Bang~
Alderic's body shot backwards, blitzing through the air then landing on the floor multiple times before finally coming to a stop.
Nerissa reacted immediately, swinging the spike in a random direction. In that split moment of impact, she caught sight of a mirage and she immediately followed through with her instincts.
Clash!
There was a slight spark before the distorted figure retreated. Nerissa did the same, heading towards Alderic while on high alert.
'Shit! How the hell are we supposed to fight against an invisible foe?'
"Alderic! You jinxed us into this position, you better not leave me alone to fight against an invisible foe." Nerissa yelled.
Surprisingly, her voice was followed by gasps as Alderic's eyes shut open. He glanced around, wincing before furrowing his brows.
His brows shot up and he immediately rolled, using the momentum to push himself off the ground.
Thump~
A thumping sound followed as a footprint immediately appeared where Alderic had once been. Alderic's eyes narrowed,
'Instinct? I guess the genes do more than just increase the limit….'
Alderic landed on the ground, skidding a bit as he pulled out his daggers. His eyes darted about briefly as he took in his entire surroundings, from where Nerissa was to the position of his spear.
"Nerissa, shadow me." Alderic ordered before dashing forward.
Nerissa furrowed her brows, she was confused by two things. The first of which was the most obvious,
How the hell was Alderic going to battle an invisible foe?
And the second was how was she going to shadow him while he was doing the impossible. For him to keep up with this foe, he would have to be more skilled than the commander she knew. And she didn't even dare to say she could shadow the commander.
But nonetheless, one of the things Nerissa had learnt over her time under Alderic, was the fact that he mostly didn't do or say useless things.
So she followed, dashing after Alderic with just a split second delay, pushing her body to the very limit to keep up with him.
She didn't even seem to notice how much easier it was to push her body to what she assumed was the limit.
Clang~ clang~
Alderic attacked, sending stabs after stabs, as he fought, he took more steps forward, making sure he wasn't too far from this invisible foe.
'What?' the foe at hand was shocked. It had assumed that these weird looking races were foreign and weak, they hadn't even been able to sense it, this was why it was brave enough to attack.
Yet it has received surprise after surprise. From the male not dying from his attack, to the female taking advantage of the split mirage formed from his movements to attack.
And now even more shocking was how this male had locked on to the same slight mirage and kept his distance while continuously predicting where he was and striking with deadly precision.
Although it was stronger physically, its skills were far lacking compared to Alderic.
And to make matters worse was his moving shadow.
Nerissa watched every single move Alderic took, noticing where the sparks appeared and using it to guess at where to shadow strike in order to limit the opponent's movements.
Splurt~
Finally, the invisible foe couldn't parry any longer. One of Nerissa's attacks landed and green blood splashed into the air. The camouflage effect immediately washed off and the enemy was revealed before them.
'Rana…'
It was a bipedal frog like being, it was tall and had thick limbs, which were no doubt powerful. It held a metal spike of about a meter on each hand and there was a deep cut on its left thigh.
But its looks did nothing to affect the barrage of attacks from Nerissa and Alderic. The latter, finally not having to strain himself trying to lock into the enemy immediately became freer in his attacks.
The frog-like creature felt its vision blur for a bit as a needle appeared before its face, threatening to take out its eyes. It reacted with amazing Dexterity, twisting its body out of the way and simultaneously sending a stab of its own towards Alderic's abdomen.
It was like now that its invisibility was gone, a burden had also been taken off it.
But Alderic wasn't worried about the strike. If he had been alone, he might have been worried but with a shadow as skilled as Nerissa, there was simply nothing to worry about.
Clang~ Humph~
Nerissa grunted, staggering backwards in shock as she parried the strike, the sheer strength behind the attack made her arms numb and a cold shiver run up her spine.
Alderic pushed forward, his blades dancing through his fingers. He held them in a reverse hold, his footwork abruptly changing to one of martial arts.
His body danced from left to right as he swiftly arrived before the creature. It snarled, swinging its other arm forward but Alderic seemed to have anticipated it.
His movement was feint.
Taking a quick step back, out of the way of the attack, Alderic closed the distance once again and his hands moved.
Cha~ Cha~ Cha~
The sounds of needle penetrating leather like flesh echoes in the forest as Alderic went to work, stabbing with such efficiency, he might as well have been a sewing machine.
The first three strikes went through the upper torso of the creature; it's shoulder joints and one in the solar plexus, not only sending a burst of pain through its body, clouding it's judgement, but also loosening it's joints, making it hard to use it's full strength.
The beast charged forward, planning to knock Alderic down with its body but Alderic wasn't there anymore. No one was.
Cha~
Green blood spurted out, this time as a result of Nerissa's movements. Her spike danced around as she inflicted as much damage on the creature as possible within a short time, distracting it from Alderic.
The creature lunged for Nerissa only to feel a cold shiver run down its bony spine as a shadow appeared behind it.
Cha~ Cha~ Cha~