Chapter E6-2: Kruu Leaves EX

(Effinshia's POV)

I've got to admit, I've underestimated the opponents a little too much. Yes, they were handicapped, but their teamwork wasn't. Despite my assault, they endured well and even managed to push me back with intensity. Their movements... were very unnatural for people of their disposition. How does Gordiron know when to protect Artemyst and when to re-angle which direction Artemyst needed to shoot her arrows? How does Artemyst know when Gordiron was going between defensive mode and not?

Rather, how does the two communicate with each other? I haven't seen any ticks or actions that could indicate any instructions. They never spoke to each other, no nods, not even a tap on the shoulder or something. I couldn't figure out how they are able to relay precise instructions like that. Are they truly that in sync with each other?

*Shing!

I swung my sword at Gordiron with the sword skill ‘Full Force’ which Gordirons just blocked as usual with his body.

"Urk" the first grunt from the red-skinned demon could be heard as I penetrated through the barrier and landed a direct hit on his body. 

Gordiron responded in return by hardening his body. A red aura surrounded him and exploded outwards. I replied in turn and unleashed the energy within my sword Kirin.

*Boom!

A blast of energy wave pushed both of us away from each other. As soon as my momentum backwards stopped, I got in a ready position and cut down an arrow that came after me soon after. I then stayed in place and stared at them to analyse them.

That was it, the last arrow they had in that quiver. 

The two of them just stayed still and stared at me. Artemyst still holding her bow, but not bothering to nock anything on to it. Gordiron was just standing menacingly with his arms ready to strike. Drops of blood could be seen dripping from the wound I inflicted just a moment ago. This was pretty much my win now. They have nothing else they could use to strike me at a distance. Sure, Artemyst could use magic arrows to strike me but not being an elf means that it wouldn't be a viable thing to do in the long run. The affinity is just not there, it will not be as mana efficient.

I slowly inched closer to them with my sword drawn out in ready stance. The couple responded by backing away slowly. Artemyst let out a few warning shots with her bow using the spell magic arrows; creating magic arrows out of thin air to strike me, but I simply just cut the arrows down. Visible frustration could be seen on her face.

I sprinted into full speed and did another Full Force attack on them. Specifically aiming for Artemyst. I know for a fact that Gordiron is unable to fully block this attack as evidently seen earlier.

He probably noticed it and turn his back towards me, to protect the girl he was holding in his arms. I didn't stop and simply slashed his back.

"Arghhh," He screamed in pain.

Out of nowhere, red spikes appeared from his back and attempted to stab me, but I merely jumped back and make some distance between us.

"Fuuuu."

I let out a breath that I was holding and went back into a ready stance again, ready to strike them. As I was about to rush towards them once again, I heard a high pitched sound coming from above me. Looking above was a rain of arrows falling down upon my location. I immediately pumped mana and spun Kirin in a circular motion above me. Forming an umbrella of sorts, arrows that hit the sword were deflected away. The sword skill 'Umbrella Curtain'.

I let out a sigh. 

I didn't want to use this move. Kirin often gets grumpy when I do this and it was significantly less cool than actually cutting and deflecting individual arrows. The mana efficiency of this move wasn't that great as well.

I kept my eyes open on the pair of demons that were currently moving away from me. Artemyst was spending a lot of energy to keep up the arrow rain on me. I just stood still and kept up the Umbrella Curtain and watched their movement. Were they planning on escaping away?

My thoughts were denied as the arrow rain stopped and Gordiron and Artemyst stood at the cave entrance. Blocking the exit with their bodies.

What are they trying to pull off this time? Trying to trap me in here?

I stop pumping mana into Kirin and got into a ready stance. Ready to rush them down again.

"We haven't fought anyone this strong for quite a while now," A horse demonic voice rang out across the cave before I could advance. "You have our respect being able to push us both to this point. But this farce is over."

"..."

I just kept silent and stared down at them.

"We do not condone stealing from us and even if you were to escape here now, we shall chase you down to the ends of the earth for revenge. I swore this upon our pride," He said in a menacing tone.

Uuu, how scary. Acting like the tough guy now after all that. I let out a sigh and went out of ready stance and back into my natural stance. Making conversation in the middle of the fight is not really my style, but I might as well entertain them.

"You know. We are just here to grab a bunch of herbs. Is there a need to chase me to the ends of the world for that?" I said back to them.

