Chapter 119
Hunters Hunted
Erin and her two companions stood in awe as they watched their target, Rayleen, float before their eyes. The moon shined brightly over the demon’s figure, giving her almost a mystical appearance. If they didn’t know better, they might have considered the warlord to be a being from a completely different world who had come down from the heavens to watch over them.
Rayleen’s posture seemed relaxed, but there were small hints in her body language that told another story. The demon was a true warrior down to the core, as even now she gave off an intimidating aura that was meant to scare those weaker than her. Erin and the others knew as well that this wasn’t just some bluff. If someone were to attack Rayleen, she would immediately be ready for battle. And judging by the visible muscles and scars from past battles, it would be a fight the attacker would come to regret.
“So there’s our target. The big warlord herself,” Ryle whispered, afraid of causing too much noise and blowing their cover. “What do we do now? This isn’t exactly an optimal place for us to fight her.”
“We won’t. Our goal is to simply gather information,” Erin said. “Right now, let’s just observe and see what she does.”
“She doesn’t seem to be doing much,” Arkay said. “She’s just floating there while looking around. I guess one thing we can say so far is that she isn’t interested in whatever might be below her.”
The three assassins continued to observe their target, wondering what she was up to. It seemed like Rayleen was in a trance of some kind, as she was looking over her surroundings in a bored manner, like nothing was of any interest to her. Even the few onlookers that had gathered around, some of who were trying to get the warlord’s attention, were practically invisible to her.
This went on for a couple of minutes, when suddenly Rayleen took off, flying over the buildings and the curious onlookers that were occupying them. As far as everybody knew, this was completely new, as the warlord had so far simply flown back the way she had come, disappearing into the distance covered by the uninhabitable land below.
“Hey, where is she going!?” Ryle asked out loud as she watched the warlord fly past them. “Isn’t this completely different from what Durge told us!?”
“It is! Durge said that she would just go back the way she came!” Arkay said. “Not only that, but she usually spends more time here! About an hour or two! Now she left after just a few minutes!”
“Well, what are we waiting for!?” the blonde asked with a grin. “Let’s go and see what she’s up to!”
Ryle and Arkay started to run after the warlord, only to stop in their tracks when they noticed that Erin was standing still. The redhead had an expression on her face that was mixture of shock and confusion, as she stared in the direction Rayleen had flown.
“Erin, what the hell are you spacing out for!?” Ryle called out to the redhead, snapping her out of her daze. “We gotta go before we lose her! Come one!”
“I-I know!” Erin said, still coming out of her shock. “It’s just that…”
“Just what?” Arkay asked. “Did something happen?”
“...Never mind,” the redhead replied, running after their target. “It must have just been my imagination.”
With Erin back to her senses, the three assassins began to chase after their target. However, while she might have said that it was nothing and she was doing her best to convince herself of it, the redhead couldn’t help but think back on what she had seen.
Just for a brief moment, Erin could have sworn that Rayleen gaze had passed over them. And once it did that, the warlord’s eyes had widened a bit, like she had recognized them.
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Following after Rayleen, Erin and her friends were forced through a rather difficult obstacle course that consisted of narrow alleyways, creaky roofs and the occasional passerby. Despite this, they were able to stay on their target thanks to their experiences.
The thing that baffled the pursuers was that there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to where the warlord was going. She seemed to make random twists and turns, which had caused Erin and the others quite a bit of headache. This was literally true with Ryle, who had crashed into walls and other objects thanks to Rayleen suddenly changing direction.
“Goddammit! What the hell is she doing!? Is she drunk or something!?” Ryle cursed after colliding face first with a wall for the third time. “She doesn’t seem to be going anywhere at all! She’s just flying around like some lunatic that has completely lost all sense of direction!”
“I have no idea. None of this makes any sense!” Erin said, just as frustrated as the blonde was. “I’m pretty sure that we’ve gone past certain spots multiple times by now! Unless she has amnesia and has forgotten where she is, I don’t see how this is supposed to make any sense!”
