"Lightening! Strength Enhancement!"

Casting the support Casts onto both herself and Wu just so they can get out of here as quickly as possible, Lera lead the way into the deeper parts of the woods with Wu following closely after her, "The chariot will leave behind a track wherever it goes, blowing aside the leaves underneath and out to the side, practically marking our trajectory. So we have to make it on foot. Your steps will become lighter and quicker, so don't over..."

Before she could finish, Wu had already smashed face-first into a tree just in front of her.

"Don't over-exert! Got it!" Wu pressed his face away from the tree, "This feeling is soooooo weird!"

"Get used to it!" Lera said, turning and scanning in the forests behind her as the Sonne security forces entered into the deeper parts of the forest, "We need to get out of here as quickly as possible!"

"But why are the security forces suddenly here? Are they actually traitors or something?" Wu asked, and Lera took a sharp jab, changing direction as he also followed after her, now already getting a hang of moving around with increased strength and reduced body weight.

"No. It must have been that the attackers also somehow managed to take the King hostage." Lera tossed that theory out behind her, "This is a kingdom after all..."

"Right." Wu said, matching Lera stride for stride.

"You are moving surprisingly well for your first time!" Lera noticed.

Their ground speed is a bit slower than when they were on the chariot, but with Lera's enhancement Casts, they are able to be more agile and nimble. However, the matter of footprints will be a troublesome one. It is harder to track the footprints as they hop from rocks to tree roots and occasionally the muddy paths compared to the clear path left behind by the chariots.

Also, it's not like they have any other options. They simply need to move as quickly as possible through the woods and create more distance between them and the Sonne Security forces.

"Stop treating me as a useless character already!" Wu said before nearly tripping himself over, "I was in the University basketball team for four years! It's not like I am a bumbling idiot...AH!"

"Ok......" Lera tried not to laugh before pointing her fingers ahead, "This is the start of the Endless Woods, the borders of the Kingdom of Varous ends not too far away from here. I don't know exactly how far, but my Scouting Eye showed that it's about ten kilometers away? Shit."

"Will we be able to get out of here in time?" Wu asked.

"Don't know, but we have to." Lera said, turning to face Wu with a more serious look than any that he has seen on her before, "Even if I don't......you will have to."

"Say what?" Wu turned his head when suddenly, Lera's expressions darkened and she reached out a hand.

Pulling him to a dead stop, she then pushed the both of them behind a bush as a dozen of blurry figures flew overhead. Watching quietly from the shadows, Wu's eyes widened as he looked closer to see the Sonne security forces riding their own versions of the air chariot flying right over the forest, though it moved so much faster higher up than when they were closer to the ground.

"Are they scouts?" Wu asked, and Lera nodded before spinning her fingers and gesturing the airspace all around them.

"We can't just keep running......They will eventually figure out where we went and catch up to us......" Lera said, biting down on her nails as her brains ran through all of the different options, "I am already seeing them create a massive perimeter along the edges of the forest."

"So what should we do?" Wu asked, and he tightened the straps to his backpack even further. Even though all of this chaos, his trusty ol' university student backpack is still staying on his back.

"Just do what's right, I suppose," Lera murmured before her grey eyes became sharper as her resolution became clear, "Sometimes, that's all we should do, and all we can do."

"I don't like the sound of this......" Wu said, and Lera smiled before she poked her hand out through the push and spoke softly.

"Car."

It had already been enough downtime since she last used this Cast, and as her internal storage of Wave slowly dwindled away, Lera decided to pour a large portion of what she has left into getting Wu the hell out of here. At the end of the day, that's the responsibility of a Guardian, right?

"What are you doing......?" Wu asked, "I thought you said that the chariot will leave behind a track!"

"It still will, but as long as the attention of the security forces is on me, then you can make it out from here." Lera said, and she reached a hand towards Wu before pushing him back with her enhanced strength. Wu's body was thrown back into the carriage of the chariot as Lera stood up from behind the bush.

