"Did you see Phildina?" I asked Hertz as soon as I nded.
"Yeah, I have an approximate idea of your location."
"So, should I come to you?" I asked.
"No, stay where you are. I'll come to meet you." He answered coolly. Hmm, what should I do with my free time? Everyone else was doing their best out there, so I'd feel bad if I hardly contributed. Besides, I also wanted to test out my skills, so I started shooting down enemy Cavalry from the cover of the thicket. Sometimes, I would assist. Other times, I would kill, but my attacks were really starting to pack a punch now. I wondered if it was because of my skill, [Nature's Bounty]. What does the skill consider to be natural terrain in the first pce? It was a very good question, but I hardly had time to focus on it because an enemy Archer started shooting at me.
Woah! That was close! I thought as I quickly shot him down. It all happened so fast. I was kind of surprised at myself. I could tell that my reaction time had greatly increased because I could never react to things that fast. I'd bet good money that it was because of my higher speed stat, but Hertz suddenly appeared, scaring the living daylights out of me.
"Don't do that to me!" I compined, but there was a strange look in his eyes, almost as if he felt sorry for me, and I started to have a bad feeling about what was ahead of me.
"W-what happened?" I asked, trying to get an answer from him, but he lowered his head and said,
"Follow me." He led me through the bushes, carefully avoiding any Archers on our path and as we got closer and closer to our destination, the bad feeling only got worse. From his voice, look, and demeanor, I could tell that what I was about to see was going to be disgusting. However, I was wrong. It wasn't just disgusting... it was revolting.
"No way," I muttered, unable to believe my eyes.
"The sick bastards," Hertz cursed at the sight with trembling fists.
"Performing ritual magic... on children!" The signs on their foreheads told me everything I needed to know. I can't believe they'd stoop so low. Ritual magic was a special type of intrinsic magic that Shamans and Druids could use. They would perform rituals to imbue objects with magic, essentially converting them into one-time spells. From what I could remember, they could select the range, duration, and power of the spells they imbued, and those spells could only stopped by— "Destroying the object," I said as I tightened my grip on my bow.
It was a sick pn that preyed on human compassion. It was designed to make you hesitate and then... I quickly shot down an Archer who thought he had caught us off guard. It's a nasty trap, I thought to myself in disgust, hating every moment of this more and more.
"Hertz! Conceal yourself! This pce is not safe!" I warned him and heeding my warning, he vanished into the darkness as Archers started gathering around me. I never imagined I'd be fighting my kind so soon, I thought to myself with a smile. They fired simultaneously, but I moved out of the way with incredible speed. Good thing I brought a sword, I thought to myself as I drew it out of its sheathe and closed the distance to the nearest Archer.
"ARRGH!" He screamed in pain as I cut him down, but I couldn't muster up an ounce of sympathy for the guy. You all deserve to die, I thought to myself as I moved on to my next target. I took advantage of my speed, the environment, and their weaknesses as Archers by attacking them at close range with my sword. Before I knew it, I was the only one left with my sword dyed red in blood. What's this?
DaphneLV 53HP502Str272Dex305Spd218Luck 221P-DEF245M-DEF373Status-----CompatibilityLuciaDid they really give out that much EXP? I wondered as I tried to recall what happened in the midst of all that. Each level up brought with it a more substantial increase in my stats from now on, but I was only just distracting myself with these thoughts. I have to do it, I thought to myself before sheathing my bloodstained sword and readying my bow.
"Lucia, it's time..."
"Daphne, are you okay?"
"Yeah, don't worry about me," I managed, but it didn't even sound convincing to me.
"Um, okay. I'll tell you when I'm ready." I waited for a few minutes until she got back to me with, "We're ready!"
I'll definitely make the Empire pay for this, so please forgive me, I thought as I fired... and fired... and fired... until all of them were dead. They couldn't even move from where they stood. They could only send pleading looks my way, but as much as I wanted to, I couldn't spare them. I heard a spshing sound in the next few moments and was almost blinded by a powerful fsh of lighting. I could only assume that things went as pnned and that we had won, but it didn't feel like a victory to me. I felt like I had lost something at that moment, and it filled me with an inescapable sense of emptiness.
"You did what you had to do," Hertz tried to console me, appearing by my side and pcing his hand on my small shoulder, but it was like his words didn't even register in my mind. I've truly done a horrible thing, was the only thought that crossed my mind as we made our way back to the Fort.
