Elegy: Lost Shadow

Rift

Anemone yawned as she had woken up early that morning.  At the time, she was walking around Redstar Forest in hopes of grabbing an early meal. The time was around six in the morning. Though she was up and walking about,  she had stayed up until two in the morning just the previous night.
    Amongst the trees, she went and sat behind a shrub bush, closed her eyes, and waited for her unsuspecting prey; to soon find its way to her. The spot was ideal as  it had enough room for animals to come and graze.
    Three pieces broke from her bracelet as they each transformed and formed blades. Wind art: Remnant Chaos.  She thought. She directed her blades to scatter amongst the grass, concealing themselves. She then began waiting patiently. 
     Like a lioness hunting, she waited for her prey to take the most favorable position before taking action. A white rabbit had just made its way through the grass. Roaming freely, unaware of the dangers that surrounded it.
     Wind art: Rampaging blades; Independent Zephyr.  The three blades propelled themselves from the grass, completely surrounding it. All that time, she allowed her blades to be positioned in a circular formation to allow animals to walk within it. Once they did, her blades could close in, and decapitate it.
      As the blades closed in, the rabbit hopped, avoiding certain doom. The blades pursued it twice more, but it was able to dodge each time. Its reaction was just too swift. 
      I see. So that's how it is. Enhanced hops, both speed and power, and reaction due to evenly distributed magic in its magic release state. So it knows how to hanese physical enhancements brought about due to the magic release state.
    But judging from its spiritual vibrations,  I don't think it has absorbed enough magic from the earth to properly develop. So, it's an underdeveloped magic beast, a bystier.
      Her blades accelerated as they attempted to overwhelm it. It hopped, reaching heights which were previously not possible considering its small structure. 
      Two of her blades forcibly chased it down as it hopped from branch to branch, tree to tree. If enhanced reactions and hops are all it has, then…
      It hopped, attempting to return to the grass to widen its options of escape. The third blade decapitated it as it emerged from the grass right behind it.
I will just have to force it into a situation where its hops are useless and my speed outclasses its reaction. In mid-air, it couldn't hop so that was the situation I was hoping for.
      She opened her eyes as her blades returned to her and transformed to bracelet pieces before completing her golden bracelet.
      She sighed before saying,  “Since you are already here, you should just go ahead and show yourself. “
     From the trees behind her, Kano emerged. He was hiding behind a tree. He then began walking towards her. “How did you know that I was there?”
     “It's because you are alive; if you were dead, I wouldn't have noticed. “
Remnant chaos is an art developed by Anemone to reduce her dependence on her eyes during combat. It's an art that utilizes enhanced perception and spiritual vibration detection. 
       As it utilizes spiritual vibration detection,  no living creature is able to escape this sight provided it is within a certain range of her or her blades.
      “Sorry for making you come look for me,” he said halting, “I didn't expect that you would show up at Fortune's Vitus just to look for me.”
      “I had no choice. I only did that because you weren't showing up and the deadline is drawing near. About seven of those sixty days we were supposed to have have already been used up,” she replied,  “What were you up to anyway? “
      “Nothing important,” he said, responding to her earlier statement, “Anyway, I was just looking at the map. According to it, Varaline Centralis should be an Eleven day walk if we force things and probably seventeen days if we don't. I was curious about why they could have chosen sixty.”
     Two pieces broke from her bracelet as she asked, “Do you eat rabbit?”
“Yeah, I am not allergic or anything.”
      “Okay, let me see if I can catch some,” she added before closing her eyes. “You still haven't figured out that part yet. The extra days are for recovery.”
      She started sensing a rabbit moving in the grass.  It was clear to her. It was in a green outline contrary to the black background.  The trees as well as Kano were outlined in green as well. “Just think about it, when you fought that prompter, didn't you believe that he was trying to kill us. His intent to kill was clear but he was taking his time to inflict as much damage on us without knocking us unconscious.  
     It was as if he was trying to squeeze whatever survival instinct we had.”
      He sat down, leaning on the trunk of the tree, before he said, “Didn't that seem too extreme for an exam though? “
      She replied, “Regardless of how it seemed, it served its purpose.  A brief but concise introduction to what we are getting ourselves into.” Whoever designed this system must be something else to have constructed it like that.
     Having sat with her for about twenty minutes, he wondered.  From the way she is acting,  I don't think she has noticed that I am powerless. If she  did, would she still treat me the same way?
   “Sorry Anemone. I will be off now. I was thinking that I had to try and make the delivery on time today. I will be back as soon as I am done.”
      “Okay,” she said as she thought, I thought I was overthinking it earlier but his spiritual vibrations have gotten much weaker. As he is right now, I am sure he can't use magic release. She was able to decapitate the other rabbit after it got in range.
        Four days passed and Kano would often go to Redstar Forest.  He raised his physical capabilities through exercise and would barely make it on time for his delivery.
     Throughout that time, there was no positive change in his spiritual vibrations.  If anything,  he continued to weaken until it was a known certainty.  He couldn't wield his magic anymore.