"No! Wait!" Wu tried to get off the Chariot when Lera turned the pages in her Book of Casts and spoke softly with a pained yet determined smile on her face.

"Bind."

Vines made of pure Wave energy grew from the back of the chariot and hooked themselves around Wu's body before locking him in a place like sets of malfunctioning seatbelts.

"Car: Auto. Get away from here." Lera said, utilizing the parts of the Chariot's automatic piloting system that Professor Richard's so proud of, yet it was something that she never tried after adopting the Cast that he made.

"I am sorry, Wu Li. I wish we can get to know each other better, and go on to save the world together, but as your useless guardian, this is the best that I can come up with."

"No! We can figure something out together!" Wu reached out towards Lera and tried to free himself from the bind, but no matter how hard he fought, the Vines simply pulled back against him with equal force, "Please...don't do this..."

"That's the right thing to do." Lera said as she put her hand over the side of the chariot, "This is the Cast made by my professor, and it will take you to safety."

Before Wu could say another word, the chariot shook gently and took off with a hum. Wu's head was yanked back as he was disoriented initially by the whiplash. When he refocuses on the environment around him, the black-haired girl with beautiful grey eyes was nowhere to be seen anymore.

As the trees moved past him rapidly, Wu leaned back and growled.

Professor Richard really knew what he's talking about. Lera thought as she witnesses the chariot smoothly avoided a tree in the way before continuing on, taking Wu far out of her line of sight.

Getting him out of here was the first part of the equation, and the second part would be for her to create as big of a distraction as possible. Despite the fact that she does not have many offensive Casts in her arsenal at all, she does have enough tricks and weird little Casts that should draw enough attention.

"Brightening: Set. Store." Preparing her flashbang and concentrated balls of Wave energy once again, she ran off in the other direction while the sun slowly set overhead.

It had been a long day for those living in Sonne, but at last, the night had slowly crept its way towards the city.

Then, after she ran for a minute, she turned her wrist and sent the stored up ball of Wave energy into the sides of a tree that she has just run past, setting off a massive explosion that echoed through the entire forest before the skyscraping plant toppled and crashed in the forest.

A massive mushroom cloud of dust rose through the air, drawing the attention of all those vaguely in her proximity.

Loud howling whistles and horns are blown in response to this occurrence, and through the use of her Scouting Eyes, she noticed the movements of the troops slowly starting to change.

Yes......that's right.....Keep all of your eyes on me! Lera thought, running even faster before conjuring up more and more balls of Wave energy and releasing it at the trees in front of her, blasting her way through the forest.

That was when she heard the hissing sounds of chariots approaching her. With a sharp turn, she tried to hide into the woods as those soldiers upon the chariots tried to shine their light into the bushes.

With the sun setting, the visibility declined steadily within the forest, and the soldiers have switched to listening in to the cracking of the dried leaves and crunching of the branches as Lera ran. Then, a sharp-eyed soldier spotted the Light Cast used by Lera to navigate and watch where she's going far out in the distance.

"Blow it! Blow it!" The soldier said before his partner blew the horn and alerted all units nearby to converge on their location.

"We have spotted one of the fugitives in the dark, but we don't know if the other is with him!" The soldiers shouted as the rest of the chariots joined him, "Or if it's the girl as described!"

"She's already surrounded." The captain said as a ring of Chariots approached from all directions and soldiers on foot slowly and presses the perimeters inward, trapping Lera.

"HOLD!" As Lera made a sharp turn around a tree, a loud voice cracked through the ambient forest sounds and stopped her dead in her tracks, "SURRENDER NOW!"

"FLASH!" Lera shouted, activating her flashbang and setting off the Brightening cast that she's been holding onto all this time. The leading soldiers grunted in pain before those in the second line leaped forward and pressed her down onto the ground, their boots slamming into her back.

The captain's chariot descended through the air, and the man in full metallic armor stepped out while the soldiers moved to the side and brought Lera right to him.

