“Fuck! Motherfucker!” I shouted into the dark jungle, my voice being drowned out by the noise of the rain and the explosions of the battlefield not too far away from me. “Fight me face to face, bitch!”
With my hand clenching close to a fist, I gathered Holy Magic. A shadow moved between the trees, and with a quick turn, I shot a Holy Ball in the direction the shadow was moving. Golden light illuminated the trees and extended their shadows to everything else around them until my spell hit the place where the shadow was supposed to step.
An explosion of golden particles followed, with a tree being split in half, and the top part flying deeper into the jungle. But I just ground my teeth in frustration. I had missed my target—my enemy.
And to let me know of my incompetence, the bitch I was fighting shot back with a Holy Shot of her own. The loud sound of a rifle being fired let me know the general direction from where it came, and in one swift motion, I crouched and the shot flew right over my head, nearly singeing my black helmet.
She was toying with me. She had the ability to attack me without firing her weapon; to do something that wouldn’t make any sound, but it felt as if she was doing so only to let me know that she was better than me.
But nobody was better than me! Even if Althea or Nicky pulled slightly ahead, if I just used my talents and my superior skills, I would leave them in the dust.
Besides, everything I’ve achieved, I’ve achieved with my own effort. There was no special training, no voice from a God giving me powers, and no innate strange magic that allowed me to pull ahead. It was all me, and I wasn’t going to let anyone take that away from me! Much less some cowardly bitch that runs all over the place and shoots at me from the shadows and my blind spots.
There was something else. As far as I knew, these Followers of Leyfall were supposed to ‘light the Gods’ light as far as it could shine’, so for this one to be this much of a…—bitch!—was really annoying!
“You’re not paying your Gods any respect if you hide their light in the shadows!” I shouted, looking in every direction for any movement.
“The Gods are—”
I quickly interrupted by firing another Holy Ball in the direction from which her voice came. It flew just like the last one, and like the last one, it hit fucking nothing.
“—pleased with our work,” she continued, her voice coming from the completely opposite side from where it first came.
Once more, I fired a quick Holy Ball in that direction… to no avail. There was nothing there. The thought that perhaps she was teleporting crossed my mind—again, for the tenth time—but such a spell was far too powerful for someone to be using it all willy-nilly like this. She was just moving too fast for me to properly follow. I had to find a way to force her out or to just straight up kill her.
From another blind spot, a shot was heard, and I quickly dodged to the side. The Holy Shot passed by my arm, grazing the armor. This wasn’t good. She hadn’t hit me so far, and I hadn’t gotten any slower. This bitch was closing in on me. I had to do something or I would end up as the bitch here.
Something bloomed in the sky, and I glanced up. An explosion of powerful mana was sending shockwaves through the black clouds. This was probably done by one of those Chinese mages, and just looking at it gave me an idea. However, that moment of consideration was yet another opening that the bitch in the trees used to shoot me once more.
I leaped to the side, and the Holy Shot grazed my shin this time. My leg was harshly pushed to the side and I nearly lost my footing. Another shot came from a spot straight ahead of me, and this time, I blocked with an urgently created Holy Barrier that appeared only at the front of my face. The Holy Shot hit the barrier at the side, right where my cheek would’ve been, destroying my barrier, but giving me enough room to dodge to the side.
“Fuck!” I forcefully whispered as I regained my footing.
If she didn’t want to come out of the trees, then I was going to get rid of the trees. Time to go chopping!
I gathered Holy Magic in my spear, and as I was doing so, this woman kept shooting at me. I could still keep up, even if she was now grazing my armor, but I wasn’t going to give her as much room anymore.
This time, I was going to go to the places where she didn’t attack from. So when she fired at me from my left flank, I turned to the right, and in one wide horizontal swing of my spear, an arc of Holy Magic was fired. It cut through the air and chopped down every tree, bush, rock, and rat that could’ve been in the way.
But at the same time, the shot that came from my left managed to hit me squarely on my back, right on my left side. It was powerful, and I was forced to stumble forward a couple of steps. She was likely going to follow it up like every time, so I allowed myself to be led by the momentum and leaped forward.
A shot was fired from my new left flank, as expected, and I used the movement I already had to dodge it. The shot landed at the ground, right where my feet were just a moment ago. It was difficult to keep up with this woman, but I couldn’t allow myself to be overpowered here, no way. So once more, I pushed myself to gather Holy Magic on my spear.
“Trying to flush me out?” the woman said, not concerned at all about my likely plan. “If you think that’s all that it takes, then you’re severely underestimating the power of the Holy Gods. Someone like you—who wields Their power—should know better.”
But I ignored the annoying bitch and focused on removing any place for her to hide as I swung my weapon in the direction from which she shot. Another wave of Holy Magic cut through the trees, and like the first side, this one was cut clean, causing all sorts of trees and things that could be used for cover to fall down to the ground.
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Simultaneously, and following my intentions, she shot me from the back, again. I stumbled forward, like last time, and repeated the same thing that I did, only that this time, it was at the same side that she was shooting me from. My armor was getting severely damaged, but there was only one side from which she could shoot now, so with a joyous smirk that she couldn’t see, I looked forward to cutting her off.
“Nowhere to run; nowhere to hide, asshole!” I shouted as I looked at the only place from which she could attack me.
I charged my spear once more, and empowered by my desire to cut her in half, I charged my spell much faster than the previous times. The wave of Holy Magic cut through, and I was certain that this time, I was going to see the woman and follow it up with a direct attack.
The trees fell down, and I could feel my smirk widening. She was about to be exposed!
