We ended up glaring at each other for a few minutes until Lily arrived.
“Why each time I see the two of you I get the feeling you are going for each other’s throats?” she jumped off her chariot over mine before adding, “nice tree you got there, but I got a skill to see through any hidden objects.”
“What?!!!” the two of us looked at her at the same time as we said in the same breath. And it just hit me!
She didn’t stop there and looked around for us. She came directly for me, and even saw what the two of us were doing.
“Did you say you have a skill to see through our disguise?!!” the jumper couldn’t control himself, “but… I’m using a treasure, one that can’t be seen through!”
“Then how come I saw you two fighting miles away?” Lily rolled her eyes as if this was something rude to suspect her, “all the paragons of my race are equipped with such a gift. It’s a high end skill, one that can see through anything, even the work of gods!”
“Damn!” what she said was huge, “do you mean that all paragons have such skill?”
“Yes, all of us… Why?” She was oblivious to what was going on here. I silently exchanged looks of worry with the jumper..
This… I knew that Hectors got tons of paragons. It was out of question that we crossed all this distance without getting spotted with a paragon or something.
If that was true, and with what Lily just proved without knowing it just now, then it meant only one thing; we were watched and followed!
The Hectors… They knew all about our little adventure in their lands!
Damn! This… Sigh! Dealing with a mighty race was really troublesome!
But when I thought about my ambitious plan to go and invade other worlds of Hescos, I knew this experience was worthy of each failure.
At least I’d spot and learn about my shortcomings, including my underestimation of others.
“Can anyone tell me what’s going on here?” As the two of us stood in such silence while exchanging such worried and serious looks, Lily got impatient and asked while crossing her arms.
“I’ll tell you…” the jumper took the trouble of telling her about what we were doing so far.
“Damn! I know you are bold and daring, but not like this!” she glared at me with wide opened eyes, “did you think we lack ways to monitor our lands? If a fly dared to invade our home, we would know about it at once!”
“Thanks, I knew this fact in such a bitter way,” I said, “but that means they are aware of our presence there. Why didn’t they come and attack us then?”
“Psychological warfare,” she gave me such an unexpected answer, “they wanted you to go deep into our lands and see that legendary guardians baby beasts with your eyes to feel despair. This is the best way to crush anyone, scaring them with our might and letting them lose hope before even trying.”
“That… Is a sick way of doing wars!” I said my opinion out of the blue in front of her like this.
“But it works,” the jumper sighed, “we felt such despair and fear.”
“Speak about yourself dude!”
“Humph! Don’t try to show off in front of me. You can fool anyone, but me!”
“Boys, it’s not time to argue like kids!” Lily shouted from the side, stopping the two of us to go into a second round of the same bullshit, “let’s think. They know you are there and let you go deep enough to see the beasts. That means they will try to hit you once you return.”
“Didn’t you say they won’t?!” I asked in doubt, and the jumper nodded in agreement from the side.
“They got what they wanted already. Now will be the time for the real show,” she said, and when I gave her such questionable look, she sighed as she added further:
“They will scare you away, so you won’t get any time to absorb your shock. In fact they should have moved the flying forts stationed to protect our big capital in the opposite direction of the continent.”
“We saw them,” the jumper said, “but… What about this capital?”
“This continent belongs to one of the fiercest paragons of our race, Tomy. He is a bloodthirsty bastard, who finds a great amusement at toying with his enemies using psychological warfare like what you are experiencing right now.”
“Hmm… So he is quite famous then,” I muttered while thinking about something, “you said that these flying forts are the things that protect the capital?”
“Not only it, but the entire army you saw right there also defends the capital.”
“This…” the jumper exchanged silent glances with me. We might get on the wrong page most of the time thanks to his bad temper and attitude, but he was smart enough to read through my mind on many occasions.
And right now he got the same thought that popped into my mind.
“You two… Why are you giving me such a dangerous vibe?” Lily could only sigh while watching the two of us acting in such a way.
“It’s just alluring,” I muttered and the jumper slowly nodded.
“I can’t say no to such a good meal.”
“What are you two talking about?” Lily stumped her feet on the ground, making her look more alluring and a little amusing.
“That Tomy dude loves psychological warfare, so it’s time for him to get taught a good lesson,” I slowly said.
“What lesson?”
“Tactic and might always prevail over anything cheap and dirty like what he got in his mind,” the jumper added while he was speaking on the same line with me.
“Sigh! I heard how crazy you two are, but first time seeing it first hand!”
The two of us laughed on her words, while I asked later:
“Tell me, what’s all about this beast? And how many are there?”
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