“I’m not so sure… Doesn’t it almost seem like she’s trying to shake us off?” Arkay asked. “That’s the only explanation that I can think of for the way she’s acting. By doing all these sudden changes in her movements, it looks like she is trying to make it as hard as possible for us to follow her.”
“That would actually make sense,” the redhead said, as her eye went wide and she thought back to what she had seen right before Rayleen had started to fly around. “In fact, I thought for a brief moment that she saw us, when we were watching her from the shadows just now.”
“Oh, that’s some bullshit! No way she could have seen us!” Ryle argued. “We were completely hidden in the shadows! How the hell could she have possibly seen any of us!?”
“I’m just saying what I saw and that it would make sense with our current issue,” Erin said. “I mean, how else would you explain this weird behavior from her? There has got to be something more to this than just her having lost her mind or something!”
“She’s obviously drunk or something! Simple as that!” the blonde said bluntly. “There’s not always some grand plan going on that we have to figure out! Sometimes what is happening is as simple as it can be!”
The redhead was about to respond, when she realized that during their argument they had lost sight of Rayleen. For a moment, she panicked as she looked around desperately trying to find the warlord. It wasn’t until she climbed on top of a nearby building that she was able to spot Rayleen in the distance. Just like when she had first appeared before them, the warlord had taken a stationary position, floating in place as if waiting for something.
However, instead of feeling relief, an alarm went off inside Erin’s head. There was something very strange about this. Why was Rayleen suddenly stopping in her tracks? She had not shown any signs of slowing down at all before, so why had she come to a full stop now? Was she waiting for something? And if that was the case, what was it?
“If there’s nothing strange going on, then how do you explain that?” Erin asked as she pointed at Rayleen. “Just moments ago, she was flying around wildly, like a bat out of hell! Why is she now staying in place?”
“How should I know!? Maybe she’s waiting for her date to show up or something!” Ryle argued. “The fact is that nothing she has done so far has made any sense anyways, so why are we trying to make sense of it!?”
“Because we aren’t dealing with just some random thug here! This is a warlord we are talking about here!” the redhead argued back. “Do you really think that a person like that would be flying around here, if it wasn’t something important!? The reason why Arnie and I are worried is because we are dealing with someone incredibly powerful here and one mistake could get us all killed!”
“I mean… I get that and all, but what kind of a plan could THIS possibly be!?” the blonde kept arguing. “What sort of a plan involves her just flying around randomly!?”
As the two women were about to continue their argument, Arkay noticed that Rayleen was on the move again. Notifying his friends about this development, the three assassins were once again chasing after the warlord. While they might have been unsure as to what Rayleen was doing, they also knew that they needed to focus on their mission, which was to gather information on their target.
However, Erin couldn’t help but fear that they were making a very bad mistake by continuing their mission.
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The assassins continued following Rayleen for a few more minutes, when the warlord suddenly picked up speed and seemed to land somewhere in the distance. Panicking over potentially losing track of their target, Erin and her companions quickly ran in the direction Rayleen had flown, hoping to still find her.
Their chase led them to the more rundown part of the city. A lot of the buildings around them had their windows boarded up and were showing signs of neglect, as no one had been coming to take care of them for a long time. The group was currently in a large open area, most likely meant for markets, with tall abandoned buildings surrounding them on all sides, with just small alleys leading out of the area.
“What the-!? Where the hell did she go now!?” Ryle asked as she looked around. “And why would she come to the backside of the city!?”
“I don’t know! That’s what I’ve been-” Erin began, only for her to realize something that caused her eyes to go wide. “Oh no… Could this be an ambush? Did she purposefully lure us here!?”
“Huh? What are you on about? There’s not a single person here besides us!” the blonde said before sniffing the air a bit. “I can’t pick up any scents besides ours. We’re completely alone here.”
“I also cannot sense any magic either,” Arkay said. “If there were people hiding nearby through magic, I would’ve sensed at least some magical residue, similarly to how I can tell when one of Lexton’s vials has a golem in it or not.”
“Well, that certainly is a big relief,” Erin said as she let out a sigh, having been nervous over the possibility of walking into a trap. “This still doesn’t explain what Rayleen has been doing. I mean, this being a trap would have made perfect sense, considering the location. But if that isn’t the case, then what has all of this been?”
