The lynx decided to turn around, in order to draw the slugs chasing her to the other end. She even Jumped on them, but didn’t attack them. They were too close together, and she could hardly avoid their attacks if she stopped moving at top speed.

“Clear,” she announced to her sister.

“On my way. Get ready,” she replied.

Using Light Feet she moved sideways away from the slugs, then ran towards the exit, while building Natural Walls along the way. As she got closer to her destination, the slugs were also closer, as they hadn’t gone as far as the first ones, and had had time to approach her.

Even with Light Feet she wasn’t as fast as her sister, so several attacks reached her, more in the end, and even broke through Cyclonic Barrier. She clenched her teeth in pain and raised the barrier again. She was still being bombarded by her enemies, whose projectiles passed over the Natural Walls at first, but now not even that, because, there, the plants had disappeared underground and were sleeping.

Suddenly, the feline’s body interposed, so she took much of the impacts.

“Sister!” Goldmi exclaimed.

“Run!” she urged.

Gritting her teeth even more, and using Cyclonic Barrier on the one who was defending her, she walked through the entrance followed by the lynx, whose battered body was terrible to look at. Much of her fur looked burned, as did her now exposed skin, and the pain she suffered was obvious.

“Not now! We have to get away first! Check if there’re any on the way!” the feline growled when the archer tried to heal her, even when she hadn’t healed herself yet.

The elf hesitated a moment. She knew her sister was suffering, but she obeyed, invoking Life Detection.

“One on our way. Turning right. About a hundred meters.”

Despite being injured, the feline didn’t hesitate for a moment to run towards it, before the elf could say anything. Furious, she ran towards the slug, pounced over it and Shred its body apart. And, although almost beside herself, not for a moment was she allowed to be overtaken by the Spittle.

When Goldmi arrived, the battle was already decided. She checked again that there were no others around, except those that were following them, and began to heal her sister, this time without allowing her to refuse.

“I’m fine. Heal yourself,” she pulled away after a while, not fully recovered but much better.

The elf sighed, since she knew that she couldn’t convince her otherwise, but also that the pain she herself was feeling was almost unbearable, since she didn’t have her sister’s endurance. She continued to heal as they were walking, as they were checking that there were none on their path, and that they were still following them.

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Almost two hours passed, in which they easily finished some clashes, in groups of three at most, and had fully healed. Now, they had been standing at a crossroads for a while, waiting and resting, until finally the first of their pursuers appeared.

They let it come to the crossroads and faced it. The lynx attacked it mercilessly, but only for a few seconds, as she soon had to back away, and hide behind the wall of the crossroads because of the dozens of Spittle they had shot towards her. They covered the injured slug without causing any harm.

This and four others turned to the lynx after reaching the intersection, who had moved a few meters away and easily dodged them, almost playing. Goldmi, on the opposite side, then summoned a Light Pillar at the point where there was a large concentration of slugs. She had had to wait until they were within range of the spell, much shorter than that of her arrows.

She spent a third of her mana pool, and another third by summoning a second Pillar, wiping out over fifty of their enemies, which were too slow to escape, and without enough intellect to avoid it. Meanwhile, the lynx wiped out those five which had dared to attack her, and the few temporally lucky ones that had slipped away.

They continued on their way, and repeated the operation twice more, before, exhausted, heading straight for the rest area. They lay down on the cold stone as soon as they entered, since they felt safe and were able to relax there.

“We have survived…” Goldmi whispered, almost without believing it.

“And we have grown stronger,” added her sister. “Now we need to regain strength. You could cook something to eat.”

The elf sat up and looked at her. She wanted to laugh but felt too weak to do so.

“I guess we deserve it,” she capitulated, without even beginning to fight.

Soon, the smell of grilled meat filled the rest area, while they were refreshed with a purple granita, created from the mix of various fruits that didn’t exist in Goldmi’s native home.

The fairies were in charge of keeping the coals constantly active, and of not letting the meat or the vegetables scorch. There, shortly afterwards, some fruits would also be roasted and seasoned, and served as dessert, fruits which right now were being peeled.

She also had time to check her new acquisitions and try on the new equipment, since they had leveled up to 22.

Void was the new spell. It harness the speed of the arrow and the power of wind magic to create a void behind the projectile’s trail, a void that grows larger as it moves toward its destination. When it arrives and stops its race, either nailing or hitting something, the conditions to create such a void cease to exist, so it attracts the space around to be filled again, and was able to destabilize the enemies with the generated suction force. She had it at 7, as it was useful to buy some time.

And about the skill, Block and Recoil was similar to Feint to the Foot, but instead of taking advantage of the blockade to launch a counterattack, it took advantage of the enemy’s strength, and added the momentum of her weapons against the blockade, to recoil and gain distance. She had it at 6, as it was relatively useful to save the situation, and attack again with the bow, and more useful the more powerful the enemy attack was, since the distance traveled was longer.

They both ate more than they should, as the elf allowed her sister to challenge her to a dessert war, and they soon fell asleep, too exhausted from the events of the day to be disturbed by them, and thus declaring their absolute surrender to the softness of the mattress, which it was magically restored to its original condition each time the tent was summoned.