Chapter 99 No Legs, No Running

"Where is he?!" She tried to sit upright, but fell back into her father's arm, groaning to the pain in her back.

Realizing something was wrong, he turned her around, to his horror, he saw his shirt had a faint stain of blood, her back and her top was soiled in blood. Her body gave quick spasms, sweat began to form on her forehead.

"Did I do this?" His hands trembled.

"It's fine," she let out a strained laugh, "nothing a hot compress, bandage, ointment and a good rest can't fix."

He forced a smile at her words, even though she was trying to prove that she was okay, he could tell she was struggling.

Quickly he removed his shirt which exposed his ripped torso. He wrapped it around her, "this should keep you a bit warm."

"Thanks, father!"

He shook his head. "I keep telling you to put on more clothing, I don't understand why you never listen to me on this, you were almost molested by that kid." His eyes glanced at the torn hem of her transparent top.

"I hunt for fun, there hasn't been any human that has been able to find out where we are until he came along, so I could dress any way I wanted." Her cheeks were flushed again at the thought of Nix.

Fegan had caught on to her reaction at the thought of that kid, "I forbid it! He made you immobile, he tried to molest you, is this one of his tricks again?" He raised a brow, definitely not pleased with the turn of things.

"No... it isn't what you think!" She quickly defended, "I never said I find him attractive."

Fegan raised a brow at her words, "really?"

Looking away awkwardly, she gulped at the slip. Wanting to correct it, but was immediately reminded of the pain.

She curled in his arms, shaking in pain and groaning.

"Hana, please just bear it for now." Lifting her, he was about to go in the direction of the cottage, when he felt her hands tightly grip his shirt.

"No!" She protested, finally getting the feeling of her legs. She kicked, forcing him to stop.

"What the heck is the matter?" He looked down at her, "you can't possibly be thinking of that kid, he would be defeated soon. Right now, you need to be medicated immediately."

At the mention of being defeated, she lost it. With what she had noticed, there was no way he could lose, and that spelled danger to her father.

"Father!" Hana gritted her teeth in fury, she clenched her fingers and opened them as she contemplated what she wanted to say, exhaling so she could think and speak rationally.

"Please no more distractions, we still have time at home." He shook his head, not bothering to stop for any more words.

"He survived my curse dust!" She looked up at him, gauging his reaction.

His eyes doubled in size, which was beyond what he could imagine and a feat even he had a hard time getting out of his system when they trained.

"Do you have any idea what that means, father?!" She stared at him, searching his gleaming eyes for the answer.

"He's the one." He said with a sigh, closing his eyes.

He refused to believe this, opening his eyes, he looked back down at his daughter in disbelief.

"Is there a time your abilities were ever wrong?" He blinked, hopeful she would nod her head.

To his dismay, she shook her head, "I am your guardian angel, after all, my magic never fails." She forced a big grin.

That didn't calm him down at all, anxiety quickly rushing in.

"I'm in danger, right?!" He looked down, realizing why she had been asking about the fire user. His link to the statue would put him at risk if it were to be destroyed.

She gave a nod, "you need to stop the statue before it's too late. I don't want to lose you."

Letting out a sigh, he shook his head at the tight spot he found himself. He wished this revelation was wrong.

"So... it has begun." He muttered, looking above for some sort of sign.

Calling up one of the puppets which had been standing on a tree above them, he handed over Hana. "Make sure she gets to the cottage safe and sound, and provide anything she requests concerning her injury."

The puppet nodded its head.

Ruffling her hair, he had a sad smile. "Father needs to correct a great wrong."

With that, the puppet dashed towards the cottage.

Looking in the direction of the damage caused by his statue and the user, he felt some imminent danger like the one his daughter had spoken about.

'Oh no! It's in danger!' He picked up his pace in search of where the two dueled.

–––––––––––

Huff!

Huff!

Nix had tried several attacks, but then he had realized, just like Agatha, they didn't have much effect on the body, and had resorted to dodging several attempts to have him squashed.

​ 'What the hell did he make you with? That can't be just gold!' His eyes searched the surrounding area for his next line of action.

The wreath pendant glistened, almost like it was gathering something.

'What can it do, shoot lasers too?' He rolled his eyes, jumping onto a tree, using the branches as a way of creating more distance as he jumped on several and away from the statue.

Zzzzzzznnnn!

His ears pricked up at that familiar sound, facepalming and immediately changing his direction to the left before the laser could destroy everything on the left side of the forest.

'You just had to think of this annoying feature to the statues, huh?!' He scolded his thoughts.

Unlike Agatha, this did pretty good and wide scaled damage and wasn't meant to steal gifts and magic–this was meant to kill anything in its path.

His chest thumped in panic.

Hiding behind a tree, he could see the cottage at a distance, his guess was the statue couldn't attack using its lasers in this direction. The vibrations coming from the movements on the floor could only show that it had slowed its steps a bit and was searching for him.

"So it boils to this." He looked at his hands.

'No legs, no running.' Thinking of the only choice left was to create a wave of liquid flame in order to slow its movements and melt its feet with the concentrated heat.

Jumping down from the tree, he waved his hands above his head to call the attention of the statue.

"Come on big boy, I'm right here!" He called out loud, his hands on the side of his mouth.

It charged in blind rage towards his direction.

'Yes... that's it!'