Alice and Lin ran until the vegetation could cover them completely. The top of the cliff was in sight, along with the entrance to the pale ruins and the figures of people dressed in black.
Alice drew her sword, but the pirate grabbed her wrist, shaking her head.
"They outnumber you," she said with a serious expression.
"My brother is in there," Alice added.
"Will you save him by killing yourself?"
Alice narrowed her eyes.
"No, I'll save him by killing them all."
She freed herself from Lin's grip.
"How many people have you killed?" the woman asked her.
The question made Alice stop instantly, though she didn't turn to look at her.
"Two," she responded with a sigh, as she left the forest. "That number will increase today."
Lin stood up and followed her, pulling a small canteen from her belt as she did.
"We don't know if any of them are spiritualists," the pirate added.
"Spiritualists die just like anyone else."
As they drew closer to the pale rock ground, the hooded figures noticed their presence. They quickly aimed their bows at them.
In a second, the arrows flew—about seven of them. Lin pulled all the water from the canteen to create a thin wall of liquid. The arrows impacted but were deflected, flying in all directions.
"Spiritualist!" one of the masked ones shouted.
"I think you got their attention."
"A shame. I'm not looking for a partner right now," Lin said jokingly.
The hooded ones lunged at them, drawing swords or double daggers. With a quick analysis, Alice could count seven of them. She didn't know if there were more or not, but she would have to settle for these for now.
As the first one approached, the woman blocked his attack, but discovered that when she tried to counterattack, another of the assassins approached her with the goal of stabbing her with a dagger.
Alice moved away. They weren't simple bandits—they knew how to fight, or at least they knew how to do it as a team. For Alice alone, it would have been a problem, but she wasn't alone.
Or so she'd like to think. Looking at Lin for support, she found that four of the enemies had surrounded her, leaving three with her. They underestimated her.
"Where are the young ones?" she asked, frowning.
There was no response, but she could tell the men were analyzing her through the mask by the movements of their eyes.
Talking to them would serve no purpose. She was sure they only knew one language.
One of the three lunged with his daggers, while the other two surrounded her to give support. There she realized something—they were slow.
Of course, it wasn't that they were weak, but her last fights had been against Prince Callen and Princess Olivia. In comparison, these masked ones seemed like child's play.
"Fine, I'll beat it out of you."
She dodged the first one's attack, delivering a kick to his abdomen, making him retreat. The moment the other two attacked, she turned to receive them, blocking their attacks with her sword.
The incessant attacks made her retreat to the edge of the cliff. There she took her opportunity. An opening—when the enemy thinks you're already defeated. One of the enemies advanced to throw her into the void and was received by a sword piercing his abdomen.
The one she had kicked had already recovered, so he approached to see how Alice pulled out the sword and then pushed his companion off the cliff.
"Three," she whispered.
Taking advantage of their bewilderment, this time she took the initiative. She began attacking the first one, who tried desperately to block the attacks. The other lunged to help shortly after.
Alice noticed. With a quick movement, she dodged the attack to place herself behind him, with her sword pressed against his neck. Without giving him time to react, she cut it. The man fell to the ground, bleeding out.
"Four," she whispered again.
The last one dropped his sword and raised his hands before throwing himself to the ground, on his knees.
This is clearly a trap, she thought.
"Where are the young ones?"
"In the ruins! They locked themselves in! We only managed to wound them!"
Wound them. You should have ignored that part of the story, she thought again.
The man threw a dagger he had hidden. Alice blocked it with her sword without moving much.Immediately after, she pierced the man's head, killing him instantly. The source of this chapter is NovelPing.
"Five."
How is Lin doing? She wondered as she looked in her direction. I worried for nothing.
The woman had defeated the four who had attacked her and was now sitting on one, waving her hand in Alice's direction.
"Did you have problems?" Alice said upon approaching the woman.
"Not at all. These people weren't much. They probably got overconfident because there were only two of us," she responded with her characteristic carelessness.
