In that mont, the forest floor beneath her feet erupted upward with terrifying force, as if a buried mine had detonated, hurling soil, roots, and shattered stone into the air.
The atmosphere itself trembled. Golden brilliance flooded the clearing, washing over everything in sight, and before anyone could react, Hera moved. A pure white blade flashed forward, slashing toward the first opponent in her path, a Holy Knight commander who had not even finished drawing breath. His own sword hesitated, instinct screaming at him not to et hers head-on.
Clang!
The tallic impact rang out like a bell struck by the gods, the sound heavy enough to make the ground shudder. Hera’s strike sent him flying backward as if he weighed nothing at all, his body hurled through the air like a discarded ragdoll. The sheer power behind her slender grip was monstrous, closer to a charging bull than a duelist’s finesse, and the illusion of softness shattered completely in that single exchange.
I did not waste the mont either, striking while both sides were still reeling. My wings spread wide in a single, decisive motion, and I flapped with everything I had, forcing my body into the air.
A green flower blood in my left hand, its petals unfurling with unnatural precision, while the frost halo ford behind , locking into place like a silent command. The forest temperature plunged further, cold seeping into bark, soil, and breath alike, turning the already eerie clearing into sothing hostile and suffocating.
I gathered as much power as I could and hurled an ice barrier toward the rcenaries below. I did not care whether they shattered it imdiately or used the opening to retreat. That was not my concern.
My agreent with Hera was clear. The Holy Knights were my priority. They would die first. And if, by so miracle, a few rcenaries survived the chaos afterward, I would allow it.
Only if I could...
I caught the distracted gaze of the priestess who had been mocking us earlier. Her eyes shifted from Hera to , and the scorn inside them deepened instantly. If I did not trust my own power, I might have believed I had already lost, just from the way she looked at .
She was looking down on .
Her golden irises bled into crimson, and I felt it imdiately. My blood slowed, thickening in my veins as if sothing invisible had wrapped around my heart and squeezed. A deliberate warning. A threat ant to break my resolve before the fight even began.
Unfortunately for her, she was fighting .
I moved my fingers.
Blood control snapped into place. Her body froze where she stood, not even a tremor allowed through her limbs. The power was absolute. Her expression shattered, mockery draining away as horror flooded in instead, raw and unfiltered. Exactly as it should.
"Stop her!"
The shout ca from the woman wielding dual daggers, sharp and urgent, ripping every eye in the clearing toward before I could close the distance.
In that instant, it felt as though I were charging straight into a pack of wolves as nothing more than a lamb. My heart hamred violently, my vision blurring at the edges. Fear surged through , honest and suffocating.
I was not confident. Not even a little. I did not know if I would survive this. But at least Elira would be safe.
Weapons surged toward all at once, every strike aid at ending my life as quickly as possible. To the Holy Knights, I was nothing more than another human. Even when I fought Blackbrand, he knew who I was and still looked down on , ignoring Hera’s warning. She had told them to be careful around in battle, but they never listened.
Today, that arrogance would be my advantage.
Still... I wished Hera would help a little more, instead of committing herself to a single opponent.
Their clash was shaking the forest. Each impact sent tremors through the ground, and strange veils rippled through the air, as if unseen souls were whispering to one another.
The sound of bones rattling echoed from that direction, hollow and unnatural. The commander must have been involved. It would not surprise if he had already claid control over the skeletons buried beneath this forest.
Crimson acupuncture needles burst free from beneath my skin.
Ten of them shot forward in a single breath, streaking through the air toward the foreheads of the seven attackers rushing from the front and both sides. I was not aiming for instant kills. That was impossible in this situation.
But I did not need to kill them quickly.
As long as I maintained blood control over the one who posed the greatest threat from afar, no one here would stop from killing her today.
Blood surged from beneath my fingernails, condensing in an instant into a narrow scalpel of hardened crimson. Frost crept along its edge from my left hand, tightening the structure, sharpening it beyond steel. One clean motion. One step closer. I was a single slash away from Sister Ilyana’s throat.
Then thunder roared.
Golden light smashed into my flank from the right, violent enough to twist the air itself. My needle deflected against an invisible barrier as Lady Vivienne’s staff flared, lightning screaming outward in a blinding arc that crashed toward without rcy. At the sa ti, the wind scraped against my bones, pressure tearing at my muscles before pain even had ti to register.
Instinct scread.
A sharp arrow cut through the chaos. Sir Aldren’s shot. I barely saw it, felt it more than anything else, the space around it collapsing as it raced toward my heart.
In that frozen heartbeat, the smile returned to Ilyana’s face. It was the kind that said I could never reach her, that I was insignificant.
If I took those hits head-on, I would suffer. If I dodged fully, I would abandon my target. Either choice would be punished instantly by the remaining seven. Slowed movent ant death here. I knew that with brutal clarity.
So I chose survival.
Frost detonated outward from my body in a violent sphere, ice exploding into existence and swallowing the incoming lightning in a storm of crackling resistance. The impact threw sideways, and I twisted with it, just enough to let Aldren’s arrow tear past my ribs instead of through them, its tip biting into ice that shattered seconds later.
I pushed off the frozen ground and vanished in a flicker of shadow, retreating just far enough to breathe, canceling my blood control mid-motion before it could rebound on .
The relief lasted less than a second. A massive presence locked onto like a hunting beast. Axes tore through the air.
Sir Magnus ca down on like a falling mountain, laughter rumbling from his chest as blood rituals flared across his skin. There was no pause, no restraint. Only relentless pressure, driving back step by step, forcing my body past its limits.
They would not let recover.
And I knew, with chilling certainty, that one mistake was all it would take for this place to beco my grave.
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