Chapter 400: A Humanoid Missile
The stranger had bolted forward with a supernatural speed and force that none of them could match, moving like a blur past the assembled Amazons, going straight and deep into the village of Verdant Spire.
"Curses! He was her target all along!" Tamar squeezed the bow in her hand tightly, visibly angered by the situation. "Mother, we need to do something fast lest she teleports my Benjamin to a slaughter house of the gods, where we will never see him again!"
***
Some minutes ago, prior to when the intruder had suddenly appeared at the edge of Verdant Spire, Benjamin had been...
"Benjamin, listen to me carefully because I need you to understand how serious this situation is," Elara grabbed his hands firmly and looked directly into his blue eyes, her silver gaze intense and unblinking. "Do NOT... come out with us to face this intruder. The gods and spirits are not to be underestimated, no matter how confident you feel in your new powers.
"And if you are what they seem to be looking for, they truly might be so powerful that there will be nothing we can do when they decide to take you away from us. Please, for all of our sakes, for the sake of your unborn children and the women who love you, stay indoors and do not leave this room!"
Sakura turned to Violette and Titania with a serious and commanding look, her amber eyes hard.
"We will go yonder to face this intruder and try to resolve the situation peacefully. But you both should stay here and protect Benjamin with your lives, do you understand? Do NOT... let him go outside under any circumstances, no matter what he says or how much he begs! I am trusting you both with something precious."
"You can count on us, Sakura!" They said to her.
***
Twenty minutes later.
"Okay, I am officially bored out of my mind," Benjamin said, resting his head comfortably on Violette’s soft lap, while they all lounged together in his room, waiting for news from the confrontation at the forest entrance. "Basically everyone has gone to meet the scary god outside, but I am also itching to take just a small peek at what is happening out there... Though, I already know that you and Titania will not let me leave this room, right...?"
His blue eyes flashed up and hit Violette and Titania with their intensity, and they both blushed furiously under his gaze, exchanging uncertain looks with each other.
"Well... Just a small peek from a safe distance won’t hurt anyone, right? We can be careful about it," Titania scratched the back of her neck nervously, sitting beside Violette on the bed and looking up at the taller woman for agreement.
"Indeed. They did say that he should not appear at the battlefield or the confrontation itself, where he could be spotted and identified," Violette also interjected, nodding slowly at Titania’s words as she considered the logic. "But no one said anything about him watching from afar, hidden in the trees where no one would think to look. Let us do it. Let us go see who this intruder is together."
They instantly failed Sakura!
Benjamin was basically beaming with joy from their approval, his face lighting up like the sun breaking through clouds.
"Geez, I love you guys so much! Thank you for being reasonable! I promise you both a nice reward after all of this is over. Alright, let us go see who this mysterious intruder is and what they want."
They left the treehouse of Benjamin quietly and walked a bit through the dense forest to a location where they felt the Amazons’ auras were thick enough to mask Benjamin’s own unique aura from any casual detection.
"Let us climb that tall tree up there and watch them from above," Benjamin pointed to a large, tall tree close by, its branches spreading wide and its leaves providing good cover. "If I extend my senses to where they are standing and that intruder is the real deal like everyone says, they will sniff me out real quick. Better to use old-fashioned eyesight than magical perception for this."
"Understandable," Violette agreed, her dark eyes scanning the tree for good climbing spots. "The mechanism that allows you to perceive that far across distances would be easily tracked and spotted by a real god or a high-level spirit, like a Superior Spirit from the upper realms. Let us climb the tree and watch with our physical eyes alone."
And up the tree, they mounted, climbing branch by branch until they reached a high vantage point where they could see the confrontation below.
However, these airheaded and carefree trio missed one important detail in their excitement to spy on the intruder.
"...Ah, she spotted us," Benjamin stated calmly, his blue eyes meeting the yellow pupils of the pale woman who was now staring directly at their position in the tree from the far distance.
They were now within physical range of sight, being so high up on the tree, and the intruder had clearly noticed them watching from afar.
"Ah, she is darting over here like an arrow now. Very fast and determined," Violette calmly added, watching the woman’s blur of motion as she broke away from the Amazons’ confrontation and rushed toward their position.
"Amazing, she is totally a beauty up close..." Titania noted, admiring the intruder’s features as she approached at terrifying speed, before her survival instincts finally returned to her. "Wait, no, this is bad! This is very bad!!"
The petite fairy queen immediately erected a powerful barrier around the trio to block the incoming humanoid missile, throwing up her hands and pouring magic into the shield.
But the intruder collided with it before it was fully done, shattering the defense with sheer force, and the explosion of energy blasted the trio far away from the tree in three different directions.
Violette landed gracefully on her feet and caught the small Titania safely in her arms, cradling the fairy queen against her chest.
Benjamin landed on his neck and died from it breaking instantly, his body going limp on the ground.
Laying dead on the ground with his neck bent at an unnatural angle, the pale intruder began to move slowly toward them, her yellow eyes fixed on his body.
[Author’s note: Benjamin is heavily suppressing his demi god powers so he can function as human as possible. That is why a fall from such height can break his neck at all].
"B-Benjamin! Benjamin, get up!" Elara and Sakura had immediately teleported to where they were, appearing out of thin air close to the fallen man, before the other Amazons could even arrive on foot. "Quick! You need to run to Shishi-no-su right now! Lily and the rest of our people there will keep you hidden until this is resolved!"
Benjamin raised his head from the ground and looked around confused, still suffering from the disorientation of Post-death syndrome, his neck already beginning to heal and straighten itself back into proper alignment.
But he soon stood up fully, brushing dirt from his clothes, and opened his mouth to ask what was going on and why everyone was so panicked.
