On the other side Josh was chasing Hob not letting him interrupt Norde. Hob still continued sprinting from places to places.

Josh propelled another knife but this time, Hob suddenly stopped and waved his hands.

At the same time, A sneaking white renisas that was attached to Norde’s shoes suddenly activated and the machine inside suddenly worked faster than was possible for them, releasing more blast of air outside. It broke the shoes and the mechanism inside but it is enough for Norde to sail right through a meter above Simon and crushing to a huge stone pot with a dwarf tree inside it few meters behind Simon..

Hob, who had stopped moving to control his renisas had a knife coming towards his chest, but before it could hit him, the shirt he was wearing suddenly shaked so fast, fueled by the renisas he injected to it. The knife could only lodge a few centimeters till it was bounced off.

Josh didn’t know if he would be relieved or regret that the knife bounced off. In the first place, his throwing output with renisas dagger might be higher than others due to his partial ability related to daggers, but it was still not enough to lodge through a body, at most what it could do was make a flesh wound. Josh also didn’t have the intention of killing Hob so his attacks were only for distractions. Which he did not accomplish seeing as Norde’s plan was interrupted.

Hob, on the other hand, might not have the intention to kill the two young men, but he was not shy to use force. While Josh was distracted by Norde’s commotion on the other side, Hob took another ten marbles and then threw it towards Josh, speeding it up.

The marbles hit Josh mostly to his torso and the force made him slammed backwards towards the floor. He rowed through things and stopped two meters away, coughing off the food he’d eaten for breakfast an hour ago.

Norde was unharmed despite the crash but the fur that he had summoned had now vanished from the impact.

He activated his renisas again and two white spears made of fur grew from both of his hands. The spear had a pointed head sharpened to a point. He pounced towards Simon who was a few meters from him and thrust his spear expertly. He double swiped the two spear from two sides, but Simon swiftly leaned his upper body away, forming almost a right angle.

Norde turned his hand in a circle making the spear rotate in a curve downwards towards Simon’s lower extremities. Simon did a backflip, his feet kicking Norde’s face on the way. The spear hit the floor and Norde’s face dodge instinctively the coming foot but Simon’s foot was faster, still hitting him on the side of his cheek.

He stumbled backwards from the kick but he immediately righted himself. He lunged again trying to do a double long thrust, but Simon was already upright, a gray renisas sword already formed in his hand.

Simon met his thrust by swiping his sword upward, diagonally. The moment the two renisas weapons met, Norde’s spear that was made of fur broke apart like a glass, while Simon’s stay intact.

“Hob —” Simon abruptly said. Before he could finished his sentence, 10 white balls sailed and hit Norde. Norde was blown away by the force, slamming him to the statue behind him.

Norde could feel pain all over his body where those marbles hit him. He tried standing up, but he fell back down, his feet wobbly from some of the marble’s impact. He looked at Simon and now he had ten balls revolving around him. He looked at Josh who was supposed to face Hob but he was on the ground like him, with Hob standing and controlling the marbles around Simon.

He knew he could not defeat Simon at all. Even Simon alone was hard enough. But with Hob and his marbles, he had no chance.

Norde looked at his right and he realized he was near the sphere barrier and he thought of an idea. He willed his renisas to create new fur and a half sphere of spikes formed around him. He then ran towards the barrier thinking his renisas could at least enter but when the spike ball he made touched the barrier, it only bounced him off.

He backed off and did it again, doubling the thickness of the ball by adding more renisas but the barrier stood there unaffected.

Josh who was watching Norde. shakily willed the some of the remaining renisas of him into dozens of daggers but this time, it was bigger and more sharper. He added more renisas to his control so that it would have greater throwing force. He threw it at the same time Norde did his third attempt of slamming to it, at the same area that Norde was slamming but the barrier did not even have any reactions.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Simon looked at the foolish moves the young men were doing and sigh. “Have you been listening? There’s no use. No matter how much renisas you consume, it won’t pass the sphere. Only Pretty’s renisas can work inside. But fortunately, our Pretty here is generous enough to spend all of her renisas on the Summit. There’s nothing you can do.”

Pretty, who had been focusing on the things happening around her rather in the pain, heard what Simon said. She realized that that must be the reason he let her run around the Summit. Simon might not have expected that she could do more abilities that could help her evade them, but he must be secretly delighted she was consuming her renisas out.

