Free Web NovelChapter 13: A Bigger Threat...
"Amor, let’s turn back. Now."
Once more, my gaze locked on the head of the bandit in her hand. I sighed, shaking my head.
"Aria, I wanted to question him. Get to know who sent him."
"Oh..." Aria then tossed his head away. She picked up a piece of the bandit’s cloth, wiping the blood off her hands. "I forgot, but we have to get back, please. You’re our only hope, and if you die today, our race also does."
"Well, I can handle them myself. I can hold my own." I gestured behind me to the shattered bodies of the bandits. Aria caught the sight, her expression shifted, just realizing how I could have survived against them.
"You did very well." She tossed the rag away, adjusting her dress properly to sit on her shoulders. "But can we leave now?"
"Aria, what — I left the mansion for one reason and I haven’t achieved it. The one who sent them might be close by."
"How do you know?"
"Well, one thing we’re sure of is this is an insider job. Is it the Baroness? She had other associates spying. This is one of the reasons my request was sudden. I had a hunch we were being spied on."
"Really? So this wasn’t just a random quest to Gordon Mountains."
"Nope. Now I know we’re being spied on, but here’s the real tip. If it was an insider’s job, this would have been abruptly put together. This was a rushed ambush. So I assume they just gathered some random bandits, not to take care of us but to slow us."
"Are you saying—"
"Yes, there’s another attack coming. They already know your true strength — to send random bandits to take care of you. I believe they’re close."
"There’s a village close by." Aria pointed to a narrow footpath into the forest. "The person who hired the bandits, they meet there."
"How did you know, Aria?"
"The boss confessed before I killed him."
I was at first shocked she had that info and stayed quiet. Well, her loyalty was with the queen, and her goal was to protect me. Now she was telling me, it meant one thing — she had a little faith in me.
But still I tested her a bit further.
"You wouldn’t stop me if I tried to run to the fight?"
She exhaled. "If I asked we return to the mansion now, would you obey?"
"No."
"The back and forth... I hate it." She then glanced back at the bandits I had taken care of. "Maybe I was the one worrying too much. The queen asked me to protect you. I think you can do that with your own might. I’ll just be your support, but still we have to return to the estate afterwards."
’Interesting, she really does respect me now.’
Silence fell for a moment, as I was genuinely out of words. Then in the silence, my senses caught something — a mana signature so tiny, it wasn’t registering in my mana scan. I scanned the forest with vigilance.
Pinpointing the exact direction it came from, a flicker of light. It blended with the sunlight slipping through the forest canopies, but sunlight doesn’t possess mana.
"Aria, good news — we aren’t going to the village. It came to us instead."
Arrows made of light bolted at us in rapid succession, hundreds I couldn’t count without getting hit by one.
"Aria." I stretched my hand back. Aria grabbed me and took flight, carrying both of us out of harm’s way. The attack crashed to the ground before fading after damage, each arrow leaving a hole in the ground. Thanks to Aria, I wouldn’t have escaped the attack — my broken ribs were still aching with pain. ƒrēewebnovel.com
My legs dangled in the air, meters away from earth. Looking down from this height we had a clearer view of the forest, which gave us an advantage over running into the dense forest away from the clearing.
But that wasn’t the case. While Aria hovered in the sky, keeping her grip on me, I squinted into the distance and watched as the light morphed, shaping into a figure.
Made of light, the person stepped forward into the clearing, in the middle of the road. Their flowy robe danced with the wind, it emitted a bright light making it hard to stare at them. Their face was also hidden behind a cloth, with a symbol written I couldn’t quite read.
This wasn’t the same one from the previous attempt. They were really studying me — they knew her severing magic would cause nothing but scratches, so they sent another rat.
"That’s not a dragon."
That’s when I realized — there were no tails or horns, or even signs of wings. Dragons can’t hide those features, only alter their looks with very advanced magic.
Was this a human? Maybe one who awakened like me. I didn’t care.
He looked into the sky, setting eyes on us.
"Are we fighting?" Aria asked.
"Ah! Is that even a question? I haven’t gotten revenge for slicing my hand off. This will act as my scapegoat."
[Mana scan: ??? (S+ rank)]
’S+, huh? So that means he’s stronger than Aria.’ fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
Each rank from E to SSS has their own base. But + ranking would make them significantly stronger than base, at the edge of transcending to SS rank.
But...
"Aria, if you’re going to fight that thing, we’ll have to work together. Are you in?"
"Is that even a question?"
We smiled over the joke. "Alright, here’s my plan. First — we’re the ones who need to hide."
"Explain."
Before I could, the light figure was already done waiting. A bunch of arrows were shot at us. Aria glided through them, dodging all the arrows, she pulled me in, wrapping her arms around me to keep me close.
Her wings flapped faster, cutting through the air, curving, giving fake turns to avoid the arrows. An arrow cut past me — I threw my hand back and caught it, absorbing it.
A sudden idea popped up. "Aria, slow down."
Aria gave me a questioning look — fair, because we were doing our best to avoid death and it sounded stupid.
"I haven’t told you my magic, right. I can absorb magic. If you can get me close, I can absorb as many arrows as possible and use his attack against him."
Aria nodded, she followed through with the plan. She reduced her speed, the arrows almost getting close to us. She cut left, the arrows flew, but I caught one, increasing the number of light arrows in my possession.
But they were endless, not even a second to cut through them. This is why we needed to hide — there’s a range, and as long as we were in the open space, distance away from him, he had the advantage here.
His mana was endless.
"Tsk, it’s really on our tails." Aria frowned, the arrows trailing after her.
"I think I have enough. Dive into the forest. Quickly."
She dived down, cutting through the canopy, flying between the trees, causing the arrows to hit the trees, not us. Their numbers reduced. I was doing my best to play this safe, and this was my option rather than rushing headfirst.
"Aria, drop me. When you do, circle this forest, turn everything to ashes. Okay?"
"And then what?"
"Wait for my signal. When I give it, flood him with all the ashes. I believe you can do something else apart from the ashes."
"I can actually reverse-craft."
"So do it. The plan is to overwhelm him and end this quick. Got it?"
"Sure." She then dropped me. I rolled, slipping behind a tree, back against the bark.
Aria followed along with what we had planned. She circled the forest, touching the trees, shifting them to ashes. Soon motes began drifting in the air. The light figure didn’t attack — couldn’t keep his eyes on Aria for a second, flying faster than his eyes could keep up.
Further along, there was nothing but a ring of ashes around him, but on the outer side, trees were still in their roots.
Leaving the light figure standing in the open, calmly surveying around himself for an incoming attack. It was my time to act. I couldn’t amplify the arrows, just distribute them, since my rank was A rank — amplifying above my rank is impossible.
I was still heavily exhausted from reaching my ceiling in the previous attack. My gamble was to get in close and fight him head on. Using what little mana I could control due to exhaustion, that would be my boost to fight.
The pain, the exhaustion — I had to bury them for now if we were going to beat that thing. I took a deep breath, about to leave the tree.
"You aren’t planning to escape? How bold." The light man spoke, finally — his voice easily carried through the forest. "Are you going to let your human friend die too?"
’Is he targeting Aria?’
"If I remember correctly, one of your close friends was badly injured, slumped against a tree, and you abandoned the poor soul. Let’s see if this one goes through the same fate."
’How does he know?’
