Curling forward, she let herself crash into the flying mage without breaking momentum.
[Vainfall: Terminate]
She activated it only about two feet away as she was about to make contact. The mage froze mid-air as she continued on her trajectory.
One.
She managed to punch the mage as she passed, but it was too fast for the prediction dots. She phased straight through without making an impact.
Two.
She was heading down towards the trees.
Three.
The tree tops were getting closer. At this speed, she would phase straight through them. She twisted around her axis, facing skyward.
Three and a half.
She focused back on the flying mage behind her.
[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]
Climbing back a hundred feet, she came face to face with the mage upside down. It was a man with long brown hair.
The world swept up to the prediction dots, and the monochrome faded. The mage’s clothes started fluttering in the wind, and for a split second she saw his mouth fall open in surprise.
[Vainfall: Terminate]
Her fists were out of range to land a hit. She didn’t want to fall and use the Frame Selected Entity again without making this one count. Hunching forward, she brought her foot down from the top, extending it as far as possible to kick the mage on the head.
She managed to do it slowly as she entered free fall, using her knee to regulate the speed at which the kick landed. Her foot slammed into his chest, spraying prediction dots everywhere. It carved straight through, almost fusing into his body. Darya quickly changed the trajectory of the kick to exit his body as fast as possible.
The movement had taken one second. She had two and a half to fall. This time, with the added momentum of the kick, she was heading straight down into the trees. She knew that was certain death.
Looking around, she caught a glimpse of another entity in the far distance. It was a bird.
[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]
She had no idea how far she traveled, but she appeared right in front of the bird. She was even higher than the flying mage, closer to the beach.
Seris should’ve made it somewhere around here!
The Terminate ran out, and she caught a glimpse of the flying mage receiving a deadly kick that sent him plummeting down into the trees. Her lower leg started burning with pain at the same time. She received several deep cuts from the mage’s ribcage scratching her during the kick. She was also sure her ankle was busted.
The bird almost forgot how to fly when she appeared. It twisted away, flapping its wings madly.
Darya noted the direction in case she needed another entity to save her from a fall. Fortunately, she could see more birds of the same kind.
She heard the unmistakable sound of a horse far below, at least thirty feet behind her. It had to be Seris. The canopy was in the way.
Do I take the risk and go see her?
That was a gamble. If she fell somewhere she couldn’t see a horse or a bird, she was as good as dead.
She looked ahead before she fell past the canopy and focused on the most distant bird. It was flying beyond the forest over the shoreline.
[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]
The second bird was spooked just like the first. She didn’t use a Terminate this time. She was confident enough to handle her falls now.
She let herself fall for two seconds, and as the ground neared, she focused on the same bird yet again.
[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]
The poor bird was actually mid-adjustment towards the sea. It got spooked yet again and started flapping its wings frantically.
Darya was falling into the waves this time. For a water landing, she needed deeper water. She was also not sure about swimming or even surviving the splashdown at this height.
[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]
At this point, the bird lost its mind. It bounced off her again and started flying in any random direction to save itself. It flew low in its efforts. Darya let herself fall for a second while tumbling mid-air. She did everything she could to keep her eye on the harassed bird.
She saw the pier this time, and she saw three figures.
What the fuck. Have they already made it past us?!
It had to be some sort of traversal spell.
[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]
She was only ten feet off the beach this time, but she was traveling way too fast for a landing. There was no time to think. The figures were near the center of her field of vision.
[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]
She appeared before them within a split second. They were mages, and they were preparing their spells after seeing her hop around the sky for the last few seconds.
One of them raised a wand straight in her face, and mana erupted from it before she could even think straight.
[Skill: Warding Of Alta]
-30 SP • 250s Cooldown
[view more]
She felt the mana thunder through her body, cutting her skin in arching sparks. The spell pushed her a few feet back in the air.
Mana Gained
+167 MP
Well, that’s not much.
The second mage was also casting something. She felt weaker after eating the first spell headfirst. A second one could very well end her for good. She had to disengage and find a new angle.
[Vainfall: Terminate]
The world flickered around her, freezing everything instantly. Darya looked at another bird, a black dot above the distant sea.
One.
[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]
Zooming above the waves in a straight line, she reached the new bird. It was fully frozen mid-air.
That’s good for the bird’s mental health.
She saw other birds frozen above a distant cliff and the three mages she left behind. She could head back in either direction.
Something else caught her eye in the far distance now that she was at least three hundred feet off the beach. A black shape.
A ship.
There was a ship.
The sails had some sort of insignia, and it looked a lot like a pirate ship.
What the hell? Did they call for help from the RCMF already?!