“Actually, it is a trap,” a new voice said from above, causing the assassins to look up. “It just had quite a few parts to it.”
Erin, Ryle and Arkay went wide-eyed as they saw none other than Rayleen right above them. With the moon right behind her, the warlord made a terrifying image, like a monster that comes out at night to hunt people. A wide grin was spread over her face as she looked down at her dumbfounded pursuers in amusement.
“Why the surprised looks?” Rayleen asked mockingly. “I thought you all wanted to meet me. Isn’t that why you’ve been following me this whole time?”
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“But… How!?” Erin asked. “How did you know we were there!?”
“Please… Give some credit. You don’t rise to the rank of a warlord without having to deal with at least a dozen attempts at your life. Some of them from your own people even!” the warlord said. “Also, did you really think you were hidden at all? The arguing you guys did, along with one of you crashing into pretty much everything gave away your position to anyone with working ears.”
“Well, excuse me for trying to follow your erratic ass!” Ryle cursed angrily.
“Oh, I was just playing around with you. I wanted to see how well you would be able to follow me and you didn’t disappoint! In fact, it was quite amusing to observe how much you all struggled to keep up!” Rayleen said with a laugh. “Besides, I wouldn’t have started to fly around until I noticed you observing me. Why do you think I was simply floating back there in the first place? In such an open space no less!”
“...You were deliberately waiting to be found,” Erin said as her eye went wide with realization. “There was no actual objective to that. You were just waiting for us, like bait on a hook until we came along!”
“Exactly! I’ve been trying to get in touch with you guys for days!” the warlord said. “Do you have any idea how sick of waiting I was!? I’ve got things to do!”
The redhead realized just how badly they had been played. She had known that there was something strange about this whole thing, yet she had decided to not trust her instincts, which had now landed them right into a trap.
There were still questions that needed to be answered, though.
“Ryle, you said you couldn’t smell anyone nearby!” Erin said. “How did you not notice her flying right above us!?”
“That’s the thing! I still can’t!” the blonde said while pointing at her nose. “As far as my nose can tell, there’s no one here besides the three of us!”
“I also can’t sense any magic on her,” Arkay said as a bit of nervous sweat dropped down the side of his face. “Whatever she has done to hide her presence, it wasn’t done through magic at all.”
“The kitten gets it right!” Rayleen said happily. “Like I said, I’ve had to deal with quite a few assassination attempts and I’ve naturally been forced to hide myself as well. I quickly learned that relying too much on magic is a surefire way to get yourself killed. It’s better to go through the trouble of finding ointments, perfumes, antidotes and other items that can help hide yourself. It may take time and cost quite a bit, but it’s more than worth it in the long run.”
“...But what kind of an ambush is this, if you’re here on your own?” Erin asked. “If what Ryle said is true, then you seem to be the only enemy that we have to deal with. What sort of a leader goes out without their bodyguards?”
“Good question! However, I’d like to pose a different question towards you in response,” the warlord said. “What sort of a warrior would let others have all the fun?”
“So you’re saying that you want to take us on all by yourself for the sake of amusement? That’s pretty cocky of you!” Ryle said as she glared at their opponent. “I’m guessing that basic math isn’t a requirement to becoming a warlord! If you knew how to count, you’d know that it’s 3 on 1 here! We already took down Gotzmeyer, so I doubt you’ll be much of a challenge for us!”
“Oh my! You’re making such big assumptions that it’s practically adorable!” Rayleen said with a laugh. “I’m afraid you’re making two mistakes in your assumptions. First, do you really think that beating Gotzmeyer is any kind of an achievement in my eyes? That insect was just kept around, because he was somewhat useful! In fact, it was for that reason alone that I didn’t kill him personally! Well, not until recently that is…”
“So it was you who killed him. And that’s how his death was ultimately confirmed,” Erin said to which the warlord simply nodded. “And what might be the other assumption that we are wrong about?”
