Meera watched the warrior shrouded in mists as he watched her. The two remaining escapees stayed where they were. She felt bad for the poor woman. She couldn't imagine her life would have been easy as a prostitute, but still, no one deserved to go out this way. Thankfully, she was silent now, no longer in pain.

"Before we do this, I need to know why. Why are you after them?" Meera asked.

"You do not need to concern yourselves with that. You do not need to concern yourself with anything anymore," he whispered again.

"You can at least tell me your name."

The mist-shrouded warrior said nothing. He removed his sword from his sheath, and the three-foot blade grew to almost double its length. And even the sword was shrouded in mists as if it were made of the very stuff.

I seriously hope this is not another ghost or ghost-like creature that I can only kill with my chakrams.

The sting of losing her chakram to the sorceress was still fresh in her mind.

"He's not a man," Urvan, the wrestler, said. "He's mist and fog condensed to look like a man. We call them Mistblades. They guard the borders of Azeria. Constructs created by Queen Nisaya, the Mistweaver. They protect the border and hunt anything that crosses the border."

"Border?" Meera asked. "We're close to the border."

"More like the border is coming close to us."

Meera frowned and turned to him. It was not like she needed to keep her eyes on the warrior. "Huh? What do you mean?"

Urvan's eyes widened. "Watch out."

Whispers had thrown three throwing knives at her, which she had seen, as she could see everything. Without turning, she erected a Mirror Shield, and they pinged off it. She was happy that the knives didn't just evaporate into nothing. She wondered if they were real weapons. But her hope was crushed when the throwing knives touched the ground, they turned back into mists.

She looked at Urvan intently. "What do you mean by the border is coming to us?"

"There'll be more than enough time to talk about that. Please kill that thing," Tamas shrieked.

"I'll help." Urvan readied his lone arm.

"No need." Meera smiled and turned to face her foe. "You two just hide behind a tree. I'll make short work of this guy…thing."

She sent Mana through her armor and unleashed a small blast of mirrors that would give her enough teleportation points for her Mirror Step. One went right through the Mistblade's body. The mists swirled and closed the hole in the next moment.

It will be problematic if he can constantly heal himself like that.

She had her chakram ready. Now that she got a good look at it, she noticed that it didn't breathe, and the swirling mists gave a sound as if someone was constantly whispering.

The Mistblade made the first move. He swung his massive sword in an arc, which would have cut her in half if she hadn't used Mirror Step and moved out of the way. She appeared to its side and shot a Mirror Shard Barrage.

He moved with uncanny speed and brought his arm up. A mist shield materialized on its arm, blocking her attack. When she shut off the beam, his shield reverted to his arm.

Meera squinted her eyes. Interesting…

It didn't need to protect itself if it were made entirely of mists, and yet it did. She made the next move by Stepping to its right and slashing at its head with her chakram.

Whispers deflected the blow with its sword and almost cut off Meera's shoulder. She activated Mirror Shield to block the slash. The mist sword broke her shield, and she had to jump back. But she threw her chakram at its body while she did.

The construct flew away in the wind and rebuilt itself close to the former slaves. He brought his big sword down on the cook, who shrieked. Meera teleported between them—luckily, there was a mirror there. She put up a Mirror Shield and stopped his blade. She took out her chakram and slashed at the warrior, but once again, it dissipated, only to reform a few feet from her.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Whispers didn't move for her, even when she was open. But instead, it released a massive torrent of mist from its body. The white mists swept along the woods, covering all.

Tamas shrieked and hugged a tree. Urvan, the wrestler, remained at the ready with his single hand turned into a fist.

As the mists thickened, Whispers vanished completely. Even with Mirror Eagle's Perceptivity, Meera could not tell the construct apart from the mists. The mists swirled all around her, blocking her view. She did her best to see, but it was like sifting through white smoke, and she had no idea where her enemy was.

Whoosh!

Meera jumped aside at the last moment. But still, a misty sword cut off the tip of her nose. She cried out and healed herself with Vitalize. She looked around, and again, her vision was blocked by the swirling.

For a moment, she thought about calling out for Tamas and Urvan but quieted as she didn't want to give away their location, even though Whispers probably already knew where they were.

Then, a movement in the mists. Like something tunneled through it. She put up a Mirror Shield before her, but it did nothing. Whatever it was passed through the Mirror Shield, only for it to appear on the other side and stab her in the chest, just to the left of her necklace.

