Waiting for a bit for her targets to go deeper into the forest, she followed. Still staying mostly in the long shadows of the trees for additional cover, she found staying on their track rather easy, even without using her own faith in them to find them. With all the noise the three produced, it was quite surprising to her how they didn’t end as lunch to another beast during one of their earlier hunts. Even in the Forest of eternal Twilight, where most monsters were below level 20, one could still encounter stronger ones. Especially when one was as noisy as her prey. Well, since they somehow survived until now they probably had ways to deal with them.
Stalking her targets silently a good distance behind them, time passed as she waited for a good opportunity to strike.
But suddenly there was… a change. It took Nia a moment to realize what exactly had changed, a few more cut threads of faith weren’t anything unusual in a world where about 50% of the population lived from killing other beings, but after checking who exactly died she was quite shocked. Hannibal and basically all other high ranked members of his team had vanished. Vanished in a deadly sense. She could only speak for those she knew, but the ruler of The First Meadow had some public appearances together with those under him. So more than enough time to memorize a few of the more important figures around him, like his now also dead archmage friend.
Yet she didn’t have much time to contemplate about those events. The forest around her grew louder, and this time it wasn’t the fault of her prey. At first it was just the cries from the beasts of the forest, but it didn’t take long to catch glimpses of them running in their direction. She wasn’t sure what had agitated the beings of the forest to such an extent, but she also didn’t want to risk anything. Her faith had marked her prey, should they survive, but for the moment she would trust the animals and distance herself from whatever had caused their current state.
While running away, she renewed her magic. It would offer only some protection against the detection from beasts using senses other than sight to hunt, but it was better than nothing. Fortunately it didn’t take long for the animals to calm down again. The danger had hopefully passed. Though with some of the beasts overtaking her, she was now in the middle of the horde and had to face another danger. The girl quickly climbed a nearby tree and increased the darkness around her. A few of the animals looked in her direction, however then lost interest quickly. The same could be seen for some of the beasts which hunted each other commonly. No one seemed interested in drawing blood. It was a rare occurrence, though without the need of food the hunt lost a lot of meaning without a challenge. Not that there weren’t any beasts who ignored quality and went for quantity instead, just not this time, not here.
Minutes passed. The horde had now mostly vanished in the underwood. With the increased population it was obviously easier to find life, but that wasn’t much of an issue. A [Twilight Fox Lv 11] poked its head out of a nearby bush, just to vanish quickly back into it. Dealing with one or two of the beasts would be an option, fighting the whole horde however was suicidal. In the end she chose to ignore the fox. It wasn’t worth it and she had to catch up with her targets. Nia also played with the thought of giving up her prey for the moment. With whatever had caused the beast horde potentially still being around and maybe able to deal with multiple opponents at around level 100, in case the deaths of Hannibal and his companions could be attributed to the same source, the danger in this realm was definitely much higher than normal. Paralyzed by indecisiveness a few moments passed. Shaking her head to focus on what needed to be done, the girl checked on the other groups she noticed while waiting for her targets. While she didn’t exactly know where they were, if some of them were dead, she could be pretty sure that it was better to withdraw for the moment. Especially so, in case it were her targets.
…
Her faith in one person got severed. Not that surprising out here in the wilds. Unless she was unlucky the danger should be manageable. Her prey was also still alive.
Renewing the darkness around her, she climbed down her tree and went in the direction of the group. Now completely dependent on faith.
It didn’t take long for her to catch up, or at least that is what she had hoped. However the three didn’t seem to share her decision to flee, as even after a while she couldn’t find any signs from them. Until suddenly there was a sign, just not the kind she was waiting for. Her faith in the archer broke. Death.
Nia paused for a moment. Should she really continue? But only one of them died. Most likely were they caught by the horde, tried to fight a few of the beasts and got injured. Basically the situation she had been waiting for, just two steps too far. It would have been enough, if they had gotten themselves into a fight with a beast or two. But they were too loud so obviously most of the beasts stayed away.
Her choice made, she would have liked to increase her speed, but getting to them exhausted wouldn’t help her, so could only hope she reached the two remaining people in time.
She arrived in time, however while she was technically in time, it didn’t feel good to just arrive there to witness a sword fighter clad in flames and black armor impale her prey. In her haste, she would have nearly run into the fight. Her faith was only indicating the direction, but not the distance. Seeking cover in the shadow of a tree she took an observing role.
Normally she would have just left and looked for new targets, maybe slain one or two stronger beasts which were careless, yet she didn’t.
The sword fighter was way too abnormal for that.
[Human Lv 0]
Yes, this was a low level area, but no one goes to another realm at level 0. Even less does one fight alone multiple enemies more than 20 levels above themself under those conditions. While the species level and class level usually differed, being level 0 would make it impossible that her class level was above 4. That would mean she bridged the gap with skills alone. Something one would expect during fights between beings level 500 and above. Maybe level 100, if they are geniuses. Otherwise one’s class would just level through the training and that would then level the species. Not to mention the attribute point gap which was especially high for the first levels
Nevertheless this wasn’t what let her stay in the first place. The faith around the sword fighter was what she would expect from a god.
Admittedly, Nia had never seen a god, so maybe some well known individuals above level 500 could also qualify. But again not some level 0 human. The armored person must basically be known by half the world. In addition she – Nia was now pretty sure it was a female sword user, a young one at that – had countless cut strands of faith with hatred towards her. Something she wouldn’t get, when she was just unlucky enough that a bunch of people she knew died. That girl was probably working in a similar business as Nia. …but then it wouldn’t make sense that she was well known or still level 0. Killing without leveling was even harder than training skills without gaining class levels.
While the hidden assassin girl was contemplating over the mystery of the swordfighter, the latter decapitated their opponent. The fight between the last two survivors was at first somewhat even, but over time shifted strongly in favor of the now level 2 human.
With the fight over, Nia thought whether she should go now or wait for the other girl to leave the battlefield.
However the choice was taken from her, as a piercing gaze drilled into her. Eyes she would only expect from those who had started to change their species were staring at her. Although she was pretty sure her veil of darkness was still active, she couldn’t lose the feeling that she had somehow been found. Even though she had even refreshed it after taking cover just to be sure.