Alice sighed. She didn't believe it was a simple confidence problem. Perhaps they didn't expect to find resistance. Perhaps they followed them in secret and ambushed them thinking no one would come to help them.
"Pss, look there," Lin said, pointing with her head at the entrance to the ruins.
Five more figures were emerging from there. So there were more after all. Four of the five quickly drew their weapons upon seeing the scene—except the one in front. That air of confidence revealed him as the leader.
"I suppose you're looking for those young ones," the one in front spoke.
"And what if we are?" Alice responded with a question.
"You won't be able to get them out of those ruins. They got locked in there."
"If they could get in, then they can get out."
"You trust them too much. That won't be enough."
The man now did draw his sword, and along with the other four, began running in the girls' direction.
"Leave the leader to me," Alice told Lin.
"Don't get overconfident."
The two also ran toward them. Lin took the opportunity to attack using water as a whip, forcing the leader to dodge—a moment Alice took advantage of to begin attacking him.
The man received the attacks, blocking them with skill. After moving a little away from the other group, they separated a few meters.
"You're good—for a woman."
Alice lunged to attack again, without managing to land a decisive blow. Not even a graze. She was getting frustrated. It couldn't be that the skill difference between these people was so great, could it?
"My companions tend to trust too much in their abilities. Perhaps that worked against them."
The man counterattacked and nearly managed to cut off the woman's head, cutting a bit of hair instead. So she decided to take a step back.
What was happening here? It wasn't normal for her to throw herself into combat like that. She wasn't the best fighter, but she knew her limits. Why was she underestimating this man so much?
The man lunged to attack, taking the initiative this time. She could see the attack. She could block it—and that's what she did. She put her sword in the path, confident. She realized that feeling too late. The man's attack struck hard and made her lose her balance.
She couldn't recompose herself before the man attacked again, so she rolled on the ground to move out of the way.
What the hell is happening to me!? She couldn't stop thinking.
Attacking with force from the beginning, trying to block an attack without putting in much effort. She could feel it—present inside her—a feeling she didn't expect to find. Confidence. Excessive confidence that she was stronger than this man.
That might be true. Maybe she was better. But believing it so fervently was clouding her ability to know which attack was dangerous and which wasn't. Now she was sure—this enemy was a spiritualist.
But what was this man doing? How was he affecting her?
"Hey, you look like you're having problems," Lin approached from behind.
"It's all under control," she said without thinking.
Damn it. It really is affecting me, she thought.
"Reinforce your spirit. It should make you more resistant to whatever he's doing," the woman told her.
"I have no idea how to reinforce my spirit. I think Zara mentioned that a while ago."
"You're kidding."
The man took a dagger from a nearby body. Now he carried a sword and a dagger. He began advancing toward the girls slowly.
"Confidence is good—in small doses," the man began to say. "My childhood taught me that, in these situations, it works like a poison."
Lin began attacking him using water as whips. The man dodged or blocked with his sword, leaving Lin surprised.
"Well, maybe it's affecting me too," she said, smiling.
"I can handle him alone," Alice said, advancing ahead of her. "Or so I think."
"You think so because his ability wants it that way," Lin said. "Though he's definitely better than these others."
But what else could she do? It was true she felt capable of defeating him head-on with relative ease, but she no longer knew if it was her own feeling or the result of the ability. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
"Let's attack together, on three," Lin began to say. "One..."
"Three!" Alice shouted.
"Hey!"
Lin's shout was left behind when she lunged at the man, who was waiting for her on guard. She began launching attacks that were easily blocked, then tried to attack the man directly, wounding his arm with a small cut.
"Ha! I knew it couldn't be that hard!"
"Mmm, it seems I got overconfident too," the man said, looking at his slight wound through the clothing.
He narrowly dodged an attack from Lin, then blocked two water projectiles, and when they turned into whips again, the man jumped to the side.
Alice took the opportunity to attack him from behind. She was received by a cut on her cheek from this person, who was waiting for her. She was about to receive a stab in the chest but managed to block it narrowly.