Either that, or they were passing through. The timing was odd. A ship couldn’t sail all the way from the opposite side of Galtea like a jet boat. The news of Drakva’s fate couldn’t have even reached the port yet.
The ship was too far for her to notice any entities on it. No birds were flying near it either.
Two.
She focused back on a bird flying over the cliff.
[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]
She phased through the bird. She was going to crash straight into the cliff at this angle. She focused on the three mages on the pier before the cliff hid them from her.
[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]
The world flickered in visual artifacts just like when she spammed Terminate commands. She didn’t want to find out if this macro could also toss her into the /dev void.
Three.
She had gotten behind them with this move, falling from above at a near 45-degree angle. She was looking at the backs of their heads as she appeared.
To her dismay, she saw the boat halfway sunk. One of them had already blown a hole in it, foiling their escape.
No other boats! What should we do?
The world caught up to prediction dots in the last half second. The spell that was intended for her burst from the wand of the second mage.
Darya was about to land face-first into them, getting her soft landing at long last. Flailing her limbs, she sent all three of them into the waves like a bowling ball meeting three pins.
The landing wasn’t as soft as she thought. On her way down with them, she saw a horse in the distant treeline.
Seris!
[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]
She appeared right in front of the horse, spooking both the animal and Seris.
She thought fast right before she crashed into them.
[Vainfall: Terminate]
She phased halfway through them.
Praying to all gods to have enough SP left, she used a skill to break her fall.
[Skill: Wind Step]
-20 SP • 8s Cooldown
[view more]
It worked. She splashed into the sand in a smooth line like an aircraft landing. Prediction dots showed sand flying in all directions.
The only problem was her using both her feet.
The right one’s ankle was busted.
Oh fuck.
She only realized it during the last half a second as her legs absorbed the impact.
“AHH!” Darya howled as she crashed sideways into the sand, sliding and rolling at least ten feet. Her broken foot flared with pain for a second or two before she stopped feeling it altogether.
The horse neighed, and Seris screamed as she and the Seer fell off its back. It was a whole mess.
“Princess!” Seris’s voice came from somewhere behind her as Darya did her best to get back on her feet. “How are you here?”
“Very long story,” Darya grunted, extending her hand to her. The horse ran off into the forest, possibly traumatized for life.
“Sarka, Nerima, close?” Darya panted as Seris dragged her.
“Yes, I heard them!” Seris looked at the treeline. The second horse came through. “There they are!”
Nerima was clinging to the reins, screaming her lungs out.
Actually, it was Sarka who had been screaming the whole way like a girl. Nerima was safely inside the ring.
The treasure bag was hanging off to one side, and Sarka had done his best to balance the horse on the other side. Nerima’s tail looked rather beat up.
“P—hin—scess!” Sarka panted, speaking in the soft voice of the mermaid as he got the horse to stop. “Wh—where—how?”
“No time,” Darya said, looking ahead. “Three mages that way. They fucked our boat!”
“I can sense them too!” Sarka said, letting go of the reins. He flopped onto the sand like a dead tuna. Nerima’s body had to be spent by now.
Seris immediately pulled her wand out at the mention of mages. They were coming out of the waves. One was already flying.
Darya crawled to her knees, getting ready to kill the mages for good. She couldn’t make any mistakes anymore.
She looked around for anything she could use, and if there was nothing, replacing their brains with rocks seemed like a good idea.
She saw a piece of metal armor dislodged from the Seer when he fell off the horse. It was a shoulder piece. She grabbed it with a trembling hand and pushed off the ground, standing on her good foot.
“Seris, keep an eye on the back,” Darya said, squeezing her shoulder. “Use shield again if you can. Don’t worry about healing anyone.”
“Princess, I’m sensing a mana signature! This is—” Sarka yelled.
Well, probably more people I need to kill.
Darya leaned forward and hopped. She caught a split-second glimpse of something weird landing on the beach. It was a blur.
[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]
She appeared in front of the first mage, a man with yellow hair. Their eyes only met for a split second before his head bent at a weird angle, rolling like a football.
What the fuck? I didn’t even do anything—
Darya crashed into the mage headfirst. She had just enough time to brace with her forearms to protect herself. They flew in different directions after impact, and Darya rolled away.
She pushed off the ground, spitting sand from her mouth. The mage was in two pieces. His head was rolling down the beach.
“What!” Darya yelled, looking at her body to check if she had unlocked some latent power.
The second mage screamed to her right. It was a woman. Darya flipped around just in time to notice her falling into three pieces, splashing blood all over the sand.
She only saw the source of these attacks when the third mage fell to the ground, only ten feet away. A blue ray of mana momentarily burst through his chest, and a red one sliced his neck.
Fominel landed on the decapitated corpse as it fell, sheathed his manablades during the fall, and bounced off.
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