Crystal could not hear the system. So, to her, it felt like they were doing a really weird fucking dance under the starless night sky- with a bunch of killers on their heels.
Heart in her mouth, and her blood curdling inside her, Crystal followed closely behind her saviour, holding onto him for her dear life, not letting up for even a second.
In that state of abject fright, just when it was finally looking like they could actually escape, Crystal comitted the biggest blunder she could possibly make.
Underestimating the height of the massive log of wood in their way, Crystal's leg failed to attain the minimum height required to cross over successfully. Her shin struck the wooden barrier with a sharp thud, causing her to immediately loose her balance.
In that moment, the succubus knew she was fucked.
Her body came tumbling down towards the earth, causing her to let go of Nexus' hand, so she could break her fall.
Head first, the succubus crashed sideways, striking her left hip on the cursed log, triggering the first acoustic ripple in the otherwise still night.
The crowning jewel of this series of unfortunate events, was when Crystal gave into her base instincts- and cried out with a woeful wail.
Her high pitched voice slashed through the calm blackness like a blade striking concrete. Nexus froze- partly out of shock, partly because he did not believe this was actually happening. But then again, it did not matter. The ball was rolling already.
Like hunting lions to a foolish prey, the men in the dark surged towards the direction of the pandemonium.
With a startling swiftness, they all converged in that direction, and Nexus watched as out of thin air, two men suddenly materialzed before Nexus, blocking his path like two demons of the night.
[TWENTY FEET, AND CLOSING IN.]
The first conspicious man was dorned in a kind of robe that flapped ever so softly with each and every movement he made. The second dude on the right was clad in iron armor, and outrightly looked like a walking medieval statue.
He had already seen the man in robes bring his palms togther for the first assault.
Even before it came, the harnessed fury of the man's attack had echoed across the clearing in disturbing ripples of cosmic waves.
LITERALLY OUT OF THIN AIR, a human sized ball of water came swooshing at both Nexus and his companion with the vindictive vitriol of an angered water sage. Crystal sensed the raw cosmic fury trapped in the atoms of the water ball, and screamed violently. It charged right at Nexus with the crushing impact of a concrete wall, threatening to decimate his human form entirely.
At the dying second, the water gourd on Nexus' waist reacted like an uncoiling cobra. Its lid opened up wide, and hungrily devoured the tumultous ball of water! The small gourd swallowed it all up! Completely! It was like watching a serpent swallow a deer!
The robed man, A.K.A the water mage, watched with a mixture of surprise and unbelief as his powerful water ball get swallowed! He exclaimed in dismay;
"Impossible! No way!!" trembling slightly, he pointed at Nexus' water gourd;
"What is that demonic object?! WHAT IS THAT?"
The first golden streaks, of the rising sun provided just enough illumination to see the gourd. But also enough to shroud it in mystery. He had obviously never seen this artifact before.
The second armored dude moved quickly, fairly certain that a water gourd would be next to useless against the cold hard blade of a longsword.
Confident, he bridged the distance between them at an impressive speed, and charged right at Nexus with his sword held above his head with both hands. Like his weapon, his bloodlust was equally terrible. And he brought the blade down with a phenomenally powerful blow, not aiming for anywhere else, but to slice Nexus' skull open like a water melon.
Nexus did not have the time to unsheath his katana.
As he lifted his weapon to block, he felt the powerful attack of the longsword. His wrists felt the crushing impact.
Instead of fear, or flight, Nexus felt himself get consumed with the euphoric rush of andrenaline that came from a well balanced sword fight. Filled with perverse excitement, he shifted his weight to his dominant foot, and sprung forward.
His well-timed slash went straight at the one vital place his armor could not protect- his opponent's neck. Specifically, the right part, which was essentially the hardest place for a swordsman to defend, especially after exerting plentiful energy on a first attack.
But this particular swordsman had a shield. He blocked it easily- but not without sliding back a few steps.
They continued their contemptuous dance over the next moments. Blade against blade, wit against wit, they parried, and countered. And went hard at it with testosterone-driven vigor. Nexus went high and low, trying to get in a lethal wound. But the man's shield kept getting the brunt of the attack.
Breathing hard, and heavily, Nexus realized it soon enough- the shield appeared to be made of some kind of sophisticated metal that made it densely hard, and yet, light enough to be carried around in battle.
He could not get through that shield. At least, not with brute strength anyways.
A light bulb went on in his head, giving himself the first brilliant tactic to be conceived in the heat of battle.
With calculated precision, he leapt back, deliberately taking himself out of a close range attack, and putting as much distance between him and the swordsman. Of course, the egotistic armored man took the bait.
Thinking that to be a sign of weakness, he gripped his sword tightly, built enough tension in his tendons, and launched himself at Nexus.
Nexus- unfazed, remained as still as a statue, waiting patiently, luring the man in with his fake-surrender tactic, twitching the water gourd on his waist. The water mage, who had been watching the fight closely, caught on quick, and yelled at his comrade;
"WAITTTT!!!"
But it was way too late. Nexus opened the gourd.
The first water ball that had been absorbed, went rushing out with nearly twice the initial ferocity. The Newtonian law of inertia kept the armored man in the path of the water ball's resurgence. He could not dodge or hide. Before he could block, he caught the full blast of the incredibly powerful water ball.
Even with all that armor, it was like taking a sledge hammer to the chest.
The water mage's weak shield was enough to spare him from almost certain death.
Nexus did not want to find out. He grabbed the physically dazed succubus and sprinted off in the opposite direction- hoping against hope that she would not be unfortunate to fall again.
Sprinting with the high energy, Nexus tore through the woods with Crystal following closely on his heels.
As they ran, he mulled over the fact that if he been alone, the obvious choice would have been to stay and fight it out. But then again, he had Crystal by his side, and that meant he was always going to have to look out for her. That would be like fighting with one arm tied behind his back.
The picture of those two menacing enemies flashed through his mind again, he definitely could not take them on like this.
So, together, they doubled up, and raced forward, buzzing past trees, shrubs and bushes, deftly cutting through intersections.
"Nexus..." She yelled out to him in between breaths; "Do...you...think...we've...lost them???"
Exhaustion characterized her every word. Out of the corner of his eye, Nexus caught her weakened form stumbling to keep up.
"Just a little bit more okay?! C'mon, let's keep going! C'mon---"
"Nexus watch out!!!"
Nexus who running too fast, and only half concentrated on the road ahead, briefly caught the faint outline of a horse's butt, before slamming right into it with a resounding thump. Shocked, and terrified, the poor animal neighed wildly, standing up on its two legs, and throwing its even more shocked rider off its saddle.
Nexus himself had slumped to the ground, baffled, and disoriented, his eyes rolled in his head, as his face went temporarily numb.
"Nexus. . ." It was Crystal's voice. He got the distinct impression that something was wrong.
"Nexus. . ." she called again, with the same faint note of fear.