Arthur felt his own gaze turn red, as the entire world around him exploded in a black coloured smog.
He had cleanly assassinated one of them. It was clear that out of the two, the one that he hadn't dealt with had some sort of counter towards his invisibility.
The moment he activated his moonslice fae, his opponent felt it, and instantly reacted to the usage of his origin essence.
Arthur's eyes narrowed.
'If he can sense origin essence usage, then this smog won't protect me. The invisibility might work, but the moment I try and get close he'll be able to detect me'.
Arthur felt a tingle at the back of his neck, and quickly rolled to the side, dodging a bright green coloured wind blade to the back of his neck.
'Wind Attribute?', Arthur instantly frowned.
He felt a flurry of bright green coloured wind blades come his way, all over a metre in length and capable of slicing through trees double his own size.
Arthur activated his camouflage fae, but tsked as more wind blades were sent flying his way.
This opponent could feel his presence through the wind, so it was obvious such little tricks wouldn't work on him.
'Rank 2 wind cutter fae. Rank 2 air presence fae. And a Rank 2 wind stalker fae at the very least', Arthur calculated.
Arthur didn't know how many Rank 1 Fae this person had and never stopped the usage of his own wind stalker fae, constantly running around trees and darting behind bushes to as to avoid dying instantly.
His opponent obviously didn't catch what Arthur was doing, turning constantly turning to one side, shooting wind blades as Arthur ran in a circle around him.
By the time that Arthur had completed a full circle, the opposing Fae Master ceased all his attacks and frowned, relying solely on his air presence fae to detect Arthur's location.
The older man's eyes turned towards the headless corpse laying quietly beside him, as a hateful look appeared on his face.
"Junior brother, I swear I will avenge you".
This Fae Master frowned biting his own lip cursing Arthur after he realised what he had done.
By running around in the circle around him, he had cut down all the trees that allowed him to escape. He had forcefully turned this area of the forest into a small grotto, which allowed the sun to shine brightly down over this stretch of land.
Many shadows had been cast in this area, causing Arthur to curse himself for not obtaining a hidden shadow fae.
The pair were stuck in this small area together. If one tried to escape, they would leave themselves open to the others attack.
The Rank 2 Fae Master had the advantage, being able to use ranged attacks that extended beyond ten metres.
Arthur could only reach things within three metres of himself, and that was using the moonslice fae in conjunction with the moonsword fae.
Arthur hid behind a tree, whose thickness was too much for the wind blade fae to cut through.
The past version of him would've long since run away, but this time, he couldn't afford to let either of these two leave here alive. Not since they saw the Fae that he had created!
'Black smog fae is out of the question. And camouflage fae won't work either. The only thing that I can do is to use the same tactics that she used against me'.
Arthur held the moonsword fae in his right hand, and readied another fae in his left.
Utilising the wind stalker fae, Arthur charged straight towards this opposing Fae Master, his moonsword fae flowing a brightly coloured silver, so much so in fact that it left behind a trail of neon coloured silver wherever it passed through.
The Rank 2 Fae Master smirked, raising his hand and activating his own wind blade fae.
"You idiot! I'm going to kill you, and then kill you're entire fucking family for what you did to-".
His words were suddenly cut short, as a massively bright ray of crimson coloured light exploded in the area right where he was staring at.
Arthur smirked, continuously activating his crimson-coloured flash fae, preventing the Rank 2 Fae Master from using his eyes to target him.
With the black smog fae, both sides would lose their sight, but due to the air presence fae, Arthur would be placed at a disadvantage.
Since he used the flash fae, the opposite had occurred.
His opponent couldn't use his eyes, yet Arthur still could. And even if he could use his air presence fae, it wasn't nearly as accurate as eyesight at Rank 2.
Arthur constantly weaved and spun through the relentless flurry of wind blades that shot towards him.
His origin essence was draining even faster than he could make it, as he used the moonsword fae, wind stalker fae, flash fae and charged up the moonslice fae all at once.