Pretty then looked at the sixth renisas vine wiggling in front of her. It looked like a snake trying to bite its prey. It lunged at her right arm and she felt another bout of pain when it latched on her. It tried to fully clamp itself to her but the it dislodged again, unsuccessful in fully latching on her. It tried again for two more times and she could only endure the pain. Then finally, it latched on her.

She could distinctly feel every renisas vines latching on her. It was as if they were trying to suck her, she felt stretched as if she was about to burst. Then the seventh vine lunged at her and latched on her on its second try.

Pretty gradually lost her sensations, the pain was fading and the sounds of Jake and Josh’s voices gradually faded. The light in front of her dim and she knows this was the last moment of her life.

They said that when you’re about to die, your life will flashed in front of you. But nothing was flashing to her.

Was it because she did not have a life to flash for? Were there even things worthy for her last seconds of life?

She had spent most of her life trying to hide away. When she was a kid, kids didn't want to play with her because she was hideous. She just stared at them playing from afar and when they found her looking and if they were bored enough, they would make her their playmate. It was not fun for her, because she was never naive enough not to realize that she was not their playmate but their play toy. So she hid better.

When she was ten she had her first ability, the ability to hide. She was happy because not everyone could have an ability. She felt she was special, that the world was trying to balance things out by making her talented. But she realized later on, that maybe the world just wanted her to hide, away from the sights of everyone.

She then lived her life trying to satisfy those who believed in her even if they used her. But it never brought her any satisfaction. She was even more not naive to believe they wanted her for who she was. Without her ability she was nothing to them. But she still continued, because she did not know what else to do.

She was also content seeing people’s lives go on while she hid away from their sights. She had no story to live, she did not fit in this world with her hideous looks, but she loved to live the life of others through the videos on the screen, the words on a book and the way they lived their lives in public. She loved to watch normal people in movies and books live their life like she never did. She felt her empty heart at least filled.

So she dreamed of a simple life hoping there was hope for her in the future. She couldn’t follow her dreams anyway. She wanted to be a filmmaker, to weave stories that gives hope, comfort and a fitting ending to someone's life. But she knew that was impossible for her. The Summit would never let her. She was realistic enough to know she had no future in the spotlight, working with normal people, and trying to live like a normal person.

But it could not have been bad just to live in a simple house somewhere with less people, where she did not have to hide. Where she could read her books and watch movies. She could spend her life like that. It’s not a bad dream. It was enough for her.

She continued working at the Summit for her dreams. She spent most of her time doing work, thinking this was for her future. Maybe when she had the money and the resources, she, with her father and Celine, could run away from the Summit.

So she even worked harder so she could achieve her dreams soon. One by one, her plans started to take shape. She found a secluded place far away from the reach of the Summit and she started building her house there. Little by little it took shape but she needed more money. So she worked more.

The more her safe place took shape the more she wanted to spend less time in the Summit. She wanted to go on missions that would take her away from there. Even if she has to spend weeks or months staying in secluded facilities, prisons, private institutions and safe houses on random islands just to get information that the Summit wanted. She would, as long as she didn’t stay at the Summit.

Her job may be taxing but she just has to endure it. She thought she was just taking information, surveiling something and finding secrets others have, so that the Summit could use it to help those who need it. Even if she felt bad doing it, she thought it was for the best. The information she took was for the betterment of some people, information that the world has to know.

Until she regretted it later. She was indeed all along naive enough, so naive that she did not realize the repercussion of what she did. She thought she was just saving money till she quit the organization, to live a peaceful life somewhere, doing their missions and infiltration. But it was more than that.

She realized it the hard way, when she was crawling on the corpse of a thousand people who died because of her.

So she felt she deserved this. In her last moment, the only thing that should have flashed in her eyes was those corpses that died because of her and all of those unknown lives she didn't even know she had a hand on their end.

She also wanted to see her father’s and Celine’s face once again.

Her only regret in this life was that she did not end Simon’s life with her.

But nothing flashed to Pretty. Her sights just faded and she felt something. Like a finality, a peace, or an end. She felt nothing but at the same time, she felt everything. She realized that this was the end of her life and she welcomed it.