A faint red glow lights the path as a young archer dashed as fast as she could through the woods, her arm stretched out to keep the ring on her finger at full view. Beads of sweat flicked off of her forehead, combined with the exhausted heaves that hollowed out the air in her chest. Her body still ached from having her life force taken and almost all her energy sapped, yet she kept going, even as every step she took stung, and every bend of her arm turned her shoulders numb. She didn't stop. She let the ring lead her down the path.

  “Lady Alejandra,” A memory fshed in her head, “why must you keep training with the sword everyday? Does a Duchess even need to wield a bde.”

  Alejandra’s soft brown cheeks curved into a grin, “then I ask you, my dear loyal maid, why must your eye stay as sharp as your mind.”

  Teri blinked, the answer should be obvious, “It's to protect you.”

  Alejandra walked over with no hesitation and gave the girl a hug, “then think of my actions the same. I shall do whatever it takes to protect you, Asher, my parents, and the Duchy,” She leaned down on the small girl and squeezed her nose, “that's just who I am.”

  The young tigress then turned her back towards the maid, “whenever there's a fight, you can always count to have me up front.” She lifted her hand and used her thumb to point to her back, “so I trust you to keep watch okay?”

  “Always.” The young Teresa smiled and followed behind the Lady.

  Teresa snaps back to reality as the snow and coldness begin to feel more intense, the freezing wind becoming more encompassing. The snow found its way inside her shoes and the sign of scratches and marks on the trees became more evident the deeper in the forest she ran.

  From afar she could hear the sound of fighting and magic being used over and over. The ring in her finger glowing red as the trail it revealed pointed directly towards the ear piercing noise.

  The maiden’s pants and hitched breaths became unimportant as every step she took drew her closer and closer to where she needed to go. She could feel it. On the way, another memory pyed in her head.

  “Teresa,” Asher murmured to her as they both watched the Lady train, “Even with my being as her Knight, I know you're her most trusted guard.”

  Teri gnced at his rexed figure, his eyes dug deep at every graceful move the Lady was doing, enough that she felt a little jealous. “You think too highly of me, Sir Asher,” She gave him a cordial shoving of the shoulder, “I am but a mere maid of Her Ladyship.”

  “Does a mere maid have such silent footsteps that not even the skilled Knights of Ramirez can discern her footsteps or the fact that said maid is capable of striking heads with pebbles from a pce beyond view?” He chuckled, and lightly shoving her back with shoulder too. “I am not such a fool to not realize your abilities, Teri.”

  “It is merely a comeuppance for my failures as her friend in the past.” Teresa shrugged, “I pced my dy in danger due to my negligence, therefore it won't happen again…At least not if I can do something about it.”

  “You really are an amazing girl, aren't you?” Asher ughed and patted her head, “then, shall I not be there beside her to protect her, I trust you can do so in my pce?”

  “What do you think of me for?” Teri pushed away the hand ruffling her hair.

  As her vision of reality set in once more, Teresa's ears perked. She drew her bow all the while her feet never stopped sprinting. She inhaled through her nose, the movement of the wind visible in the cold. Her eyes gred past the trees and towards a clearing.

  She can see it.

  Despite everything she can see it.

  Her hands moved like a machine programmed for this one action. Her arms drew the string back carefully, resting it within her fingertips as the tension of the string grew tighter and tighter. The arrow carefully pinned in between her two fingers as she counted in her head the distance between her and her target.

  She felt the nature of the wind, its path, where it was blowing and whether it was upwind or downwind. It was getting closer, the red trail pointing her directly where the Lady is.

  In the small clearing in the woods, Hughie sent dozens of his clones to strike at once. It took a lot of mental fortitude to control one or two at once so a dozen or so properly choreographed puppets was a clear taxing and migraine inducing job.

  Leilo smiled as he drew a bde from his hip. Hughie took a second before biting his lip and stepping back as all of his clones were wiped out in a single crackling ssh of Leilo’s bde. The ex-captain has never seen this lying snake wield something like that before.

  A magic sword, one clearly enchanted by elves.

  A fsh of trauma haunted him for a split second but he managed to push the thought away. It was clear the Lady’s sword wasn't commonpce and was instead a rare artifact that she somehow got her hands on.

  Hughie had no time to think as Leilo somehow figured his exact location despite the clones that surrounded them and immediately fshed to his direction. Hughie deflected thenstrike with his own using his daggers with the sparks melting the snowfkes that fell around them.

