Before I can match his smile with a sneer, Ela steps up.
“We saw the reports made at the train station. Are these the same people?” she asks sharply.
Bella and I both nod.
“They were trying to kidnap me,” Bella says, then glances at me. “And her.”
“How hostile are they?” she asks.
Bella hesitates, considering her answer. I don’t.
"They wanted me for their foxkin boss,” I say through a growl.
Ela's expression hardens instantly.
She glances at Bella, who gives a small confirming nod.
“I see.”
One sharp nail taps against a small metal clasp resting near her shoulder three times. A heartbeat later, it flashes green three times in response.
“Sarys is in position,” she says, eyes flicking to Orik. “Move.”
The dwarf vanishes. There’s no puff of smoke or cloak of shadows. Just one second he’s there... and the next he simply isn’t.
“Princess Arabella. Miss Emilia,” she continues brusquely. “Please follow me, and stay close. Our priority is your safe extraction. Do you understand?”
Bella nods in affirmation immediately, but I just stare for a moment, confused. Then Ela’s expectant gaze shifts solely to me, so I nod quickly in turn.
We aren’t going to fight them?
Just as I have that though, the sound of metal clashing with metal resounds from across the street.
I spin back to where I last saw the mercenaries, finding the crowd already scattering from the area.
Sarys stands before them, his blade already moving in a downward slash.
The orc Fighter barely manages to bring his sword up in defense when Sarys’ blade flashes, near instantly shifting directions. The flat of the weapon slams into the side of the orc’s knee.
There’s a sickening crack that echoes down the street, and the entire leg folds sideways.
The orc drops instantly, already starting to scream—but before he can even hit the ground, Sarys pivots, his elbow driving into the side of the man’s helmet.
The metal caves inward, and the orc collapses into a silent heap, unmoving.
Behind him, the human Mage raises one hand, magic already gathering.
Before he can activate whatever Skill or spell he was working toward, Orik appears behind him, hands glowing a sickening green.
His hands clap against the sides of the Mage's head with a sharp crack.
The man's magic collapses instantly.
Blood sprays from both ears as he drops to his knees, then topples face-first onto the street.
Blood streams from his nose and ears as he twitches weakly against the stone.
I just stare, shocked by the sudden display.
“Move!” Ela roars.
Bella grabs my hand before I can continue appreciating just how terrifying our escorts apparently are. Thankfully, the contact snaps me back to reality, and I stumble along with her before regaining my footing.
I glance back again, just for a moment, and find that the only one left is Sarys and the human Ranger. The Foxkin and Orik are both nowhere to be seen.
A snarl escapes me at the thought that the Foxkin may have gotten away, but Ela interrupts my thoughts.
“Priority is extraction. Nothing else,” she says tersely, only sparing me a glance.
My stomach twists unpleasantly, but I push the feeling down. This just isn’t the time or place for vengeance.
It can wait. I can wait.
I repeat that to myself as we follow Ela, sprinting through the streets and straight toward the Academy as magic winds summoned by her spur us forward even faster.
At first, I assume we're heading directly for the gates, but it doesn't take long to realize that isn't actually our destination.
Every time we approach a major intersection, Ela changes course. Every time we near a district divide, she steers us toward another road entirely.
She's avoiding something.
As though summoned by the thought, she suddenly throws one arm outward.
A translucent wall of pale blue force erupts across the mouth of a narrow side street just ahead of us.
Three figures burst from it less than a heartbeat later.
Human FighterLevel ??
Human RangerLevel 97
Bearkin FighterLevel 91
The barrier bends inward from the impact, but doesn't break. Instead, arcs of brilliant white lightning explode across its surface. The Ranger cries out as the electricity courses through his blades, sending him stumbling back into the alley he came from.
"Keep moving!" Ela shouts.
The barrier moves with us, wind swirling around its edges and carrying leaves, dust, and loose refuse into the air as it glides alongside our group. Whenever another mercenary appears, it shifts to meet them, redirecting blows or forcing attackers off balance with sudden bursts of compressed air.
An arrow curves wildly away from us in one instant, then a spear glances off it and smashes through a nearby window the next. Once, an attacker is lifted entirely off his feet and hurled into a wall hard enough to crack the stone.
Holy hells, I need to learn how to use my wind like that...
The city blurs around us as we run, buoyed by Ela’s magic. Merchants shout in alarm. Civilians scatter from our path.
Ela never stops moving.
Then everything goes wrong.
One moment Ela's barrier is holding. The next, a shape simply appears inside it.
Foxkin RogueLevel ??
The bastard moves with terrifying speed, twin daggers flashing in the evening street lights as he lunges straight for Ela.
