"Just business my ass!" I shouted, and Orin disappeared into my shadow.
I activated my dormant tracking spell, sending out a ping of Eneru.
'The Knights are too damaged to be of use, plus they need to be upgraded.'
A moment later I had a direction to go in and an approximate distance.
"Too bad Rift Garden is out of charges, I would love to portal there."
Devin couldn't bring me there, because he had never been there. I had, many times.
'Seems Laura likes that clearing about as much as I do.'
I picked up the spear that I now recognized as mine and pointed my wrist at the high branches of a nearby tree.
CLANK!
My grappling hook connected and I swung among the trees in an attempt to catch the culprit as fast as possible.
"I figured you found me out." I heard from behind before a knife bounced off of my back. I dropped a bomb.
"You still haven't learned your lesson, Laura." I replied, turning around to find nothing but an empty forest.
"Maybe not." A knife flew at my head but my armor extended to block it. "Or maybe you've already lost."
Knives came from opposing directions, both aimed for my heart.
'Changeling Armor only has one plate.' I thought, just before I was pierced.
Psplat! I coughed up my own blood.
"You bitch!" I coughed, spilling more purple ichor on the ground. "You tried to kill Orin!"
Laura appeared from the forest, walking towards me with malicious intent.
"I've had enough of your shit. Getting assigned to you was the worst thing ever to happen to me. Not only did I fail to steal from you because of that damned dog, but you also ruined my career! I was slated to be a spymaster! But forget all of that, how in the hell did you make me love you!?" Tears streamed down her face as she lost her cool.
"Orin is a fox, dumbass." With a little intuitive manipulation, I set off the alchemical bomb I dropped in the beginning, blasting off Laura's arm and forcing my Changeling Armor to cover me in its fire-proof mimic.
I coughed and laughed at the same time "An arm for an arm! Ha!"
The blood loss was getting to me, but I was repairing the damage as fast as I could. I dropped my destroyed spear and picked up the knife that got through Changeling Armor.
'She only just missed my heart, I can only tell because I'm not dead and I spat blood. One of my lungs must be punctured.'
"You decided to use my weapon against my best friend, so I will use your weapon against you, since you have no friends." I was now the one walking with malicious intent.
"NO! You can't do this! It's not fair! AHHH!" Laura clutched her stump, trying to stop the flow of red blood.
'I just had an amazing idea.'
"You know what? You're right, it's not fair."
My lung had healed, but my skin would surely scar. I placed my hand on Laura's shoulder and started healing her stump.
Only once the pain subsided did she realize. "You're going to leave me as a cripple?" She started crying. "Really?!" She sobbed and looked at me.
"Yep, and I hope you're eaten by wolves." I pinged my wings again, then grappled my way in their direction.
'It's crazy how I managed to defeat Laura. Although neither of us did any casting save for when I set off the bomb.'
'Don't revel in your victory, your win was situational.' Spirit grounded me again.
'All that matters is that now she won't be able to fight. I took out her throwing arm.'
I landed in front of the clearing and pinged again, my Wyvern Wings were there.
'They moved a bit from last time, keep alert.' Spirit advised.
I walked to the point I had been pinging, and as expected, my glider was there. I slung it over my shoulders, clasped the harness, and tried to take off, which only resulted in me face-planting.
'Well, something is very obviously off, and I'm not waiting around to find out what it is.'
I hooked my grappling hook onto a high tree branch and reeled in, I jumped off and used the glider as a glider.
"Can't stop physics!" I smirked.
I felt the rush of flying again as I dodged a crossbow bolt.
'Called it!'
Black lightning continued arcing between my horns, far after the conflict had seen its end.
'I really do need to find out what that is.'
I landed with a thud, my body still hadn't recovered completely from the blood loss.
"Devin, I need fixing up. Laura was the one behind the attack."
"I'm only slightly surprised." Devin opened a portal to the infirmary and made me get in bed. "She was out for blood when we were on the run."
"I can't imagine the king would be very happy about it. He has basically sanctioned my existence."
--------
"God damn it! That girl can't do anything right!" Insopr Gluaze shouted at his court. "She can't even die correctly!"
"She was supposed to die of her wounds when she killed Ingen! But NO, he HAD to let her live! What does he think he is?! A hero!? What the hell am I supposed to do with this footage!? I even made him drop his guard with gifts!" His laments fell on deaf ears.
"Calm down honey." Onire Gluaze said to her husband. "No one will know of this blunder and you have plenty of time to fix it."
Insopr slumped into his throne. "You're right, as always." He sighed.
He waved his hand. "Set up a new plan." and the current Spymaster slipped away into his planning room.
'This is going to be harder than I thought.'