  With his command, he decided to go all out, not giving this man any time to recover. Hughie sent all his clones for attack at once, sending his head into a frenzy. Leilo clicked his tongue as he instinctively dodged a strike from one of the clones that appeared from behind. The one handed man used this opportunity to kick him away and turn invisible. He blended amongst the dozens to hundreds of copies if he surrounded the purple haired man.

  “Try me.” Leilo smirked as they all struck at once. He knelt down and used the crackling yellow bde. As one approached him from behind he twisted the sword in his palm, shifting it to a reverse grip hold before stabbing it directly behind him. A clone took this opportunity to attack from the front but Leilo used his left leg to kick up and flip in the air, kicking the clone and nding on his feet with the sword on a perfect hold in between his fingers once more.

  More clones attack and Leilo snaps his eyes towards the closest ones as he disposes of them with one quick horizontal ssh that is followed up with a downward diagonal cut to strike the fnking group.

  Even still, he couldn't defend against so much as he suddenly felt himself getting cut and sliced as the clones controlled by Hughie made contact with his skin. Obviously, it was Hughie himself doing the cutting but it became difficult to keep track of which is which when you're surrounded by a sea of his clones.

  Leilo cheek was cut by a sudden ssh from a sneaky clone, to which he responded by twisting his body and doing a rge sweeping strike that cut all the clones in vicinity in half.

  “You're always like this, Hughie!” Leilo snickered as lightning jolted around him, he took one step and kicked the ground beneath his feet unching towards a single clone by trees, one that hasn't moved much in a while. “always so sneaky and underhanded...found you.” The sword made contact and stabbed the ex-captain right in the chest unable to react to such quick paced movements…only—

  “Says the traitor.” Hughie spoke, another one spoke right beside Leilo. Hughie had managed to fool him into thinking he had it all figured out. The ex-captain sends his edge towards the bastard’s neck with the air in between growing less and less.

  As soon as he felt the scum’s skin tear and give way, however; Leilo vanished and Hughie ended up accidentally nicking himself in arm instead.

  “What the—”

  “You never really understood my ability don't you, Hughie?” Leilo was back at the ground, his body seemingly where it was a few seconds ago, completely unfazed, bar the scratches she took earlier. In his hands was on his bow. The weapon was drawn and aimed directly at where Hughie was, “Don’t die so easily now, old friend.” He let the drawstring go and Hughie stared as the arrow barreled towards him.

  He swung down the branch but he wasn't fast enough and the tip of the arrow grazed his leg before he could completely move aside. There was no time to rex either as an electrified crackling sword nearly sent Hughie to meet his maker as it dawned by his neck barely being parried by his own sword. The csh of the two implements sent the captain flying out of the tree and crashing inside the forest.

  Leilo flies closer to him as he unches himself from the tree branch but Hughie fires back with a cut of his that should’ve met that bastard’s neck but instead it once again sshed through air as Leilo hung by his hand in the tree branch seemingly not having moved at all.

  Hughie was racking his brain. He never figured out Leilo’s Adjudicator Ability, only that it was pain whenever they sparred or fought before. Many times it ended with him in tatters but this man would be completely spotless. Every time a bde would make contact with his body he would simply vanish and reappear where he was a few seconds earlier.

  It was like he was going back in time.

  That didn't make sense…it's not like he himself also went back in time…He was still where he was when Leilo disappeared. Does his Adjudicator abilities allow him to send just himself back in time?

  Hughie stood up and wiped the blood off of his cheek with his one hand. Once more clones surrounded the tree where Leilo was hanging from. The purple haired man smiled as he dropped down.

  His bow drawn, three arrows left in his quiver, and magical sword enchanted by elves strapped to his side. “All this for a girl who maimed you?”

  “This isn't for her,” Hughie gred at him, feeling the loss of his good arm and the weightlessness on his side, “I just really really wanna kill you.”

  Once more, the clones alongside Hughie himself charged at Leilo. The small dagger-like swords the captain had flinging for any piece of the man they hoped to cut. The swift slicing of the swords was dodged as Leilo stepped from side to side, using the curve of his bow to twist the direction of the swings.

  Hughie vanished amongst the endless clones that charged forward. Leilo switched from using his bow to deflect and drew out the sword once more using it to cut down the copies of Hughie en masse, as a crackle of lightning fried the air.

  Nearby, Hughie could see it. The thread to his neck, that bastard's scummy neck. All he needs to do is strike it.

