Her body was losing blood by the second.
"Fuck!" Adrenaline pumped through her veins, her heartbeat at maximum speed. The pain had not yet settled in, but her body was already becoming numb.
"Stella!" The Knight quickly ran towards her, then gently laid her on the ground. He was about to take the weapon out, but-
"Woah!" He caught another blade flying towards them with one hand. Someone really was out to kill her, as if she needed the confirmation.
Lien approached her with transparent concern. "What happened?! You're bleeding!"
The guard stepped away from the girls. What was he doing?!
"You two! Close your eyes, now!" He ordered.
Stella didn't understand but quickly obliged, clenching her teeth in pain. She hoped Lien would get the memo.
His battle cry reverberated with anger and desperation. "BLINDING HALO!" The girl could feel the heat clashing against her eyelids, alongside a few light drops seeping through them. Nevertheless, her eyes were unharmed.
A few seconds later, he was back to tending her wound. "Alright, remember when I healed your leg?"
Stella nodded.
"It'll be just like that, only a bit more painful. But you're a strong girl, so I know you can handle it!"
The pain worsened. "Please, man! Just do it!"
She immediately regretted hastening the hero. Yanking the weapon out gave birth to a period of such prolonged agony she couldn't hold her cries anymore.
The girl was blacking out over and over. She saw Asra charging his hands with golden Saniya while Lien... stood there, chest expanding and retracting with heavy breathing.
Stella weakly extended her hand towards the panicking Wolf, welcoming her warm touch. However, she retracted it when she noticed the pup's gritted teeth. She wasn't panicking.
White whisps flashed into existence around her arms, head, and legs until her whole body was coated by a thin energy layer. Her fur bristled, just like when she had consumed the pego jam.
Lien's weak growl became audible enough to break the hero's concentration. "Lien?! What's going on?"
Her voice was strained, carrying more bloodlust than the Human ever expected from her. "H-How dare they... How could they do this..."
Crystal-clear tears started to fall from each girl's eyes.
The Knight attempts to calm Lien down while healing Stella. "Don't do anything reck-"
"NOBODY HURTS MY PACKMATE!!!" Stella saw a glimpse of her silver eyes coated with wrath.
The Wolf dashed into the woods! Uncharacteristically deaf to Asra's pleas. He shouted her name a couple times before realizing how pointless it was. Then, the hero resumed the healing process.
"I-I'm so sorry, Stella! I'll make it quick, I promise!"
The golden energy turned into pure light. The girl had to close her eyes, even though it scared her profusely. What if this assassin shoved another dagger at her throat. The thought of dying without seeing Lien one last time terrified her.
"Come back... Lien... Please..." But her voice was too weak for even Asra to hear. Or maybe he didn't care.
She deserved it either way.
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Lien:
"You can't hide from me!"
Three Saniya signatures. Three targets.
From tree to tree, Lien hunted her next prey. But this time, it had a unique flavor for her. Rather than food, she hunted for retribution.
She smelled the blood oozing out of her friend's body, similar to when she had passed out from the effects of the pego jam. Stella's weak voice, calling her name and begging her to stay right before the pup entered the woods, had a strange effect on the pup. Lien was conflicted between making those three pay or staying with the Human to comfort her.
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Did she make the wrong choice? It was too late to reconsider. She was so close!
Sensing the first presence a few meters away, the Wolf assumed they were standing on a branch. She took a leap of faith, and to her luck, her hunch proved correct.
"一時停止の標識に従ってください！"
Bingo!
The blind huntress tackled her prey to the hard trunk, then wrapped her paw around their face. They were covered in fur like her, and she had a clear advantage in size. She couldn't identify their species, but it didn't matter. They would all pay, regardless.
She bashed their head against the wood! Again! And again! Until it stopped shouting at her. After waiting a few seconds, the pup accepted that they were already unconscious. She threw the assailant out of the branch. How safely they landed was not her business.
One down. Two left.
The Knight's Blinding Halo was undoubtedly the motive for why the Monoke fell so fast. Their Saniya was no joke, so they should've put up more of a fight. This was the first time Lien was relieved for having an easy hunt.
Nonetheless, the universe wasn't that merciful. As she approached the second assassin, a wave of Saniya was thrown at her. She bent backward to dodge the air spell, identified by the unusually intense wind blowing on her mane.
The sound of a metallic weapon sheathing -or unsheathing- made the huntress hesitate. She didn't know which of the three had struck her friend, but that one was her main suspect.
"優秀な農家は最小のジャガイモを収穫しません。"
Whatever that meant, she would take it as an insult.
