Chapter 143: Chapter 135 – Hope and Despair

(I...I...I can't let Alicia die.)

Fortunately my inflated belly was completely unharmed. Alicia was safe for the immediate being. But as for how long, most likely could only be counted in seconds.

I had lost my left arm, a foot and an additional hand.

My skills were worthless as they required my limbs or mana, both which were not options.

But that was only if I used them to directly deal with this blasted sword.

Instead, I levitated a clump of soil and threw it at the blade handle.

*Thunk*

The dull sound resounded, and the blade wobbled.

I wasn't completely sure, but it looked like it had loosened up a little.

"Oh no you don't!"

But before the man could grab the sword, I did it again.

*Thunk!*

The sword wobbled and leaned at a noticeable angle, but it wasn't quite enough.

To make matters worse, the armoured figure was on top of me, reaching out for the blade handle.

I couldn't let him grab it, or it was the end for me, so using my one good leg, I kicked up, not caring what sort of damage I did to myself in the process.

My shin collided with something hard and pain erupted from it. But it was enough. The man was launched into the air, tumbling end over end before his hand could touch this damned piece of cursed metal.

"Master!"

As the white armoured man flew helplessly, black shadows rushed over to restrain then fling him far further than my weak and awkward kick was capable of.

Claret arrived and hovered over me, tears running down her face while anxiety and fear was painted all over it.

"I'll, I'll pull you away from that awful thing!"

Grabbing my one remaining arm, my ever trustworthy familiar tugged at my body.

"Wait! Stop for a sec!"

"Master?"

No matter Claret's best intentions, tearing me from the sword wasn't the way to do it. It risked the thing falling over towards me rather than away, and nothing either of us could do would prevent it from instantly killing me.

Compacting several balls of soil and snow from the ground, I thrust them at the sword, and after the third attempt, the magical void of a blade was knocked away, finally freeing me from it.

Relief swept through my entire being, but the feeling was premature. I was still in grave danger, and nothing I did while staying in this place would change that.

"Now! Go as fast as you can!"

I gave Claret my order as I formulated my plan, thrusting out my mana beyond my familiar's back.

"Yes Master!"

Without a shred of hesitation, my dear familiar pulled me up, and without even bothering to secure me, she prioritized on following my order as is and took to the skies.

Pushing her own skills and magic to the limit, we accelerated away as my aura I extended past us bent space once more, creating a passage just past Claret connecting to some indefinite spot far up high. Far too away for these assassins to be able to reach us.

Just as planned, my dear familiar passed through the portal as she entered the blue skies above, far far past the dark tree canopy.

A smile starts to tug at Claret's cheeks as she realized what I was doing, and my own were pulled up together with hers.

But a terrifyingly too familiar all encompassing coldness stretched out and permeated my body as the opening in space warped and folded in on itself. The last thing I saw was Claret's smile invert into panic and fear as she desperately tried to reverse her direction.

The dimensional pathway slammed shut as my mana was turned into vapour and weightlessness filled my body as my arm being pulled through the now nonexistent portal was separated above the elbow.

"Yes! I made it in time!"

I glared at the voice, seeing the man in white armour holding a throwing pose. The sound of something hard embedding itself in a tree came from my opposing side.

As I activated [Float] and narrowly avoided colliding with the ground, I turned my head to see what the sound was. It was the man's sword.

The only good thing in this terrible situation was that one thing.

But as that accursed weapon didn't fly far from its owner, it wouldn't take him long to retrieve it to finish me off.

I had to get away.

Mustering what little mana I had left, I gathered wind underneath me to push my body around to the cover of one of the massive trees that made up this forest. There, I hoped to have the few moments it would take to grow out my wings and take proper flight.

But the assassin refused to give me any time. I could feel his presence closing in faster than I could float away. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't beat his quick pace, and in only a few moments, he caught up.

Grabbing my shoulder, he spun me around on the spot.

I thrust out my shadow, but it simply deflected off of his round chest plate. Before I could try to aim in between the gaps on my second attempt, he thrust something into my chest. A searing heat spread where a white bladed knife was partially buried between my ribs.

My robes folded around the blade, preventing my remaining lung from being pierced, but that didn't deter the man at all, as he simply grabbed his weapon with both hands and pressed harder.

The impact of it forced me to the ground and the blazing heat of the dagger which glowed white with some sort of [Light Magic] enchantment seared my skin underneath even through the layer of hunter spider silk and fairy dust.