"It is still stealing. It's a show of disrespect! We will bury you alongside the others who have come here before you!" Gordiron said towards me. Artemyst nodded in agreement with him and gave me a mean stare.

"People's lives are at stake, ya know? Aren't you guys being a little bit too petty here?"

"Says the warrior who intrudes on the homes of others and even willing to harm the owner of the house just for a bunch of herbs. Is the petty one not you?" He argued back to me.

It's no use. There is no discussing with these Ak'hims. There is just too large of a gap between our common sense. Do I finish them off? But what they say is also true. No matter how drastic of a reaction to intruders they have,  all they were doing was just protecting their homes. Is it alright for me to just eliminate them for that reason? I don't really want to spill unnecessary blood.

Non non non. I must also think of the consequence outside of this. They say they will chase me till the ends of the earth. Cezza will most likely get caught up in the middle of this. Technically, the kids are also involved in this mess too. Who is to say they won't aim for them as well?

"You know what? Let's settle this the right way. Warrior between warriors and we all leave with no hard feelings. Is that alright with you?" I asked the two.

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"Hooh, and how do you propose we do that?" a sharp beautiful voice of a woman was heard. A totally unmatching voice came out of Gordiron's mouth.

What the...?

...

I see... So that's how they are able to communicate seamlessly with each other. Die together in blood and transcended two parts whole huh. The myths have some truth to it after all.

"A duel," I said to them, hiding the confusion within myself. "Two tries, if I beat both of you and get out of this cave with those two tries, then you all won't chase me or the others that had or will step foot into this cave. You all will also not harm the villages nearby."

I gave them the terms and waited for their replies.

Their replies, however, were rather weird. It's not what I expected. All Gordiron did was laugh with a tone of arrogance while Artemyst just gave me a condescending look. It was as if what I said to them was nothing more than a joke.

"Despite being in this condition and looking like this, we are still gods! The Supreme of the land! You mock us with your words, but fine. If you could best us, the gods, then we will agree to your terms!" Gordiron said as he lets out another arrogant laugh.

That's pretty dumb. It's not like I think I will lose, but they simply accepted my terms without even giving their own terms on the matter. They are so confident that I won't win. I don't know where they get their confidence from, but it was to my advantage so I didn't say a thing. 

...

I guess there IS one thing I want to say to them.

"You guys are nothing like gods," I said bluntly. Aiming to rile them up for the upcoming clash. "Real gods are much scarier than handicaps like you, probably even scarier than the supremes who took your precious limbs," I said to them a disrespectful tone.

Both of them kept quiet—visibly angry at my provocation. For all their talk, they are pretty simple people. How were they ever demon lords when they took a bait that easy?

*Swooosh!

The unnatural feeling of wind blowing could be felt on my skin. Black and white coloured energy swirled around the area with the two demon lords as the focal point. The black and white mana converge onto the bow and before shaping itself as a magic arrow. They said nothing further, only looking at me in anger and dissatisfaction. The magic kept converging onto the magic arrow.

It looks like they are going to do some big magic trick. If that's the case then I might as well show them something big as well.

*Swoosh!

The air around me rattled as I proceeded to charge magic power onto my partner, my other self, Kirin. The one edge blade glowed bright blue. I then moved into position, ready to launch my big skill as well. I stood my ground and waited for them.

"..."

"..."

It took a while of staring down at each other, but the other party made their first move as they understood that I wasn't going to make the first move.

"ARTERMYST WRATH!" The overlapping voice of both Gordiron and Artemyst was heard as the Artemyst let out the magic arrow.

The magic arrow grew in size as it flew towards me. Black and white energy swirled around the arrow as it approached me with great force. The large arrow glazed the ground beneath it and the force of the wind attempted to blow me away.  It wasn't something you could dodge. Not in this cave at least—the arrow covered the entire pathway. It was a pretty strong move all things considered.

But... That's it? 

Aren't these two supposed to be demon lords at the minimum? The combined effort of two demon lord who became one is just this? That's actually quite disappointing. The laser beam thingy that the unknown figure did to me in A'bell was way more threatening. Unfazed by the skill 'Artemyst Wrath', I stabbed Kirin to the ground and launched at them a real skill. 

"Rikujou Wave!" 