Meera groaned as she reached for the throwing knife. It dissipated into the mists. Healing herself didn't take long, but it wasted Mana and time. The construct's next attack came from behind her. His big sword would've nearly severed her head clean off if she hadn't tossed her chakram straight up in the air and then used Mirror Step to teleport to it.

As she fell, she launched her chakram into a tree with force, and it embedded halfway in the tree trunk, which worked perfectly for Meera. She Stepped to it and hung there. Down below, an area of about ten meters wide was covered with mists. The rest was just a typical forest.

Meera saw the cook and wrestler taking shelter by the same tree where she had seen them last. Thanks to her superior vision, she noticed the movement in the mists, and it was heading for the escapees.

She launched her chakram to them. Stepped to the chakram, caught it, and landed beside them. Urvan almost punched her but stopped at the last moment. Tamas just stifled a shriek.

“Listen,” Meera said. "When I give you the signal, you both run in that direction." She had just pointed the way out when pain erupted in her back.

She groaned and bit her lower lip. She couldn't be sure, but the mist warrior had just slashed her back. Pieces from her mirror armor skittered to the ground, followed by the dripping of blood.

"Miss!" Urvan moved for her.

"Just run! I'll be fine." Meera's armor closed around her wound even before Vitalize started healing her.

She used a Mirror Blast with a small amount of Mana. The former slaves had cleared the blast radius, but Whispers had not. Her blast hit him full tilt, leaving behind a smoky form. Meera turned and launched her chakram to it, but he stepped back into the mists and was gone.

Meera ran after the escapees. She only stopped when she cleared the mist. But the mist was not far behind.

"It's coming for us," Tamas cried as the mist snaked toward them. "We stayed ahead of that thing for a few days, but now—"

"Shut up!" Urvan snapped. "We did it once. We can do it again."

"How did you do it last time?" Meera asked.

Urvan looked away. "By leaving the injured behind…"

The moment he said it, an idea popped into her head, and she knew it was Ambush Tactics at work. She took out her Gem of Echoes, and the world's sounds became crisp and sharp. If she concentrated, she could even hear the elated heartbeat of the two before her. She placed the gem right below the golden jewel of the necklace and commanded the armor to hold it there, and it did. She could hear the swirling mists on Whispers' body.

Meera paused and closed her eyes to concentrate, which didn't stop her vision. But she could hear the mists on the construct's body. They moved differently than the regular mists like it was whispering as they moved.

Meera smiled. "I know how to kill this thing."

"How?" the wrestler's voice boomed in her ears.

"Just run."

They looked at each other and then ran off, away from the mists. The mists were coming, and Meera stepped aside and activated Shroud of Shadows. She turned invisible and waited. The whispering grew louder as the invisible warrior came closer.

This was a test to know if it could tell where she was when she was invisible. The mists washed over her, and the whispers were loud enough that they might as well be shouting.

"She is here."

"No, she is not."

"We must find this warrior."

"And kill her."

"Then we find the mistress."

These were said by different voices as if more than one entity controlled the construct. Meera waited, chakram ready, but Whispers didn't attack. So, despite being in its mists, he couldn't tell where someone was if they were invisible.

It's a design flaw if I ever saw one.

He turned towards the two running away from the mist. Whispers must've thought that Meera had run away, or he was solely focused on his prey. She didn't see the mists move at all, and neither did she until it left the mists behind.

Whispers' body came into view when he was out of the mists. Meera smiled. Took off four chakrams, activated Druvis Power, and launched them all at the mist warrior.

Her aim had become perfect from throwing these things around so much, so all four cut through the construct's body. Its whispers became erratic. Some even cried out. But Meera was not done. She activated Mirror Wing. She'd been practicing with this skill over the past few days and knew how it worked. Though, she hadn't controlled this many chakrams at once.

She took control of the chakrams, and they zipped through the air as they cut through Whispers' body a dozen times and then some. Until finally, it fell to the ground.

Meera deactivated her Shroud of Shadows, teleported to one of the chakrams, and recalled the others. She had figured the construct would be dead by now, but it wasn't. Not until she showed herself. Then, Whispers' mists dispersed into the air along with the mists he had created. But she heard one final whisper.

"We are coming for you…"