"That voice! – Raidha yelled, unable to hide her disgust.
"Yeah, it rings a bell… Unless I'm mistaken…"
Raidha and I gulped loudly and, as if our bodies were in sync, we slowly turned around.
"I knew it… " I muttered.
Just as I feared, the girl with the golden hair with which Raidha fought some time ago was standing there, her arms crossed, and staring at us with a defiant look.
[Who's she?]
"Just a mad woman…" I muttered
She finally broke the awkward silence between us.
"You know? I've been looking for you for the longest time. You have no idea how bad I wanted to find myself in front of you so I could put an end to this torture!"
At first, she spoke slowly and calmly, but as she kept spouting nonsense, she began speaking increasingly fast and loud, until finally she was outright yelling as if taking something off her chest.
"Ever since I ran into you that day, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you! I couldn't even sleep properly! Day after day, night after night, the only thing I could think of was the day when I'd finally find you again! Aaaaaaa! You have no idea of the suffering you've caused me!
To make matters worse, it looked like she was losing her sanity.
'I think I may be beginning to understand how victims of bullying feel…'
However, she composed herself, and all of a sudden, she was back to her calm demeanour from a few moments before. This woman was definitely crazy.
"Specially you!" she pointed at me
"Uh?"I replied, my voice filled with puzzlement.
"Yes, you. No matter how you look at it, you are a mere human. Your presence is negligible, and you seem as harmless as a dove; yet your eyes, those red blood eyes, I will never forget the way they looked at me on that day. That image is forever burnt into my memory. Every time I try to sleep, I feel like those eyes are staring at me. I want that image erased from my memory. Let me live in peace once and for all!"
"What does that even mean? Hold on... did you say red eyes? Do you perhaps mean…?
"What nonsense is this crazy hag blabbering about!" Raidha cut her short, yelling at the top of her lungs while desperately yanking her hair.
The peace I was so thoroughly enjoying a few moments ago quickly vanished… broken by a couple of madwomen yelling at each other.
"Once again, you're just using me as an excuse to fight! Please calm down and let's discuss this like civilized people!"
I restrained Raidha while placing my body between the two of them. I found myself begging that the newcomer wouldn't jump at her throat like she did last time. Even though there were a good few meters between the two of them, I wasn't confident that we could avoid another barrage of flying blades like the last time.
"AAAAAAA! There's no way to have a civilized conversation with someone like this! You should be the one leaving us alone. What did I ever do to you to have you chasing after me like this? Who are you? What do you want?"
'Please don't provoke her any further!', I mentally begged while struggling to keep Raidha restrained in order to prevent her from assaulting the blonde woman.
Fortunately, unlike Raidha, she seemed able to keep her emotions in check… sort of…
"My name is Calitia. I have been hunting Silphen ever since I turned ten. I will not allow you to bring ruin to the universe with your wicked plans. Your evil deeds will end today!" she said, with one hand on her hip and the other pointing to Raidha.
Every last one of my hairs stood on end as I cringed on that sentence. Raidha seemed to feel pretty much the same way, as she backed a few steps and grimaced in disgust.
"It's official, she's crazy," Raidha muttered.
"Beyond any shadow of a doubt" I nodded
—Hey, you should be taking this more seriously. This is a rather dire situation. This katryde is stronger than any other we've ran into before. If she decides to attack, I'm not certain I could fend her off.
The remark the voice on my mind made wasn't particularly reassuring.
"How can you be so sure?"
—I have a hunch about it
"Whatever…
I'd rather not find out whether that would actually turn out to be true. However, I was barely able to focus on finding a way out. I hastily checked my surroundings, even the sky up above, but there did not seem to be any traces of other Katryde nearby.
' Is she all by herself? '
It seemed like this woman had some sort of heroine complex, but if there were other Katryde waiting to ambush us, there would be no way out of this for us.
"Are you here alone? The Katryde we've run into always stick together in groups… " I asked while thoroughly scanning our surroundings.
"That's just a habit due to our military training. However, I can deal with the two of you on my own, there's no need to trouble my men over this."
"Ha! A single Silphen is more than enough to wipe out an entire Katryde squadron. The only reason you're ahead is because you outnumber us!" Raidha stepped forward once again.
'Please do not make things even worse than they already are! ' I tightly restrained her.
"Tsk, as much as it pains me to admit it, that is generally the case. However, do not think that this applies to all Katryde. The rank of commander is only granted to those capable of facing a group of Silphen on their own, and I am used to fight against three of your kind at a time. Besides, there are many commanders even stronger than me. Among them, there are three who could hold their own even against Arkin himself."
"Nonsense, none of you is a match for my father. A while ago we ran into a certain Theralox, who got cocky thinking he could best him, and I can assure you, it did not end well for him."
I could see how those words caused the blonde woman to start shivering.
"Your… your father?? Eeeeeeeehhh? You're… you're Arkin's daughter?? Impossible. Lies, you must be lying!"
"I speak nothing but the truth!"
"And… and Theralox…. Did Theralox fight him? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!"
Her shivering became even more noticeable, and her eyes seemed to be about to pop out of their sockets. That, combined with the way she yelled… yeah, she and Raidha were two of a kind.
