Chapter 152 Suspicion

Through the forest of trees that littered the mountain, I walked. My feet carried me towards the location of my adversaries, my mind focused on nothing in particular.

It was once I reached the end of the trees and into a clearing that I found them.

Sat on a mountain of corpses were the two kids that had invaded previously, their eyes were closed as they leaned upon the other as if in meditation.

I sneered, my hand holding my sword to the side. I placed my other hand on it and so too did my eyes close as I focused a tremendous amount of energy into my weapon.

"Hooh" I breathed out my energy filling every crack of the sword as my muscles tensed.

With a mighty heave, I swung the blade at an angle, the excess energy forming a blade of ethereal energy as it reached towards the children.

I saw the moments their heads reached out from the crooks of each other and perked up.

Weapons were drawn, a beautiful spear being unsheathed as it was immediately swung, purplish green aether coating it as a barrier of wind was made.

Wind met energy as my attack attempted to pierce through their defense. It was not to be though, as almost immediately after they met, my energy was diverted to the side.

The only visible effect was the desecration of the corpses of my soldiers.

The girl's weapon was drawn, a dagger that seemed to pierce the soul just at first sight.

…

I watched as the man grew closer to us, his soul burning brighter than any other elf that I had seen.

Even when my head was leaning on Darwin's, my eyes never left his soul.

When had started to gather aether into his sword I nudged Darwin signaling for him to do something.

~comfort~

I felt as his soul emanated feelings of comfort and other complex emotions and settled down. My head leaned further into the crook of his shoulder, his own doing the same to my own.

Though that didn't last for long as the elf reached the peak of his energy, his muscles tensed in preparation.

It was at that moment that Darwin sat up, my own body following his lead.

Again I watched as Darwin unsheathed his spear, purplish green aether appearing as he reinforced it to its limits while he swung it towards the energy that threatened to kill us.

A barrier of wind appeared blocking the energy, no, it was more like it had redirected it.

When I looked around me I saw the desecrated corpses of the elves that we had killed and couldn't help myself from smiling when I saw the look of fury that appeared on our aggressors face.

Though the smile soon turned into a frown as I saw the mass of souls that were following behind the elf. With a nudge of my arm I alerted Darwin of the impending horde of souls, to which he just sighed. Memoria, the spear I had to remind myself the name of, was brandished again though this time it was brought to a ready position.

"Ready" I heard, his voice ringing out next to my ear.

"Yeah" I replied, my own dagger being brandished, unlike those people that held their daggers backwards, I held it in a proper grip. Even though I had an enemy before me I couldn't help but curse the people that thought it a good idea to hold their daggers in a reverse grip. I had tried it in a spar and all it got me was less power and a slit wrist. The way that they held it meant that when I tried to apply pressure to the weapon that I was parrying the dagger just fell from my hands, the guard completely useless as my wrist was slashed.

That was a painful learning experience, it even gave me a wound that Darwin had to heal and while I was thankful for any reason to be near Darwin, it was still a lot of pain for something that people think was a good idea.

Done ranting in my head I focus my attention on the battle in front of me.

CLANG

CLANG

Darwin had reached the elf before me and though he was able to give a flurry of attacks they were all blocked, it was as if the elf had known beforehand where the attacks were going to come from. There was also the fact that the large sword that the elf used was deceitful, both of us thought that with the size of the weapon it would be a pain to maneuver which meant that we would have the advantage in agility but when I looked at the ease in which he was able to move it to block the flurry of piercing strikes Darwin sent at him this battle suddenly felt a lot more difficult.

I watched as Darwin fell to the ground in a controlled fall, Memoria slashing out to the elf's knees as he dodged back. It was then that I felt a set of instructions being transmitted to me as Darwin fell back.

I smiled, as my body and mind followed the instructions to the letter, wind sweeped passed my hair as I dashed forward.

…

'Duck' I thought to myself, my body moving according to my thoughts. My body fell to the ground, my knees buckling as they crouched down to allow my body to fall though soon after a sword flew over my head. Memoria in my hand went for a sweeping strike aimed at his knees, however it wasn't to be as immediately after I had tensed my muscles to deliver the strike the elf had backed off as if he had predicted my movements.

I narrowed my eyes, a suspicion forming in my mind as I sent instructions over to Aoif. I could feel the confirmation that Aoif sent towards me, a plan formed in my mind as I watched the resulting clash.