Chapter 168: The Second Event – Collapsing Kingdom – part five

(Hannes’ PoV)

"Wait, damn you!” I exclaimed as Rena laughed while running away from me. She had a thread tied to the ankle of one of the important NPCs of this kingdom and was using said NPC as a weapon against his own guards… And she is so fast! I can’t win on a speed competition! “<Earth Movement>!"

“Oh! Not bad!” She said as the walls and ceiling started changing shape, getting in the way of her movement. The ground was also moved to hasten my own movement, but it was still hard to catch up.

“Hey! Only the king and his aides can pass through here!” A guard said… Did he seriously expect this would stop Rena?

“Don’t be unreasonable now!” She said as she jumped above said guard.

“Ah, wait… You can’t pass though!” Giving up on stopping her, he turned towards me… I ended up hitting the back of his head and knocking him unconscious. It would have been best if he just made way, but I couldn’t waste time arguing with him, so I had to knock him out and keep on chasing Rena, who was escaping through a window by using her threads. I had to grab those same threads to go after her.

As I continued chasing her, she said, “Oh, Hannes? You were hitting a guard!? Is it okay to be this violent!?”

“That was a necessity for the sake of not letting you get away! And I don’t wanna be called violent by you of all people!” I replied.

“You’re so rude…” Don’t go fake crying on me! You’re still smiling even! How bad can your acting be?! “Oh well, I wonder if you can actually catch up though.” She said while giggling.

She started gaining distance again, so I had to start throwing hatchets in her way to slow her down. Though I had to be careful to not hit the person she was actually kidnapping, which made it hard to aim.

I also had to keep jumping at her threads and at walls in order to keep on following her crazy movement pattern, which certainly didn’t help…

“You’re quite dexterous, aren’t you, Hannes?” She asked me.

“What’s up with this all of a sudden!?” I asked her back.

“It was just a compliment, you know?” She said while giggling… Not fair! Don’t go looking cute like this out of nowhere! I’m serious about obstructing you!

“<Earth Movement> <Cascading Sandstorm> <Nature’s Retribution>!” I used those skills to make the floor collapse, make a huge amount of sand to block her sight, and to change the position of her threads, making her lose balance.

“You’re smart!” She exclaimed as she threw some poison needles at me.

“And you keep bypassing everything I throw at you!” I replied while parrying the needle.

She also tried binding me with some threads, but I spun my axe around to cut those. She also threw wind and fire magic towards me, but I stopped it by creating earth walls on the path of her spells.

“<Meteor> <Shadow Clone>” She’s not holding back at all! She threw explosives and poison needles duplicated by shadows all against me at once!

“<Nature’s Retribution>!” I used this to send her projectiles back towards her though. It didn’t work against the shadow clone projectiles, but it was easier to handle just the clones alone.

“So your skills can even do this much?” She seemed to be a bit surprised.

“And you just keep on trying to kill me!” I replied.

“It can’t be helped, you threw back all my gifts.” She feigned crying again… Why does she have to be this cute!?

******

(Ranka’s PoV (New Character))

“Stop!” A guard said as he pursued Hymn… Meanwhile, Hymn kept on running, professing his pledges while blocking any attack that came his way.

“I will not stop until all have been enlightened by the Saintess’ grace!” Hymn exclaimed, before going back to reciting his pledges… When will those end anyways!?

The guards tried to make a blockade to stop him when he entered a narrow corridor, but he was able to just force his way through effortlessly.

“Just what is this guy!?” One of the guards that was blown away exclaimed.

“I am the one that will bring the true knowledge to all you ignorant humans!” He exclaimed, and then he started making a pose, as if he was about to start making his praises to the Saintess again, the ones that weren’t involved with the pledges… Okay, I’m tired of waiting for him. Let’s end this right now!

“Enough!” I exclaimed as I hit his head with the blunt part of my Naginata, “Ishimori, the event already started! This is no time to be proclaiming the Saintess’ faith in the middle of the Beginners’ City!” I scolded him.

“Sorry…” He didn’t seem to be sorry at all though… Good grief, he really forgets that we’re in a game when it comes to the Saintess…

“Anyways, how many pledges are there? They just didn’t seem to end!” I asked him.

“There are a total of 108 pledges-” He replied.

“Way too many!” I exclaimed as I hit his head with my naginata again, then sighed.

There were some onlookers that were murmuring stuff like ‘are they friends?’ and ‘are they in the middle of a fight?’ which was a bit depressing. They seemed to be putting me on the same level as him…

“Hey, using violence and getting angry are not things allowed by the Saintess, you’ll be punished if you keep going like that…” Hymn told me… Stupid!

“The benevolent Saintess does not punish! Only karmic retribution may come to those that go against the teachings!” I replied.

It seems like in the middle of his obsessive devotion, he ended up forgetting the basics, so I started scolding him to force him to remember.