Fine, that was not his brightest moment, but he thought he understood what the assassin was doing and could do something similar. It didn’t work, and now he has to fight with a useless arm. Would his mother laugh at him or kick his teeth in?

‘Probably one after the other. In that order.’

It hurts. It doesn’t feel like he broke any bones, but he’s sure his skin is in tatters, as if the unwieldy magic had tried to escape by making holes in his arm. He would love to throw a potion on it to numb the pain and start the healing, but those are all back in the cart. He’s just gonna have to suck it up. It’s not like he hasn’t felt worse.

They need to end this quickly. For now, he has no choice but to assume Aryn and Donald are safe and focus on rescuing Melvin. That’s his mission. The enemy is hidden and attacking from a distance no more than 8 to 10 meters away and on top of a tree. He has backup, but it doesn’t seem like Marina has some sort of long range attack that can help.

There’s also the matter of Melvin’s safety. If he stops to think about it, there has to be a reason they want him alive. Is he just a hostage? Unlikely. Arthur is only pursuing because the woman has his boss. It would be the worse-case scenario, but if Melvin were to drop dead from one of the trees and the assassin escaped, Arthur wouldn’t have a reason to follow her unless he was sure he could catch her.

Is she playing the waiting game? Is she waiting for them to get tired? Neither he nor Marina have stopped using Prana to boost their physical abilities in case the assassin jumps out of nowhere, but she has been resting. No, that’s not quite right. She’s been trying to kill them, that’s why she’s still attacking. Those projectiles can’t be easy on her Prana.

The reason is unknown, but it may be safe to assume that the assassin needs both Melvin alive and everyone else dead. But then why did she run away? Was she counting on her friends to do the rest of the job?

Arthur clicks his tongue. He doesn’t have enough information to go on. What they need now is either catch or kill that woman.

“If she had to jump out of that tree,” He starts speaking to Marina. “Would you be able to catch her?”

“I’m confident I can jump high enough to catch her before she hides again.” Marina nods.

Arthur looks back at his injured arm. That blast of energy was painful, but…

…

“I’ll be the bait. I’ll get her to jump out of the tree. You catch her when she does.” Arthur says, nodding to himself. “Unless you have a better plan, of course.”

“Hey, go right ahead. I only promised to back you up, not keep you alive by any means.”

He snickers.

‘What a nice lady.’

Arthur takes a deep breath and turns off the flow of Prana. Right now, he’s nothing more than a human of above average strength. The assassin must’ve noticed that. The moment Arthur steps out of his hiding spot, she starts gathering Prana again. Just like he thought, another sharp projectile is coming his way.

He runs as fast as he can with an unenhanced body to meet the attack, Prana Flow taking a couple of seconds before taking full effect. By the time he and the energy ball meet half-way, he’s forced to jump out of the way. Again, he escapes with only the side of his armor being torn to shreds.

He stands up, now fully powered up and dashes to the tree he’s now sure the woman is at. He won’t jump, though. He wants to keep her guessing what he’ll do.

As he runs, he starts gathering Prana in his right arm, holding it like a spring. No other attacks come. She really can’t throw them back to back, huh? He reaches the base of the tree and allows himself a smirk.

‘This time it will work.’

When he tried to copy the assassin last time, he was trying to shoot Prana from his hand. Yes, he was way over his head, but it wasn’t useless. The feeling is still clear. With the way the magic blasted out of his arm, if he changed what he wanted to do, then…

He slaps the trunk of the tree, pushing against it as she prepares to let the Prana free.

“Blast!” He yells.

And something clicks. He yelled only due to adrenaline, but doing so helped. It’s like his mind, body and soul are now in the same wavelength, knowing exactly that Arthur wants to ‘let the Prana explode’.

He lets go of the spring, and the same blast of energy as before comes out of his hand with a loud, booming noise. However, this time it’s concentrated, directed and harmless to his own body. The powerful shockwave crushes a big chunk of the thick tree trunk as planned, but Arthur still clicks his tongue in frustration.

It’s not enough. The idea was to completely blow away the lower part of the tree and make it fall, but this isn’t enough! There’s no time to do the same thing again, so Arthur bashes the tree with his shoulder, using Prana Flow to make his body heavier. After the second bash, the tree cracks, and it only needs one more push to start falling down.

It plays out as expected. From the corner of his eye, Arthur catches the assassin jumping from the falling tree to another and looks back just in time to see Marina leaping high into the air to meet her. Melvin is still unconscious on the woman’s shoulder.

The exchange in the air is fast. Marina’s swords meet the enemy’s steel-like arm, stopping her advance. As the two start falling, Marina turns her body in the air and gives Melvin a strong kick, releasing him from the assassin’s grasp and sending him flying over to Arthur, who manages to cushion his fall with his own body.

It’s only when they land and both jump back that Arthur notices the blood dripping from Marina’s left shoulder. It must have happened when she kicked Melvin. The grip on her left sword is weak.

‘She can’t swing that way. If I can tell, so can the assassin.’

“Both of your friends are dead!” Marina says to the woman, getting a reaction from her for the first time. Her eyes widen ever so slightly. “Besides, we recovered the hostage and we have one more person as backup. You’re done!”

What is she playing? If the assassin escapes, is that considered their victory? What are the chances of her attempting a second ambush later?

It’s too late to ponder on that. The words are already out and the woman attacks Marina with yet another projectile. Arthur holds Melvin in his arms and jumps behind a tree while his temporary ally jumps to the right to avoid the attack. The assassin uses that time to jump back in the trees, not even hiding her presence as she jumps from one to another, running away deeper into the forest.

Arthur only relaxes when he sees Marina doing the same. Both of them stop the flow of Prana and Arthur comes out of hiding.

“Good thing we managed to keep him alive.” Marina says with a tired, pained smile. She sheathes her swords and holds her injured shoulder. “I hope we can get some answers out of him.”

“Are Aryn and Donald alive?” Arthur asks.

“They are. The other two guys were also taken care of.” She nods.

“Then let’s go back. We have potions back at the cart.” He says, looking at her injury.

“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t be a proper mercenary if I didn’t carry my own. Besides, you did worse to yourself.” She smirks, making him grimace in shame. “But you’re right. Let’s go back to the cart. I guess I have some explaining to do.”