“Simple. You are underestimating ME,” Rayleen replied, before landing in front of the assassins so fast that a cloud of dust rose from the ground. “Do you really think that I’m so weak that I would lose to the three of you?”
Erin and her two companions were taken aback by the confidence their opponent displayed. They had been confident in themselves not too long ago, as what Ryle had said was true. Not only did they have the advantage in numbers, but they had also been able to deal with another warlord not too long ago. Even if Gotzmeyer had been more of a scam artist than a powerful warrior, he had still been a dangerous enemy around the same level as Rayleen. They all knew this, yet somehow the opponent before them had been able to take away almost all of that confidence with just a few words alone.
Despite this, they were still going to fight. It was the mission they had set up for themselves and they were going to go for it.
“Listen, we might have underestimated her, but we must not back down,” Erin whispered to her friends. “Warlord or not, she’s our enemy and we are going to take her down.”
“Damn right! No way is she getting away from us!” Ryle whispered back in agreement. “So what’s the battle plan? How do we go about kicking her ass?”
“I’ll charge ahead and grab her attention. With her distracted by my attack, you’ll be able to find and opening to exploit and hopefully take her down,” the redhead explained. “And while we are doing that, I want you, Arnie, to stay in the back and give us support through magic. Also, in case things turn for the worst, I want you use an invisibility spell on you to sneak away and warn the others.”
“R-Right!” Arkay replied, even though he didn’t like that last part when it came to what he needed to do. “You can count on me!”
“Hey! Are you guys done talking to each other!?” Rayleen suddenly yelled, bringing the attention back to herself. “It’s not nice to leave others out, you know!?”
“Oh, don’t you worry. We are not forgetting about you at all,” Erin said as she loaded a magic stone in her sword’s chamber, causing the blade to be enveloped in flames. “We’ll give you plenty of attention, so just wait there until we get to you.”
“Good! I’m getting tired of waiting over here!” the warlord complained. “Now, can we finally get started or do you three need to have another talk among yourselves?”
Deciding not to waste any more time on pointless chatter, the redhead glanced at Ryle, who gave her a nod. Reacting to this immediately, Erin took off in a dash and rushed towards Rayleen from the front. The warlord herself didn’t seem to react to this at all, which the redhead assumed was due to being caught off-guard by the sudden attack. Rayleen had yet to even put herself into a defensive stance, as Erin brought her sword down on her, aiming at the warlord’s left shoulder.
What happened next shook Erin and her friends to their cores. Instead of dodging, blocking or simply letting her armor take the blow, Rayleen lazily lifted up her left hand and caught the flame-covered blade with it. The way she did it made it look like it was nothing more than child’s play for her. The warlord even let out a yawn, as she held the shocked redhead’s weapon, not even a bit bothered by the flames.
“Seriously? Is that all you’ve got?” Rayleen asked with a raised eyebrow. “Did you guys actually beat Gotzmeyer or did he do it for you guys or something?”
Erin gritted her teeth in shock and anger, but didn’t let it get to her. She knew that her attack was meant as more of a distraction than anything and that Ryle was going to follow up on her move. The blonde soon came from behind the warlord, having circled around her while she had been occupied with the redhead. Charging her leg with ki, Ryle delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to the back of Rayleen’s head. The blow was powerful enough to crack boulders, so it should have easily broken the skull of an enemy.
However, much to the shock of Erin, Ryle and Arkay, the kick barely made Rayleen move. Instead, the warlord rubbed the back of her head with her free hand, like she was scratching the bite of a mosquito.
“That actually stung a bit,” Rayleen said as she glanced over to Ryle. “Not bad, but not good enough either.”
Taking the warlord’s words as an insult, the blonde’s shock was quickly replaced with rage, causing her to start throwing punches and kicks furiously at her enemy. Ryle was using everything she had to take down Rayleen, going so far as to completely ignore Erin calling out to her and telling her to back off.
The barrage of blows from Ryle was suddenly stopped by Rayleen, who grabbed her leg and simply threw her away. The blonde hit a nearby wall and fell to the ground in pain.
