“For those at the very top of their artform, the discovery of a worthy rival was an event one rejoiced and celebrated, for it is most lonely at the top, and they know it.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

“Interesting,” muttered Long Jiangjun Leung Hua-Jeong as he felt the magic he placed upon his arrow unravel well before it was supposed to reach its target. The magic would unravel upon impact, so it might be that one of the enemy’s arrows accidentally struck his arrow by accident – an unlikely but far from improbable occurrence – which would have done the job.

The old general pulled out two arrows from his quiver this time, his mind overlaid layers of wind magic on both of them by the time one of them was nocked against the taut string of his bow. He loosed one arrow in a smooth, practiced motion, still aimed at his previous target, then chased it with a second arrow aimed at the same target, a mere breath behind the first and flying in its wake.

Then he quickly grasped the spyglass from his spatial artifact and placed it before his eye, keeping track of the flight of his arrows. From his position to the target was approximately six hundred paces, so his arrows would take around four seconds or so to cover the distance. Since he knew where his arrow was, his senses attuned to his own magic, he immediately spotted them in flight.

Just in time to witness how a single arrow flew out from the enemy army and directly strike his first arrow head-on, effectively annihilating both arrows in mid-air with the resultant impact.

As if that wasn’t enough, a second arrow followed a mere breath later and found his second arrow in the same manner with unerring precision. That was plenty to tell Hua-Jeong several things. For one, it was no accident that his arrows had failed to reach their target and were struck down prematurely. They were shot down by someone who was likely his equal in skill from the enemy side well before they could reach their target.

The skill it took to hit an arrow in flight with such unerring precision repeatedly was enough to convince the old general that he was dealing with an equal, another archer standing at the pinnacle of the craft of archery itself. As such, the old general decided to mix things up a bit more. He pulled two more arrows from his quiver and laid his magic upon them, but this time he nocked both arrows on his bow at the same time.

One of the arrows was still aimed at his original target, while the second was aimed at another not far from his original target. He charged the arrows with more magic this time to make up for the halved thrust they would receive from his bow, and loosed them like before. His hands quickly brought the spyglass back up to his eye to watch how his foe would deal with such a simultaneous shot.

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Would they sacrifice one of the targets or would they make some attempt to shoot both projectiles down at the same time? He knew that there would barely be enough time to shoot them both down one after another with the extra speed he had imbued to the arrows.

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“Help me up that tree over there, fast!” commanded Salicia to her aides while pointing at a lone tree atop a gentle, rolling hill around a hundred paces away from where she was positioned. It was one of the positions she had noted early on, where she would have some height advantage that would allow her to locate the source of the arrows. “I need some height to catch that bastard archer of theirs!”

A higher vantage would allow her to actually look for her target in detail. She could already extrapolate the archer’s position from where their arrows came from, but couldn’t exactly target them accurately that way. Sure, she could use her Space affinity to act as a makeshift spyglass to do it, but that would use up a good chunk of her already limited mana, so she was saving that for later.

Of course, a higher position would also make her an easier target, but she already considered and expected that. The opposing archer would likely have to shift their target to her anyway, since they would soon realize that unless they got her out of the way, none of their arrows would make it through to their actual targets. As for her, her target would be the enemy archer alone.

Just after she gave the command and started moving towards the tree, her keen eye noticed another arrow targeted at Nestor – or one of the others next to him, the difference was pointless anyway to her – and her body moved almost by reflex.

Another arrow out of the quiver, nocked on the bowstring.

Push.

Pull.

Aim.

Release.

All happened even while she was on the move, in a single, smooth, natural motion.

The second arrow – she noticed that one while aiming at the first – received the same welcome, mere moments after the first. Salicia took a moment longer than usual to loose her second arrow, but only because she had not drawn it together with the first one out of the quiver. She adjusted for that and drew four arrows at once out of her quiver next, holding the shafts between her fingers, and waited for the next arrow to appear.

Her opponent did not disappoint and sent out two arrows at once, not one after another, but simultaneously, aimed at two different targets. That made Salicia pause for a breath or so – she was only around twenty paces away from the tree by that point – before she nocked an arrow and carefully aimed as she drew her bow to its full extension and loosed.

Salicia’s arrow flew through the air, and this time, it did not strike the incoming arrow head to head. Instead, her arrow struck the incoming arrow at a slight angle, enough that the impact deflected her arrow towards the second incoming arrow. The deflection was slight, but was just enough for the tip of her arrowhead to strike the second arrow’s back end before it flew past.

Since her arrow was easily twice the size and weight of the arrows used by her opponent, the impact that only deflected her arrow had a far more drastic effect on its counterpart. The two lighter arrows were sent spinning full revolutions as they were diverted out of their original paths, the force they carried dispersed as they fell rather harmlessly on the troops fighting below them.