I grit my teeth from the pain while kicking my legs, trying to repeat what I managed only a handful of seconds earlier.

"Gyaaaaa!"

But before I could make any progress, the blade tore through the fibres of my robe and buried itself deep into my chest. Blood poured through the broken membranes before being vaporized by the incompatible element that filled the cold piece of metal within my chest.

"Now sit there quietly so I can end this quickly."

Keeping one hand on the blade buried in my chest, he twisted and wiggled it around, making it all but impossible to concentrate hard enough to cast any spells as my mind was filled with blazing pain.

Using his free hand, the man ripped open the buttons of my robe, exposing my chest to the air. But as cold as the air itself was, perhaps due to bad luck, I was under one of the gaps of the canopy above. The damned sun's rays scorched my skin wherever it touched.

Fortunately, my skill [Sunlight Vulnerability] allowed me to recover both my HP and MP, but the pain that came with natural sunlight being the fuel for that effect made it that much more difficult to coordinate any sort of resistance.

It couldn't even be said that this benefit was even capable of extending what little life was left to me at this moment.

Through a small gap between my eyelids, blurred by the tears which continuously spilled out from the pain, the assassin unsheathed another knife. But this knife was quite different from any I've seen before.

First of all, while it was double bladed, there was a strange gap that ran through the middle, with something passing through the small gap. The tip of the strange object resembled a needle from a syringe. From the butt of the grip, a cord or maybe some sort of thin hose ran along to some sort of cylinder on the man's hip.

I couldn't even start to guess what this strange weapon was, nor its purpose, but there was no way it was anything decent.

"Don't you dare!"

Just then, several fairies thrust their weapons at the the white death looming over my body. Orphne's shout sparked a tiny flame of hope within me, making me furiously kick my legs despite all the pain that wracked my body.

"Shit! Damnit!"

The man cried out as spears clanged off of his armour, searching desperately for any gaps or other weaknesses, all the while he flailed his arms in a vain attempt to drive Orphne and her guards.

"Fuck it! Just die!"

But as his actions were obviously quite futile and there was no chance that the fairies would stop to resistance of that level, the white armoured figure returned his attention towards me and swung the strange dagger straight towards my exposed chest.

I swung my shadow, bashing it against his arm in an attempt to deflect his attack, but perhaps due to my inability to properly concentrate through all the pain which filled my body, the blow was weak and could hardly have been considered any sort of deflection.

My eyes followed the dagger as it came closer and closer to my chest. Every millimetre it travelled exponentially measured the despair which was filling my entire being.

I was virtually out of HP and MP, and completely out of ideas. All the resistance which I had attempted hardly made any difference in the end, and now I was completely helpless.

Even though it was my second time, staring death in the face was such a terrifying prospect.

I didn't want to die.

I didn't want to let Alicia die.

I wanted to live, together with Alicia.

Together with everyone.

I didn't want any of this to end, yet there wasn't a single thing I could do to prevent that.

"Stop it~!"

Like an angel swooping down in salvation, Orphne's figure appeared in front of me as she held her spear across her body to stop the blade in its tracks.

Hope once again filled me as I saw the courage disproportionate to her body manifest as she desperately worked to save me.

But reality was a cruel mistress.

As strong as Orphne was, it wasn't quite enough as the little fairy's spear was deflected and the blade buried itself into her belly.

"Orphne!"

I screamed out her name. The fact that the very action tore apart my lung with the dagger still buried in it not even noticed.

"Fuck! No! No no no no no!"

The man quickly grabbed Orphne's body and pulled it off of his blade. There was something white and cloudy which escaped out of the little fairy's body before disappearing down the needle's passage. Lights lit up on the blade as something glowing passed through the hose, ending in the strange cylinder on the man's hip.

The figure threw Orphne's body before checking the cylinder and letting out more curses.

A few of the fairies chased after their leader's body, making it nearly impossible for the remaining fairies to do anything.

"Fuck it. It's too late."

Letting out his dejection, the man turned towards me and violently pulled out the knife in my chest.

While the pain which assaulted my body lessened, there was no relief in my mind. Especially not after he grabbed my neck and held the blade threateningly over my face.

"Guess I'll do it the old fashioned way. Die!"

*Ping!*

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Something small and hard shattered against the assassin's helmet, spraying fragments all around, including me. But I hardly cared about such injuries.

Turning to my side, I saw Sarah aiming down the sights of her rifle which was pointed right at the white armoured figure as his body violently rolled off of me.

