Bloodrage? Helen frowned at her words.
"Helen, we must talk about where you are from," she said and jumped into the sky at that moment, startling her. Only then did Helen notice that they were surrounded by a plague of bats.
"How? It's not even night," she sprung away in a hurry. Even if she had rested on the train to heal the wounds from her last attempt at martial arts, she still felt her bones quake at her agile movement. If she died because of mere bats, then her clan was right to have thrown her away. Sweeping a look around, she could not find Kheal anywhere.
"Follow my voice, Helen," she heard her voice call in the distance, and she leapt unto the trees. Using their leaves as protection, she executed light steps from one branch of a tree to another, speeding away from the pursuing plague of bats towards Kheal's voice. Just as her feet were about to touch down on a branch, she felt an arm grab her and make a sharp turn.
"You did well to distract them, Helen. Your light steps may be inferior but surely belong to the Sorventii," she heard Kheal say as they passed a boundary of trees and she swiped her free hand to make a seal.
"Freehand seals!" Helen was shocked at her actions. Making seals with one hand used to be a myth until her father accomplished it. This made him a once-in-a-century genius in Thriergor, as his fighting style seemed a level above the clan's teachings. All through Thriergor, the Ligrel clan could hold their head high because they produced a seedling like Blood King Jin Ke.
Kheal did not bother with her words as she stood on a branch of a tree behind the tree division holding Helen to her, just in time for screeching bats to dash towards the boundary of trees into an invincible veil. A web of crackling lightning snakes erupted from the veil in a three-second long spark and a massive explosion broke through the air. The power of the explosion hit the tree they were on, slapping it and others like a parabola into the distance.
"Hold on tight," Kheal said as she let go of Helen to have a better grip on the tree being thrown into the distance. Helen needed no telling, as she had already had her arms tightly hugging Kheal's form as they sped across the headline of uniform trees. Helen did not dare to close her eyes at a time like this. She looked towards the direction they were falling and something caught her eye. She saw a flicker in the near distance and panicked. This was not any flicker, the way it moved. This was usually caused by an invincible veil spanning across the area. This flicker occurred because something just slammed into it, causing light to bounce across it like a wave. It may have been a small one, but Helen only panicked at that thought.
"A Shield, a veil, a..," Helen shouted in panic to alert Kheal.
"Veil?" Kheal's voice tore through the air as they sped past.
"At this speed, we are going to die if we hit that veil!" Helen panicked.
"Jump," Kheal ordered and let go of the tree. Helen hurriedly let go of her at her words, not thinking straight about the distance to the ground until she had let go. Even after letting go of the tree, their bodies were still tied to the previous momentum. They were still being thrown forward.
At this, Helen panicked. There was no way she was going to die, as the religion would protect her. But Kheal at that time would now find out that she may be from Thriergor. She had no idea if the knowledge of the religion's protection could make one tie her to Lady Wickshire, but she was not willing to try her luck. She had heard talk on the train about the lady. She understood that those of the middle realms thought the lady was in the lower realms dealing her revenge. They spoke about how the middle realm belt would grab her if she dared step foot in the middle realms. She knew the lady was there, she followed her here. She was no more willing to let anyone find out where she was from, for fear of being tagged to the lady. The lady could defend herself, she could not. Just as she wondered how she was going to deal with this situation, Kheal had arrived at her side, grabbed her and spun in one swift motion. She recognized this move. She had done the same thing to Lizzy to change their falling direction as they escaped the Nether Lord.
Sure enough, she had been thrown away from the shield and Kheal was sent in the opposite direction. She adjusted her body to land. Remembering what happened as she had tried to land on the train and her barely just healed legs, Helen grabbed a branch to soften her fall. This did not help. The sharp turn was executed with an amazing power to break their previous momentum and avoid the shield, as such, Helen was still moving a bit too fast. She positioned her feet and slanted her body, in an attempt to break her speed just as she touched the grassy ground. Her legs could still not stay straight, giving way, causing her to tumble to a stop.
Noticing that she was still alive, Helen heaved deep breaths and stabilized her breathing. She lay there till Kheal appeared before her.
"You did well, Helen. Your light steps, we must work on it. No one would believe you are me with that level of movement," Kheal smiled over her.