Evelina, Jett, and Ray hurried through the forest that bordered the capital, their goal clear in mind: to meet up with Seraphina. The dense canopy above cast long shadows as the sun began to set.
"The Illusive Forest, huh? A good place to hide something big from others. Too bad it's getting late," Ray remarked as they entered the forest.
'He's right. This place might not have many monsters, but it's still dangerous at night if you get caught in its illusions,' Jett thought, keeping his guard up.
They moved swiftly, with Jett effortlessly matching their pace. Unknown to the others, he was actually faster. 'For someone not born into a noble family, he keeps up remarkably well,' Ray mused, casting curious glances at Jett.
Noticing Ray's persistent gaze, Jett turned to him. "What's on your mind? You keep staring at me like some weirdo," he said bluntly.
"Ah, you noticed? Your perception is really high," Ray admitted with a novice smile. "Were you trained by a master? You seem to be keeping up with us much better than I expected."
Jett looked at Ray in mild disappointment as they moved through the trees, leaping from branch to branch for a better vantage. "You do realize I'm a noble too, right? The lowest rank, maybe that's why you don't know."
Ray chuckled. "I had no idea. The name 'Grift' sounded familiar, but I didn't know much about it."
Jett sighed. "Honestly, I don't know how or why, but the king made my father a Lord."
Ray's eyes widened in surprise. "A Lord? That explains a lot, then."
Jett's expression turned serious. "I have a question for you," he said, voicing his curiosity. "You're a prince, but no one seems to recognize you or your sister. Why is that?"
"An item we stumbled upon by chance. It changes everything about us—our faces, voices, even during appraisal, it fools someone five levels above us," Ray explained.
"Maybe if Freya had something like that, we wouldn't be in this mess," Jett added.
"Will you two concentrate? There's something bothering me which I'm trying to understand," Evelina, who had been leading them, interrupted their conversation.
"What's that?" Ray inquired.
"She didn't fight back at all. She just let it happen like she was totally helpless," Evelina explained as she moved gracefully from branch to branch, as though it was second nature.
"Yeah, I noticed it too," Ray pondered, as Evelina confirmed something he had been thinking about for a while.
"Even the Freya from the movies and TV shows had some offensive skills. So why couldn't she do anything?" A mansion in the forest slowly came into view, and Evelina ended the discussion there. "Let's save that for after we rescue her. We're here."
They met Seraphina and Asher, who were spying on the building from afar. The structure was heavily guarded by cloaked men, with an enormous gate giving it the appearance of a fortress. It had a dark, foreboding feel to it.
"Is that where they took her?" Jett asked as soon as they stopped.
"What took you so long? I've been itching to go in there," Seraphina asked Ray and Evelina before looking at Jett. "You look too uninjured for Freya to have been worried."
"Haha, well, I got lucky. So, what's the situation?" Desperately trying to change the topic.
"Their defense is solid. I can get in, but I can't say the same for any of you," Asher stated confidently.
"I still can't believe Freya let herself get captured like that. I've never seen her in combat before, but this is too disappointing," Jett said, shaking his head.
"It's not like she just let herself get captured. It's more like she couldn't fight back," Asher explained.
"What are you talking about?" Ray asked, puzzled.
"Freya doesn't have any offensive skills, nor is she good in combat," Evelina interjected. "The least she could have done was use debuffs, but in that situation, it would have been useless." Jett interrupts while also surveying the area.
*****
In the WAR BOUND books, Freya had the shortest lifespan after Jett's character. The reason was her lack of combat and offensive skills. The author probably wasn't sure what to do with her, so he just killed her off early.
The game developers didn't have much information about her, so they tried a few tricks to make her a reasonable character in the game. However, it still wasn't enough. The author, who never revealed his identity to the world, only agreed to her inclusion under very specific conditions known to only a select few.
This made her extremely hard to play, leading most players to abandon the character. They even posted articles and videos on the forum about why no one should use her.
Ethan and his sister were able to unlock special features after months of experimenting and research, but they never shared this on the forum.
Jett had already planned on avoiding her death if it ever came to that, but the current situation was unprecedented, making him wonder if his presence had caused a butterfly effect of some sort.
*****
"So, how do you plan on infiltrating?" Seraphina asked.
[Dark Seclusion]
Creates a space which no one can enter for 3 minutes. Allies get a 5% boost on all stats.]
"I just cut the others off, but we don't have much time," Asher yelled before running to Freya while the others attacked the mage, not holding back and not giving him a chance to cast any spells.
"You actually had an ace up your sleeve. How troublesome," the mage hissed.
"You haven't seen anything yet," Jett retorted. 'He blocked that? Isn't he just a mage?'
'What's this feeling? I can sense something closing in on us, and fast,' Jett thought, feeling an ominous presence getting closer. At the same time, the other members had broken through and cornered them.
[Hell Fire]
A wall of flames quickly engulfed the mage, but it died down immediately as though something intentionally made it disappear.
"Was that dispel magic or a skill? I think I want it," Jett muttered, checking the mage's stats with greed in his eyes.
"Now it's my turn," the mage yelled in anger. "Die!!!"
[Blood Lance]
Spears made from blood appeared out of thin air, pointing at them.
Jett quickly called out to Asher, who immediately knew what to do. Asher used his portals to intercept the spears before they could make contact with anyone, simultaneously transporting them closer to the mage.
[Ricochet Strike A]
[Beast Fury A]
[Divine Fury A]
[Poison Stroke B]
They all went for the kill as they saw an opportunity.
"You are indeed strong. I would have died if I were just an ordinary person," the mage admitted as he appeared in the furthest part of the room, evading the attack but still bleeding from the backlash. "It seems you're out of time."
Asher's skill finally went on cooldown, which meant the other allies could join the fight.
"Don't worry, Articus, we'll end this quickly," the one with the harsh voice said.
"Be careful, especially with that kid with two different hair colors, Gabo," Articus warned.
"You managed to injure Articus so badly. Now I want to test your skills myself," Gabo grinned as he and the other two rushed in.
'This is bad. We don't have much stamina left. How are we going to get out of this one?' Ray thought to himself as he looked at his friends. 'Do I really have to use that here?'
Jett smirked. "Hey Ray, ever heard of a term called plot armor?"
"Plot armor?" Ray wondered why Jett would bring up such a thing at a moment like this.
'It's coming,' Jett thought to himself. "3, 2, 1," he counted backwards.
Boom!!!
The roof exploded, blasting away all their attackers. In the aftermath stood a man and a woman. One had snow-white hair, floating above them illuminated by the moonlight, and the other had scarlet-red flaming hair, burning as she held her sword.
"It seems we're not too late, old man," the woman said.
*
*
*
Plot Armor fr
Please notify me if there are errors this time. ♡