บท 274: A hardy guardian (3)
With the injuries and the accompanying pain distracting her, the guardian's grip on me loosens. I immediately wriggle free from her hug and leap off of her. That was dangerous!
If the guardian hadn't mistakenly assumed that there was a second monster present and that that imaginary second monster was the one casting the magic during the fight, I would have been in trouble.
Being squeezed to death by the bear hug of a guardian in full armor is not something I'd like to experience.
<Hey, don't sell yourself short! You are very resourceful when it comes to handling dangerous situations, you would've found a way to escape her clutches.>
Perhaps. But I would have definitely been hurt badly in the process. And even now, I still need to fight that shinobi.
The shinobi in question is nowhere to be found. She probably witnessed her companion being fatally wounded and decided to escape. She must still be under the impression that there are two monsters present. I wonder where she went.
I open the dungeon map and immediately spot a red dot near my position. She's still nearby? Looking closer, the dot is in the same room but higher up…
She's hanging from the ceiling, isn't she?
<Yup. Adventurer school lesson when dealing with hidden enemies, get a good vantage point with enough distance from everything so you can dodge any sneak attacks.>
So what'll happen if I just attack her?
<According to protocol, that doesn't happen.>
Meaning?
<The adventurer school only has a very select few scenarios that they strictly follow. There are no what ifs. Knowing that, she'll probably just panic and bolt.>
Let's hope so.
I sheathe my dagger and proceed to quickly look up and launch four rock needles at the shinobi. She's hanging from the ceiling where she has used her chain sickles to create a secure foothold.
She unsurprisingly dodges all four rock needles by swinging out of the way and pulling her chain sickles out of the ceiling. I can see her flinch when she grabs one of the chain sickles with her injured arm.
She immediately let's go of that sickle and uses the chain connection to swing it at me by tilting the sickle she hold in her other hand. The swings pretty wide and I can tell that she's not really aiming at me. This is just a feint to buy herself time to escape.
I half expect her to flee back down the tunnel she and her companions came from, but she surprises me by choose the one leading towards Jake. Not a bad idea. The distance to the other group is the shortest and once she can meet up with them she'll have reinforcements.
Too bad for her. Running from me is just about the worst thing anyone could do. The moment I see her fleeing back, something inside of me awakens. My chase skill activates in full force and I feel that overwhelming strength fill my legs as I sprint after the shinobi.
When she looks back, her expression is one of pure shock when she sees that I've almost caught up to her. She clearly realizes that her speed is now far inferior to me. Must be confusing since this kind of speed should have allowed me to dodge the guardian's hug.
I don't want to give her the time to figure out that I'm being buffed by a skill so I launch a rock needle at her. Unsurprisingly, she dodges it without looking back by jumping up. Usually jumping would slow you down because you can't accelerate without traction from the ground. However, by using her air step, the shinobi can push off of an invisible platform, launch herself forward and continue running without losing speed.
I slow down a little to avoid me catching up. I'm afraid that she'll turn and fight me as soon as I get too close. If she doesn't that, my chase skill loses effect and killing her quickly won't be easy.
I need to find a way to further weaken her before I engage. She seems to be able to avoid my rock needles without needing to see them but I suspect that she just dodges when she hears me launch them. If I launch one into the air space above her, she should dodge right into it.
However, that'll only work once and if I fail she'll not fall for that again. I need a second layer of attack. A sand ball might do. If I launch them in short succession, she'll probably block both the needle and the sand ball. Then, the sand ball will explode and she will hopefully get some sand into her eyes.
With a plan in mind, it's time for me to execute it. I prepare a sand ball and the launch a rock needle over the shinobi's head, firing the sand ball right after it.
As I predicted, the shinobi jumps the moment she hears me launch the rock needle and immediately turns once she feels something is off. She spots the rock needle coming at her and hurried to block it with one of her chain sickles.
The rock needle clunks against the sickle and is easily repelled, but then the sand ball arrives and explodes into a cloud of sand as it hits that very same sickle. Since she was fully focused on blocking, the shinobi didn't use her air step in time and was fully enveloped in the ensuing cloud of sand.
"Cough- shit -cough-"
Sounds like she at the very least inhaled some sand. I've also stopped running as I wait for the sand to settle. She might use this as a chance to run but if she does I'll just catch up and engage her normally.
As the sand settles, I see that I am in luck. The shinobi is frantically using the back of her hand to rub her eyes. I charge at her and she only stops rubbing her eyes to fight back when I'm basically upon her. I draw my daggers and swipe towards her legs with one while defending with the other.
In desperate panic, she strikes back at me and I block with the defending dagger. Having neutralized her strike, mine cuts deep and provokes a fountain of blood to spurt from the deep cut on both her thighs.
I strike again, this time with both daggers and the shinobi seems to realize that she is doomed. She tries to jump and get away with her air step skill but that was exactly why my first cut targeted her legs.
With the nasty gash across her thigh, she can't jump nearly as well as before. While she ascends, both my strikes cut into her shins. She subsequently fails her air step as her legs can't muster the strength to push her further into the air.
As she drops down, I dive under her last desperate strike and slit her throat. The cut is messy since she was falling but it is nevertheless fatal.
With this, my part of the fight has concluded. It was more difficult than I expected and I definitely have a few lessons to take away from this. Now, time to see how Jake is doing.
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