The fight carried on with me running around constantly avoiding his arrows and bombs. I need to find a way to bring him down. Why can't I ever have a proper sword fight recently? Damn it!
I looked up to the sky. No sign of a thunderstorm tonight. I guess I will have to depend on summoned lightning then. Strange that no elves came to check up on us when there was plenty of explosions happening around me. It looked like there are denser amount of trees coming up ahead. How should I play this?
I took a quick peek at Tom flying above, he had unsummoned his visor. Perfect, time to make use of the darkness around me. Let's show him what a Dark Wanderer can do in his turf. I made a sudden leap into the trees and activated Concentration. I reached into my potion pouch and pulled out two potions. The first potion is going to make my spells even more efficient along with Concentration active. The second is my treasured potion that increases all my stats by 5.
I can hear Tom resummoning his visor to look for me. I used Perfect Concentration to force him to focus on me. Making sure that he was staring at me, I used Illusion on him, turning his vision entirely black. He started panicking and turned his head around trying to see something. Pressing my advantage, I casted Fear on him as well. He made a loud "Shit!" and started flying backwards. But I was ready for him. Using both Tengu-kaze & Inazuma for climbing, I appeared behind him and got ready to stab.
Seemingly acting on instinct, he swung his wing behind and hit me with it. This caused me to lose balance and fall to the ground in a crouched position. But my plan sort of worked. I managed to pierce Tengu-kaze through his wings causing him to immediately crash to the ground. I quickly ran over to try and deal some damage to him but he unsummoned his wings causing Tengu-kaze to fall to the ground with a loud thud. He quickly resummoned them and flew backwards avoiding my advance. I continued chasing after him and threw Inazuma at him which he deflected with his bow.
Damn it, what quick reaction speed he has. I couldn't even deal a blow on him after using my spells and potion. What else can I do to bring him down? Force him to keep resummoning his wings? I do not know how long he can use Rend and how many times he can use it. I need to think of another plan quick.
I felt something pierced my thigh as I was chasing him. One of his arrow managed to hit me, avoiding my spectral cloak through a gap. His arrows must not be strong enough to pierce my spectral cloak directly. But that bow of his must be legendary. I might had mistaken earlier that he can use magic. His bow should be using the same magic concept as my Lightning Strike. But does his bow use charges?
"Hoo.. finally an arrow hit home! There will be plenty more where that came from. You'll be a human pincushion by the end of this," he said with enthusiasm as he placed his foot on the ground.
I reached out to my back pouch and took out my healing gel. I removed the arrow and slapped a hand full of gel on it and glared at him. He was speechless as he started seeing my wound stopped bleeding.
"You're certainly full of surprises, Hawthorn. How long has it been since I enjoyed the thrill of battle? I guess it was when I fought with the old man who put me out of commission," he said.
"I guess my grandfather really put the hurt on you. No wonder you did not pursue me or John after all these years," I said.
"Bah, it was one thing that I was injured badly for a couple of years, I just felt that it was not worth the chore in chasing after two children as the reward was pathetic. Seeing your old man refusing to give me any information made me respect him in some way. I only attacked the three of you as I happened to overheard you three talking about Hawthorn," he explained.
"Trying to act noble? You became my sole purpose in becoming strong. And I intent to finish my revenge," I glared at him.
"Haha! You are not the first Hawthorn. My line of work comes with plentiful of people seeking revenge on me. None of them succeeded and so will you. I am not called one of the Great Powers for nothing," he got ready his stance.
"Indeed, you could had been something else instead of an assassin. Yet you sully the name of the Great Powers by being one of them. Allow me to overwrite your position since I am in good relationship with two of them," I grinned at him.
"You don't know my story. I didn't choose to this line of work because I wanted to. Everything was set for me on the day I was born. You think I wanted to become an assassin?! You and your old man should not stick their noses where it doesn't belong!" he started raising his voice.
"I'm sorry, I didn't come here to listen to your story. I just come here to kill you," I told him nonchalantly with a shrug.
"You had a happy life with your friends and family. I had nothing but a shit ass father that started beating me into becoming an assassin right after I was born. Don't you dare rub it on my face, asshole!" he shouted.
"I beg your pardon but you are dead wrong. My family was murdered by the Queen that you served and then YOU murdered my one and only family member that I had left. Don't put your self-pity as though your tragedy is the worst. You still had a father," I spat at him.
"Hah! I would rather be an orphan than to live with him. Luckily the graduation ceremony of me becoming an assassin was to kill him. I felt satisfied when I shot an arrow through his heart. It was an ecstasy of joy for me. I guess I should thank him for handing me this bow as well," he closed his eyes as though he was basking in his memories.
"I'm sorry but are we still talking? Because I am getting bored listening to your ramblings," I glared at him.
He somehow took that personally and made an angry face. He exhaled loudly and readied himself.
"I see you can only use Concentration. But too bad, if you're able to use Higher State of Mind then perhaps you stand a chance. But as of now, you lose," he said as he activated his Concentration.
Hang on, why is his iris changing colour to glowing red? I don't remember Concentration changes your iris colour and gives you bloodshot eyes.
"Let me show you the strongest version of Concentration! I call it Maximum Concentration!" he shouted as he flew up.
Once again he drew his bow and blue particles started accumulating at the tip. I got ready and expected him to shoot upwards but he released it towards me. Three large homing arrows started flying towards me which made me started running again. I quickly took cover behind a large tree which the arrows struck. I was forced to run again when showers of arrows started pouring from above. Damn it, he is spamming his spells now! And it felt like his spells were stronger now thanks to his Max Concentration as he called it. Is it due to him not capable of using Higher State of Mind that he had discovered a stronger version of Concentration?
