Jade’s eyes flashed with surprise when she saw me. Suddenly, she grabbed my hand and dragged me back into the town with her.

“Where do you live here?” She hissed at me from under her cloak. I heard a loud clatter of horseshoes behind us. Chryssie tightened her grip on my hand, and walked a little closer to me.

I tightened too. “You’re being hunted?” I whispered.

Jade gave an almost imperceptible nod of her head. “Where?”

“Two blocks. Left turn. Three blocks. Second shop on your right. It’s a watch shop.”

Jade nodded and they quickly walked down the streets and into the shop. I entered last, and cast a wary glance out of the crack in the door. A small squad had dropped off of the main troop and were coming down the road. I closed the door quietly and locked it behind me. It was still early in the morning, so there was no one else out and about.

I shut the blinds, and quickly followed the two up the staircase.

“Jade, what happened?”

Chryssie had already climbed into her hiding spot. Jade was sitting on my bed with her back against the wall. She took off her cloak, and I could now see that she had an enormous bandage around her midriff. She was also bleeding from multiple small cuts on her thigh.

“I was attacked. By your teacher, the Sword Saint.”

“What?!” I was shocked. My teacher almost never left his home.

“They got wind that the Medusa Princess was hiding out in the Dark Forests behind the Sword Saint’s Academy.

Medusa Princess…ah. That would make a lot of sense.

“They launched an ambush on me. The only way that you killed me, as you know. Was by tackling me and letting one of your comrades stab both of us through. In reality, that wasn’t enough to kill me. The petrification on me was more like a shell that I grow when I need to slip into a deep sleep and heal. The stone is nigh unbreakable. But your teacher’s sword…” She shuddered.

“Not only did it prevent me from entering petrification, it also seemed to inflict damage on my soul as well as my body.”

I cursed. “That’s his most powerful Sword Art. Astral Blade. “

I hurriedly walked over to her to look at her wound. “It’s deep. That’s not good.”

I pulled out my own sword. As I did, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Rona and Anna. I paused for a second, and then put both hands on the pommel. Magic flowed from my body into the blade.

The blade glowed a bright white color and I pointed it at Jade’s wound.

“Drink!” Small slivers of blue energy trailed out from her wound and were slowly sucked into my blade. I held my blade out towards her wound and concentrated on taking the Astral Blade’s energy out.

Jade moaned in pain. It was normal, drinking away the energy that was tearing at her soul was like ripping small piranhas away from meat. No matter how hard you tried, they always took a small part with them.

I continued to hold the stance for about fifteen minutes.

But my Magic was much much weaker than my teachers. I had only drunk a small sliver even though I’d expended about half of my Magic reservoir.

“Jade,” I said, huffing and wiping a handful of sweat from my forehead. “I don’t think I can last much longer…”

Jade groaned in response. “Take as much as you can!”

She clutched at her wound. I doubled my rate of Magic expension. To my pleasant surprise, it actually drew off another large chunk of my teacher's Astral Blade.

But I could feel myself weakening.

“Ah!” Jade yelled in pain as I tore off another chunk. I also gave a grunt of pain as my Magic energy was finally completely depleted.

Suddenly, a light knocking sounded from the door.

We both jumped. We’d been so caught up trying to extract the Astral Blade that we hadn’t noticed anyone breaking into the store and coming up the stairs. A clear voice rang out.

“Ah…Mister and Missus, if you’re finished, would you mind coming out to help with our investigation?”

I glanced over at Jade. Her face flushed red slightly. Suddenly, I realized what it had sounded like we were doing from the outside. I flushed red too. Jade shook her head slightly. It took a moment to process what she meant.

Don’t open the door.

I nodded. The man knocked again.

“Mister! Please -”

Jade suddenly let out a soft moan. Her face was redder than a tomato. I can’t imagine mine was any better.

She let out another. And another. She glared at me, her jade-green eyes flashing. I looked around in confusion. What was she trying to tell me? Another moment went by, and I could see a teardrop begin to form on the bottom of her eyelid.

“Jade…I-” I mouthed

She pointed at me with a long curved talon, and a small bolt of green energy hit me on my shoulder.

Slap!

I grunted in pain. I looked over at her, unsure what I had done wrong, only to see her nodding frantically.

Oh. So that’s…what she meant…I closed my eyes and let out another grunt. My face grew redder by the second. I hesitated. And clapped my hands. Again. And then again. The heat on my face was probably enough to cook a steak.

I carefully listened to the outside, praying that the person would leave.

The person outside gave a large huff, and stomped off out of the hallway and down the steps.

I paused in my grunts. Jade prepared another green bolt. I hurriedly continued the rhythmic grunts and claps.

Finally, we heard the slam of a door downstairs. Jade glared at me. I could only bury my face in my hands, and pray that Chryssie didn’t hear us.