She darted from side to side, hiding amongst the many trees while keeping track of her surroundings.

The group that she was stalking was a leisure pace so she’s not worried about losing them nor would she be worried about the possibility of being spotted by them as she was truly an adept at the art of being unseen and they were friendlies and she was assigned to protect them but of course they wouldn’t know except for the large scholar-like person that was leading the group.

That man or Orka had no problem in trekking in jungle or any challenging terrain, a skill he made from his previous experience a wandering scholar.

The arrangement was perfect. The group was presenting themselves as target begging to be attacked as Erganisu was flaunting his status as Summoned while Vefal with her actual body was guarding one side of the group and her [Shadow] was guarding the other side.

But it had been two days already and yet there were no signs of other stalkers.

Was it because they knew Vefal was around or they were lying low, cautious of them?

Just as she was thinking, there were signs of sudden movement just at the edge of her surroundings.

She smiled slyly at the thought of how they finally took the bait.

Lying close to ground as she puts her right ear, touching the ground, she can hear the rhythm of vibration of the movement more clearly.

One, two, three and more?

No wonder they hadn’t attack, they were gathering their strength in numbers.

Still that was to be expected. When they ambushed Shakil, they had engaged in close-quarter combat but Shakil’s strength lies not in close-quarter combat as he was more efficient in bringing firepower on long-range assault.

Both Vefal and Erganisu were among the top five of the twenty-four summoned when it comes to close-quarter combat so she wasn’t worry about being defeated but she was more worried about the possibility of not being able to capture enough.

But her beloved had entrusted his faith towards the abilities of her and Erganisu to handle this and it was amazing how he had thought of a plan to capture these mysterious assailants with only a few questions asked towards her and Erganisu.

-Her beloved.

That word alone made her giddy with excitement every time it crosses her mind. She never had the sensation of falling in love in her entire life until she met him. Well, that was to be expected from a Herlf. She had never seen a Herlf so easily swooned or confusing lust for love. Every Herlf, innately understand and know the significance of being in love.

Would she fall in love again? Nope, there was no recorded history of Herlf falling out of love and fall in for the second time but for multiple of Herlf to fall for the same person was not unheard of.

It was why she tolerated the idea of sharing her beloved with Rino. At first, she felt a pang of possessiveness but that was quickly smothered by her understanding that love is not like owning property, it’s not she can claim him solely. Still she tried to ascertain whether what Rino felt for him was lust or love. If it was the former, she would quickly separate her from him but fortunately she found the answer while spending time with her.

Rino’s resolve was the same as her. Even if the girl was confused of her feeling, she knew through all the time she was with her, spending times being close with him, gushing about their duel and how her heart raced during the duel down to her spectacular but clumsy attempt to express her affection, she knew how she had felt.

Only time would let her be clear of her feeling and afterward, deepen it.

But she was troubled by one thing. Even though marriage with multiple of partners was allowed in her world, the only one who was truly loved was the first wife or husband. Marrying the second and thereafter was only out of duty.

Herlf marriage was either because of love or shouldering the duty of being loved.

Up until now, Vefal didn’t know whether her father truly loved her true mother or the second mother but she never thought much of it.

But her beloved was not a Herlf, so was it possible for him to fall more than once?

And then there was this other problem plaguing her. During her time in the east, she had an unpleasant revelation about a certain truth of Keh Tauzad son’s fate. She kept it to herself but it was gnawing inside of her. She wanted to find relief from her beloved but she had already burdened him enough. Hopeful, time would ease her trouble and perhaps her beloved would realize her façade but so far he hasn’t.

She shakes her head off the reverie as she realized that the attack was about to begin.

She materialized [Rhelya] and marked the area underneath her.

For now, thinking about these things can wait. She would fulfil her given mission and returned to her beloved.

She still felt giddy just thinking on the word alone.

She made a distinct, bird call, signalling Erganisu.

--

“They come.”

A distant bird call was heard causing Erganisu to stop and his assistants followed suit. They had followed this man or Orka as he called himself since five weeks ago.

They knew how calm and meticulous the Orka was but they knew nothing of his battle prowess. The entire journey of recording the ways of tribes were peaceful and without any truly violent incidents but as they had entered the northern land, Erganisu had warned them that there was a high possibility of being attacked.

Hearing that, the assistants were worried. Although the summoned might had received combat training, how good was Erganisu in combat?

“All of you, stay close and stand over there, it’s about to begin.”

Just as Erganisu had finished saying that, three figures dressed in heavy garbs suddenly appeared and darted forth in front of Erganisu.

Erganisu activated [Indomitable] and just as he did, the three figures surrounded him in an instant and attacked. Two of them were using blade-like shards and each of them had attacked Erganisu sides while one of them, armed with a crude halberd had swung horizontally towards Erganisu right shoulder.

Clang!

All three weapons couldn’t even scratch Erganisu, they had picked the wrong opponent.

