TBATE - Not Bound By Fate

Part 50

As the party got into formation I started analysing our enemy. She had short black and eyes, her horns were small and protruding upwards and judging by the intensity of the mana around her, she had just reached the silver stage or was close to hitting it. Considering she wasn't carrying any weapons it was safe to assume she fought more like a conjurer.

I looked over to Adam who was next to me and nodded, that was all we needed to communicate before he dashed forwards and I followed closely behind, ready to intercept any spells with Fang.

Adam thurted his spear forward towards the heart of the enemy trying to end the fight in one blow. The unnamed woman tried dodging to the side but Durden saw it coming and had already erected a wall to block her escape. It looked like the blow would connect but at the last moment she twisted to the other side and got away with a small cut.

"Impressive teamwork, but now is my turn." She said before creating multiple wind blades above her and shooting them our way.

I stepped back and blocked as many as I could while Adam kept the woman busy and Angela focused on protecting Durden and Helen. Once the barrage was over I shot forward again and switched positions with Adam.

The enemy kept shooting wind blades, and what I couldn't cancel with Fang was easily evaded. I could feel the mana build up inside Fang, just a little more and it would be ready to launch a devastating attack, for someone her level anyways. All I needed was an opening.

And Helen provided just that not long after. Using my own mana to finish charging Fang, I flipped it from a reverse grip to a normal one. Just as the woman focused on Helen's arrow, I thrusted Fang forwards and released all the built up mana when the blade made contact with the enemy's chest, leaving a gaping hole where her heart would've been.

But something felt wrong, the woman in front of me was smiling. There was no scream of pain or ragged breaths, only an unsettling smile, until she dissolved into a black liquid and fell to the ground.

My eyes widened and I quickly retreated back to the rest of the Twin Horns alongside Adam. We all took a more defensive stance as we waited for the enemy to show up again.

After what felt like an eternity we heard laughter and the voice of the woman like it was all around us. "What a fun little trick you have there girl. That dagger of yours is quite something, I'll be sure to deliver it to the High Sovering myself, he would love to figure out how it works."

No one answered her as we waited for the fight to begin again. The problem was we didn't know if she would send another clone thing or attack us with wind blades from a safe distance. Illusions wouldn't be a problem since I can just undo them with Fang, so no need to worry about that.

"Change of plans everyone." Helen broke the silence. "We need to get out of here and report back to Kaspian what we found, so I want Jasmine to focus on driving back that woman whenever she shows up again. Adam and Durden will provide support while Angela will be responsible for defence. I will guide us back to the wall while taking shots whenever I can so you guys don't need to worry about navigating in the middle of a fight." She said all in a whisper so that the enemy wouldn't hear her.

"What if she follows all the way back to the Wall?" Adam asked.

"She won't. She is one of the commanders for that base, so she can only go so far before having to turn back. And on the off chance she does follow all the way, you know what will happen." Helen answered with a smirk. "Alright, on my signal we move."

We waited patiently for Helen's signal while keeping an eye out. It was weird how we weren't being attacked, was it because that weird clone spell took too much mana or was she waiting... it clicked for me. She was waiting for reinforcements.

"Helen, we have to go now. This is a trap, there are probably troops coming here." I said.

"Let's move then, you're probably right. Watch out for any spells coming our way everyone." Helen responded and the moment she finished speaking we bolted out of where we were.

"Running so soon? And here I thought I made new friends to play with." The enemy voice made itself known again, but this time it was from our left instead of sounding like it was coming from all directions like before.

We ran as fast as we could, while we were moving in a group anyways, fending off any mana beasts that came our way. Thankfully this wasn't the territory of anything stronger than A rank so the danger on that front was minimal.

Too bad the Vritra blooded woman decided to show herself again, trying to stall for whatever allies were coming to deal with us. This time she had a glaive in hand, meaning this could be the real body. Whether this was good for us or not remains to be seen.

She swung towards Angela but Adam parried the blow while Durden tried to impale the enemy by raising spikes from the ground, too bad they didn't connect. Our group had to stop moving to create an opening now, otherwise we would just get hit in the back.

I moved towards the Vritra and tried to strike at the tendons in her arms but she managed to block with the glaive. We exchanged blows for a while and I used that as an opportunity to let Molar absorb the energy from the strikes.

Once I was satisfied with the amount of energy built up I used the faint step Arthur taught me back when we were going to Xyrus, but instead of doing it normally I released the energy inside Molar to give me a boost in speed catching the woman off guard and leaving a deep gash on her side.

"You bitch, you'll pay for this!" She exclaimed, but Adam's spear was too close to her throat for her to launch a counterattack, forcing her to back off and disengage.

We took the chance to run away but this time the Vritra pursued us from the back instead of trying another ambush. And she was pissed, if the decay mana build up around her was any indication. That build up soon turned into a spell, black blades of wind that looked like they could tear through even the strongest of defences.

"She's using void wind, don't try to block it, just dodge it!" I warned my part before the spell started raining down on us.

It was incredibly hard to not get hit by the spell, even with Fang absorbing a good chunk of it and the rest of the Twin Horns weren't doing so well. They were all peppered with cuts from the wind blades, thankfully none were fatal but it was only a matter of time for that to change.

Something needed to be done or we were going to die here so I decided on a course of action. Pointing Fang towards the ground in front of the Vritra, I released all the mana it had absorbed creating a huge dust cloud completely obscuring her vision. With that done I dashed forwards ready to strike and just as the enemy used a burst of wind to clear the dust, I was in front of her. I could see her eyes widen in surprise as she tried to bring up her glaive, but I was faster. Using my own wind magic to accelerate my limbs I slashed at her throat and aimed a stab at her heart at the same time.

My aim was perfect and combining it with my speed the Vritra didn't have a chance to defend meaning I was able to finish her off and this time she didn't turn into that weird black liquid. Her body just fell to the ground with a thud.

"Nice one Jasmine, I bet you're the first to take down one of these Vritra blooded people we heard about." Adam cheered.

"Maybe, but let's focus on our missions for now. We'll celebrate later." Helen reminded Adam and paused for a moment before continuing. "We should probably take some proof with us of what Jasmine did, but we can't just carry a body all the way to the Wall. Any suggestions?"

"Does she have any identification? We could probably use that." Angela said I started checking the pockets on the uniform until I found something like an identification card.

"Here, this should do it." I said as Ishowed the card to them.

"Alright, let's get moving. We need to report about that base quickly before anything bad happens." Helen urged us and we followed her lead, ready to finally end this mission and get some rest.