John Ericsson's Point Of View
Dammit! I thought we had him with that illusion!
" We haven't had time to practice is all! It was a good idea! More than the illusion, we've learned something equally as valuable, his reflexes are sharp. You need to be more careful! You've already had to heal yourself 3 times fighting him."
" I know... I know, Harry. But the issue isn't just his reflexes. His style of fighting is perfectly suited to this terrain, not just that but the way he moves and the choices he makes... This place is his home and he's intimately familiar with it. I thought the element of surprise with your ability would even the playing field, but he was smart enough to meet my spell with his own. I'm still feeling ghost pains from when he landed that spell on me earlier. Nature's Force, I think he said..."
/HACK!/
" I'm still coughing up blood even with healing myself... This is ridiculous. What the hell exactly am I fighting right now?"
" He's just an Elf. He's strong though, he must be somewhere near the upper echelon of their military... Killing him might serve us during the war. What do you want to do?"
" Escape. I've been lucky so far in that I've stayed conscious every time I've been hit, if he can get me knocked out, I'm either dead or captured... Or even worse, our fight might take too long, and he'll have reinforcements arrive. That's why I'm running Southwest again. We're already around halfway through this forest after all. If I keep pushing, I should make it out and escape, it's the better option."
" So, I'll need to be on standby?"
" Of course, Hank. And don't worry, I'll keep enough mana to make Barriers after we leave."
While keeping my eyes and ears open as best as I can, I've been running towards Diablos for the past 5 minutes. This fight with this guy isn't going as I was hoping, my goal isn't to kill anyone tonight, I just want to escape the Elves. I don't need to win any battles to do that, I just need to survive.
" Good to see you've come around to my perspective."
" I've been doing that! It's just that I've been getting targeted! There hasn't been much I can do with those arrows raining down on me! I mean, I'm sure Hank doesn't want to get shot at before we can fly out of range, right?"
" Regardless of that, we need to find a way out of here for you. What should we do?"
" I don't know, all I know is that I'm going to be running for the hills... Then Hank will be flying for them. So far so good... I mean, it looks like I've stopped coughing! That's a good sign! Right?"
" Our silver linings are getting quite thin, John."
Lily and I had a back and forth as I kept running. At the very least, it looks like we're all in agreement, so there's that. But what if he comes back? I mean, hopefully, that explosion knocked him out, but just in case, I still have Julia's Armor on, even though it's a little damaged. That and I'm running with Scarlet unsheathed in my hand. I was caught unawares twice tonight; I'm done not being able to strike back... But how will I be able to do it? The guy was able to stop me when I tried using Harry's illusions to make an opening and he still was able to defend himself and attack me at the same time. I need something else. So, I can defeat him... Or run away... But what could it be? I mean, he seemed to attack me with extreme dislike the last 2 exchanges, but all the Elves have looked at me with more or less disgust... Except for Princess Eve, her eyes are just full of anger towards me... And all because I stopped her from killing Emily's group of Merchants. Honestly, that seems a bit psychotic to me.
YOU ARE READING
The Demon King's Paladin Part 2. All Out War.
FantasíaJohn Ericsson has created a life for himself in the new world that he was dragged into by Warrick, the Demon King of Diablos. Now, after marrying the loves of his life and making a place for himself in this new world, the worst thing that could come...
