"If we travel fast, we will reach the capital in two weeks. I'm sure everyone is racking their head around where you are, lol" Joren laughed
"'Lol?' What does that mean?" Tessa wondered
"Huh? Oh, don't worry about it, just an old habit of mine. But it stands for laughing out loud." In his previous life, Joren would say 'lol' just to be funny when he saw something funny. But everyone knew what it meant there, but here, people would think he's weird.
"Why would you need to say 'lol' when you could just laugh, well, out loud?"
"You wouldn't understand so don't worry about it." He waved her off and continued walking.
"After this, everything will be-" He paused as he sensed something in their surrounding.
"What's wro-" Joren put his hand out, signaling her to be quiet and he continued to scan the area.
'Is it those assassins? I have a hard time sensing where they so it could be them. Or maybe something else, someone else.'
"Tessa, be on guard. We have company." Just then, twenty figures in black appeared from the shadows brandishing their weapons.
"You guys again, huh? You didn't have enough last time so you're here for more?" He taunted
"I'll admit that we weren't prepared, but this time, you won't escape us." The assassin leader smirked under his mask and held up a signal flare. Joren's eyes widened as he recognized what that device was so instead of confronting them, he picked up Tessa and bolted out of there.
*Boom*
The signal flair went off, alerting everyone that they found the targets. Every assassin who was scouring the area stopped what they were doing and headed towards the flare.
"Finally, found you little shits." A woman with a whip on her hip spoke and he bolted toward the signal at high speeds. Bia was there ready to end this game of cat and mouse.
[A few days after Joren's massive lightning bolt that killed most of the assassins]
"Did you find them?" Bia asked as she sat in a chair, eating grapes with one hand, and had a naked man with many bruises and injuries on all fours acting as her footrest. She and Furl split up since it was taking them a while to find Tessa and he was called back to the Main House.
"Y-Yes Lady Bia, but they managed to get away." One of the assassins spoke
"What?!" She blew off that assassin's head and turned to the next one "Explain!"
"T-The boy's senses are trained very well. Albeit slightly, he was able to sense that we were around him and he managed to retaliate. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, b-but he has the lightning element so it was a bit difficult to catch him." the assassin spoke.
"Hmm, I guess that's plausible. But it doesn't explain how a group of over 60 assassins came back with less than 15. Is my money not good enough?" The air started burning up and everyone started choking on the hot air.
Bia stood up, crushing the poor man who was her footstool to death before walking up the the assassin leader. "So how the hell did he escape you?"
"H-He had a powerful spell. One that destroyed everything in its path. It was at least on the level of a 5th circle cultivator."
"Impossible, I sensed his cultivation level and he's only at the 2nd circle."
"M-Maybe it would be best if we showed you the damage?" The assassin leader proposed.
Thinking about it for a bit, Bia agreed. "Fine, take me there, but I swear if you're lying, I'll kill every single one of your assassins across all your branches including your families."
"W-We wouldn't dare lie to you L-Lady Bia." They all spoke in fear.
"Whatever, let's go."
An hour later, they arrived at the battle sight where everything was just as it was when the assassins left.
"S-See there Lady Bia, that was the point of impact." He pointed at the massive charred spot on the ground.
"Holy! What kind of spell did he use?" She wondered
"I-I don't know. It wasn't a spell that I recognized. All I remember is that the girl launched a fireball into the clouds and the boy did the same with his lightning, then a massive dark orange-looking lightning bolt emerged from the sky and did this. It was as if the Gods were angry!"
"He can use the forces of nature? No, no, that's not possible, you have to be at least in the 7th circle for that. So how?" Bia kept wondering what kind of spell could possibly do this, especially when Joren was only in the 2nd circle but she couldn't think of anything. To her observation, he didn't even look like a mage so she assumes he wouldn't use spells in the first place.
"I'll be joining you from now on. Here take this." She tossed the assassin a ring. "It has 50 gold in it. Mobilize your entire assassin network in the area around the southern road that leads to the capital. That's the only path they can take, so we'll just catch them when they arrive." She smiled then rocketed off
[Present day]
Joren was running as fast as he could while carrying Tessa. Normally, he wouldn't be against facing off the assassins, but as soon as he saw the signal flare, he knew it wouldn't be just a few of them. When they escaped from the assassins last time, there were around 80 of them, and most were killed by the massive lightning bolt. If there were 80 of them here like last time, the fact that the assassin used a signal flare meant that there would be a lot more of them.
"Why aren't we fighting them? Shouldn't we kill them so they don't follow us?" Tessa, who was confused by Joren's sudden decision to run away, asked.
"I don't know if you're insane or if you're stupid."
"Rude!"
"Did you not see the signal flare he fired into the sky?"
"I did, so what?"
"What do you mean 'so what'?! He just called for back up and we don't know how many of them there are! I can handle a few people in the 3rd circle sure, but if we fought against all those assassins that chased after us last time, we would have been caught, so what about now?
You think after 80 assassins who mainly comprised of 2nd circle cultivators failed to catch us, they are simply going to send a few more 2nd circle cultivators? Hell no! There are at least going to be mostly 3rd and maybe some 4th circle cultivators after us! I'd rather run away and take my chances than confront them and get fucked."
