As quietly as I can I sneak around the building. It hasn’t been that long since I was locked up, so there might be a chance they haven’t reached Orb, I need to go find him quickly.
Seeing guards walk by I hide myself and wait for them to pass then I quickly sneak away; my stealth is still as amazing as ever. As I continue down the building, I see a door labelled; Armory.
So I open it and walk in, after looking around for a moment I see my bow is just placed down on the floor to the side. Picking it up, I say, “How dare they do this to my baby!”
“Don’t worry, I will discipline the idiots who just left it there later.” That was Naji’s voice!
Turning around I immediately shoot arrows, but the old man behind me easily deflects them, then says while striking me in the stomach, “Attacking an old man, is quite heartless.”
His attack is so powerful that I fly through the wall of the room and end up in a hallway. Recoiling from the blow, I get up and start shooting arrows while saying, “Hitting the image of perfection is rather heartless as well.”
Naji dodges all my arrows while manoeuvring his way towards me, and while he is in front of me, he attacks me with the back of his right heel and says, “Perfection, don’t make me laugh, you’re too skinny.”
Barely moving back in time, I shoot a scattershot of arrows in front of myself and say, “I have the perfect mixture of fat and muscle!”
Dodging backwards, he says, “A girl has the perfect level of fat when it inhibits her ability to run, idiot.”
“Looks like you are miss guided idiot,” I say shooting a volley of curving arrows.
Naji dodges my arrows, but then as they curve around to hit him a fire another set to attack him from both sides. Naji immediately lifts his left foot then with his whole body he starts to jump around and manoeuvre as if he is rotating his body. Then as my arrows come close, they rotate around his body following his foot, until he sends all the arrows right back at me, except as they approach me they spin.
Sending spirit energy into the front of my body, I take all the arrows right into my front which causes me to bleed a bit. Turning my bow into a sword I say, “Sounds like that is actually just your fetish, but since I am the perfect girl, I accept all your oddities.”
“How nice of you,” Naji says lunging at me.
Meeting him halfway, I swing my sword towards him, but with his one arm he easily deflects the blow, then with his other arm, he punches towards my face.
Suddenly, through the floor a giant spike of ice breaks through and appears between us, then moments later I see Orb and Anto appear from that hole, and the moment he does he creates a wave of snow directly at the man.
Seeing me, Anto says, “Atalanta!!”
But instead of responding, I run over to Orb. Panicked I grab him and ask, “What happened, you’re clothes are drenched in blood?”
“It is nothing major, and all the wounds I have taken have already healed.”
“But, But, but.”
Orb head butts me in the chin, then says, “You’re not my mom, so stop treating me like a kid.”
Grabbing my chin in pain, I say, “This here, is why I will never be a mother.”
Under his breath, Orb mumbles, “With your behaviour I doubt that.”
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean!?”
“Do you really think you should be asking questions here!!? I have about 200 questions to ask you about your strange behaviour here.”
Turning away, I say, “A woman needs to have some secrets.”
“NOT WHEN THEY GET A COUNTRY'S MILITARY AFTER US, YOU IDIOT!”
Saddened by his words, I say, “DON’T YELL AT ME!”
Suddenly the ice breaks behind us and from it, the old man runs towards us. Throwing Anto at me, Orb says, “Go find Cyrus, I will meet up with you guys soon.”
“Orb you can’t take this guy on your own.”
“Don’t worry about me, and if things get bleak I will run.”
Before I can say anything else the old man axe kicks Orb, but with both his arms up, he takes the blow. “Atalanta, just go!!”
Stolen novel; please report.
With Anto on my back, I start to run away. “Anto where is Cyrus?”
“Atalanta, could we actually head somewhere else first, there is something we need to do.”
Φ Snowboosting towards the old man, I attack him with my claw but he is able to grab my body and throw me into a wall on the right. He is around the size of Anto, he shouldn’t be able to throw me like that.
“You’re rather fast boy, it makes it hard to keep up with you.”
“I am more than just my speed.” With my legacy I create ice spikes that break the floor we're standing on, making us fall towards the hallway below us.”
As he falls I snowboost to attack him me air, but he redirects me midair, and I crash into the floor. “You have to try a bit harder than that.”
On the floor I create a bunch of snow across it; I will restrict his movements and then crush him.
As the old man lands on the snow, he immediately starts to spin and flip from wall to wall towards me, then he jumps down to the snow, but before I can freeze it all the snow starts to rotate all around his left leg.
I try to turn my ice into snow, but it is rotating so fast that the ice break and returns to snow almost immediately. Seeing him about to hit me I jump back and create a shield of ice, but he kicks into it, and I am hit by all the rotating snow and the full force of his kick, which sends me flying down the hallway.