When the weapon had landed on him, Erganisu left arm had lashed onto the right arm of the halberd assailant.

Crack~

Erganisu had snapped the wrist and yet, the assailant didn’t even twitch and still held the halberd firmly.

Erganisu nodded with a grunt as though he had confirmed something.

He lifted the assailant by the broken arm and threw him at the ground violently.

After he did that, he instantly grabbed both of the shards of the two assailants that had attacked his sides.

He slammed the two of them against each other and both of the assailants viciously collided, letting go of their shards, both of them were dropped to the ground after Erganisu nonchalantly let them go.

Even after being heavily injured, the assailants stood up albeit struggling but any normal creatures wouldn’t be able to stand after being thrown into the ground with a bone-breaking force.

Erganisu held out his left hand in an upward half-closed grip, a book appeared, hovering on top of that hand.

Erganisu sighed heavily.

“I see, physically disabling is impossible without restraining them temporarily.”

He was able to speak although in a gritting manner. Trading the sensation of taste for the ability to speak during the state of [Indomitable] was the ability of his Soul Weapon, [Gabial].

At first, he had thought that the capability of his Soul Weapon was limited to his four [Indomitable] attributes and his five senses but in actuality, it was extended to much more.

Whether it was the speed of his thought process or speed of reaction, he can lower one to increase one. He could even increase the ability to be more positive and lowering the ability to prone towards the negative.

The only thing was the trade-off must be equal in value and only six exchanges can be made at the same time.

And there were still many that he hadn’t thought of. There was an unlimited prospect to his Soul Weapon but although that the case, all of these trade-off would end when his Soul Weapon is deactivated. For example, even if he maximized his memorization, it is only to his personal limit and after the effect is off, the memories he memorized would fade.

“Prepare me the chain.”

Erganisu barked towards one of his assistants. Only one of them had reacted and reached out on one of the bags. He took out a long chain made of Ghrus Metal, the hardest known compound in Athryshiayl and ran towards Erganisu.

(‘Eo, Luxrantius, Sine, Patium’)

An Eomancy circles appeared below the halberd assailant. The space around the halberd assailant distorted and the halberd assailant tried to move away from the spot but something was constricting him in place, only being able to squirm in place.

Erganisu promptly took it and before the halberd assailant was free from the ‘Space Imprisonment’ spell, he chained that assailant, threw him on the ground to immobilize his movement and made an Origin Circle on the chain.

Ghrus Metal upon being supplied with Eomancy Energy would become rigid and tighten itself, useful for capturing. It was given to him as rewards during his time at the Eastern Alliance Cities in subduing some of the Mal’eurs for an odd errand.

He had about five more chains, so he gestured towards his assistant to get one more.

The assailants leaped again towards him, uncaring and oblivious to the fact that Erganisu had easily captured one of them.

As for Erganisu, he had thought there would be difficulties but after catching one of them with ease, he felt catching the rest of them would be a leisurely breeze.

--

They were mindless as far as she concerned, it was easy to bait them around even though it was a five versus two.

With her [Shadow], she was able to lead the five of them away from Erganisu group.

Three of them had proceeded to attack Erganisu group but Erganisu had already taken care of two of them, as the chained figures were struggling on the ground to free themselves.

Erganisu had only six of those chains but there were about eight of them so it was enough. That’s why letting two of them escape is of no concern as they still would fulfil their objective.

With her old short sword, she parried a shardsword coming from her right and dodged backward from an attack coming from the left. Behind her, an assailant with a crude spear tried to stab at her back but she reversed her grip on the sword and unconventionally parried the spear away as she leaped back again, facing her three assailants.

Their modus operandi of attacking her had never change so Vefal was taking this quite leisurely while her [Shadow] was ‘playfully’ toying the two other assailants.

“Vefal!”

Vefal turned and looked at Erganisu running towards her with three more chains at his left hand.

And suddenly all the assailants stopped fighting. Vefal looked towards them curiously.

……

They turned their back and ran.

Both Erganisu and Vefal cocked their head to the right.

Vefal chuckled.

Suddenly in front of each of the two running assailants, two orbs of black orbs interposing horizontally appeared and it suddenly enlarged into a portal-like hole fit for a human to enter.

The assailants ran into them and the orbs separated, making the assailants stuck inside a spatial space of [Rhelya]. After the orbs closed both portals, the four orbs flew towards Erganisu on both of his side. The orbs interposed again and the same portal opened and the assailants appeared beside Erganisu on each side.

Erganisu casually backhanded both of them and they fell on their back. He sat on the assailant on his right, preventing him from escaping and chaining the left assailant.

Meanwhile, Vefal chased the other fleeing assailants after recalling and arranging the four orbs, she made two more assailants running in loops as she rearranged the orbs every time they tried to get away.

Her [Shadow] was currently grappling with one of the assailants as it tried to escape.

It looks like she would be returning to her beloved and Burra sooner than expected.