The chiseled man glanced at her before squatting down to her eye levels.

"Did you forget who you really serve, and who attacked the kingdom today?!" Lera asked, "Are you happy with being manipulated like......"

WACK.

With a backhand, the metal piece on the captain's wrist nailed into Lera's face as she bled from her mouth.

"Where is the other one?" The Captain asked, his eyes looking straight into the souls of Lera.

"He is out." Lera smiled before the captain kicked her in the stomach and made her nearly vomit, struggling for breath.

"Expand the perimeter!" He said when suddenly, a loud horn was blown from the other end of the Forest. His eyes widened before turning to look back at Lera with so much rage that his face practically transformed into that of a devil, "FIND THAT GUY! EVERYBODY MOVE! SHE IS JUST A DECOY!"

"YES SIR!"

With the countless soldiers sprinting away and the chariots roaring up into the air in the other direction, Lera's left all alone with a pair of guards. One of them looked too overweight to fit into one of the chariots, let alone move around freely The other was tall and skinny, and he set up a circle of light Casts on the trees around them.

"Uncle didn't say we have to keep her in one piece, right......?" The fat ugly guard said, and the tall guard let out a sigh without turning back.

"All we need to keep the King alive is the one that she summoned." The tall guard said, "Just.....don't make a mess."

"Ok~You might wanna go take a nice long leak then." The fat ugly guard lets out an excited chuckle as the tall guard walked away with a sigh and shaking head. He sat down on the ground in front of Lera and untied the ropes around her ankles, "Sorry......I am not like my uncle. I know how to appreciate a woman of your caliber."

Reaching out with his greasy hand, he touched the bruised cheeks of Lera as she winced in pain.

Then, for the next five minutes, he simply looked at Lera with her face held in his big chubby hands.

"I don't really know what's happening, but I know that you have been a naughty naughty girl." He said, finally drawing his eyes back from the rest of Lera's slim waists and slightly curved figure.

"No......" Lera shook her face and tried to free herself from his grip when he instead leaped up into the air and pressed her down, "If you touch me, I WILL KILL YOU!"

"I have heard those words before," He laughed, "The more you struggle, the better this will be."

Then, as he reached his hand towards her shirt, one of the lights around was flickered off.

"Huh?" He looked around with confusion before the shadows around him grew greater as another Light cast was turned off.

Now left with four sources of light around him, a sense of fear crept up from the deepest part of himself. The surrounding forest was exceptionally quiet now, and all of the buried fears came crawling back out from his psyche. Was it the vengeful ghosts from his past? Or was it the hungry beasts in the forest?

A branch was crushed, letting out a clean tweaking sound as the fat ugly guard spun around and launched sets of poorly aimed blasts in that direction. However, he hit nothing but the other trees and sets of equipment left behind.

The next two lights dimmed at the same time, and a massive shadowy figure loomed behind him before it leaped up and nailed something right into the back of the fat ugly guard's head.

BONK!

The guard's eyes rolled up and his knees collapsed as his massive body fell forward onto the ground. His skull slammed into a piece of rock, and blood started streaming onto the ground.

"Yeah! Get dunked on, you fat ugly bastard." Wu said with a stainless steel protein shaker in his hand.

"Wu? Is that you?!" With tears held up in her eyes, Lera tried to see the one that just rescued her as he squatted down and wrestled loose the ropes that were tied around her wrists, "What are you doing back here. I thought you made it out!"

"Well, technically, no one's on my tail now." Wu shrugged before he finally noticed the bruise on Lera's face. Reaching out with his hand, he hovered his fingers above the bruise before he ground his teeth together, "Lera......"

"I...I am okay." Lera forced a smile and wiped away her tear, "I am supposed to be your guardian, yet you are the one to save me here."

With a sigh, Wu reached a hand towards Lera, helping her up before letting her go.

"Come on, let's get out of here." Wu said, "Then, we can talk."