“Really? That’s all you’ve got? Your first kick was somewhat impressive, but what you followed it up with was nothing special at all!” the warlord said with a sigh. “What are you? A child throwing a tantrum?”
“Why you-!” Erin cursed as she tried to pull her sword out of Rayleen’s grasp, only to find out that this was impossible for her. The warlord’s seemingly lazy grip was so strong that her weapon was completely locked in place. “Goddammit! Let go!”
“Since you asked so nicely,” Rayleen said with a grin, as she let go of the blade just when the redhead pulled on the weapon, causing her to fall down backwards. “You might want to watch what you ask, though.”
Erin quickly got back up, swinging her sword at the warlord’s legs at the same time. Her blade swung through empty air, as Rayleen easily jumped over the attack. The redhead tried to follow up with another swing, but was interrupted with a kick to the chest. She flew backwards and crashed into a pile of trash that had been abandoned on the street a long time ago. Erin coughed up blood, as she struggled to get up.
However, the physical damage was nothing compared to the damage that had been done to the redhead’s morale. In just a matter of seconds, Rayleen had destroyed any illusion that she had over them being able to take her on. In the face of the warlord, all of their attacks were easily brushed aside, not even worthy of being seen as a nuisance. To make it worse, Rayleen hadn’t even fought back seriously at all. All of her “attacks” so far had just been simple moves that pretty much anyone could use.
“Hey. Would you mind and get your ass up already? I’m starting to get bored over here,” the warlord complained. “I honestly thought that you guys would be able to provide at least a bit of amusement for me, but you’re not even making me break a sweat here! Talk about failing to meet expectations!”
While most would have simply been angered by such words, they actually shook Erin to her core. In that moment, she realized just how wide the gap between them was, to the point that they weren’t even worthy of being a game to Rayleen. They had arrogantly believed that they would be able to take on someone like her based on assumptions they made after facing Gotzmeyer, not realizing just how foolish it had truly been.
They needed to run away. Not fight.
Unfortunately for the redhead, her companions weren’t on the same page as she was. As soon as she had recovered from the hit she had taken, Ryle was back on her feet and charging towards Rayleen with fists ready. Not only that, but Erin noticed that Arkay wasn’t preparing to run away either and was instead preparing spells to fire at the warlord.
“GUYS! STOP!” the redhead yelled desperately, hoping to reach her friends before it was too late. “WE CAN’T-!”
Erin’s warning came too late, as Arkay sent a couple of balls of electricity out of his hands flying towards Rayleen. The warlord didn’t even bother moving to avoid the attacks, as she simply swatted them away with her hand, like she was dealing with an annoying fly buzzing around her.
However, the cat boy’s attack had just been a diversion, which allowed Ryle to get behind Rayleen again. This time, the blonde was charging her ultimate move by gathering as much ki in her fist as she could. With the close proximity to her opponent, there was no chance for her attack to miss.
“LET’S SEE YOU SURVIVE THIS!” Ryle shouted as she unleashed her special move, causing the blast of ki to hit the warlord fully on her back.
The blonde and her friends had expected her special move to cause at least some type of damage, if not outright kill Rayleen. After all, this was an attack that was able to blow up boulders and had even damaged a dragon of all things. Yet despite this, they were shocked to see the warlord still standing after taking such a hit.
“Oww… Okay, that freaking hurt!” Rayleen said as she rubbed her back with both hands, like she was an old man with back pain. “I’m gonna make you pay for that!”
The warlord was about to turn around and give Ryle the punishment she had promised, but stopped in her tracks upon sensing something. She felt on her skin a strange change in the air, as of the wind was blowing unnaturally and like there was some sort of an electric charge carried by it. She could also feel a strange build up of magic right behind her. Not only that, but her years of combat had helped develop a sort of a “danger sense” that helped her notice beings that could prove to be lethal, whether enemy soldiers, beasts, traps or even natural disasters. It was this last sense that was practically screaming at her to turn around and do it fast.
