Chapter 535 (2/2)
When she rounded the corner, Tera was quiet, but they seemed to be ready for her. Three insectoids jumped out at once and walked their necks towards her knives. They were down and she was rolling past them. An arrow sailed overhead, hitting where she would have been in a standing position.
Tera slowly stood, storing the cloak away. If they knew she was there, it wasn’t worth the encumbrance.
There were four people in front of her. The first, and only revealed face, was a middle-aged man holding a bow. His face was solemn as he regarded her, his gaze fixed. Tera felt a tingle between her shoulder blades. Behind him there were three more figures, the first looking like a normal sized human, the second a huge man the size of Dozer, and the final one being a creature wrapped in tattered cloth that was as big as a van.
“You are a guard, aren’t you?” The large human asked. “So guard us. It shouldn’t take long.”
The middle-aged man grunted and loosed two arrows. The first went towards the spot that Tera just vacated, the second toward the spot she was moving towards. Tera almost wanted to snort, as she twisted her body and dodged it. Four more arrows followed that, but Tera was gaining ground.
There would be a moment when the man switched from a bow to a close combat weapon, and that was the moment Tera was aiming for to strike. When he changed, he would be in transition. That was an opening that she could exploit.
Except she was only two meters away, and he hadn’t switched.
Feeling slightly disdainful, Tera grabbed the next arrow the man shot at her right out of the air. It was partially luck at this range, but her senses and control of her body were extremely high. Without a trick-
She felt the flash of magic. An electric discharge spread up the arrow through her body, freezing her briefly. The man smiled at Tera as he aimed an arrow at her navel and shot it.
The paralysis lasted only for a second, but he was very, very close. Instead of dodging, Tera could only lean back and bed. First a little, then a lot, throwing her body backward. Even with the Flexibility Skill Tera had, it was a close thing. But within a split second, she had become a letter O, her head coming around and back between her legs. She wasn’t so sure if this was possible before the System, but she thanked God it was now.
The arrow ripped pass through her armor along her stomach, passing so close that it left a brush burn. The man looked down at her with wide open eyes. She flexed her hands, producing more knives, and threw them upwards from her position between her legs. One went into the man’s shoulder, and the other was heading for his throat.
But he hadn’t come here for nothing. He jerked his head to the side and there was only a shallow gash across his throat. The blood was warm and red, but it would take a while for him to bleed out.
Still, that gave Tera time to straighten and cross the last few steps to him as he stumbled backward. Without even blinking, she cut his head off and raised her hand to throw knives at the other figure.
The middle figure, the Dozer sized one who spoke earlier, moved before she could pick a target consciously. Three of her knives slid into his body in the midsection, but he didn't slow. He spread his arms wide and rushed towards her.
Well, if he was relatively tanky, then…
Just gonna overwhelm him with numbers.
Tera pressed the limits of her Skill as she made more and more hidden knives appear. With a small gesture, they slammed into the approaching figure, causing him to stumble. Some missed his body, ripping through his cloak harmlessly. But those gave Tera a better idea of where to strike, and soon he was more porcupine than human.
“Aw shit,” The man said as he stumbled. “The Skills are failing already or-”
“So soon?” The smaller figure spoke, looking up from the area where they had been retrieving mined Tellumurite. What surprised Tera was that the voice was a woman. “Fine, then I’ll handle her. Don’t you dare die on me.”
Then the small figure turned and began stalking ominously towards Tera.