With my practice of Natural Path skill done in the afternoon, I ate my lunch and prepared for the archery practice. Before I could start the practice, I heard some noises coming from the forest. I looked into the distance and noticed Laly running away from something.
I shouted "What is going on?" to which she shouted back "Run!". I had no clue what was happening but I wasn't going to sit there waiting to find out. I chose to run in the opposite direction of the cave, then sprinted through the forest. I tried to utilise my Natural Path skill as much as I could. As I was running, noises of fighting revibrated behind me. I looked back and noticed Laly shooting from her bow like crazy at something.
I turned my head forwards and ran at my full speed, disregarding the amount of stamina I had. I shouted back at the top of my lungs "WHAT KIND OF DISASTER DID YOU BRING UPON ME?!", Laly responded with silence. 'I guess she is too focused on fighting right now' I thought. After a while of running, I turned back again. I saw Laly shooting and trying to hide her presence but then I caught a glips of that mysterious something chasing us. "It's a human!" I exclaimed loudly. I asked by shouting again "What the fuck did you do to her, that she is so pissed!?".
This time Laly responded and shouted back "Nothing! She figured out that I'm Eterian! She wants to kill me!". 'Oh for fuck sake!' I thought and stopped running. I could either try to stop the fight, Or try to kill either of them. From the looks of it, both were too strong for me to tackle by myself. I could choose a side but if I chose wrong, the consequences could be grave. I knew that if I sided with Laly, she wouldn't kill me after the fight, of course provided we won. The problem was winning. Laly was weaker than her opponent, this much was apparent. She was backing away all the time.
When Laly noticed that I stopped, she shouted "What are you doing?! RUN!". I responded "Run, I will try to talk with her!". She had disbelief written on her face but didn't try to dissuade me from my decision. As Laly ran past me, I started running as well and shouted "Whoever you are, let's talk! Why are you chasing her like that?! She did nothing to you! Let's talk peacefully!" but instead of some kind of argument, I saw a flash of what seemed to be a sword.
'Shit!' I thought as I jumped forwards with all my strength. "Bam!" the attack hit the ground. In the place I've been just a second ago, was a large sword mark carved deep into the ground. I shouted again "Whoa! Wait a minute, I did nothing to you either. I'm as human as you are! Let's talk!" but the response was the same. I started running again and thought 'I didn't think that finding someone more crazy than Laly was possible. I guess I was wrong'. The attacks were now focused on me, which was not ideal but who could I complain to?
I shouted towards Laly "She is crazy! She is now attacking me as well! Shoot, while I try to distract her!". Laly nodded her head and I prepared to throw some stuff at her. I was low on daggers and I didn't want to waste them so I started by throwing the arrows I had. I opted for throwing because shooting them from a bow would take too long and my Art of Hidden Weapons was much more advanced than my archery.
I threw dozens of arrows at the woman but she evaded most of them. Those she didn't evade, were sliced apart by her sword. When the woman saw my skills, she paused for a second and then continued. While attacking and avoiding all the attacks from both me and Laly, she said "You should've not show me those skills. That way, I would let you live. Provided that you stopped interfering of course. Now, you will die as well".
'Bollocks! She would've killed me anyway! Who the hell did that Laly offend, for her to be so strong?' I thought and ran. I asked Laly "Don't you have something we can use against her? I'm no match for her! Besides, all her attacks are now concentrated on me. How can you still not kill her!?". Laly was displeased as well and said "Shut up, I'm doing what I can!" then shot more arrows.
As I was escaping, I tried to figure out how to either kill that woman or get away from her. 'Going north is one option but north is too far away. With my strength, I will not be able to reach that far. What can we do….' the thoughts ran through my mind but nothing seemed to work. 'If I had poison on me, I could at least try that but damn, all my equipment used for making medicine and poison was lost. I have no way of creating one anyway' I thought.
The attacks were getting more savage. I received some minor wounds from the woman's sword, even though I basically evaded her attacks. I shouted towards Laly "Seriously, we will die here! If this continues, she will kill me first then go after you anyway! I have nothing… NOTHING! If I had poison, I could at least try that!".
Laly seemed to pause for a second then continued. 'Hmmm? Did she figure something out?'. I ran at my full speed and Laly was a bit further in front of me but I was catching up to her. 'She is slowing down for some reason'. I soon caught up to Laly and she whispered to me "I have a poison that may work but". I asked in whisper as well "but what?". She said "The poison is a close proximity type. That means it will affect both the target and the one who uses it".
I already knew where this was going so I said "Why don't you use it yourself? I will die together with her while you get to keep your life. That is a rubbish deal, I must say". Laly responded "I have the antidote but it has to be given at a specific timeframe, otherwise it will not work". I responded "Bullshit! Then tell me when I should give you the antidote and I will do so. Why are you pushing this onto me? I want to live as well or at least die for my own sake, not saving you alone!".
She said something that sounded ridiculous next "If you don't do it then both of us die". I said "If I do it then I die anyway! How should I know that you will actually give me the antidote or that you even have it!". She went silent for a while then said "I can't do it. If I use this poison, I'm dead even if the antidote is given to me. This has lesser effects on humans but it's strong either way. You will survive and I will die even if I'm given the antidote. I'm 100% sure of that".
I asked "Then why do you even have it? And an antidote as well? Something is fishy about this. I don't believe you!". She snorted and said "Then suit yourself" and shot at me. "You bastard!" I exclaimed. I wasn't prepared for her to attack me all of a sudden. She shot two arrows into my leg, this made me slow down a lot. The sword woman chasing us caught up quickly and slashed her sword at me.
I evaded that attack somehow but still got another cut on my arm. 'Why am I so unlucky?' I thought as I tried to run as fast as I could. The woman behind me snorted and said "That is why I wanted to kill her in the first place. These things can't be trusted. You worked together and yet she betrayed you. I wonder how that must feel?".
I was angry of course but what good would shouting or crying do now? I focused as much as I could and ran. The woman behind me became even more talkative. "You will die anyway but I'm wondering, why did you associate yourself with Eterian? Did you fall in love? Or maybe she promised you something in exchange for your help?" she said.
I responded while running "What is it to you? You are going to kill me anyway. Answering your question has no purpose. Stop your attacks and I can answer your question". I didn't know whenever she expected that answer or not but after a long silence she said "I suppose I'm not that interested then. Now die". I could feel something getting closer from behind. I jumped to the left but some sort of blast of wind pushed me even further. I flew through the air and then rolled for a while on the ground when I finally landed. When I finally managed to pick myself up from the fall, I looked at what just missed me.
What I saw, was too shocking. 'Just what the hell was that?' I thought. The area I was in before jumping, contained a large crevice. Not just any powerful slash that carved the ground, no. An actual crevice that extended for dozen of metres with the width of at least a metre. I didn't linger any longer and started running again. This type of strength was beyond my comprehension.
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