A shot was heard from behind me; from one of the cleaned spots. She was wide in the open, so I quickly turned to both dodge her attack and move in to finish her off; however, as soon as I did, all I managed to see was the same shadow I saw before, just as obscured as if it was moving between the trees that were no longer there. She followed it up with a Holy Shot that came from my side, from one of the clean spots.
What the fuck? She shouldn’t have been able to stay just as hidden as if there were trees. What kind of—
“Did you really think it was just trees?” she mocked, as if she could read my mind. “Shintei be my witness, that with Her powers, I shall remain as unseen and swift as the air that She rules, and as deadly as the decay that She brings!”
I desperately followed the same shadow as best as I could with my eyes, but it kept appearing and disappearing on top of the cleared off trees. I tried to find the proper spot to go directly to her and force a confrontation, but I was suddenly struck on my back.
I flew forward into one of those cleared spots, landing on top of a broken tree trunk, and stumbling as I did. There was no gunshot this time. She had turned to attacking with magic that I couldn’t follow with my normal senses alone anymore. This meant that there was likely going to be another follow up, so by raising a Holy Barrier around me as fast as I could, I managed to deflect a small orb of Holy Magic that crashed with it.
It wasn’t strong enough to break the barrier, but it still managed to make it tremble.
I ground my teeth in both annoyance and frustration. I couldn’t believe that despite being able to hit me, she still insisted on not finishing me off… And, honestly, I was done with being her plaything.
I summoned as much Holy Magic as I could within me. A supposed blissful feeling should be filling me when I did that, but I never found that feeling whenever I used this magic—unlike the other insane Holy Knights of Leyfall—so the only thing I could feel right now was the desire to beat the shit out of this woman.
My surroundings were illuminated by the golden light of Holy Magic; a shitty thing that happened whenever a Holy Aura was activated, but in this case, being the one that was already seen by an enemy, there was no point in hiding.
“Argh!” I exclaimed as I let out the excess Holy Magic, creating an explosion that sent all the fallen trees, bushes and even rocks flying in every direction.
“You soil the power granted by Her—”
“I don’t give a fuck!” I shouted, and rushed out of the place I was standing in the direction of her voice.
This amount of magic could cause a rebound on me and leave me wounded, but the damage it might cause to me was worth it in this case, so I'd have to put up with the pain this was causing me.
I saw the shadow and followed after it. I could finally see a woman’s figure flowing in the air, but it looked more like it was made out of fog. She left a nearly white, green smoke behind her, but I could finally see her. So I rushed after her.
“‘Unseen’ my ass!” I mocked, giving a couple of twists to the spear in my hand. “You crazy assholes are always talking about this and that about the light. Well, let there be light!”
I pushed myself as far as my body allowed it, trying to catch up to this elusive woman, and as we moved, she ran closer to the next edge of the jungle that was saved from my cleaves. It wasn’t going to cover for her, as with a powerful thrust of my spear, its tip managed to scratch the very edge of her back, right above her ass.
My power exploded in a beam of Holy Magic that should’ve been able to pierce anyone—even Althea—but the beam just passed through her image and tore down more trees, only being stopped by a hill behind it all.
The woman exclaimed and crashed with a few other trees, not too far from where the beam went through. There were a couple of blood drops on the ground, and when I turned my attention to her, I managed to catch a glimpse of how she looked.
She was wearing the same military uniforms that people of the PLA used, with a rifle firmly held in her hand. She had a tan skin color, with long straight black hair that was swaying in the air in a mess, likely from my attack. From the quick glance that I had, I noticed that her facial shape was soft with a rather sharp nose, and a pair of just as sharp eyes that carried a furious glare.
I only saw her for a quick moment, before her appearance flickered out of my view. But she was wounded. She was weak. She was weaker than me. I could put her in place, and the idea only made me smirk. She shouldn’t have toyed with me.
“Damn. A shame I couldn’t go straight through your ass. I would’ve loved to impale you and show all your buddies how stupid you all are,” I mocked as I followed her foggy figure into the woods. “That can still be arranged!”
She wasn’t nearly as fast as she was before, and combined with my Holy Aura, I could see her much easier than the shadow that she was before. I wasn’t going to allow her to get away, so I created an explosion of Holy Magic behind me, which helped me launch myself straight to her.
I charged my spear with Holy Magic, and as I was about to stab her again with it, she wisened up and turned around to properly face me. A gun popped out from her side, and almost immediately, five shots were fired. They all had Holy Magic in them, but to use Holy Magic on someone that had a Holy Aura was rather stupid.
The magic simply bounced off of me, and I was able to swing my spear, going straight for her neck.
She raised her rifle, and the spear crashed with it. I expected the rifle to be simply cut in half, but it was able to somehow withstand it. That didn’t mean that it could do the same with my magic, so I released what I had gathered, and in one glorious burst of blinding golden light, I felt how it cut through the rifle and struck something else. Something soft.
Smirk. Stab. Smirk. Stab… Frown…
Damn it! No blood!
She threw a desperate kick, but it wasn’t nearly enough to even make me stumble. It seemed like without her rifle and her stealth, she wasn’t nearly strong enough to face me. In just a few moments, she was going to fall before my feet.
And just as I thought that was the case, an unexpected tornado appeared right under me. It quickly grew in size, picking up all the trees and bits of destruction that I created and launching me high into the air. She wasn’t going down without a fight… it seemed.
Nothing to worry about.
Then another surprise. A loud explosion was heard somewhere behind me, and I turned distracted to see a huge piece of metal falling on top of a rock hill. Must’ve been another one of those Chinese mages.
But in that moment of distraction, a piece of something stabbed me to the side of my right ribs.
“I will not… falter…” the woman whispered within the tornado.
I felt whatever she struck me trying to dig its way into me. But… But I wasn’t going to falter either! She was not going home tonight.