—Ding!!
—Ding
—Clang
The sound of swords clashing in the shadow of the night resounded on the open bank beside a rushing river. Two figures, a male with a skinny/sickly build, was fighting against a blonde female who seemed to have been injured in several places.
"Arg!!" The female groaned before jumping backwards to avoid the incoming attack.
"Annoying" she held on to her shoulder with a vexed expression. There was a lot of snake venom in her system, but unlike the young hunter, she was mighty and used all her power to slow down the spread.
However, fighting with Leon was causing it to spread faster. It would be a disaster if she died because of venom.
"You should really get that checked out, blood snake venom is nasty when it mixes with your blood…." Leon mocked her by the side, but he was clearly no better than her at this moment, during their exchange Leon was able to gauge the power of this lady, and it shocked him.
If she were fully healed, he would have died by now. Fortunately, that was not the case.
"I will do so when I have your corpse in my hand"
She spat at the floor and raised herself up, then she entered an attacking posture. Seeing this, Leon frowned, even with the threat of dying by poison she was still preparing to fight?
"Oh well" Leon shrugged then reached into a pouch to retrieve a bottle filled with a red liquid.
—shing
Just as Leon made this movement, the lady lounged at him again. The liquid was the healing potion Leon had stolen from the young hunter, she couldn't let him heal up while she kept degrading.
—woosh
But she was too late, the distance between herself and Leon was too much and with a simple leap backwards, Leon was able to create enough space to down the bottle of healing potion.
"Ahh, refreshing. Let's continue" Leon threw the bottle to the ground and prepared himself for the lady. The cuts and slashes on him could be seen slowly healing.
"Die!!"
With a simple swing of her sword, the surrounding wind picked. She was about to use magic. She had been trying to avoid using it from the start because of the venom in her system, but seeing Leon get back to his full health, she knew she had no other choice. she knew she could not limit herself.
(Self harm just to take me down? He-he the pride of this one is top grade)
To capture or kill him she was willing to do herself in, she couldn't handle failure. If not pride, what else could this be called?
"Wind work: ravaging blade"
Just as she said it, a gust of wind circled around her and the sword in her hand. And in a few seconds.
—woosh
She flew forward with blinding speed, cutting directly at Leon. "Shit!!!" Leon screamed while he successfully dodged the attack by a hairs' breath.
However, it seemed like there would be no rest. As soon as Leon regained himself, she attacked again.
—woosh
Once again, Leon dodged.
—
Once again, she attacked. This process repeated over and over again, she was too powerful for Leon to defeat in this state, but she could also not kill Leon in her state also. It was a stalemate.
At least that until.....
"Wait!!!!"
Leon said out loud causing her to pause and look over with some skepticism. As she was about to restart, she noticed Leon sheath his daggers.
(He's giving up?)
She thought to herself, but looking directly at him for a while, she noticed him shaking his head.
"The venom has gone too far, honestly, if we keep on going you will die. Of course, I also know that this is not your strongest attack, I am sure you'd use it as a last ditch effort and leave both of us as corpses"
"I don't like that outcome'
Leon could see her veins were being corrupted by the second. If it got to her heart, she would most likely die or attempt to take him down with her.
"So what do you propose?"
Leon was right, she was already fast approaching her limit. The only option would be to give up, but if she did, Leon might use that opportunity to kill her, so the only option was mutual destruction.
She didn't want that either, she still had a lot of things she wanted to do, dying here was not an option.
"A deal" Leon said with a calm expression, neither of them could get out of this unscathed, so it was best they made a deal.
"What kind of deal?" with a frown on her face, the blonde lady asked.
"I believe the kid you're accusing me of killing has some sort of unique background, and I believe that you're adamant on capturing me is because you want to escape death."
The young hunter had a unique background, and she was his bodyguard, she would be put to death, if they found out, he died on her watch and she couldn't capture his killer.
"What if that isn't the case, what if he's not dead"
Leon's words made her frown. The kids' lifeless body could still be seen from this spot. He was deader than dead, so what was Leon getting at?
"Here's my proposal, we work together. When you got here you met the kid fighting against me, but when you came in to capture me you were blocked by several powerful Warlocks of the blood serpent clan. They captured the young man and made a run for it. But you risked your life and captured one of their own. Me"
Leon then paused and added, "I'll act as a decoy while your higher-ups go on a wild goose chase"
"So you're going to sacrifice your life?" The blonde lady said with some skepticism. From her brief exchange with Leon, she was able to determine a lot of things.
He seemed to be very strong-willed and cunning. His killer instincts were also top grade. However, what stood out the most was his survival Instinct. So why would he put himself in danger like this? What would happen to him after the Warlocks were captured? He would let himself die?
"Of course not, during the period that I'm in your custody, you'll allow me free hand to attempt to escape 5 times. You won't chase until I'm a hundred meters away….if I get away successfully at that time, you can only blame yourself…."
(This person is crazy)
The lady thought to herself, what Leon had just proposed was crazy. Even if she gave him five opportunities to run around headless, he would still be in a camp of hundreds of hunters. Where would he go?
"You don't need to worry about me, princess, I can handle myself"
Leon said with a smirk in his face. He could definitely get away before they caught up to the world traversing serpent. This wasn't his first rodeo.
"Okay, but why would I trust someone like you? How do I know you won't Stab me in the back the first chance you get?" Arian asked with a look of contempt