Chapter 58: Movable Invisible
"Uh... sorry that I have kept you guys worried!" Benitha started reading the letter afresh after both Peony and Gillian kept quiet. "It was impossible for me to stop the battle and draw a portal to give you guys some updates. Besides, I didn’t want to make you worried.
Now, I have no choice but to tell you how dire the situation here is. We’ve encountered a flock of Infected Birds. On top of being too many, they’re so large and difficult to kill. I’m currently planning to stay behind diverting their attention so Tsundria can come and bring me back up."
At this point, everyone was attentive, staring at Benitha as if they wanted her to continue.
When she saw how they were looking at her, she added, "The end."
This snapped everyone back to their senses but none dared to say anything as this was bad news for everyone including Kyron. Though Edmund’s death would leave him under the Patriarch’s spotlight, he didn’t want things to end like that. He wanted to prove that he was better than Edmund.
Since Edmund’s death would make him. somewhat of a hero at the Drumline Castle, Kyron’s efforts would be for nothing. You can not compete with a dead hero, a legend to be exact, after all.
"Don’t you feel like something is off?" Gillian decided to break the silence.
"Yeah!" It was Peony. "Something is not adding up. How in the world is he going to stay behind and fight alone when both he and Tsundria have failed?"
***
A FEW MINUTES AGO
Tsundria unrolled the red rope coiled around her wrist to increase its length. This made Edmund roll down the dusty ground toward the cliff, slamming his body on small stones scattered all over the place.
He cursed each time he hit a stone because of the excruciating pain and swore to make Tsundria pay for this tenfold.
’She’s just messing with me! I don’t feel like dying! I don’t!’
Indeed, Edmund didn’t feel like dying. But he felt like punching someone. Because, if not for his armor, he didn’t know if his body wouldn’t have turned into a bloody meat bag by now. He rolled for a few seconds, then, suddenly, came to a halt.
He could not celebrate this because of how harsh it was. It seemed like the rope Tsundria had unrolled had reached its limit, jerking him back in the direction he was coming from.
’So painful... you’ll pay for this, bitch!’
The said bitch was giggling, slowly coiling the rope around its wrist to get closer to Edmund.
"Did you like it?"
Edmund felt like giving her a middle finger when these words entered his ears. How could he like rolling down toward a cliff like a log pushed down a hill?
Unfortunately, he was tied and could not raise his hand to give her that finger. Did she even know what it meant?
’I doubt it!’
Nevertheless, this didn’t mean that Edmund didn’t have other ways to confront her; his mouth was not tied up.
"Stop being a bitch, you bitch!" he shouted.
Tsundria just smiled at him, still coiling around her wrist, slowly getting closer to him.
"I would like to be called that in the middle of something more steamy," she said. "But alas, you have decided to side with Skylark. There’s never going to be another steamy thing between us."
With that, she started unrolling the rope again with a creepy smile on her face.
"No no! Don’t do that again!"
Edmund tried to stop her from sending him rolling again. He needed some panic-free time to think of a way out of this situation. The Almighty Interpreter had labeled him Arcane Trickster, after all.
"Don’t do it again?" she mimicked his words with a mocking tone. "Why not when I’m having fun? Oh... you’re giving up and wants to give me the sword?"
"That’s exactly why I’m telling you to stop. There’s nothing you can do to make me give you the sword. You better think like a thousand-year-old lady instead of a stupid teenage girl."
Edmund was trying to reason with her. However, he chose his words poorly and ended up scratching something that made Tsundria even more furious.
"Humph!" she harrumphed. "Like a stupid girl?"
She was reminded of how Skylark used to call her stupid.
Since Edmund had already said it, he decided to flow with it. "Yeah! Stupid! You’re so stupid! How can you choose to fight with a person when you can befriend and achieve what you want?"
"The reason you’re deciding to die and take away something that can help. me when there’s a way you can save yourself and help me."
Her sentence was too long. Thus, before Edmund could comprehend its meaning, he found himself rolling toward the cliff again.
’I haven’t thought of an idea yet, dammit!’
Luckily, this time, Tsundria didn’t make him roll for long. His body came to a stop and her voice assaulted his ears at that very instant.
"I’m going to teach you to never call me stupid again."
These words were followed by something Edmund had never expected. The red rope around his body was dissolving into a mist of white sparks. She was dismissing it. Did he manage to convince her?
’Don’t be too full of yourself! Focus!’
He slowly rose to his feet, stretching a little as he struggled to gain his footing. The rolling had made him dizzy.
In front of him, a wide canyon stretched for hundreds of meters, a fog, so thick and plethora floating over it. It was as if he was standing on top of a plane, flying above the clouds. Shooting a song here was the first thing that came into his mind, and he dismissed the idea when he remembered he was no longer Kagern, The King of Epop.
Edmund tried to zoom so he could see the cliff where he left Peony and Gillian, but to no avail. Compared to them, he was on a raised platform and the fog could not allow his vision to pass through it.
This is why he decided to turn around and face Tsundria. The person who was threatening to take his life.
She was standing with a stoic expression on her face, a bow and an arrow ready to lunch at him if he did anything stupid.
"I thought you’d given up the idea of trying to kill me," he said, taking a step toward her. There was a smile on his face to make it seem like all this was a joke.
"Take another step and you’re dead!"
"She’s just threatening you!" The goddess of Beauty intervened. "That’s how all karen’s act when defeated."
This remark blindfolded Edmund into taking another step, something he regretted that instant because Tsundria directly released the arrow, aiming at his thigh.
Edmund tried to dodge.
He was a split second late.
When the arrow connected with his thigh,
ARGH!
He screamed but soon realized there was no pain.
’What’s happening?’
Could he have dodged it? No way! He felt it slamming on his body. Edmund slowly glanced at his thigh and found what had transpired. The arrow had indeed hit the target but could not penetrate. Was his armor that strong?
’What a boon!’
This gave him courage to stare at Tsundria with a grin on his face. As expected, the Venomous Beauty had nocked another arrow.
"Draw a portal and send the message I want you to send."
What if she sent the arrow on his head this time?
Edmund summoned the quill and drew a portal to prevent that to happen. In terms of being strong, his head was nowhere near the armor. The arrow would surely dig a hole in it.
"What do you want me to send?" Edmund asked this, taking a paper and a quill. He had come prepared to send a message, but not this one.
As he wrote down what Tsundria was telling him, the Goddess of Beauty gave him an idea that made his heart dance in triumph.
"You have the Visible Immovable. You can kill her without her even realizing."
’Oh god, thank you Beauty Goddess! How did I even forget that I have an invisible weapon.’
If he had considered this from before, he wouldn’t have allowed Tsundria to tie him down and play him like a kid who has just got a new toy.
With his courage boosted, Edmund continued writing down the weird content she was dictating.
Yeah! Weird content. What did she plan to achieve by lying that they had encountered a flock of Infected Birds, too large and tough to be defeated? Did she plan to kill him and blame the birds?
Obviously!
’Why do I care about what she would do? I now have an invisible weapon. I can always save myself if she tries something stupid, right?’
This was not a question directed to the Beauty Goddess, but she replied to it.
"You’re right! Now you have nothing to fear. Play along and see what she wants to achieve!"
Edmund summoned the Movable Visible to get familiar with it before finishing the letter. He didn’t know what Tsundria was planning to do directly after he successfully sent the message. He had to be prepared.