The Fae Master was forced to completely close his eyes and solely rely on the air presence fae to strike at Arthur, while taking not-so-small steps backwards, so as to put more distance between the two.
However-.
Arthur smirked.
"Shit!".
The air presence fae could only detect movement in the air around the Fae Master, it couldn't allow them to detect their environment like other detection type fae.
The Fae Master tripped over one of the small trees that he had cut down.
His breathing rapidly increased, as he tried to role over and get up off his back, unconsciously opening his eyes as-.
"No-!".
A radiant silver coloured crescent shot forward, reaching his neck in the moment it took to blink. His gaze turned completely red, as another crimson coloured burst of light exploded right in front of him.
His only solace, was that he managed to get one final wind blade off before he died.
He couldn't see it due to the flash fae blinding him, but Arthur's right hand had been completely severed from his arm, causing him to groan deeply as his breathing became rapid and unregulated.
The pain that coursed through Arthur's arm caused his vision to become blurry, but despite his injuries, his focus completely turned to the two bodies on the ground.
They had only just died, so their Fae were still in tact.
That meant that those two Fae that Arthur wanted to form, hadn't been completely refined yet.
He bit his bottom lip, to the point where it drew blood.
His mouth tasted like copper, and he spat harshly onto the body that he had just killed.
If he didn't act quickly, he wouldn't be able to reattach his hand to his arm.
Rank 3 Fae were capable off completely reattaching lost limbs, provided they hadn't been scorched or completely turned to mush.
Rank 4 Fae could cause the body the body to undergo rapid healing. Removing genetic illnesses and diseases that people had had since birth.
While Rank 5 Fae could fully regenerate a lost limb. But not an internal organ.
Right now Arthur needed to grab these corpses and take the Fae that belonged to him. He didn't want anyone seeing the two Fae that Arthur had formed.
Ripping up the cloth from his pants, Arthur tightly bound it around his severed stump, trying his best to restrict the bleeding.
He wanted to scream as he felt the layer of cloth cover his wound, but ended up laughing in self-depreciation as his breathing rapidly increased.
'When was the last time I was injured this badly? 100 years? 200 years ago?'.
Grabbing his severed hand and putting it in his pocket, Arthur grabbed the heavier looking Fae Master, while lifting the other one over his shoulder as if a fireman were carrying someone.
Moving as fast as a person carrying one body and dragging another could move, Arthur slowly moved towards Parachenko Village.
If he could just get in sight of the Village gate, he would be fine.
Luckily-.
"Hmm? You there, stop right where you-.... Arthur!".
Arthur turned his head to the side, his eyes maniacal and his expression frenzied as he turned to look at the person who called out his name.
Arthur's body turned stiff for a moment before he sighed, smiling slightly as he looked towards the approaching group of people.
The moment the led individual stood by his side, he completely supported Arthur's weight, while looking at him with concern.
"Arthur! What the hell happened to you! And who the hell are these two!".
Both of the bodies were missing heads and Arthur didn't bother to collect them. What he wanted was located in the origin essence sea which could be found anywhere in their bodies.
Arthur let out another groan before shaking his head from side to side.
"That doesn't matter right now Leon. I need you to do something for me. Brother to brother".
Leon, Arthur's second brother nodded, gazing all his brother's wrist with a look of dread on his face.
"When I pass out. I need you to bring me to the Medicine Elder and get them to reattach my hand. But before that, the most important thing I need you to do for me is-".
Arthur grabbed Leon's shirt and pulled himself closer so as to whisper into his ear.
"Don't let anyone touch their bodies. Take the Fae out but don't refine them. Don't tell Dominic or Father either".
Leon frowned, looking confused at why his younger brother would ask such a thing of him.
Arthur's eyes became even more frantic as the cloth he had tried to suppress the blood flow with had been completely soaked through.
"Please!", Arthur tried his best to sound desperate, "Just please do this for me! Leon!".