a right person for this job.
"Ludwig, use your magic and immobilize that hedgehog, NOW!" The princess commanded.
"Yes, your Highness. Life of the forest, I command thee, raise your wines and bind my enemy,"
Sonic's spines began to tingle. He looked down and saw myriads of green leaves grow rapidly and snatched his legs as they were alive.
Unfortunately, the hedgehog couldn't mutter a word when a giant beam of light struck him, several miles across.
Emerris' hands trembled. If she didn't wear the red armor, her face and body would have several beads of sweat.
"Your Highness, did you get him?" Ludwig asked.
"yea... I think so..." the princess panted, "I never used my Supreme Retribution on a single target, but it can't be helped. This magic beast proved to be very powerful."