Tessa gripped his shirt tightly once he explained the situation. She hadn't thought that far as she was excited to almost be out of danger. 'What's a few more assassins' she thought to herself, thinking there wouldn't be any problem having a little bit of 'fun' before she met up with her brothers.
"Sorry, I hadn't thought about that."
"It's okay, as long as we-" The sensation of something grabbing his throat caused Joren to go quiet and come to a halt. He looked around and saw nothing, not even sensing anything. Chills ran down his spine as he internally questioned what just happened to him.
"You okay?" Tessa asked
"You didn't feel that?"
"Feel what?"
"N-Nothing, let's keep going." He continued to run at high speeds, drawing closer to the capital, closer to safety. He pushed the feeling to the back of his mind and only focused on completing the mission.
The assassins were still after them, but because of their headstart, Joren was able to keep them off his tail, putting a good distance between them. He was still on high alert and made sure to watch out for anyone who got close to them, even if It was hard to sense.
"If we continue at this pace, we should reach the capital within a few days. We just need to avoid them at all costs. There are many wild animals and some mana beasts around this area, so we can use this to our advantage."
"Are you panicking? It seems like you're panicking." Tessa teased
"I'm not panicking, I'm just being wary of our situation. We're so close yet one little slip-up could put us back at square one, square zero if you get captured."
"Hahaha, you're panicking! Never once were you like this in the past three months."
"That should tell you something." He said firmly, not making light of their situation. "I don't know why, but I feel like our luck is running out."
"What do you mean?"
"Earlier, I felt something grab my throat. I don't know what that feeling was but I didn't like it so although I'm not currently thinking about it, doesn't mean I'm not worried. So I'd rather be safe than-"
An overbearing force of mana forced Joren to stop in his tracks. His eyes widened as it felt like the air was being removed from his lungs. It wasn't just him, Tessa also felt this way and was on the ground setting profusely.
Using all his willpower to stand up, Joren noticed that his entire body was shaking, as if he was scared, but he wasn't.
'My instincts are going crazy right now! What the fuck is after us?' He spread his senses as far as he could scanning the entirety of his surroundings. At all angles, he could sense the faint presence of the assassins after them, the wild animals roaming around, and the birds flying away. But there was something else that caught his attention, something more sinister.
"What's that?" He concentrated further and pinpointed the source of the overbearing feeling that washed over him and Tessa, it was one of the three people that stopped them on the road, the woman, Bia.
Bia sensed a mana presence trying to locate her so she dominated that presence, tracing it back to its origin which happened to be Joren. "Found you!" She grinned
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Tessa, we need to go now!" Tessa didn't move. She was still shaking in fear, gasping for air. "Tessa!" He slapped her across the face, picked her up, and bolted out of there.
"Wha-What?" She asked, snapping out of her trance
"That lady is after us. The one who was with those other two guys who stopped us on the road a few months ago." He explained
"L-Lady Bia?! This is bad. I've heard that she's crazy. We shouldn't get caught by her at all."
"I don't care if she's crazy or not, what matters is that she's on our tail and knows where we are. She's in the 5th circle so she'll probably catch up with us very soon."
"What are we going to do?" She looked back and saw a small but growing dot in the distance that turned into a human-shaped figure as it got closer
"We're going to split up!"
"What?! Are you crazy?!"
"Yes! This is the only way. I'll throw you far, as far as I can, then I'll hold them off so you can make your escape. I'll also distract them so they don't notice that you're gone. Hide as well as you can, make your way to the capital, and survive!" The lightning crackled around him with more ferocity as he continued to build up more power.
"B-But-"
"No! No buts! Do as I say or we're both screwed!" He demanded
Taking a moment to think, she slowly nodded and gripped him tightly.
"You remember what we did to deter the assassins last time?"
"Yea? Are you trying to do that again?" She asked
"Yup. Before we start, here." He stopped moving, took out some things from his storage ring, and told her to put it in hers. He found out later that the sun-shaped ring on her finger was a storage ring so he gave her some supplies and essentials for her to survive on her own.
"Now let's start!" Like last time, Tessa cast her most powerful spell into the clouds and Joren followed up with his lightning. Just as before, burnt-sienna-colored lightning bolts formed in the clouds before connecting with Joren's mana. The massive lightning bolt came crashing down with intense power, making a loud roaring thunderous boom. But instead of aimlessly striking a spot with the lightning, Joren singled in on the presence of Bia and rained the lightning and thunder on her.
"Nice! A direct hit! Now, time for you to get going!" Joren didn't know how he was going to throw her, so he had to come up with something on the fly. "I'm going to do something I've never done before, so if you get hurt, well, sorry."
"Joren!" She grabbed his shirt and gave him a deep loving kiss. "Make it back to me." Joren smiled, nodding in confirmation.
He wrapped his mana around Tessa continuously until it was in the same of a human-sized mana bullet. "Nice!" The white mana then turned purple and crackled with lighting. He lifted it up into the air and jumped into the sky.
"Here we go! HAAAAH!" With all his strength, he threw Tessa in the direction of the capital leaving a small lightning trail behind.T hunder boomed like a loud drum as she rocketed across the sky. "Now, let's see how our friend is doing over there." He ran closer to the lightning which was still striking the ground with Bia in the center.