"If you did not know who I am, then why have you been following me?!"
Even though she was sweating profusely at this point, her expression turned serious once again.
"Did Arkin…? What happened to Theralox? He didn't…"
"That cowardly piece of trash turned tail and fled after facing my father."
"So, he's fine then… that's a relief… this is actually good…"
Her gaze turned sharp, which sent a chill down my spine. I hastily pushed Raidha away and channelled my energy to the ground in order to make the earth rise as fast as I could. Almost immediately, a huge wall rose between Raidha and me, just in time to block the longsword Calitia had thrown at us. The sword pierced through the wall that stood barely one meter away from me and only stopped once half of the blade had penetrated through it.
"You'd do well not to resist; it will save you a great deal of pain" she shot me a sideway glance filled with recrimination.
[Don't get closer!]
Pyro, who had been hiding silently inside my hood, took flight and fired a barrage of flames aimed directly at the Katryde. However, just before the flames hit their target, she disappeared, leaving behind only the sword that was still stuck to the wall.
"Ugh!"
Before I could even understand what just happened, I started feeling a piercing pain in my stomach, and almost immediately a strong blow on my back.
"Cof, cof."
My brain raced in an attempt to understand what had just happened. I soon realized that the Katryde had punched me hard enough to send me flying and crashing into the wall.
"Draid, what are you doing?!"
I heard Raidha's scream coming from the other side of the wall. I struggled to get back on my feet and had to rest against the wall for a moment while coughing with difficulty. My eyes focused on the woman that stood unscathed barely two meters away from me. Even in this wretched state I kept channelling my energy towards the wall to extend it as fast as I could. I took a moment to get my act together and shake the pain away while biting my lip in frustration.
"Pyro, take Raidha as far away from here as you can!"I yelled at the little bird that was hovering over me.
[But….]
"Hurry up and do as I say!"
The little bird and I stared at each other intently for a moment
"Please…"
Pyro nodded and took off once again.
[Please return safely!]
I did not reply; instead, I took two steps forward and stared Calitia in the eye.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Asshole! Stupid! … Idiot!!"
I could hear Raidha's screams getting farther and farther away from the wall, which still continued to grow. Pyro was probably dragging Raidha away, and given that she was unable to fly, there was no risk of her jumping in the middle of our fight. Calitia on the other hand, was indeed able to fly, so she would easily be able to simply ignore me and chase after Raidha. She however chose to stand her ground and face me.
"Is this what you choose?" Calitia asked while walking towards her blade.
I tightened my grip on the hilt of Vurtalis and replied staring at her as intently as she did.
"Indeed."
She grabbed the hilt of her sword and freed it from the wall with a single, swift motion before replying with three simple words.
"Very well then."
A blur. That's all I was able to see before Calitia vanished from my sight, causing my alertness to go into overdrive mode. Time seemed to freeze around me, but even so, through the corner of my eye, I could see her blade starting to close in on me.
'This… has happened before…'
I felt a sense of déjà vu. I remembered about that one time I was nearly shot at from point blank range. But there was a big difference between the two situations.
'I can't block this…'
On that day I felt like I could have stopped that bullet, but the odds of stopping this blade were literally zero.
'Damn it… is this the best I can do? '
The moment the blade hit me, everything would be over. Once she got rid of me, catching up with Raidha would be child's play for her.
'No way!'
In that fraction of a second, I channelled my energy towards the pocket world, and I immediately found myself in that void space.
"Cof, cof, cof."
I fell on my knees in the middle of an engulfing darkness while I coughed an alarming amount of blood. My body felt heavy and my mind hazy. I could barely breathe. Even though I knew it was just a fraction of a second, it still felt like I'd been sprinting for days.
"Crap, this is so frustrating…."
I slammed both my hands against the ground before I got my breath back and finally stood up slowly.
"Are you here, mister edglord?"
—What did you call me? Well… here I am.
I was silent for a few seconds. I didn't want to spit out the words I was about to say, but…
"You said you weren't confident you could fend her off. However, does that mean you could actually put up a fight against her?"
The answer took a few moments to arrive, but it finally resounded inside my head.
—I don't know… I barely saw that attack coming… but if it's just run away from her…
"The four of us?"
—Just you and me. If she decides to chase after those two, there's no way I can stop her.
I sighed heavily.
"But there's no way we're going to do that, is there?"
—Moron, do you want to play the hero? You've been this close to dying many times, yet you haven't learned a thing.
"It's not that, it's just… I'm not sure how to make this not sound… embarrassing… As you said I've narrowly escaped death many a time… and maybe that's the reason why…"
I simply couldn't find the words. I was too frustrated and embarrassed…
—Alright, I get it. Letting a couple of idiots die when I might have had the chance to do something about it would leave a sour taste in my mouth… but if I feel like the situation is getting too hairy, I will hightail it out of there…
That sounded like such an obvious lie that I couldn't help grinning.
"I don't like the idea at all, but... even if my body needs to be torn to pieces, I'll trust you can do something about it… partner…"
"Sure."
And as the shadows began to break free from my body, my consciousness slipped into the void one more time.