A week later.
WHOOSH-!
WHOOSH-!
...
.....
Six figures were seen jumping across the branches of the tall trees in the middle of a dense forest, that had a thick blanket of leaves covering the land from the sunlight, which still had managed to peer through, like light peering through the bullet holes.
Seo Hana, Katline, Katharine, Violet, Seol So-Young, Jiwoo, and Charlie zoomed towards a certain direction, as they cut through the winds, leaving behind trails of strong wind gusts, hurriedly, jumping from one branch of a tree to another.
"Hurry!" Seo Hana roared from the front and sped up again.
"Yes!" A loud man's yell came from below, Hana gazed down from the corner of her eyes and scoffed before speeding up again.
The figure "running" below, in between the trees was none other than Samuel, behind whom were Richard, Bert, Garrick, and Bobby, who were barely keeping up with the speeds of those above.
Two days after the exchange between the Gifted and the Black Rain Order, Samuel, who had calmed down and came in terms with the reality, notified and personally went to find the Gifted and apologized with his head bowed, though he wasn't forgiven, he was given a chance to prove himself to be someone who was worth forming an alliance with.
Since the mistake laid with him, he gratefully accepted the chance with the resolution of proving himself.
Now, the unknown source of information the Gifted were affiliated with, had notified them that the Honour-bound Federation and the Abominations had began to move, so now, they were rushing to disrupt or possibly destroy everything those groups had planned.
'He, at least, is good enough to be considered a competent subordinate.....' Hana thought, and an horrifying memory of Elise, her best friend, being crushed to death flashed in her mind, making her shudder and miss her step.
"!!!" Her pupils dilated, but she quickly composed herself as if she had missed the step intentionally, and stood straight as she dove down. As she neared the half-end mark of the tall tree, she strongly flexed her shoulder blades,
FHHOOOOM-!
FLAP-!
WHOOOOSH-!
With a strong flap of her wings of flames, Hana rose up into the skies, without damaging the trees or their leaves which were lit in her flames as she flew up.
Her phoenix flames were one with from the nature itself, so unless she intended to, her flames would hurt no one, but if she did, then her flames would burn everything until nothing except ashes would remain as the proof of their existences. Those below gazed up at the warmth filled flames in horror as they remembered how mercilessly those very flames had incinerated one of them.
"....." With a deep breath of fresh air, Hana forgot every bit of her tension and lived the second of her life in peace, as she gazed at the nature displaying its beauty at its fullest.
The thick blanket of leaves, the small birds flitting around, the bright sunlight glimmering down upon the world, the fresh air, cool breezes of calming scented gusts of wind, the shapelessly shaped dense clouds that were floating around as some tried to cover the blinding lights of the happily burning sun, and her, floating and gazing at every bit of the beauty she could see to its fullest, and enjoying the brief moment of calmness that she would remember for as long as she lived.
"Haaaaa...." Hana exhaled sharply and slightly folded her wings, diving down into the cushion of leaves with a smile on her face.
The moment she enjoyed without a single thought in her mind ended as soon her gaze landed on the figures rushing ahead, yet she wasn't worried about it too much, but was worried sufficiently enough, because she knew the abilities of hers and her team's, of course, ignoring the group of "competent subordinates."
She was confident in defeating those that stood in her way, and she was confident in her team's abilities, so she knew they would return home alive, but
'Prepare yourselves fully and expect a war.' Were the words of warning, of a certain someone whom she trusted, so she couldn't help but feel slight uneasiness and ominousness.
'Something is wrong....' Seo Hana finally put a halt on her stupidly naive thoughts of trusting "him," and finally began to think for herself.
FLAP-!
With another strong flap of her phoenix wings, Hana made her way through the densely packed trees, towards her group.
"Prepare for a war!" Hana yelled, authoritatively.
'He has no reason to warn us futilely, that means he lead us to the main group!' She assumed and affirmed her thoughts at her institution, and steeled her resolve to return alive.
"Hah! It seems like you lacked entertainment!" Hana yelled at the sky, and fully knowing her words had reached the person she yelled at, she focused on the more concerning things in front of her, because in a way, it was her own fault for ignoring a serious warning.
*
A few hours later.