Recoiling from the blow, I say as he walks towards me, “Rotational energy, it is the only way you could do such things.”
Stopping, the man says, “You’re spot on. I spent quite a few years studying the Almiraj fighting style, and eventually, I figured out how to build up a certain amount of rotational energy and apply that to my body.” Jumping up and down, the old man says, “Mastering this fighting style has allowed me to exert power that my physical condition wouldn’t allow.”
Without hesitation, I release another wave of ice at the old man, but he lunges at me and dodges all of the ice, but as he moves my shattered ice starts to rotate around him.
“The more I rotate the more the energy builds up, and anything in my path is caught by this energy.”
As he is about to reach me, I create and giant ice wall blocking his path. “The rotational energy passes through anything, and hits you all the way down to your soul,” Immediately after he says this, he hits my ice walls which break it into pieces and moments later a feel a force pass through my entire body sending me down the hallway.
On my hands and knees, I start coughing up blood as the man walks towards me. “Give up, because if I hit you enough, I might shred your organs.”
Looking up, I say, “Not a chance in hell!”
Suddenly the old man stops in his tracks and says, “That mark!”
On the floor I look at my reflection in a piece of ice; my soul mark is appearing in my right eye, did his blow stir my soul?
The old man suddenly starts laughing and says, “Well god really is here for us, get up young man you will not fall today.”
Standing up, I say, “What are you going to let me go?”
Getting into a fighting stance, the old man says, “Not a chance, since you won’t be leaving my sight until you’re stronger than me.”
Doing the same, I say, “That was my plan.”
-Break-
Φ Using my bow, I shoot a horde of soldiers throughout their bodies, while Anto says, “That’s about everything.”
“And here I thought Orb came to rescue me, but in actuality, he came to start a war over some little girl he barely knows, still Anto I don’t understand why we are heading for the location of the apple other than Cyrus?”
As I fight through more soldiers with my sword, Anto says, “Orb said that at worst we would have to forcefully knock Ahmed out, but if we find and destroy the apples Ahmed will go to sleep without having to fight. Orb is already exhausted, I want to end this as bloodless as possible.”
“How adorable.”
With my fist, I strike the last soldier's face sending him down on his ass. Then while he is on the floor I hold him down, and Anto says, “Where is the location of Ahmed’s apples?”
“No way I will ever tell you!!”
The moment the man says this Anto strikes him with a dagger and says, “Now where are the apples?”
“Down the hall to the left.”
Punching the man in the face again, I say, “Thank you for your service.”
Following his instructions, I enter a large room with countless pieces of glass allowing moonlight to shine, and throughout the room are countless little plots of golden apples.
“Looks like we are here, but destroying every single one of these is going to be a giant pain in the ass.”
“No complaining let’s just get on with it.”
“You’re no fun.” Shooting an arrow at the plots of apples right in front of me, I see a man appear and catch my arrow before it hits.
“I knew we shouldn’t have trusted a single one of you intruders, my king's heart truly is too big. But know this invaders, I don’t have such kindness.”
In front of me, I see Ahmed's attendant, Adi. Giggling, I say, “Were you just waiting in the corner to make a cool entrance?”
Taking something out of his eye, Adi says, “Laugh while you can because soon you won’t.” Looking at him I notice Adi has two eye colours.
While I stand there in shock, he stretches out his hand and then activates his legacy on his right arm. Immediately I shoot at him, but then he puts up his right arm, and then a blue energy appears from his arm and completely blocks the arrows.
Looking at his arm, I see it is covered in light blue energy, the light blue energy has taken the shape of a large hand, it is so big that it drags on the floor beside him. “This is bad.”
Sinking the giant arm into the floor the man uses his arm to lunge himself over my head, so I shoot arrows at him in the air. But using his giant arm he waves them away, then crashes into the ground.
Moving back I was able to dodge the attack, but immediately after the man swing his arm at me trying to crush me. How the hell is he so fast with that giant arm, does it not have weight?
From my back, I start to hear sparks, and then moments later I see lightning shoot from my back directly at Adi. With his giant arm, he blocks the attack, and at that moment, I look behind me to see Anto has Easifatan daggers in his hand.
In front of us with a deep rage, Adi says, “How the hell did you get those!!” Then he charges at us.
Turning my bow into a sword, I clash with him head-on. As my sword is held up against his arm, I notice that my sword has made an incision, so I say, “Anger is a very unattractive trait for a grown man,” Then I slice through his hand and kick him in the stomach.
Sliding backwards, Adi immediately manifests more blue energy and reconstructs the giant arm.
“Looks like I didn’t hit any flesh, better try harder next time.”
With a boiling furry Adi says, “There won’t be a next time.”
“We will see about that.”