  He snuck down and ran behind him as he brought out the dagger to strike the back of this ruthless manic assassin. Everything Hughie had was given to this moment, to pay back the treason committed on him.

  He closed in and sliced the dagger—

  Shrick

  “What—” Hughie blinked, staring at the arrow stabbing his gut. Leilo had drawn it out of his quiver and stabbed him directly with it, not even needing to shoot it.

  “I could feel your bloodlust, Hughie Monroe,” Leilo lips cracked into a victorious grin, “You have no more cards to py and the winner…takes it all.” He digs the arrow deep into the warrior’s gut until he cracked through the skin on the other side.

  With his other arm he snatched the scroll stuffed into the illusionist’s pockets before throwing him back to the clearing, nearby the Lady’s body.

  “Ack—” Hughie grunted, unable to stand as the arrow paralyzed him.

  “Finally…I was wondering when it would take effect.” Leilo shrugged, “The arrows I drove into you were ced with Lizardowl Venom, enough to paralyze an elephant for an hour.”

  “Y-You deceitful underhanded—gaaack!” A foot stomped on his head.

  “Hearing that from someone who’s main tactic is to hide is quite hypocritical of you.” Leilo wiped the dirt of his shoes on the face of the man he had defeated, “All is fair as long as the winners win.”

  He walked over to the Lady’s unconscious body. He gazed down on it. Her beautiful bck hair messily spread on the snow. Her bronze skin shining splendidly from the reflections of light. Indeed, she was the perfect candidate to give rise to powerful demons. “Oh exquisite Lady Alejandra, The Lord of Famine awaits you.” He caressed her cheeks then the side of her head before pulling her up by her hair.

  As he dragged her close to him and prepared to use the scroll, a feeling crept up behind his ear and he immediately dropped and stuffed everything to draw his bow and shoot one of his st two remaining arrows.

  It ran through the air, riding the wind until it collided exactly point to point with another arrow. Only his was stronger as it pierced right through the other and flew right past grazing the cheeks of a girl who finally arrived at the scene.

  “That girl is awake!” Leilo grits his teeth realizing the archer he had sent to sleep had already gotten herself awake. They must have an exceptional alchemist in their team to have found a way to counteract the sleep spell.

  He decided to cut his losses. He picked up the Lady and reached for the scroll in his pocket when—

  “Not—going down—that easy.” Hughie spoke somehow, but barely, standing. His hand gripped hard onto Leilo’s. “I’m not letting you run.”

  “GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME.” The purple haired man tried to kick him away but Hughie stood tall and stoic as Teresa grew ever more closer. “I SAID LET ME GO!”

  Hughie grinned, “I know why you targeted her first—gaack!” Hughie coughed blood. “Her eyes—they’re special—you know it—ugh—she’s going to be your death.”

  “SHUT UP!” Leilo kicked him with a powerful kick that finally knocked the wind out of the one handed man back to the ground.

  “MY LADY!” Teresa's voice rang through the whole forest, there were tears in her eyes as she ran faster than ever.

  The tigress shifted in his hold. “t-teri?...” She mumbled.

  Leilo had no time. He had to act now. He drew out the scroll from his pockets and unfurled it, revealing the incantation written within.

  A teleportation spell.

  “MY LADY!!!!” Teresa’s eyes widened as she saw what was happening. A man with a scroll, the unconscious Alejandra in his arms, and a bloody mess of a man knocked out right in front of them.

  Teresa didn't question any more and without hesitation drew her bow to shoot. Her eyes locked on the man and the parchment he held between his fingertips. She took one breath in and let the arrow fly.

  Leilo’s eyes fshed to the coming projectile. He closed his eyes and casted the spell in the paper.

  The arrow flew in the air as the words left his mouth.

  Cutting through wind and blitzing the falling snow.

  Hope and love bursting within the tip of its point.

  It burst through the wind until it finally—

  fwoop!

  …

  Silence.

  …

  The arrow dug into a tree bark, a torn piece of paper stabbed in its tip. The Lady of Ramirez and the Man are nowhere to be found, only the trace of their once existence marked in the snow.

  “No…” Teresa walked forward, her breathing stabilizing. “No. No. No.” The bow she held dropped from her fingertips as they shook from the blood and tears.

  The young girl fell to her knees as she stared at the open and empty air.

  A mournful whisper told to the forest.

  “I took too long.”