Boom! the arrow struck the ground in an explosion.
"I see." I smirked. Thanks to the arrow missing me, I saw the direction it was coming from.
But just as I was about to move in that direction, multiple arrows came cutting through the air with a whooshing sound, all aimed at me, and my general direction.
I didn’t panic, instead my sword appeared in my hand.
"Third art: Fall."
BOOOM!
A pocket of air violently popped around me as my sword fell diagonally in the direction of the arrows, deflecting them all away from me. That’s right, I was able to execute the third art now.
All the arrows exploded in a series of explosions, but I was already zooming towards the archer.
As I passed through the debris caused by the explosions, I finally caught glimpse of the archer. It was a rather lean, but dexterous young man, judging from the way he was effortlessly leaping off the tree branches.
’Shit, he’s getting away.’ I also jumped onto the branches, chasing after him. I wasn’t quite doing it as smooth or as elegant as he was, but I was able to keep up...
"Shit!" I cursed as the bastard turned and fired an arrow at the base of the branch I had just landed on.
The branch exploded off the tree, but thankfully, I had managed to leap onto another one before it exploded.
If my guess was right, he was probably leading me back to their camp, or more specifically, towards a trap. But if it’ll help know the exact location of their camp, I was willing to play along.
It was also the reason why I hadn’t just eliminated him outright. I mean, a single ’Summer blaze’ would be enough to do the trick.
The guy turned once again, but this time, there were three arrows nocked on his bow. He fired all three at the same time, but each at completely different targets.
One hit the base of the branch I had just landed just like before, and the remaining two struck the bases of two other branches close to me.
"Fuck!" A reflection spawned next to me, grabbed my main body, and launched me into the air as hard as possible.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The arrows exploded not even a moment later, and engulfed my reflection in fiery ball of flames and shockwaves.
’Seriously, who is this guy?’ I thought as my body floated momentarily in the air, before I began to free fall.
His aim and speed of the arrows weren’t particularly a problem. I could easily dodge, or cut them down with my sword. Instead, it the explosion that was the lethal part of his power.
If I dared to try to cut an arrow, it would simply explode right in my face, something I wasn’t particularly willing to try.
I landed on the ground this time, from the sudden lack of branches. The trees had suddenly become small and thin, and up ahead was the archer, still making a run for it.
I bolted after him without hesitation, keeping just enough distance between us to have him in my vision. For some reason I was kind of sure he was doing the same.
"Bloody hell! Is that...." through the increasingly thinning trees, I caught a glimpse of a castle very much like ours.
As I was lost in thoughts earlier, it was only now that I realized the archer in front had suddenly stopped.
"You’re really persistent huh?" the archer smirked. "Too bad you had to follow me here." he added. I was sure he was feeling completely smug right now, in success of having lured me here.
I mirrored his smirk.
"Oh why is it too bad?" I asked. "I could argue I allowed you to lure me here."
His eyes widened for a fraction of a moment, before they went back to normal, but I noticed.
"Still doesn’t matter. Since you came here, you’re destined to be eliminated." He said in a matter of fact tone.
"I don’t think... Ukhh!" I suddenly spurted a mouthful of blood.
Drip... Drip...
Crakaka! Crakaka!
My head slowly lowered. It was there I caught the glimpse of a blood stained sword dripping with my blood, flashing with purple arcs of lightning, and it had pass right through my chest.
Slowly, my head turned, there I caught a pair of gleaming purple eyes framed in the eye sockets of a handsome young man. A cocky smirk adorned his lips. But to his shock, I also smirked, then;
Crack!
I cracked into motes of lights and disappeared.
"So this is why the instructor said we couldn’t die in here. Anyone grievously injured is instantly transported out." the purple eyed man wondered out loud.
"I don’t think so." the archer muttered.
"Hmmm? why do you say so?" the purple eyed young man turned to him.
"I killed him before, the same thing happened. He burst into light and disappeared, then some minutes later, he suddenly came back, and he seemed much stronger too." The archer explained.
The purple eyed young man’s smirk faded into a frown.
"So what you’re trying to say, is that he’s most probably still around?"
"Yes, I think so." the archer meekly replied.
"Damn it!" the purple eyed young man cursed. "Let’s head back to the castle."
--------------
Meanwhile, back at the forest close to our castle.
"Damn, that was close." I muttered grimly. If I hadn’t taken precaution the moment I sighted the castle, I would have been a goner.
Well, not really, I might have been able to sense and dodge it if it were my true body.
But the good thing is that, I know where their castle is, and I also got to meet another side character.
The purple eyed young man was the first year’s rank 6. He was originally supposed to be rank 5, had Anastasia not existed.
His name was Levi Stormbreaker. A heir of the 2nd tiered House Stormbreaker, and another rival of Alistair in the middle stages of the novel. He was in class 1–Beta in the novel, so even though I hadn’t seen their flag, it was safe to say that they were from class 1–Beta.
I turned back in the direction of our castle. I soon reached the clearing, walked past Delilah and her minions who already had six of them stop the castle, guarding the flag. I ignored them, and entered back into the castle.
I soon reached the hall where Anastasia was leisurely sitting.
"You’re back so quick?" she raised an eyebrow.
I frowned.
"How can you tell it’s the real me?" The same thing had happened back in the jungle of Spira city. She had said; "Besides you’re just a clone aren’t you?"
"I can’t." she shrugged. "But you just told me." she smirked.
’Why you little shit...’
"So what happened... little brother?" she leaned back in her chair.
"I swear the next time you call me that name, I’m going to..."
"What are you going to do?" Suddenly, she was before me, glaring into my eyes. It appeared as if she had teleported.
She stood a little bit too close for my comfort. But not gonna lie, up close, she was even more captivating, a lot more stunning than Ms present, and her crimson locks added to every bit of her mesmerizing visage. It took a few moments before I realized I was staring.
"Gah, get out of my face." I shoved her away, or at least tried to. She was already back in her seat before I could touch her.
"Who knew someone as shameless as you could be so flustered?" She chuckled.
"Ahem! I was not flustered, I was simply caught off guard." I coughed trying to clear the awkwardness.
"Anyway I found one of the enemy camps." I said.
"And?" she tilted her head, which I observed she loved doing even during her time as Ms present. "Is it in the same direction you mentioned earlier?"
I nodded.
"It seems to be class 1–Beta, and the one who seems to be the leader is the rank 6, Levi Stormbreaker." I mentioned.
"Who is that?" she asked puzzled.
"A heir of House Stormbreaker, in your continent." I replied.
"Oh." she said flatly.
"Wait." I froze. "Do you not know House Stormbreaker?" Even though I asked that question, in my mind I was like; ’Nah, no way she wouldn’t."
She blinked.
"Uhh... I do?"
"...."
"How?! How can you not know the vassals in your empire?" No matter how I think of it, it doesn’t make sense. Rose and I were made to memorize all that since the age of four. We knew every House in the Vorde continent, from the tier 2, 3, and 4 by the time we were five.
’Maybe she’s a bit slow in the head.’ I thought, but as I looked at her, I soon shook my head.
"I said I do dammit!" The redhead scowled and threw an object in my direction which I promptly dodged.
"Fine fine, you do." I said. "Now don’t throw anything else at me." I smirked.
***********
Powerstones goal.
200 powerstones → 1 extra Chapter on next release.
500 powerstones →2 extra Chapters on next release.