Author's note:-

This and next chapter is about how the archer died. Now, i wanted to kill him and be done with him, but i decided to give him the power to retaliate. Me doing this caused a change in the setting of this world but when i thought on it, actually this little fight explains a lot and improves the story gradually.

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Enjoy.

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Rocky’s P.O.V:-

Yeah, the archer was slaughtered, but he did retaliate. It’s not like he was killed in a single sword strike or by a dagger straight to his heart.

No, he fought back and in between, the fight took an amusing turn. It was amusing for me and Minie, but got dangerous for them both and by the end it looked like the other one was going to win, but the upset didn’t happen.

………………………………….

When the prey saw the hunter looking at him with no emotions in his eyes and no smile on his face, he instinctively knew that his time had come.

So, instead of pleading or begging, he moved his straight but pointed and thick fingers to shoot a volley of arrows at the chameleon.

His long life as an adventurer wasn’t lived for nothing, as all of his attacks were made with pinpoint accuracy and explosive power.

The arrows flew in a straight line and made impact on our octopuses still body, but instead of making or turning him into a puffer fish, all of the arrows simply and completely passed through his phantom.

The archer was left dumbfounded, shocked and dismayed. He looked at his arrows travelling away from him, sailing on the still air of the room and burrowing straight into the wall behind the now disappearing phantom image.

The shock of a swordsman using such speed and disappearing was something unforgettable. It was now embedded deep into his soul, impacting his conscious every time he thought about it.

 But then an expression of remembrance suddenly changed his facial expressions from a cowardly spook to an angry bull. (He remembered all that had happened outside the cave.)

But while the archer’s eyes were staring daggers at the place where the attacker once stood, the hunter was getting himself busy.

The hunter who had silently disappeared using his speed was now moved closer and closer to the prey, while the prey was busy trying to figure out how a swordsman vanished into thin air.

The thing is the assassin used his high speed motion which naturally created afterimages and tricked the archer. Then taking advantage of his not so attentive vision and disturbed mindset, the trickster climbed up a wall and started crawling on the ceiling, till he got above his head.

How do I know? Well, it’s a secret. It’s not like I could see a ball of light crawling on the ceiling like a lizard.

The archer, who couldn’t find his leader after he calmed down, decided to do what any other person in this situation would do.

He ran away.

He ran away. No, actually he had just turned around and was just getting in the position to start his running motion, when a dagger fell from the ceiling, cut through the centre of his foot and fixed it to the ground like a nail.

“Ahhhhh” the archer screamed while turning his face to look at the menacing face of his attacker, who still did not have any smile on his face.

“Why? Why? Why? Just what the hell did I do wrong to you? Why the fuck are you after my throat from the very beginning?”

He yelled, shouted and screamed the words out of his throat. It felt like he was saving those words for some other time, but was pressured to say them. The force behind his words was enough of an indication to explain, his rage and anger that was only growing more and more and not subsiding.  

Anger; it not only leads to the demise of the one being in control of it, but also creates destruction for those around.

Listening to the prey condemning him, that black spider hanging from the roof jumped down. He jumped down without any sound being created or dust flying.

The roof was just 10 foot above the ground level anyway.

He was spooked and shocked; when he saw his enemy not coming out some corner far away, but jumping down from the ceiling just above his head.

So why didn’t he saw him crawling on the roof and looking at him like a viper which that assassin is?

I guess his leg was hurting and he had to close his eyes for the time being. (Being sarcastic)

Nah, actually the darkness inside the cave played a very vital role in that. No matter how keen and excellent the eye sight of an archer is, how could he have any use for it inside the dark tunnel?

A figure dropped from the roof and stood straight in front of the archer who was now kneeling on the floor, trying to get that dagger out of his foot.

“Why you ask? Do I need a reason to kill you? You make it sound like I can’t kill you without a reason.”

Hearing the voice he was left surprised and astonished. The voice that he heard didn’t belong to the face that he was looking at. It was a bit harsh and heavy and contained a dialect that he had never heard before.

“Who are you?” the voice almost didn’t come out of his mouth, but when it did, all of his anger and tension went away and confusion had taken their place instead.

“Don’t tell me, you don’t even remember how your captain looks like?” The voice contained a hint of surprise, but its laughing tone was enough to clear any confusion indicating that the speaker might be feeling surprised.

“No, you are not him. How can I not remember that mother fucker’s voice! Tell who the fuck you actually are and why do you want to kill me?”

He wasn’t talking anymore, just shouting and screaming. I don’t know who he was trying to intimidate, with his wet eyes and that snot running down his face. Well, his actions at least made me laugh.

But to his question, the good for nothing back stabber started laughed, just like me and maybe because of the same reason too.

“Ahahah. Yes you are right I am not him. Want to know who I really am? Then see with your open eyes and don’t forget. Okay.”

