Chapter 26

"We should leave immediately. We have pursuers," Smoothie stated.

"I thought we shook them off."

The two of us hurriedly took flight. This time, we changed our heading to northeast, deeper into uncharted territory.

"Can you tell me how powerful the enemies are?"

"It's their weapons. We don't stand a chance."

"Then, can you tell me how they're tracking us? Is it an ability or a trait?"

"I don't know. I only saw a vision of three humans covered in black coming our way. If I had to guess, they are using abilities."

"Then we just need to keep evading them until they run out of mana, right?"

"Mm."

With fey bodies like ours, we had constant stamina. In a sense it could also be considered as unlimited because as long as we had mana supplies to keep us going, we could continue our activities non-stop. However, it also came with a minor drawback in combat situations. That was that we couldn't suddenly draw out our potentials, something akin to a burst of energy to overwhelm opponents.

"Smoothie, grab onto me, I want to try using [conglomerate] on you."

"Did you synthesize a brain?" She inquired with an innocent smile.

"How mean!?" My chest tightened a bit.

"I was going to mention it but you said it first. You're a cheater!"

"Hmmph! I won't hold your hand anymore."

"I'm sorry," she gave me the sad puppy eyes, "Please be nice to me."

You're a devil.

"Fine, but you should be nice to me first."

"I was just teasing! Aren't you supposed to be an adult? Are adults this weak?"

"No! I'm hardly a year old."

Actually, I didn't know how long I had been living in this world. A couple of months should have gone by going just by my previous world's standard.

"You're a baby?"

"Stop that! Tell me how to shake them off."

Not only did we have to shake the three pursuers off, but we also had to pay attention where we were going. Dangerous monsters inhabited the wilderness that could easily destroy our bodies instantly. No matter how high my spiritual stat was, I was next to defenceless and completely unarmed.

"Okay, I'll show the way. Just let me hold your hand, Mother."

With her leading the way, we zigzagged through the dense forest without encountering any dangerous monsters at all. However, that didn't mean were able to escape from our illusive pursuers. In fact, they seemed to be closing in on us.

"Tell me, what does |escapist| do? Will that help us?"

"It prevents you from being targeted and tracked. But, you know, we are together. So, just keep flying, Haelley will catch up to us soon."

"I hope so."

It's not an extraordinary trait but it's useless in this situation. There was no way I could just abandon Smoothie here. Who knows what they would do to her?

Pah.

Pah.

Now that our pursuers were much closer, they had been taking shots at us once every few minutes as if to keep us vigilant. I remembered learning about something similar before. This was a technique often used in hunting more powerful targets. The hunters would keep harassing their targets from a long distance. This was to prevent their targets from resting and retaliating. And, at the moment their targets lost their vigilance from exhaustion was when the hunters went for the kill or capture.

"You know, my resources can't last us forever. How about we turn east? They can't follow us too deep into the wilderness, right?"

"My ability [soothsayer] isn't omniscient. I can't see what dangers are like in that direction. In the worst case scenario, we would be stuck between a them and a legendary monster."

"What a dilemma. If I call the rabbit demon, do you think he'll protect us?"

"Would you exchange my life for his onetime protection?"

"Of course not."

"Then, keep flying!"

The hunt dragged on for another three hours before the pursuers increased their firepower. Each time they fired a shot, a blue light flashed behind us. With Smoothie flying slightly ahead of me, I tried to block the shots aimed at her. Every time I was hit, I had to use [synthesis] to recover.

Am I not a good Samaritan yet?

I kind of wished I had some sort of long ranged method of attacking.

"How in the world are they keeping up? Don't they get tired?" I complained aloud.

"Haelley should be here any moment now. Patience!" She raised her voice, sounding irritated.

That's a first. Something must have gone wrong.

"Are you sure? She should have caught up long ago with her speed. Smoothie, you're not lying, are you?"

"Of course not. Trust me."

Or, trust [soothsayer]. Something definitely went differently than she expected.

Rwaarrrr!

A booming howl shook the forest from the east.

"We're changing directions, north."

I followed her instruction without hesitation. It looked like this time we were really caught in between a rock and hard place. Whatever it was to the east, it certainly sounded like an humongous ancient beast. Either way, not my cup of tea.

"What was it?"

"How would I know? Also, you shouldn't poke your head above either."

"I know better than to poke my head out. Do you think I should leave some of my clones here?"

"That's a good idea. Allow it to produce strawberries."

"Alrightie!"

I scattered a few clones as we fled northward on our wings.

Rwaaarrrr.

Boom!

"I hope they are fighting each other," I murmured.

Just then, we were forced to stop in front of a vast canyon that stretched as far as my eyes could see. The reddish brown rocky landscape was exposed to the elements, sparsely dotted by crawling vegetation. The vertical slopes reached the depth of at least hundreds of meters below. If we tried to cross it, we would become easy targets. And, if we didn't cross it, we would have to backtrack and change directions following the edge of the canyon.

Tch, we're trapped. Not, good, not good! The enemy is right behind us.

"Smoothie, what the hell? I thought you knew where you were going?"

"As if! I don't have a map. I'm just going by whichever seemed to be the safest route for us."

"What now?"

"Let's go into the canyon," as she signalled for a dive.

"Are you sure? Isn't it better to stay under the cover of the forest?"

"No, we'll go to the bottom of the canyon and follow it northeast. This way you can at least see who we are dealing and come up with a countermeasure."

"I don't like it," I sighed. Since we didn't have time to spare on chit-chat, I decided to just go with the flow.

Once we dived into the canyon, we adhered to the cliff the side we came as we continued onward.

"Can they fly?" I asked.

"Yes. They have some type of suit that allows them to fly."

Mobile suits? I thought this was a fantasy world. What in the world is going on? Why are they chasing us so deep into unknown terrain? It can't be because we're rare species! It just can't be.

"I'm guessing those suits give them power ups. Just seeing their status wouldn't help me gauge their combat abilities, right?"

"Yes. It's best not to fight unknown enemies."

"Smoothie, do you know if their tracking abilities require sight?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

"Right now, there's too much we don't know about them. We can't rely on Haelley who is nowhere to be seen. Smoothie, I'm going to make a stand and delay them. I can't die, you know? Be a good girl and go hide. I'll catch up in no time."

"Mother!"

"I have an idea that might work. Please, just go."

"Okay... Give me a strawberry then."

"For my teleport? Here you go. Now, try to lure them to me. And please be safe. I'll come and find you as soon as possible," I assured her.

blanksphere