Lien pounced on her prey, only to be met by another wind attack. She held her own against the mighty gust, but it wasn't enough. The pup plummeted to an unfriendly meeting with the earth.
Or had she?
Lien gathered as much air as her lungs could contain and propelled herself into the air with her super breath! She had angled the attack in the right direction to go straight to her prey.
It worked! Sort of. The branch was broken, but the assassin's Saniya had distanced from her. Damnit!
Sensing the signature descending to ground level, Lien followed suit. She descended using her claws, traveling fast yet safely downward.
"Didn't run, huh?" An excited smirk formed on her lips. The reason she was after them in the first place was becoming secondary. "I can't wait to take you on!"
However, her anger still lingered in her actions.
"If you were the one who made my friend bleed..." A surge of energy coursed through her muscles. "Don't come apologizing after I return the favor!"
Lien's speed was impressive, but now, it surprised even her. She got into close combat with the sword wielder and struck a series of slashing blows at them. Unfortunately, they were fast enough to deflect her combo with their steel.
"ミツバチは何度も刺すことができますが、最終的には必ず死にます。"
"Why you!" She joined her two hands for a double-palm strike. It appeared to be effective, pushing the assassin a couple meters.
"あなたの毒は抜かれました。"
Her focus on him was broken by another presence.
She had to-
Thin yet durable vines coiled around her arms and legs. Her wrists and ankles stung with their overwhelming pressure, making her whimper.
She was trapped. Again!
"Thret not, dear! Resistance is Thutile!"
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The Silver Knight:
The wound has closed.
Asra's heart was hammering through the whole process. That affected the effectiveness of his Healing Light.
Lien's recklessness didn't help his stress, as one could imagine. Since he had already finished patching up Stella, who was resting next to Locci, the hero could rescue the foolish pup.
Or so he thought.
A Weasel silently awaited him to finish his business. He had an indifferent posture with a scythe hanging over his shoulder.
"I assume you're responsible for her state." He wasn't in the mood for his usual heroic shenanigans.
"フライドチキンが食べたいなら、小屋で大虐殺をしなければなりません。"
Learning Japanese and the Weasel dialect was complicated, but the hero's efforts paid off most unexpectedly. The assassin wanted to kill her. He didn't appear connected to the Baku and the other two. Was he a Tizohi's Chosen?
He kept these questions on the sidelines as the ninja created a horizontal air slash by swinging his scythe. It was directed at Stella.
Asra raised his Saniya barrier, stopping the projectile in its tracks, but not before it made a deep cut into the spell. This guy was trouble.
The Weasel swung his weapon again, serving as the opening for The Knight to deactivate the shield and approach him with Lightspeed. He clenched the scythe's hilt with his two hands, canceling the attack.
Before the hero could yank the weapon from the Weasel's paws, the latter created a devastating burst of wind! The hero was almost led astray by it. Fortunately, he gritted his teeth, planted his feet, and swung the ninja at 360° multiple times until he created a mini-tornado himself. Eventually, the fluffy assassin was launched into the air! Before he could recover, the Knight jumped with the assistance of his Lightspeed and sent his opponent back with a double-axe handle!
Launching his scythe as far as he could, the guard checked on the assassin, and what he saw was frustrating. He had gone too rough on him, and now he was unconscious. That meant no answers from him for a few hours.
"Knight?" Stella slowly stepped closer to him, clutching her stomach. How was she recovering so fast? "Where's Lien?"
"I don't know. I was hoping this assassin would tell me, but now-"
"Aw, don't you worry, dearie! I can aid you!"
A woman slowly came from the dark woods. No, not a Human woman.
Wearing a beige kimono with red flower patterns, the Monoke was pale. Not fair-skinned, but cadaverously white with sickly green veins on plain sight, spread to her hands, spreading up to her neck, her cheeks, and ceasing at her temples.
It appeared that the creature had no muscle mass of her own, adopting the appearance of a skeleton in a skin bodysuit. Her face was where one could undoubtedly differentiate her from a Human with her bulged eyes, lack of lips, and only two tiny nostrils amidst the flat surface where a nose should be.
She was a Yūrei. Asra had never seen one of her kind before. However, he had read an extensive book about the numerous Monoke species countless times before he started his heroic escapades.
Horrifying appearance aside, the main point of interest in that particular Yūrei was her hair, which cascaded up to her ankles. Black as coal, her strands waved in abnormal ways as if they had a life of their own. A few of them were coiled around something.
Or someone.
Stella screamed. "LIEN!!!"