"I know they cannot hurt me," Onyx said. "But these things are making me nervous."

Onyx had said out loud what Meera had been feeling for hours, ever since they left that grotto. Almost twenty Mistblades had stepped out of the mist wall, leaving the security of their home to come for them.

"By the gods," Tamas gasped. "How are they doing this?"

"You told me they cannot come inside the kingdom," Meera barked without meaning to.

"They cannot. Not unless the queen wills it."

"Well, you've made your queen really mad, or these constructs are malfunctioning."

"So, I assume we're still running from them," Onyx said.

Meera almost considered fighting again. It would be easier to kill them here, that was until they spread their own mists. Then, it would be about as bad as it had gone inside the mists. And Meera was not fully healed yet. Her legs and sides still supported numerous puncture wounds, which were still closing.

She checked her stats to figure out a game plan.

Stats

[Health: 819/1060]

[Stamina: 762/1090]

[Mana: 558/1370]

Her eyes widened at how low her Mana was, and it was dipping, thanks to healing herself so much, all those skills she had used in rapid succession and Onyx. Of all these, she could only cut back on using magical skills. She needed to keep the other two going to stay alive.

"Meera?" Onyx asked.

"Yes, Onyx, we run."

"Great. Mister Cook, please point the way," he said.

"Oh, this is going to hurt." Tamas pointed to their right with a shaky finger. "There was an abandoned shack which we took shelter in when we came through here last time. If we're fast enough, maybe we give them the slip and hide in there."

Onyx didn't need to be told twice. He sped off in the direction Tamas pointed while Meera kept an eye on the Mistblades, whose whispers had gotten strange.

"They head for the mistress."

"They will hurt her."

"Kill them."

"Kill them all."

"Then we find the mistress."

The Mistblades ran for them the moment her stallion friend took off. Another great thing about being out of the mists was that they could no longer make themselves invisible at a whim.

Meera launched one of her Level 2 chakrams at the horde. The first Mistblade deflected it by extending his mist sword to almost triple its length. Oh, I so badly want that skill.

But the first deflection did not deter Meera. She kept throwing chakrams and used Mirror Wing sparingly to harass the horde of constructs. It slowed them down, if nothing else, giving Onyx enough time to get away from them.

Onyx made good use of the time Meera bought him. Now that they were out of the mists, Onyx could move faster and maneuver better between the trees. Meera no longer had to worry about a low-hanging branch smacking her in the face.

"A-Are they still after us?" Tamas whimpered.

"Just focus on getting us to the shack," Meera said. "I'll focus on the Mistblades. Onyx, you better pick up the pace, buddy. We're nowhere closer to losing them at this rate."

"I'm trying my best," Onyx managed.

Another unnerving thing about Mistblades. They didn't hoop, holler, or roar like normal soldiers. They simply ran or dispersed and reformed using Mistwalk and deflected her chakram. She hadn't gotten a single hit in yet, but she did keep them busy, so that was something.

Onyx eventually created enough distance between them that she was reaching the limits of Mirror Wing. So, Meera recalled her chakrams.

The whispers grew fainter as Onyx left them in his dust. But still, the Mistblades were on their tail. Though quite far behind.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"How far is this shack?" Meera asked impatiently because soon, she would have to let go of Onyx to conserve her Mana for the inevitable fight.

"It shouldn't be far," Tamas said. "I know this area well. We stumbled around here for a long time trying to escape the Mistblades."

"Did you always have so many on your tail?" Meera asked.

"Just the one, but back then, we didn't have a warrior that could fight back."

"How lucky for you and unlucky for me."

Tamas chuckled nervously but didn't give any remarks and focused ahead. There were no roads, just trees widely spaced. Thankfully, the mist wall stayed where it was. In the end, Tamas was right. They would have died of hunger if they had remained in that grotto, waiting for the wall to pass them by.

She checked her Mana, which was down by almost a hundred points. Not a good sign at all. She was about to tell Onyx to stop and that they would go on foot when Tamas cried out excitedly.

"Look! There it is." He pointed to their right. "I knew I could find it."

Meera zoomed in on the shack. It was a rundown hut, with half its roof caved in and broken windows. She could even see the cobwebs on the windows. Thankfully, the door still held, so that was something.

"Okay, let's get off here," Meera said.

"Huh? But it's right there. Wouldn't we be faster on horseback?" Tamas protested.

"We would be, and we would also lead them directly to us. I have a plan. Let me get off first." Meera jumped down but never landed on the ground. Thanks to Nimbus, she kept herself a foot off the ground.

"How are you floating?" Onyx asked. "Did you pick up something new?"

Meera smiled. "Yes, and a couple of other things." She patted his neck. "Thanks for getting us out of the mists."

