Chapter 242 Split

Chapter 242 Split

As the four of them were riding toward the capital at full speed, Leo kept an eye on the group pursuing them. They had stopped momentarily before splitting up. Now they had a group of 5 people chasing them, all 3rd Circle Aura Knights.

He didn't tell this information to Damian yet. The reason was that the attackers were almost half a mile away. Showing off his perception wouldn't be very helpful, so he would give them the information once the distance between them closed down.

At this point, everyone seemed to know that they were going to get caught. The horses they had were worse than those of the pursuers. The dull faces of the people around him showed their lack of will.

A few minutes later, Leo decided to tell them about the incoming horsemen. They were going to catch up to them in a few more minutes and Damian would need at least that much time to make a plan.

"Damian, they are closing in. I give us 5 more minutes," Leo said.

Damian looked at Leo with a dull gaze.

"We need to split up again. At this point, I am guessing you know who the target is. You need to take her to the capital as quickly as possible." He said.

Leo looked at the girl riding alongside him who was looking at him too. When their eyes met, Leo looked away. He didn't want to look into the eyes of someone who gave up.

"So, how would we be splitting up?" Leo asked.

There wasn't any fork ahead of them for them to be able to split up. This confused him a little.

"We jump," the girl said. Her voice was very soft, but it was heard by everyone there. Her voice was like a fragile wisp of smoke, drifting through the somber atmosphere. There was a vulnerability in her voice, a deep well of emotion that threatened to overflow with every syllable. n-)o/(V((e.)l/(b/-1)-n

It was the first time he noticed any emotion from her. The frailty that was surrounding her was enhanced by her weak voice.

"Yes. You need to jump. I hope that you can jump without creating any sort of tracks," Damian said.

Leo nodded and guided his horse toward the girl's. Once he got close enough, he held out his hand for her. She looked at it with a little doubt before holding it.

With remarkable skill, his fingers gently grazed the girl's outstretched hand. Her hand was incredibly smooth, except for a single scar that ran through her palm. While she was of nobility, she hadn't grown up as one.

As his fingers interlaced with the girl's, their horses continued to stride forward, their hooves creating a soft rhythm on the earth beneath them. The girl swung her leg over the back of her horse.

With Leo's support and a burst of agility, she seamlessly glides from her horse onto his, finding herself seated behind him. It was a lot easier than Leo had expected.

Once she was on his horse, he looked at Damian.

"I hope you get out of this alive," Damian said to him.

"You too," Leo said.

He launched himself onto the back of the horse. Now that he was standing up, he was looking down at the people around him. He turned around and looked down at the girl.

He stretched out his arm to her. She looked up and saw the outstretched hand. Her hand moved toward it and clenched onto it. The minute she held his hand, he gripped hers strongly.

He bent down and took her other arm, bringing her to the same height he was in. Both of them were now standing on the mane of the horse, but the girl was very shaky. She was barely able to keep her balance.

He bent a little and cradled her waist, lifting her off the horse's back. Once he had her properly held, he jumped off the horse. The force he exerted pushed the horse a little off track, but it kept riding forward.

The two of them were already close to the road, so they were going to land away from the road. However, a tree was about to hit them. Leo let go of the girl with his right hand and hugged her close to his body with his left.

He then rapidly created two blood tendrils that wrapped themselves around the branches getting near them. Using the tendrils, he maneuvered around the tree and away from the road.

Before he got away, he looked back to meet Damian's gaze. His face showed immense worry and helplessness. It wasn't unfounded but that was only because he was underestimating exactly how strong Leo was.

Leo looked back and used the two tendrils to jump through the trees like a monkey. This was a lot faster than walking, but it would exhaust a lot of his aura if he did it for too long.

He was only planning on keeping it up till they got away from the road. Once they were around a mile away from the road, they would be away from the pursuers. And since he would be able to detect them before they knew where he was, he would be able to avoid any interaction for a while.

As they were getting away Damian and Jennifer were doing their best to keep the two horses without riders to stay with them. Jennifer was keeping them in line with her aura.

"Are you sure that they can escape? Why didn't you send me along with them?" Jennifer asked.

"I wanted to give them a smaller footprint by reducing the number of people in that group. It gives them a better chance at surviving, but not that much. We will be dying anyway. I severely miscalculated when I picked this mission," he said.

"We have worked together a lot, and this is the first time I've seen you make this big of a mistake." She said. "What went wrong?"

"There wasn't supposed to be anyone who knew the girl existed. And even if they did, they weren't supposed to care this much. If they sent out 3rd Circle Aura Knights now, who will they send out next? Mages?

If any group is this interested in capturing her, they must be planning something big. This is a lot bigger than just money." He said.

"But you were offered 40 Million Starcoins for this job. What would be worth more than that? They must be trying to get more money, that's all," she said in response.

"Each one of those killers who attacked us was very experienced. To hire them, I would expect to pay 3 million Starcoins. And now we are being chased by 9 3rd Circle Aura Knights. It would cost 20 million Starcoins at the very least to hire a group like that.

Do you think they would spend that much money just to blackmail the prince for some money? They are trying to kill everyone who knows about the target. As for why, I wouldn't be able to say. If we do get out of this alive, we will be seeing something about this empire finally change."