Once again she lunged at him, delivering attacks without ceasing, which were blocked with relative ease. She could sense from the depths that her attacks were careless, as if she thought this man couldn't block them. That artificial sensation didn't disappear no matter how the combat advanced. There she saw it.
Blood—a small thread of blood falling from his nose. Both noticed it quickly, and suddenly, Alice felt that excessive confidence that bathed her disappear. Immediately after, the man took off running toward the forest.
"Shadow!" Lin shouted upon approaching, suffering from the same affliction as that man. "Strain! We must take advantage now!"
Both lunged to run after him. Right now, it seemed the young ones were safe, but that assassin would have information—information they wanted.
But how fast the bastard ran. Alice and Lin couldn't get closer. On the contrary, it seemed he was getting farther and farther away from them. Damn it. All that time he had hidden that speed. They couldn't catch him, and Lin was worn out.
When it seemed he would manage to escape into the forest, a reddish light began to become visible. A flame, launched from a little farther back—though that made the man dodge and lose his balance. Something Alice and Lin didn't let pass. Having lost speed, they lunged at him, capturing him.
"Sister, is that you?" Derek shouted from the forest, barely visible in the darkness.
"Derek?" she asked, seeing him approach supported by Zara.
"Damn right it's me," he said, now fully visible.
Alice waited for the two young ones to be close and hurried to hug Derek. He was a little bruised but didn't seem anything too serious—at least at first glance.
"Who is this?" Zara asked, pointing at the man Lin still held. "Ah, he's one of the ones who attacked us," she said upon recognizing him.
"They attacked you?" Alice and Lin said, surprised.
"Yes, they attacked me too," Zara pointed to her wounded shoulder with the cloth.
"Impossible. You're the princess. They shouldn't attack you—that would be high treason," Alice said, looking at the man's face.
"The prince won't be happy hearing about this," Lin added.
"Who are you, and who sent you?" Zara asked the man.
She got no response—at least not immediately.
"I've failed in my task. Then there's only one thing left to do," the man said, fixing his gaze on Zara.
A wave of wind charged with power engulfed them all. The man bled from his nose, mouth, and even eyes. It was clear that whatever he had done would kill him. But someone so weak couldn't do anything.
That thought ran through everyone's mind—except Zara's. The princess saw how the man moved away from Lin without difficulty and lunged to attack her with a hidden dagger. Derek and Alice didn't react. By the time they did, the princess already had him on top of her.
"For the glory of the Goddess," he said, grabbing Zara tightly, trying to stab her.
They wouldn't manage to stop him—not in time, at least. Whatever this man had done played with their minds in such a way that they underestimated him to the point of ignoring the fact that he was still there. But Zara wasn't affected.
With all her strength, the princess grabbed the man's arm before he could stab her. A teenager in a strength contest against an adult—it was obvious she wouldn't win. Luckily, the strain had weakened him tremendously. She didn't need to win—just buy time.
"Zara!"
Alice approached as fast as she could and pulled the man away, who began to weaken at an alarming rate.
"You... How...?" he managed to say to Zara with his last strength. "I... failed..."
The man fell dead in Alice's arms. The spiritual strain killed him.
"Overload. Damn it. This guy was a fanatic," Lin said with her hand on her head.
Derek didn't even speak. He was the closest to Zara but hadn't been able to assimilate what had just happened. As if everything had happened too fast, or as if he hadn't expected it in the slightest.
"It seems his ability increased his enemies' confidence to a point where they completely underestimated everything he could do," Lin spat to the side. "I hate abilities that affect the mind."
"What did you feel at the end?" Zara asked.
"An emptiness," Derek responded, downcast. "As if that man had disappeared, as if he had never been there."
The two women nodded when Derek said that. But that wasn't the case for the princess. However strange it seemed to her, she felt nothing. She felt the enemy spirit, but she never felt anything similar to what Derek explained.
Divine spirit, she thought, remembering what those ruins had said. What am I, really?