She twists immediately, but not fast enough.
One blade punches into her side while the second cuts across her ribs as she turns.
Blood splashes across the paving stones as, for the first time, the barrier flickers.
Bella and I move at the same time.
A spear of ice erupts from the ground while I launch myself forward without thinking, every skill I have flooded with mana as rage and adrenaline fuel my actions more than anything.
He abandons his attack instantly, spinning away from the ice with an absurdly dextrous twist. Thankfully, either by some stroke of luck or because he wasn’t expecting me to move so fast, my fist clips still his shoulder as he shifts, knocking him backward toward the edge of the barrier.
Not enough to injure him, but enough for force him out.
The barrier retaliates immediately, vomiting a dozen arcs of lightning after him. One lands, causing him to freeze for an instant before several more slam into him with a vengeance.
Ela, for her credit, never stopped moving. She stumbles for a few steps, then starts running again.
“Keep moving,” she growls again through clenched teeth.
So we do.
My hand slams against her back and Arcane Regulation floods into her. She spares me a grateful glance as the wound begins closing almost immediately, then winces as the progress simply... stops.
The wound starts reopening itself almost as fast as I can mend it.
That’s when I see the black, tar-like substance leaking from the injury alongside her blood with each step.
Poison. Of course it’s poison.
The healing is working, but every bit of progress feels contested, as if whatever the substance is was made specifically to prevent recovery. Flesh knits together only for the corruption to spread into it again moments later.
It doesn’t stop me entirely, but it slows the progress to a crawl.
“Poison,” I warn.
“I noticed,” Ela says dryly.
The fact that she can still joke while defending us is honestly impressive. Even now, despite her rough situation, her barrier flashes with sparks of lightning and pulses with gusts of wind.
Each and every time, one of our perusers is diverted.
We turn another corner. Then another.
Nearly ten minutes have passed since the first ambush, though it feels like an hour, and with every passing street, the wind surrounding us weakens. The arcs of lightning become less frequent.
Sweat runs down Ela's face despite the cool afternoon air, and her limp becomes more pronounced with each passing second despite my constant healing.
I even shifted most of my mana away from All For One so that I could push more regeneration into her, but whatever this poison is, it's nasty stuff.
“Fucking mana drain,” she snarls.
She pulls a sparkling blue mana potion from some hidden storage item and downs it in two deep gulps, never breaking stride.
The barrier brightens briefly as her mana regeneration is bolstered, but it’s still not enough.
Of course, that’s when the foxkin returns. This time, two mercenaries race alongside him as they emerge from a side street ahead of us.
All three strike the barrier simultaneously, Skills flaring to life in bright shades of angry reds and pitch blacks around their weapons.
Ela isn’t able to divert it all, and the impact sends visible cracks across the construct.
Then she sways slightly as she turns us down another street. It’s slight, and she does her best to hide it... but I see it.
Should I shift some of the regeneration into mana? Wait, I can’t... I’d have to stop healing her entirely. Shit, shit shit—
The dilemma has barely formed when something streaks across the intersection ahead.
For a split second I mistake it for an arrow.
Then a human body crashes through a nearby wall hard enough to collapse part of it.
The entire street seems to go silent.
Even the foxkin slows his chase.
Ela, of course, doesn’t stop. She dashes toward the familiar figure that steps around the corner, uncaring of the two strangers that accompany him.
Sarys glares at the mercenaries behind us, sword resting casually across one shoulder.
His Academy uniform isn't even dirty.
And at his sides are two city guards.
Finally!
I glance back, sending a glare the foxkin’s way as we finally start putting distance between us and our pursuers.
The moment our eyes meet, his expression shifts. The smile disappears entirely, replaced by a small frown. His brown eyes lock onto mine with enough intensity to make my skin crawl.
There is fury there. Hatred.
And something else I'd really rather not think about.
Before I can dwell on it, a hand coated in sickly green mana lashes out from thin air.
Orik appears for only an instant, his palm slamming directly into the foxkin’s throat with enough force to send the Rogue staggering backwards into his companions beside him.
Then Orik is gone again, though I catch a glimpse of blood running down one arm where a blade has opened his sleeve. It doesn’t seem to have slowed him any, though.
Sarys chooses that exact moment to move, and the last thing I see before Ela takes us around another corner is silver steel flashing through the air.
Then the battle disappears from sight entirely. One street becomes another. Then another.
Only now, no attackers leap from alleys or dark corners as we move.
Instead, the city gradually changes around us as we leave the busier market streets behind. Merchant stalls become less frequent. Crowds thin. The buildings grow more orderly and familiar.
