- Stacy -

I locked eyes with the white knight. He stared at me from across the field that separated the forest from the town, killing intent plainly visible in his eyes.

A smile crept onto my face. I see, so peace was truly never an option.

The white knight dashed across the field, clearing the several meters between him and the forest in an instant. He swiped his sword upward, emitting a crescent of light that rushed towards us.

I grabbed Bridget and jumped out of the way into a nearby tree, setting her down on one of the branches. I I didn’t want him grabbing her and running away after all.

I wrapped myself in shadows and jumped from tree to tree. The knight’s eyes followed me all the while. I activated mist form, but still he could track me.

Shadow Meld had one fatal flaw. If someone knew exactly where to look, then they could see me. But as soon as I moved from my original location, I should have been as good as invisible. Still, there were times when a particularly perceptive opponent could see through it by locking their eyes onto me and never blinking. That’s what my mist form was for though. If their eyes had nothing to focus on, then they couldn’t follow me.

But somehow, this man could. I had tested him all morning. No matter how I tried to hide, he could always detect me. Rather than ordinary vision, it must be the ability to detect aura or soul or something similar. Either way, I had no way to deal with it.

So let’s see how you deal with this. I charged at him, still cloaked in shadows, my body a cloud of mist.

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He looked side to side as I approached, bewildered. I was right, he could sense me, but he couldn’t see me.

He swung his sword at me as I passed, but the light passed right through my immaterial body. I appeared behind him, preparing to rip out his heart. My fingers dug into his armor, twisting it punching a hole through it. But before I could reach his flesh, he twisted around, stepping backwards and bringing his sword down, forcing me to retreat back to the mists.

Leslie watched intently from the edge of the forest. She was probably not eager to get involved in the murder of a citizen of Lumedia.

I charged again, but this time instead of standing his ground he leapt back and out of the way. He gritted his teeth in frustration, glancing between me and Bridget who was watching from the branch of a tree where I had placed her.

“You can’t have her,” I whispered into the air. “She’s mine.”

An amusing despaired expression flashed across his face before he regained his composure, pointing his sword out in front of him.

“Foul vampire, show yourself!”

I laughed at his foolishness. But how would I get close enough to end this? I wonder… I’d never had to try this before because shadow mist had always been good enough. I spread my mist body out thinly across the air, slowly encircling him.

I wondered how it looked from his end. Spreading out my mist body also seemed to spread out my essence, or whatever he was seeing, as he frantically looked around. Everywhere he looked, I was there. I was in every direction. There was no route for him to escape.

I was about to drill down into him, when I saw something else watching our fight in the distance. The knight saw it too.

- Bridget -

The fight was completely one-sided. Unlike the previous battle, I didn’t feel that Stacy was in danger at all. It was a little difficult to follow though with Stacy constantly appearing and disappearing.

Stacy said she would kill him, and I didn’t doubt it. Honestly, I didn’t really care much whether he lived or died. He was an annoying stranger, and strangers died all the time. But when I thought that the reason he would die would be because of me, it didn’t sit right with me. Nobody should have to die for my sake.

So I called out to her. “Stacy, wait.”

The silhouette of Stacy manifested beside me on the branch. I leaned over, and whispered my plan into her ear.