Judgnt couldn't help but think, 'Who is this bastard? Why is he so strong?'
She barely had ti to brace herself before Jerimoth closed the distance. As he reached her, she flew out of the way, straight up, and with the sa blistering speed dove back down behind him. But his large tal shield flew back on its own and slamd into her.
Her head swam as she rolled across the rocky ground, skin scraping against stone. Jerimoth grabbed the shield and lunged at her again, his steps heavy, each one shaking the ground beneath her as he ran closer.
Still weakened, she let her wings carry her up and away from him. He stopped and looked at her with a narrowed gaze, then spread a dirty smirk across his face, swung his shield back, and hurled it at her.
The shield had to be as heavy as a tal door, from what Judgnt could tell. Even his sword should have been heavy enough to drag any man's speed down to a crawl. But the way he wielded them, it was as though they had no weight at all.
'That has to be it!'
She watched the shield co for her. To confirm what she was thinking, she couldn't dodge it. She had to take it head-on. So she readied her spear.
As the shield rolled towards her, she held the shaft against her front and let it slam into the weapon. The impact tore through her arms, her chest, her spine, every bone rattling at once. She was reminded, violently, of how fragile she was. The shield won. It ripped through her spear, snapping it in two, and drove into her stomach with so much force that she folded like paper before tumbling across the open air.
The shield continued past her and curved back around, wanting to slam into her from behind, but an arrow t it mid-flight and turned it to a block of ice, killing its montum. It dropped from the sky lifelessly.
The black flying creature appeared behind Judgnt and Sael grabbed her as the mount banked hard across the sky, climbing higher for a mont of reprieve. The wind bit against her bruised skin.
Judgnt groaned, but moved.
"I'll take care of him myself." She coughed as she spoke.
Sael looked at her with pain in his eyes.
"He's stronger than you..."
Judgnt chuckled. "Stronger? When I haven't even used my talent?" She sat up in front of Sael and grinned, a malicious golden light burning in her eyes. "Besides, I've figured out the foul being's talent. It's only a matter of ti before I figure out what to do about it."
Sael still hesitated. She looked like she knew what she was doing, but she had taken too much damage. There were bruises blooming across her body, and he was sure she had endured even worse internally.
But Judgnt was stubborn.
'I'll just watch out for her like I've been doing, and make sure to save her from death at the very least.'
anwhile on the ground, Jerimoth had retrieved his shield and was hamring his sword against it to break the ice.
Judgnt stared down at him and said, "Dive lower. I'll continue the rest of the journey myself... you focus on your job."
Sael looked at her again. He had his doubts, but he tried to shove them away. Then he pulled the saddle of the Nightmare Wyvern, and the creature dove, dropping to a lower altitude before leveling out closer to the ground.
Judgnt spilled from the back of the creature and her wings spread outward, carrying her through the air. She landed with a force that sent cracks through the rocky ground, dust rising around her feet. Her legs protested, but held.
About seventy ters away, her opponent had just finished breaking the ice from his shield. His muscles strained against the weight for a mont, veins pressing against skin, but then he lifted it and began flexing his arms, raising the massive thing up and down with casual ease, only halfway each ti, as though loosening up before a warm-up.
When she saw it, she stared in astonishnt. That further confird her suspicion.
His talent had to do with weight control. He was diminishing the weight of his weapons, which explained how he moved so fast despite wielding that enormous sword and shield. But there was sothing else she couldn't explain. The shield and sword sohow returned to him every ti he threw them, as if they had minds of their own.
She raised her broken spear in her hand and looked at it.
It took a trendous amount of force to break a spear crafted in her holand. She wasn't bragging, but a Drifter, unless they were a Paragon, could not wield such force. It was simply impossible. Which ant the shield carried far more power than what the man should have been able to throw it with. He was amplifying the weight on impact while keeping his weapons light enough to carry and swing freely. The sa principle applied to both the shield and his sword.
But even knowing all of that, what could she do about it?
'There has to be a way it works...'
Judgnt was thinking, then she suddenly narrowed her gaze. She noticed that he had only been hitting her with the flat of his blade. Not the edge. The flat.
And right there, in that instant, sothing clicked.
She knew what she was going to do to defeat the man.
Judgnt swirled the two parts of her broken spear. Her wings disappeared too.
Jerimoth was ready now. He had closed the distance, and the two of them stood less than twenty ters apart.
"Are you sure?" he asked. "Taking away the only thing that gives you an advantage over is a rash decision, don't you think?"
Judgnt scoffed. "I can't use my talent with those wings on, so yes, they had to go." She rolled the broken halves in her grip. "Here's the real advantage I'm about to reveal."
In that mont, Jerimoth froze. His expression went dark and wary.
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