Another shot rang out and the man in white armour was sent rolling once again. Dents were clearly visible on his armour, yet not a single shot had been very damaging, as was clear when he started to rise to his feet.

On the third shot, the man managed to raise his shield in time to deflect the supersonic projectile.

"Tch!"

Even from this distance I could hear Sarah clicking her tongue before firing her fourth shot which splattered across the face of the man's white shield.

Remembering the damage I had taken from the shield's enchantment, I turned away, focusing on him purely through [Sense Presence] while my eyes ran to Sarah's previous target. Now that Sarah wasn't occupying him, there was the fear that he was causing more trouble for the others.

My fears were founded true as he had made his way to the two mages and formed a bulwark, protecting them from Aurae's continuous barrage of spells. The two mages had recovered and one helped in defence while the other was throwing back spells, weakening Aurae's suppressing even further.

Everything was collapsing and soon someone was going to die.

Though I strongly suspected that first was going to be either Aurae or me. The little fairy wasn't moving anymore, but a quick [Scan] showed that her HP wasn't empty. Most likely she was probably just stunned or unconscious. Either way, it improved her chances of survival as the assassins shouldn't have had any reason to finish her off as long as she didn't get herself involved once again.

"Meleager! We gotta get out of here! We failed! And reinforcements are coming!"

The words that rang like salvation itself in my ears came from the black clad wolfkin. Since Orphne and most of her guards switched over to rescuing me, he was able to manoeuvre around with little resistance.

"No! We can still kill her Euphemus! Just grab Harpe!"

"Ah, damnit! Alright. Fine!"

The man in full body black knocked away the closest fairy with is knife before rushing towards that damned sword.

I desperately thrust out my shadow. I had to stop him from reaching the sword no matter what.

But try as I might, the weapon ended up much closer to him than to me, leaving me at quite the disadvantage. It didn't take long for me to realize that he would reach the blade no matter what, so I instead picked up some dirt from the ground and threw it with my shadow.

The clump of dirt hit him square in the head, causing a momentary stagger. It only slowed him down slightly, but it was enough and I managed to grab his ankle with my shadow.

"Fuck! Damnit!"

The wolfkin pulled against my shadow as he reached out for the black blade, but he wasn't able to quite grab it.

Confidence returned to me and I pulled harder while minding my MP. After so many hits and disruptions from that blade, I was virtually running on vapours at this point. If my spells were cut once or twice more, I might run out at this point. And as a mana based life form, that would be my death.

Sarah fired off a shot at him, but perhaps predicting it, the man in loose black ducked and evaded the bullet before rising up and thrusting his arm out towards the blade once again.

The man in white armour started to close in on me, forcing Sarah to turn her attention that way and go back to peppering him with bullets.

The fairies did what they could, but he was much more skilled than they were and despite having a leg pinned, he was able to keep them at bay and tried for the sword once again.

I tugged at him as hard as I could, but then I heard the sharp noise of metal on metal, without the accompanying sound of an explosion which came with Sarah firing her rifle.

The wolfkin had his arm raised with a dagger in hand, and to my horror, the black blade was spinning as it flew through the air.

The fairies directly around the wolfkin scattered. It was obvious that they feared that blade on an instinctive level like how Claret did. Not like I could blame them. Fairy bodies were only partially comprised of mana, but it was probably enough that a direct hit from such a blade could instantly kill even the strongest fairy.

But either way, things were looking very bad.

That cold iron sword would soon be within the wolfkin's reach, and once that happened my chances of survival dropped significantly.

Without any choice, I retracted my shadow and bent space underneath me.

With the little amount of MP I had left, I couldn't travel far, but if I could buy enough time to drink some of the blood I had stored away, I could restore my strength and make a proper escape.

It was regretful, but I could only hope that reinforcements would arrive before anyone died or that these assassins would run once they thought that I had escaped.

Actually opening a passage ended up being quite difficult with how little MP I had left. Stretching out the space underneath me and doing my best to fold it to create a pathway, I had to repeatedly reselect my destination closer and closer to where I was, wasting precious time.

But before I could actually finish it, an unbelievable sight redirected my attention.

The wolfkin didn't catch the cold iron sword.

Instead, he simply stood there, not moving a muscle as the sword fell to the ground, embedding itself into the snow and soil halfway up to its hilt.

(What?)

The bizarre scene stunned me, to the point that I couldn't even feel elated at the fact that I was just saved from my immediate demise, even if it was only by a handful of seconds.

But the answer came soon after.