Rend had ended a while ago during the talk. I only have two more chances to use it. Tom seems to have his wings up for a long time yet it did not seemed to run out of duration. Now that is unfair. How long am I going to keep running from his barrage of arrows?!
***
I rubbed myself with mud that I happened to stumble upon. Surprisingly he is having difficulty finding me right after I used mud on myself. Is his visor using some sort of heat detection? Hmm.
I hid myself in between the roots of some giant trees. I needed to regain my bearing from all of that running. It would seemed that Rend has ended for him as he had to land. By my estimation, it was around 20 minutes for him as opposed to my 10 minutes duration. Damn it, I am at a disadvantage. The most that I managed to injured him is his arm from his own bombs. For my case, an injured left arm and thigh. Things are not looking good for me.
Let's see, his Rend is not strong enough to stop my direct attack on him. Perhaps this is due to him needing to fly hence his armour is lighter. But it was strong enough to stop a direct Lightning Strike. Or can it be that Rend is more effective at blocking spells rather than direct physical attack? Now that is something that I need to test out.
Keeping Concentration active, I used Conceal to peek out from the roots. I don't see him around. Where did he go exactly? I climbed out of the roots and stayed in a prone position to look for Tom. All of a sudden, something pierced through the huge tree that I was hiding in just a second ago. What the hell was that?!
A huge hole appeared in the middle of the tree but it stood firm as the trunk was extremely large. I peeked at the other trees behind the trail and many smaller trees had fallen down. What in the world just happened?
I started crawling towards the direction of where the arrow came. That piercing capability is insanely destructive. I am not about to test whether my spectral cloak is capable of withstanding that attack. I can hear someone shouting "Come out come out wherever you are~ There's no use hiding!". That must be Tom and I guess he certainly cannot see where I am currently. Who knew that using mud would work in hiding my heat source. Now I have the element of surprise, I should make full use of it.
I continued crawling towards the direction of the arrow and voice. I saw a silhouette of someone crouching behind some bushes. I crawled closer in an attempt to perform some sort of steal kill but something was not right, there appears to be two silhouettes. And they appears to be.. much slender and shorter than Tom even though they were crouching. Are these elves from the elven forest on reconnaissance? I managed to sneak up behind them and attempted to cover both of their mouths. Strange though, elves should had heard me sneaking closer to them. Is this some form of trap by Tom?
"Don't move, are you two on reconnaissance?" I whispered to them as I covered both of their mouth.
Both of them turned their heads slowly towards me. It was Lily and Rose. What the bloody devil are they doing here?!
"W… what are you two doing here??" I whispered softly to them.
Lily quickly pushed all of us down as something flew pass us and destroyed more trees. Is that why she didn't notice me crawling closer? She was focused on whatever that thing was?
"We followed you here because we were worried about you, onii-chan," whispered Rose.
"What are you talking about? Get out of here right now! It is extremely dangerous with Tom here!" I scolded both of them as softly as I could.
What were they thinking? The reason I did not want them to follow is because I knew it would put both of them in danger. Tom is one of the great powers that even I had doubts that I could win myself.
As I dragged them away, I heard something dropped nearby us. It was a bomb. Shit! Tom must had heard our commotion and figured out our location.
Multiple bombs exploded which was insanely deafening. When the dust finally settled, I can see a blurry vision of Tom walking closer towards me laughing. I couldn't hear anything as I think my eardrum may have ruptured by the sounds of the explosions. I was in a daze when Tom placed his feet on my left arm. Ugh, that hurts really bad. Did I lose a limb or something from the explosion? I don't even know whether Rose or Lily are safe. All I remember was tossing them among some trees before the explosions happened.
Tom was crouched directly on top of me trying to taunt me or something. He was playing with an arrow with his right hand. He poked the arrow lightly on where my heart is located while mumbling something to me which I could not understand. He raised his right hand holding the arrow. Is this the end for me? I couldn't even kill the guy who murdered my grandfather. No, I refuse to let things end here!
Something jumped from out of my vision and bit Tom on the arm. It was Q! What is he doing here?! Tom was struggling to pull Q as he bit him tightly. I can see blood dripping from where Q had bit him. Still in a daze, I pulled out a syringe and stabbed it directly at my thigh. It was an emergency solution that gives me a form of adrenaline rush. I snapped out of my daze and quickly unsheathed my dagger and stabbed Tom above the pelvis bone where his spectral light armour did not protect.
He shouted a loud "Fuck" and stabbed Q in the belly area with his arrow. Blood was flowing from Q as I saw him falling to the ground in slow motion with a pain expression. I thought their kind were indestructible. Why is he bleeding? Why is he writhing in pain on the ground? Is Q going to die? For trying to save me? What the fuck am I doing that even Q needed to save me?! Why the fuck am I so weak that I needed my precious pet to save me?!
I started breathing harder and saw steam flowing out of my mouth. I did not even realised that I was clutching Inazuma was on my hand until it started shaking vigorously. I unsummoned Inazuma and swapped with Tengu-kaze instinctively. I can feel myself losing my sanity as I continued glaring at Tom. He only noticed me after as he was done checking his wounds. He left my dagger in his pelvis as he realised that pulling it out will only make him bleed to death.
After seeing that I stood up, he started panicking. Perhaps he realised that steam was coming out of my mouth. He leaped back in an attempt to fly backwards but at this point I had already lost my sanity. I had no idea what I did in the next moment but when I finally regained my sanity, I was chocking on my own blood with Lily pressing her hands on what looked like an arrow on the left side of my chest. She was panicking and crying as she called out for Rose who was nowhere to be seen. I tried to call out to Lily but I could not as there was plenty of blood in my mouth. I reached out my right hand to hold her cheek as my consciousness was fading. I wiped a bit of her tears and did my best to smile for her. Then darkness overtook my vision entirely. Zen Hawthorn had died.