A girl ran through a forest shrouded in a deep fog. She was a young swordsman with long blue hair flowing behind her as she moved. Above her hempen clothing, she wore light iron armor and an iron forehead protector. The sword in her right hand, though somewhat small, was sturdily made.

"Haa...haa...haa..."

The girl had been injured. Her hempen clothes were ripped all over, exposing sharp cuts on her skin. Her iron armor was heavily damaged, and both of her hands had burn marks. In addition, blood spilled down her body and stained her shoes a deep red. They were wounds that would have taken out an ordinary woman.

The girl's name was Kathleen Ailis, and she is 16 years old.

Kathleen looked back over her shoulder while she ran. The fog and the thick leaves obstructed the light and made the center of the forest dark. But looking towards the thick, dark fog, she could see the faint silhouettes of humans.

They had been following Kathleen. They closed the distance to within twenty meters of her.

This is bad.

The moment she thought that, a voice echoed through the forest.

"There!" the shout came from a woman, her voice like a soft, high-pitched baby bird.

"Shit!"

At the same time as she heard her speak, a blade sprung out from under Kathleen's feet, and some arrows flew just past her, missing her face by an inch. Though it was about three meters of white steel, it suddenly sprouted out from the plain ground. The tip was aimed precisely at her heart.

Kathleen swung the sword she was holding in a reverse grip, and the quartz adorning the pommel of her sword just barely managed to block the tip of the attacking blade. Kathleen's body was flung backward from the recoil, and the attacking sword shattered into pieces.

Tumbling backward, she thrust her sword into the ground, then lifted her body and jumped using just the power of her arms. The next instant, three blades sprung up from the ground to attack. Their tips only grazed her body.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"Did I get you?" her female pursuer asked.

"How optimistic. You'll have to be stealthier than that if you want to finish me off," Kathleen replied as she landed on the ground and immediately resumed her escape. Her pursuer's figure faded into the fog to the point where she could no longer see her.

"Try harder! Do you think you can catch me like that?"

"You're so stubborn," the girl shouted as she continued her pursuit.

As she ran, Kathleen applied pressure to her right arm. Truthfully, she hadn't been able to completely repel all of her attacks before. And now her upper arm was torn open with blood dripping down. So, acting like she was composed and calm was just her bluffing to the best of her ability to hide her injury.

Kathleen asked herself, "How the heck did I get into this mess?"

As far as she remembered, everything was fine. She was living a very happy life in the village with her friends. And all of a sudden, she was pursued by a psychopath girl and her army who wanted to kill her for a crime she didn't even commit.

"You still haven't given up?" shouted the voice of her pursuer from behind her.

Kathleen was desperately running from both her and the swords rushing upwards in attack beneath her feet. But all the blood loss was causing her vision to blur. Her fingertips were growing numb, and her legs were tripping up under herself. However, that didn't mean she stopped running. If her pursuer caught up with her, she'd be killed.

Why is this happening? Kathleen thought again.

Suddenly, Kathleen heard a strange voice from above. It was a male voice. She looked up and saw a man coming down from the tree, and then, out of sheer bad luck, Kathleen's legs gave out because of the blood loss.

"Please don't kill me," were her last words as she collapsed. Her pursuers caught up with her. Kathleen thought to herself, *Am I going to die now after putting in this much effort?*

The strange man who jumped from the tree stood there with a puzzled look on his face. And then he spoke for the first time.

"Who are you? And why do they want to kill you? Are you a criminal?"

Kathleen gathered her last breath and just managed to say one thing.

"NO."

And she lost consciousness.

"....."

"....."

"What happened? Where am I? Am I dead?"

Kathleen slowly started to regain her senses.

"It hurts a lot," she thought. Because of the attacks, Kathleen's whole body was in pain. As her senses started coming back to her, she started hearing the crackling of the fire near her. Then she finally noticed the man sitting next to the fireplace.

"...."

"Who are you? And what happened to the woman and the soldiers?" Kathleen asked in a very low voice.

*To Be Continued.*

---