The wolfkin silently fell backwards, and together with a gentle breeze, the scent of his blood tickled my nose.

The profile of a dokkalfar appeared from the man's shadow as she pulled out a blade from his neck before swinging it, allowing momentum to clean her blade for her.

"I apologize for our tardiness, Scarlet."

"Elli!"

The sight of the dokkalfar elder brought a tremendous wave of relief over me. Thoughts of fear and dread were immediately banished.

"I will refrain from asking how you arrived at such a dreadful state for now. First, we must clean up this garbage."

"Huh?"

(Shouldn't regrouping be the priority?)

Elli was quite formidable from everything I knew, but it was hard to imagine her turning the tide around by herself. It was better to stay on the defensive until we get more reinforcements. Since Elli had to have come from the dark side settlement, that meant that no matter how much faster she was compared to anyone else, it shouldn't take long for the next group to arrive.

*Boom!*

But as I was thinking that, a fast flying boulder threw up snow and dirt from around the place where the mages and the tank were.

(That wasn't Orphne's spell!)

Looking further beyond that trio, more figures were visible as they ran towards us. There were more dokkalfar, demons, imps, titans, and even some dragonkin amongst them!

"Tis not the time for your end, Scarlet!"

Frigg yelled out before raining a shower of smaller stones at the distracted mages and tank group.

While they were distracted, the dragonkin group, led by Harja and closely followed by Magni, flew over all of the assassins before raining down their own spells at the man in white armour. He did his best trying to balance his shield usage between Sarah and the dragonkins, but unlike the black tank, his shield was small, so it was impossible for him to fully protect himself with it. Dents and scratches quickly built up on his previously pristine armour.

But all the while I let myself enjoy the feeling of relief now that the chances of anyone being killed had fallen to almost zero, that black sword suddenly flew lazily through the air and landed near the white armoured figure.

Turning back to the man Elli had stabbed, the way his arm was outstretched told me clearly that he was the one responsible for that act. But as annoyed as I was about it, even before his throwing motion ended, Elli shoved her dagger up through the bottom of his jaw.

The wolfkin's body slackened instantly, and a quick scan confirmed that his HP had dropped to zero.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fall back! We're getting out of here!"

"What about Euphemus?"

"He's gone already! That damn dark elf did him in!"

"Oh? Who might you be calling an over baked elf?"

Even as an ally, the smile which Elli turned towards the man in white caused a chill to run down my spine.

Not just her, but the other dokkalfar also had looks of anger on their faces.

Despite all the hostility the man had incurred, he quickly grabbed his sword and parried the spells falling towards him and concentrated his shield towards Sarah, drastically reducing the incoming damage he was incurring as he backed away from us as fast as he could.

All the while, the other group, focusing their spells on defence, backed off as well and made their way out using the trees as cover.

"Keep attacking those fools who dare defy us!"

"Drive them out then form a perimeter to make sure there are no more trespassers!"

Harja yelled out her orders, and Elli supplemented them.

"No! We kill them now!"

"And risk there be more intruders? This appears to be a targeted attack on Elder Scarlet. Risking her life for your glory is a good option. If you wish to go, you will not have the dokkalfar support in your endeavour."

"Nor ours. If there are more lurking somewhere, we must preserve our strength."

Harja came up and supported Elli's words.

"Fine! We'll chase them alone and return after confirming that the trespassers are in full retreat!"

And with those departing words, Harja took flight again, with the dragonkin she brought following after her. Magni gave me a look of concern before chasing after his leader.

Eventually the sound of battle abated and everyone gathered around.

While I could still feel the intruders' presence, they were rapidly shifting to the limits of my range.

As the tension left my body, I was immediately reminded of the fact that I was still bleeding and my HP and MP were in dire straits. I took out a jar of blood and levitated its contents before downing the entire orb as fast as I could inhale it.

Warmth spread throughout my entire body and I could feel the missing parts of my body growing back, filling out the empty portions of my clothes. I did this two more times before I was so full that I couldn't drink a single more drop of blood.

Elli kneeled down and checked my body, paying especially close attention to my belly before she put her arm around my shoulder to support me.

"You are in quite the shape, but I am glad you seem to be fine now."

"Yea, thanks for coming. I really owe you one. I owe all of you."

"If that is the case, then I think I will have you wear the clothes of my choice!"

On the surface, Elli's bright smile felt wholesome, but I couldn't help but feel like there was something predatory to it as well.

"Within reason."

I managed to squeeze out those words while my cheeks cramped up a little.

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