Chapter 41 Not as simple as it seems... 3 (2/2)

”Damn it! They are right behind us!”

Ella glanced over her shoulder and saw the five assassins making impressive ground even though the party had a head start. It was the difference between Spirit Practitioners who had just awakened their Spirit and Spirit Apostles who had trained for years. Junius could easily boost his speed if he wanted to but since he was acting as rear guard, he had to match his juniors' speed.

”Ella! Emma! Can you shoot them?”

Junius questioned the two long-ranged Spirit Users if they could snipe the assailants who were about to catch them.

”We can, but currently, we only have enough mana for three arrows! Once we shoot the three arrows, we will be unable to use our Spirits.”

Ella explained their circumstance.

”So the both of you can shoot six arrows huh… That's fine! Shoot when they are about to catch us. That will slow them down a bit. Can you do it?”

Junius calmly analysed their Spirit ability and formulated a plan.

”Yes, brother Junius!”

”I'll try my best!”

The twins replied determinedly.

Less than ten seconds later, the five Spirit Apostles, who were hot on their heels, were just a mere ten meters away from the group.

”Now!”

Junius gave the signal for the twins to open fire.

Spiritual energy started to congregate, and a bluish-white light formed an icicle in the twins' free hand. Ella held the Ice Bow on her left hand while Emma held her Spirit on her right hand. Although the two were twins, they had different master hands. Nocking the icicles on their bowstrings, the twins came to a halt and took aim at the oncoming attackers. Finding a shot, the twins released their arrows.

*Ice Arrow!*

The icicles whistled through the air as it flew viciously towards the assailants. The twins were not yet expert archers and were not that capable of shooting arrows, but at this short distance, their arrows were sure to hit its target.

*Ding!* *Ding!*

The twins aimed directly at the two nearest figures that were less than ten meters away. Although they were caught off guard, the assassins that the twins targeted swiftly came to a halt to receive the attack. Being so near to the twins meant that they had less than a second to react. Lifting their swords in defence, they calmly met the two arrows.

As the icicles made contact with their steel swords, the two assailants felt their feet move an inch backwards. The force of the attack pushed them back, but that was not all. A chilling frost could be felt from their swords.

”What?!”

Shocked, the two black-clothed assassins looked up to find the source of the sudden cold. To their surprise, their steel swords had some ice forming at the point of contact that the twins' arrows hit. It turns out, Ella and Emma's first ability, Ice Arrow, had a passive freezing effect. Anything the tip of their arrow touches, it freezes. With that, the twins had rendered two of the assailant's steel swords, useless.

”Shit! Hey, the Ice Arrows will freeze your weapon! Dodge that ability. Don't block it!”

The leader of the called out while throwing his damaged sword away. Reaching into his pockets, he grabbed two smaller blades and returned to his pursuit.

”Nice one! Ella! Emma!”

Once the twins shot the ice arrows, they immediately started to run again. Junius noticed that with their first shot, they managed to destroy two weapons, severely weakening their pursuers.

”Ha… Ha… Using spirit abilities in combat is harder than I thought...”

Ella panted heavily while keeping up the pace. The twins had practised using their spirit ability before, but it was in a contained and safe place. Using the same ability in real combat was much more taxing than they thought.

”It's alright! Just rest for now. We are reaching the checkpoint soon! Once we are there, they will be unable to do anything to us.”

Junius encouraged the twins as they rapidly ran towards safety.