Until, eventually, a fortified guard station comes into view ahead.
Relief nearly knocks my knees out from beneath me as Fae Ferocity chooses that moment to fade away.
The anger remains, though.
Ela slows as we approach, then outright stumbles once we’re near enough to the walls for her to finally stop and lean against it.
The barrier vanishes then, shattering into fading wisps of pale blue mana that scatter into the air like mist. Ela, for her part, looks utterly exhausted.
Still, I keep healing her. The poison is still fighting me. Still trying to worsen the already horrible wound in her side.
The moment the guards spot us, everything becomes chaos again.
"What happened?"
"Who attacked you?"
"Was that combat magic?"
"Is someone injured?"
Ela doesn't answer a single question. Instead, she produces her Academy identification.
It looks different from the ones the students get. Instead of matching the colors of her mana, it’s all black, with silver text scrawled into it.
The moment it appears, every guard straightens.
I instantly wish I could see what’s on the card, but other things are more important than my curiosity.
“Escort detail compromised,” she says curtly. “Priority is returning these students to Academy grounds.”
That is apparently all they need, as orders begin flying immediately afterward.
More guards appear, weapons are drawn, shields are donned, and messages are sent.
Before I know it, we’re moving again. This time, though, I take a bit of initiative and duck under Ela’s arm to help keep her upright. Bella does the same at her other side, and despite our lopsided heights, it seems to help.
The trip back to the Academy passes in a blur.
Somewhere along the way, the burning edge of my anger begins to fade. What replaces it is almost worse, in a way.
I feel... unsatisfied.
The realization irritates me more than I'd like to admit.
Part of me wants to know what happened after we left. Another part hopes the foxkin escaped.
The thought is ridiculously dangerous and stupid, and I know it full well.
But the idea of someone else dealing with him leaves an unpleasant taste in my mouth. He tried to kidnap Bella twice now. And his goal with me is as obvious as it is disgusting.
He’s tried to hurt people I care about, and that thought leaves a tiny kernel of rightous fury buried deep in my mind.
A small, ugly part of me desperately wants to be the one who makes him pay for it.
The thought lingers there all the way to the Academy gates. Only when we arrive do I finally begin thinking of something else.
Ela, her skin now pale and clammy, barely holds her own weight as we approach the gate. Even her tail is completely limp. Fortunately, there are already faculty outside waiting for us.
Administrators, guards, healers, and even a few students crowd the gate. It swings open before we even reach them, and the moment we cross the threshold, several of the healers descend on her like wolves.
My healing is replaced almost instantly by Skills and magic far beyond my own. One of them actually pushes my hand away from the wound without even sparing me a glance, and another rattles off a diagnoses with practiced ease.
“Nether Egar poison, extreme health and mana drain. Appears she has already consumed a mana potion, epic quality minimum. Punctured kidney, lacerated intestines in sections...”
Ela is barely conscious as they shift her into a stretcher before transferring her, along with several medical staff, onto a small floating platform that takes off from the ground at a ridiculous speed.
Then the questions begin.
“What happened?”
“What were you doing outside of academy grounds?”
“Where were you when...”
“How many...”
Bella and I exchanged tired looks as the chaos threatens to swallow is.
Those fuckers ruined my date...
Well, no.
The day had gone fantastically well right up until the attempted kidnapping.
The thought almost makes me laugh.
The memory of it all helps settle the lingering adrenaline. The tea. The flowers. The food. Bella blushing every time I called it a date.
I refuse to let those bastards take that away from me.
They're out there somewhere. Hiding. Running. Maybe even dead.
Whatever.
Bella is right here, right now.
A sudden burst of giddiness bubbles up in my chest despite everything.
I have a girlfriend.
Oh my gods.
I. Have. A. Girlfriend!
The thought feels completely ridiculous. Wonderful, too. And exciting. And terrifying.
...So many things.
No amount of mercenaries, danger, or questions is changing that.
So while the guards and faculty continue talking around us, I simply stop caring.
I plop down onto the ground with a tired sigh right in the middle of the growing crowd.
Bella looks down at me with obvious confusion, face flushed with stress rather than the usual, adorable embarrassment.
I reach into storage, pull out one of the skewers I'd been saving for later, and hold it up toward her.
“So,” I say, holding up the skewer. “Ignoring the attempted kidnapping, how'd I do for our first date?”
For just a moment, the chaos around us fades away, leaving just the two of us.
It’s enough for me.
Authors Note:
So sleepy q.q
Had a very busy day babysitting my best friend after his surgery and didn't get started writing until late in the evening. This chapter was action heavy, too, so it took longer than usual as well.
Time to make like Emilia and become one with my bed.