CH 22

Chapter 22 – Escaping Helos (2) 

I looked back but did not see anything. Still, I could hear soft footsteps with my ears. 

“Come one out. There is no use in hiding from me.” 

I guess they thought I was bluffing. Nobody showed up. There was only one option. 

“Two are on the roof, one is behind that box, and the other one….” 

I could hear the last one clearly, but they were not visible. To be heard but not seen? Was it magic? 

“The other one is hiding with magic.” 

I didn’t know much about magic but pretended to. 

Boom!

Then, surprisingly, something appeared out of the empty sky. 

“I’m impressed that you already knew. Are you scared because you are a bunny?”

And as if they were waiting for this moment, the guys on the roof came down one by one, including the one who was hiding behind the box. Three behind and one in front. They were surrounding me. 

“Who are you guys?”

They were all slim men with pointy features, and I couldn’t see them well except for their eyes from their masks. I could see that all of them had pointy ears. 

“Elves?”

Only elves would have such ears. And from my only experience with an elf, there was nothing good to come out of this.

“Yes. Do you know why we are here now”

I didn’t catch the details, but since they mentioned the ‘Miss’ in their conversation, the one searching for me was a woman. Woman, and an elf. There was only one female elf who would try to kill me.

“Your miss or whatever must have sent you.”

From my reply, the eyes of the elves became narrower.

“Then you must also know what we are about to do.”

The elves each held out their own weapons. The one in front took out a whip, and the elves behind raised swords and shields that were curved like scimitars, or crossbows. Finally, the elf who suddenly appeared out of the air took out a dual-wielding dagger.

“What is it that you are about to do that requires all those weapons?”

I acted nonchalantly, still not holding out my sword. 

“We plan on taking you back alive.”

The elves kindly exposed their plan.

“And then?”

The elves snorted at my next question.

“You will see soon. She really misses you.”

I nodded, then took out my new weapon.

“I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to join you guys.”

The elves were expecting this. They wouldn’t think that I would just agree so easily. 

“Get her. As alive as possible.”

The elf who was holding the dual-wielding dagger stepped back and then ordered the other elves. The elf holding the crossbow aimed my way through the other elves. 

Shhooooo!

As I dodged easily, the one with the sword and shield dashed towards me. I guess the arrow was just a distraction. I guess there’s no need to keep mannerisms for such foul play. 

“Haya!”

I blocked the sword of the elf with my rapier, and then quickly pierced through his direction. The elf held up his shield and blocked. Well, he tried to. 

“Kuhhk!”

Although the shield of the elf was made of wood, it was not so thin that it would fail to block my sword. Still, my rapier pierced through the shield like fire melting ice and went straight through his heart. 

Maybe it was just me, but I thought the elf smelled like barbeque when I took out my sword. 

“That bunny killed Azir!”

The elf with the whip started whipping away his frustration. 

“How dare you whip so ignorantly!”

For now, I had to step back away from the whipping. 

Pahht!

Every time the elf whipped, the surface that it touched, whether it was the ground or walls, a loud sound of air tearing was heard. 

It was annoying, but because he went off like a crazy person, I couldn’t approach him. When I looked back, the guy with the dual-wielding dagger was out of sight and the one with the crossbow had finished setting up his next shot. 

So, if I were to let the whip get in my way, I would be torn into pieces before the air. 

Slap!

So, I purposely moved my rapier onto the whip, and as my expectations, the whip wrapped around my rapier. 

“Caught you!”

The elf was excited as if he finally got me, but he soon freaked out. As grand as the power that the sword received from the Sun, the whip started to burn on fire.

“Ahhhh!”

The elf quickly tried to switch over to his sword after dropping the whip, but he was still too slow for my moves. 

Slam! 

The elf with the whip fell as his predecessor and I looked over to the elf holding the crossbow.

Sheeeek!

The arrow flew this way, as if it were waiting, and I flung the rapier to block. 

“She’s terribly fast!”

The elf started to recharge his bow after cursing. I still couldn’t figure out the location of the elf with the daggers. Still, if the elf with the crossbow really felt threatened, he wouldn’t be stalling so much to recharge.

Nearby, the one with the dagger would be waiting for the moment that I would dash towards the one with the crossbow without thinking. 

“…”

I held my breath and focused on the sound. If he were nearby, I would be able to hear his moves. 

Shuffle.

I heard a small noise that even the elf himself wouldn’t notice. I could have been wrong, but since I felt my ears move, I must be right. 

Which meant that I had to get rid of the bigger threat first.

Stab!

I pretended to run over to the elf with the crossbow, then changed my position and pierced at the direction from which the sound was heard. If I had pierced the open air, I shouldn’t have heard such a noise of a sword piercing through skin. 

“How did you…”

The elf who got stopped slowly started to appear in traces like a drawing in mid-air. The elf had his eyes wide open as well as his jaws, then dropped his neck after staring at me for a while.

“Damn you!”

The elf with the crossbow fired again towards me, but I used the one I just killed as my shield.

“I will kill you!”

As I expected, the elf threw his crossbow to the side and ran towards me with his sword after his sidekick disappeared. The result, however, was predicted.

“Phew.”

I took a breath and looked over at the fallen elves. I did not think that they would follow me on their own. Probably, that crazy elf ordered all her subordinates to find me, and these must be only some of them.

Did that mean that I was the enemy of elves?

Jarrod was the ally of elves, but I became one who deserved to die in their hands. What would I do now? Should I go over to where elves live and ask for their forgiveness?

“Hmm?”

I flicked my sword to clean up the blood, but surprisingly there were no traces of blood on the blade. What was this? Was it a special auto-wash feature from the Sun god?

No, it was not time for me to dilly-dally. I had to hurry and get out of this city before the other trackers came to find me. 

When I got out of the alleyway, I could hear people murmuring. 

“There seems to be a lot of elves suddenly, no?”

“Yeah, I think that they are looking for someone.”

“What was it? A walking bunny?”

“Isn’t that her?”

I guess there were other elves other than the ones I faced who spread the news, the people had already caught on. First, I ran through the immense crowd and went to the inn.

“Arje!”

Arje, as if she already noticed, was waiting for me outside holding onto Peter, who looked sick.

“Aris, have you heard the rumors?”

“Yes. I heard that they are looking for me.”

Unlike how casual I was, Arje kept looking around.

“Why are you so calm? That crazy elf is after you!”

But since I had done countless deeds that would make me a target of so many enemies, a single female elf was no biggie. 

Though that led me to my death.

“It’s all right. I have you, Peter and although he is not here currently, Banu!”

I calmed Arje down instead. 

“Or we can just finalize things with the elf here. Make it easy.”

Arje made a full 360 from what I said, out of frustration. 

“Aris! I know that the sword you got is really amazing, but that elf is no joke to deal with! We must run!”

Arje did have a point since that elf had some superpowers.

“I will escort you ladies.”

Peter, even at his state, seemed to be ready to drive the carriage for us. What in the world did Banu do to him that would put him in such a state even after the next day?

“No, since the elf is targeting us, it’s better for you to stay here. We will manage on our own.”

I stopped Peter. To be honest, he wouldn’t be much of a help, anyway. 

Then, in that moment, 

“A MAN!”

Peter, who was just as dead as a fallen leaf earlier, just screamed out ‘MAN,’ and at least his face seemed bold.

“What did you say?”

“The hell?”

Arje and I looked over surprisingly at his sudden shout, and then Peter returned to his ashamed face when we glared. 

“Banu said that, if I scream like this, I become stronger.”

What in the world did Banu teach this kid?