Noticing Hana's fist raised into the air, Katline, Katharine, Violet, Seol So-Young, Jiwoo, and Charlie quickly hid behind the tree, as those below noticed them and they too hid behind the trees.
'An enemy?' Katline thought, but no matter how wide she spread her senses, she could feel no one. But she still hid because she knew how strong Hana was, even though the time to see her use her full strength hasn't appeared until date. So, Katline felt like it was an honour to witness Seo Hana fight at full strength at a corner of her mind
[I feel strange presences at Northwest.] Hana's telepathic voice sounded in their head.
'Northwe-' Katline pondered, but before her thoughts were completed,
SHIIIING-!
BOOM-!
"!!!!" Katline instinctively leaned back and avoided a deathblow, precisely aimed at her head. She gazed at the tree truck she hid behind, that had shattered from the blow and Katline, whose subconscious mind head jolted awake in surprise, jumped back towards another tree in fright. Making a mistake right at the beginning.
Her jump revealed their location, the blow just now could have been considered a coincidental shot but due to Katline's actions, their location was revealed clearly, and as if to prove their thoughts right,
BOOM-!
BOOM-!
.....
....
With a series of deathblow aimed at the trees they hid behind, Katline and the others were relentlessly attacked as they began to ponder a way out of their current plight. The power and force behind whatever was fired at them felt like bullet shots, but guns usage had significantly reduced because of the world being blanketed in dense mana or ki, so another assumption they could derive was that the blows that seemed like bullets were mana or ki bullets.
'Since unlike on Earth, ki or mana always existed in this world, they must have been accustomed to it, it isn't that strange that they formulated a blueprint to create a gun that fires mana bullets, but their new weapon introduction timing is extremely bad!' Katline thought.
Since she had already wasted enough time, Katline took out her bow and quiver out of her inventory, nocked an arrow and aimed it up into the air, felt the air and calculated the direction the mana bullets were being fired, she soon assessed the distance, approximately, and
"Hana!" Katline exclaimed and released her arrow into the air.
ZZWOOOSH-!
BOOM-!
The bullets continued to be fired at them, as they persistently dodged the bullets hearing the sounds of the bullet cutting through the winds before it even reached them, and avoiding all of them out of pure calculations and instincts.
Though the bullets were slow for people as strong as them, they still had densely packed explosive power in them, which cued at their instincts that screamed them of deadly threats.
"100 more!" Hana's loud voice sounded, and
Katline nocked three arrows and pulled back the string of her bow as Charlie rushed to tank off the bullets fired at them, and before long
ZZWOOOSH-!
ZZWOOOSH-!
ZZWOOOSH-!
After peering through the blanket of leaves, the arrows aimed down in a certain direction, "Fire arrow." Katline mumbled while standing on a tree branch, and unlike her command, the arrows weren't lit in bright fire or anything.
Instead,
The arrows turned bright orange as subtle smoke began to rise, which instead of blowing away, concentrated behind the arrows, forming concentrated blobs of smoke.
"BOOM!" Katline mumbled and complying with her current command,
PUT-!!!
With three small bursts, the arrows shot down towards the destined direction and
BOOM-!!!
The arrows finally reached their targets and the explosions just now confirmed the hit, which brought a smile onto her face.
BOOM-!!!
Yet, the bullets being fired at them didn't lessen even for a bit, frowning in confusion Katline glanced at Seo Hana, and noticed that she also had a strange expression on her face.
[The arrows connected and exploded just like what was expected, but not a scratch is seen on the bodies of those monstrous basta*ds, who are firing sh*t load of bullets at us!] Hana's panicked voice, that was unable to hid the hint of thrill and excitement, sounded in their minds.
"Let's take them on head-on..." Hana spoke but quickly stopped herself.
"Katline, fire more of those arrows, Samuel and group, its your turn, confront and retreat in five minutes! Do whatever you can to find out about them, any kind information, whether minute or major, every bit of the information is vital. Focus, and move!" Hana's commanded.
"We will cover you from behind, so fight without worrying about your backs!" Hands commanded again, and Samuel, Richard, Bert, Garrick, and Bobby happily complied as they roared in affirmation and rushed towards the enemies.
WHOOOOSH-!
"Katline, your role is just as vital as theirs! So focus, and fire!"
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