I moved forward before proceeding to swing Kirin up vertically, unleashing several big waves of magic towards the couple. The magic assimilated with the ground below and a big great wave of earth was formed. The smaller waves assimilated with the ground also, making smaller dirt waves that travelled alongside the big wave. It was as if the ground turned into water, like the ocean near the beach. The massive ground wave surge forward and enveloped the arrow, shattering it to pieces, akin to glass breaking.

I didn't really wait for the result of the skill and started to run towards the cave entrance, gliding and surfing along the ground wave to get to my destination. The couple which was currently standing right at the entrance tried to stop me, but their effort was futile as before they could do anything they were slammed aside by a large tiger which soon transformed back into a hat. Torarias who had been sitting idle near the cave entrance since the very beginning where it was knocked out of my hands. I quickly grabbed the proud weapon and snapped it back onto my head while exiting the cave.

Both Artemyst and Gordiron got separated and each of them fell onto the ground away from each other. It wasn't long before they both get enveloped by the skill and got swallowed within the massive wave of earth. I stopped looking behind any further and proceeded to escape the area once I confirmed that the cave has been completely covered by the earth wave.

I didn't even need two tries.

...

Though, did I go overboard?  I don't think they will die from that. It's not like they got buried six feet under so it should be fine I guess. I just hope they actually kept to their part of the bargain. Ak’hims usually uphold their end of the deal right?

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I didn't realize that I had fought with the Ak'hims couple for that long. The sun had already fallen when I finally found the kids in the forest just relaxing by the campfire talking to each other while eating dinner. They must have decided to stay the night in the forest instead of going back to Cezza. Reasonable, considering it is already nighttime and the forest is not really safe for them to travel around in.

"Wow! Have I ever said that you are really good at cooking Scorch?" The young golden-haired woman named Lanarya said as she devours her meal. Some sort of porridge with meat strips in it.

"Re-really? You think so?" The slightly large build man responded shyly.

"Of course! I think you'll make a great chef!" She said excitedly.

The others just let out a chuckle as they see the banter between the two. They seemed pretty happy for a bunch of guys who just narrowly avoided death. 

Hmm... 

I've decided to be a little naughty and sneak upon them. I pass through the brushes as quiet as possible, the noise of their talking masked my movement. It was when I almost reached them that I heard my name in their talks.

"I wonder if Miss Effinshia is alright? We kinda just left her in that cave," Ride spoke with a tone of worry.

The others tried to say something, but I have already arrived and rested my hand over the shoulders of the kid.

"I like to think that she got out of there alive. She seems to know her stuff." I said in a sarcastically next to the kid.

"UWAHHH!" He immediately backed away and almost dropped his bowl in shock, surprised by my sudden appearance.

A quick look to the others and I could see that they were startled as well. I couldn't contain myself and let out a laugh. Man, this trick never gets old. 

"Miss Effinshia, You're alright!" Lanarya exclaimed.

"Yep. Told you guys I could do it" I said to them.

"I'm glad," She said as she let out a sigh of relief. She then looked worried again all of a sudden, "Miss Effinshia! Your right hand!"

Hmmn? I looked towards my right hand and saw blood dripping from a small cut on it. Did I got hit? This wound doesn't seem like a cut from an arrow. Looks like a cut from a sword...

Dammit Kirin. Is it because I twirled you around?

"It's fine, it'll heal in no time," I reassured Lanarya. "More importantly, you guys got my part of the herbs?"

"Ah yeah, we got it right here," Kranis said to me as he opens up a bag next to him.

He took out a bunch of leaves all neatly packed in such a way that it will not fall apart. I got to say, they gathered quite a lot of Kruu leaves. Kranis then took one such package and handed it to me. I checked out the package and confirmed that it is fact a bundle of Kruu leaves. Satisfied, I put the package neatly within the pouch on my back.

"Alright then, I'll see you guys around," I said to them as I started to leave the campfire area.

"Eh? You are just gonna leave like that?" Tyle asked me. The others looked at me with concern.

Understandable, as the forest at night is quite dangerous. For them at least. Though, it's not exactly me to travel around at night either. It's only because I got something more important to attend to.

"I'm chasing for time here, I need to get back to Cezza as soon as possible." I said to them before proceeding to leave the area.

"Wait!"

Before I could move very far, a loud voice came up behind me. It was Ride's. I turned around only to see a bottle flying towards me. I caught the bottle without much trouble with my hand. It was a bottle of ointment.

"We are even now," He said to me.

I just let out a small chuckle before turning my back towards him and continued to leave the area.

What goes around, comes around huh.