He said that and his whole body again got covered with shadows. It took some time and when the shadow dissipated, that black clothed octopus was standing in place of the swordsman.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The archer wanted to say more, but the only words which left his mouth were, “You!”, “Why”, “how”.

Maybe, the shock was too great for him to work his mind around, and that had happened inside the room.

The chameleon changed his colors, and became somebody else in mere seconds. The whole process felt like he was just breathing, but the shock it gave was too great for the archer and me as well. Though I already knew he was going to do that from the start, but something’s remain thrilling no matter how many times you see them.

“Like I said before, I have no reason to not kill you and also don’t have any reason to not kill you, but no matter what happens, you are going to die here and that won’t change. Not only you, but everyone else will also be killed by my hands and there is no one who can stop me.”

“But how did you…where is the captain?”

To his answer I was also curious and just as he was going to tell the reason, Minie also spoke and I heard them both saying the same thing at the same time, “Illusion”.

“He was an illusion and nothing more. Well don’t ask me anymore, you are not qualified enough to know anything.”

He said that and moved his arms to slice his neck. His speed reached a frightening level and his arms almost disappeared, creating a black line reaching from his waist to archers shoulder height in a single second.

But just when he moved the sword that he was still holding to attack the archer who was looking at the ground with his eyes closed something happened, something changed inside the archer.

All the hate that he had buried inside his heart and had turned into a seed came out and started growing. When this happened the sword hadn’t even started moving yet.

I, who could see his mana as a ball of dwindling light, saw a change occurring inside of him.

It was small at the beginning but it started growing. From a speck at the centre of the ball, the change started and spread like a wildfire.

It didn’t stop and grew until it fully engulfed his ball of light, turning it into a shade of purple which instead of glowing brighter started turning darker and darker.

It took not even a fraction of second for the change to take place and the same time it happened, the Sword that had now picked up speed and was travelling at a frightening speed, fell on his neck.

But instead of doing any damage to his neck, the sword chipped and the assassin’s eyes grew serious.

And then I heard Minie bringing a bad news to me.

“KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON HIM! HE IS TURNING.”

This was the first time in my life that I heard her talking seriously, and it brought a sense of uneasiness to me.

“What? Turning into what? You are not making any sense.”

“You know I told you once about how there are different elements in the world. And each person has affinity with one of the elements.”

“Yeah, I do remember, but what has that got to do with this situation?”

“Do you remember about the chaos element?”

“Yes I remember you saying that humans kill everyone with the chaos element and whoever has it will bring destruction and terror to the world or something like that.”

“Yeah, the thing is no one is really born with the chaos element. It grows from emotions, strong emotions. Emotions like hate and extreme sadness are what leads to one grow its seed inside their body.” She sighed once after saying that.

“So?”

I was confused. Why would she bring this now? I mean, it’s not like the changes happening inside the archer has any relat…

“You know what the color of Chaos element is? It’s purple and do you know what is happening to your friend down there?”

“No I actually don’t.”

Yeah I don’t know so I said that I don’t, but why is she asking me so many questions? No I am not confused about the questions but her behavior where did her intense, fuming and mocking behavior go.

 “It’s called Demonification. His natural element is converting into the chaos element corrupting him and turning him into a Demon.”

She stopped for a second, took a deep breath before continuing;

“A Demon, same as the ones who lives on the other side of the mountain.”

Then came silence. No, the silence was between me and Minie only. The archer who was turning into a Demon was not doing so well. He was screaming in pain and sweating like crazy, his frustrated and terror filled voice was turning hard and becoming like a mix of many.

While this was happening instead of acting and finishing the devil reincarnated, the assassin was staring daggers at his sword and I was having an intense question answer session with Minie.

“What? How did this happen. Isn’t he a normal human being? Then why is he turning into a demon? And what do you mean an element converting, can elements even convert?”

While my voice was getting louder and louder after each of her answer, she was getting calmer and calmer and answering without any hurry. Moreover, she was polite.

 “Yes, elements can be converted. But it’s the wrong word to use here. Elements can’t actually be converted, but they can evolve. Didn’t I tell you, there are many variations of an element and different people might have affinities with rare and strong elements? Those variations are actually evolution that happened as the time passed and bloodlines were distributed. We’ll talk about this later because I think a good show is going to start now.”

Here she completed her sentence and there our archer completed his transformation and our two faced friend broke his sword.

Well, his transformations weren’t complete, but from the look of it most of the important changes were over.

The archer who was bent on his knees stood up. He lifted his right leg and as he did the dagger that was keeping his right foot stationed on the ground couldn’t keep up and came out of the floor with the lifted leg.

He looked at the dagger once before using his right hand to slowly draw it out of his foot, and then he threw it away like it was nothing more than a piece of metal.

When the metal sound of dagger hitting the ground rang out, the assassin who was looking at his sword looked up, faced toward the archer and just as he did so his brows creased.