Looking behind her, the warlord was shocked to see the person she had imagined to be the least threatening of her attackers behind the phenomenon she had sensed. Right before her eyes, Arkay was charging an incredibly powerful spell, one that only his friends had seen him use once. Spraks of electricity were gathering on his hands as he was making his preparations. What was even more shocking was that nature itself was seemingly responding to this, as the wind was picking up and dark clouds were gathering above them. Soon these clouds began to shoot down bolts of lightning that were gathered into a powerful orb in the cat boy’s hands.
To say that Rayleen was surprised was an understatement. Upon seeing her pursuers, she had written off Arkay as a non-threat, due to him looking very weak. That assumption had been completely smashed, as the power he was wielding was something the warlord had only see in very few individuals. Whatever this attack was, getting hit by it could be potentially dangerous.
Despite the danger, Rayleen simply grinned in anticipation. She had so far been disappointed by what her attackers had shown her and this seemed much better than everything else so far. After all, the warlord had her own objectives and this was the closest thing to fulfilling it.
Arkay was soon done charging his attack and sent it flying towards Rayleen, who simply stood still, waiting for the orb of electricity to hit her. The collision caused sparks of lightning to fly everywhere and cover the whole area in a blinding light. Erin and Ryle had to cover their eyes to avoid losing their sight.
The spell had not just been powerful, but also very taxing on its user. After using it, Arkay was now pretty much spent and wouldn’t be able to do anything else. It was similar to Ryle’s special move in the manner that it couldn’t be used all that many times, but the sheer destructive power meant that any opponent hit by it would not be able to get back up.
Or at least that was the theory.
Much to the absolute shock of not just Arkay, but also Erin and Ryle, Rayleen was still standing. The attack had managed to hurt her, as there was steam rising from her body and she had a wide-eyed look of absolute shock on her face. Her hair was also standing up from the hit of electricity she had just taken.
image [https://i.ibb.co/F8ddDcw/Ch-119-Pic-1.jpg]
Without saying a word, the warlord slowly brought her hands up to gently push down her hair and fix her hairstyle. A small puff of smoke escaped her lips in a cough as well.
“...Okay. THAT was impressive,” Rayleen said, finally breaking out of the shock she had been locked into. “I really hope you can’t pull that off again, because I’m pretty sure that it would kill me.”
Seeing as how their enemy was still standing, Arkay tried to charge another similar spell, but to no avail. He was completely out of any strength to continue fighting in any capacity.
“ARNIE, GET OUT OF HERE!” Erin yelled suddenly.
“W-What!?” the cat boy said. “B-But I can’t just-!”
“YOU HAVE TO! GET OUT OF HERE AND WARN THE OTHERS!” the redhead yelled, cutting off Arkay’s protest. “Ryle and I will try to hold her here, while you get the others to help us! It’s the only way we can win! HURRY!”
The cat boy wanted to continue protesting, but knew that Erin was right. They had come into this fight far too unprepared. If they were to have any hope of winning, they needed to get the others to help them out. He could only hope that he made it back fast enough.
However, Rayleen was not about to let any of them escape.
“Oh, no you don’t!” the warlord shouted as she unfolded her wings and sped towards Arkay.
The cat boy could barely react, as Rayleen suddenly appeared behind him and delivered a hand chop on the back of his neck. The blow immediately knocked him out and caused him to fall to the ground.
“YOU BASTARD!” Ryle roared, enraged by what the warlord had just done.
She wasn’t able to act out in her anger, as Rayleen shifted her attention to the blonde next. Using her wings to gain a sudden boost of speed again, the warlord dashed towards Ryle and delivered a powerful knee kick to her stomach. The blonde struggled to stay up, but soon fell to her knees before falling down unconscious.
image [https://i.ibb.co/WF8jfDL/Ch-119-Pic-2.jpg]
Seeing what had happened to her friends, Erin tried to put up a resistance and fight back, but before she could do anything Rayleen was already behind her. Strong arms quickly wrapped around her neck, putting her in a powerful choke hold that prevented her from breathing.
As she soon fell unconscious, the redhead glanced at her knocked out friends, her last thought being hope that they were alright. After that, darkness took over and she was out.
image [https://i.ibb.co/qWmj7Yn/Ch-119-Pic-3.jpg]