"Hey, no problem. If you die, then so do I...again."

"Onyx, can you do something for me?"

"Anything?"

"Tamas and I will get off here and head to that shack on foot. I need you to cause a distraction for the Mistblades. Raise as much smoke as you can. Let them see you, and once we're at the shack, I will call you back."

"That should be easy." Smoke rose off Onyx's body in droves.

Tamas moved to jump off his back, but she motioned for him to wait. With the way that he was, he would fall and break a few of the bones that were intact in his body. She activated Druvis Power and picked him up off the horse's back, but instead of putting him down on the ground, she hefted him on her shoulder.

"I don't want to leave any footprints for them to follow," Meera said before he could object. "Onyx, you're good to go."

"Okay, see you soon." With that, her brave steed ran off in the direction they were running in.

Meera ran for the shack, and with her Druvis-powered legs, it didn't take long to get there. Tamas groaned, winced, and must've told her to slow down several times, but they didn't have the luxury of going slow. A few minutes later, she set Tamas down on the steps of the shack. Up close, it looked even worse. The wood was rotted in several places, planks were missing in several places, and when she opened the door, it fell inward with a loud thud.

She immediately checked behind her toward the small Mistblade army, and thankfully, they were still headed toward her horse friend.

"Sorry," Tamas said. "I forgot the door was broken."

Meera had half a mind to give him hell over it, but she just motioned him in. Inside, it was dark and dirty. Insects crawled all over. Meera could see and hear them, which only heightened the creepy sensation.

"Well, let's make ourselves comfortable," she said. "At least until dawn, which cannot come soon enough."

Tamas dusted off a spot on the ground by the window, sat down with difficulty, and gasped immediately. "Meera, they're coming…"

"Already?" Meera moved for the window, and they were. Not all of them, about six to eight. The rest were still following Onyx, who must have made it quite far by now and was still running, which meant he could go quite far from her.

"Okay, stay hidden here," Meera said. "I'll figure something out."

She activated Shroud of Shadows and left the shack. She activated her armor's special ability and littered the area with tiny mirrors, giving her enough jump points that she could be anywhere she needed to be. She could have used Mistwalk, but Mirror Step was faster.

Then, using Nimbus, she moved to about seven feet in the air. Next, she used Mirror Wing and strategically placed most of her chakrams in the area around the shack. Wherever Ambush Tactics said, it would be best. The problem with these things was that they could talk with each other telepathically, so as soon as they saw Meera, the rest would come running, and not to mention they had wizened up to Meera's tricks.

They arrived a few seconds later.

Meera had to make the first attack count, so she jumped between them and used Mirror Blast. The world was shrouded in light. The shack's front half was nearly cut to ribbons and fell on itself. She hoped Tamas was okay, but she couldn't worry about him.

This time, she had deactivated Mirror Eagle's Perceptivity before the blast and shut her eyes so she didn't have to waste time for the white spots to clear up. She activated the Mirror Eagle skill and formed her hand into a fist. All her chakrams came crashing in on the Mistblades.

Nearly half of them were deflected by the Mistblades.

Then Meera witnessed a horror. A second Mistblade came out of the ones fallen on the ground, and these were fresh, undamaged by her blast.

Meera's eyes widened. There's not eight Mistblades here, but…sixteen.

That was almost all of them. They had hidden in the bodies of others like the two did when they almost killed her. Shit. Shit. Shit.

The ones who had taken the brunt of the blast stood to join their brethren. They all started covering the area with a thick mist and assimilating with the mists.

Meera closed her fist, and her deflected chakrams ripped through the Mistblades. Three of them died on the spot. Only a few teleported away, but the rest, it was hard to tell, as the mist was thick once again. She Stepped away to one of the mirrors she had planted on a tree branch.

The branch swayed under her weight and a Mistblade must've been watching as a misty throwing knife came flying her way.

She was still invisible, so that must've been on instinct alone. She side-stepped into the air and, with Nimbus, stayed there. That one throwing knife was followed by four more. They all embedded into the tree before dissipating.

They don't know where I am. I could just stay here.

Then she heard a whimper and knew the Mistblades had reached inside the shack. She was about to teleport to the shack when they dragged a hysterical Tamas out of the hut and left him on the ground in a clearing.

"We know you can hear us. Come save your friend," a Mistblade whispered.

Meera had no option. She readied herself to jump into the mists when their whispers became frantic, almost painful.

"The light comes…"

Meera turned around to see the sun's light peeking through the leaves. Dawn was here.

"Run, you shitheads!" Tamas yelled.

The Mistblades ran westward, whispering a myriad of things.

"Run…"

"Run to the mistress."

"She will save us."

"We must save her…"