Killian glared at the Knight who calmly walked to him since he wasn’t moving.

His eyes swept through the surroundings. It was a vast dry land with minimal trees so easy to manipulate the wind, which he had quickly deduced was her element.

"A boy?"

Killian took another step back. She was far yet he heard her voice clearly. The wind around him was restless and he knew what that meant for him.

The Knight dropped her weapon, and the impact on the ground could be felt by Killian standing a distance away.

"Why do you follow me—"

"The Warden you took is my sister. Give her back."

Silence.

The axe lifted off the earth again, leaving a mark on where it once rested. The Knight rolled her shoulders, and then rolled her arms with the axe within her grip.

"Run."

Killian was already stepping back, even if his mind couldn’t believe she was just going to do what he thought she would do.

Swoosh!

The axe glided through the air, slamming through the one tree between them and missing Killian by a hair’s breadth. He fell to the ground, but scrambled to his feet quickly and kept running.

"A boy like you dares to tell me what to do!" The Knight scoffed, marching confidently towards him.

"And if it’s about the girl, she would fit right in the collection my Master will keep her in. Enough said."

Killian forced himself to a halt, his head remaining lowered.

"Collection...?"

His thoughts went back to the orc women sprawled on the orc’s bed.

They didn’t seem conscious of what was happening but had already accepted an angel in their midst.

One who only used them as pets, to replicate the farming system his Goddess did with humans.

"My sister cannot be in his collection."

Beside him, the axe shook on the ground, threatening to return to its wielder.

"What was that?!" The Knight flicked her finger and the weapon rushed back to her. She raised a brow, just before she saw it.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two orbs of fire charged at her, hiding behind her returning weapon, and detonating the moment they reached her line of sight.

Killian sped past her. "Now."

The ground shook violently, as Thistle set another foot down. A crack tore the ground, quickly moving to the Knight in her disorientation and then splitting wider.

The Knight fell into the crack. But Killian knew that was barely a stall.

Thistle’s vines catapulted her forward and he jumped to catch her.

His right hand continuously tapped the wristwatch in his hand as he sprinted towards the spark that suddenly moved.

"If my analysis is right then the spark is leading me to the obstacles preventing me from my target." He said to himself.

He just needed to clear the obstacles and the spark would keep moving till he reached Quara.

His breathing hitched when he heard the Knight grunt. He didn’t dare look back. "Slow her down." He told the tendrils slithering from his feet. They spread behind him.

"Duck!"

Killian fell to the ground as Thistle, who watched his back, yelled. The axe glided through the air again, rooting itself on the ground a few steps before him. He held his beating heart, moving away from the weapon.

"You have the guts..."

Killian swallowed hard, turning to the Knight that emerged from the smoke and dust caused by the explosion.

She didn’t even have a scratch on her. "...to blow me up?"

The tendrils didn’t get close, but instead created a boundary between her and Killian, even if it was only a ten feet distance away.

Killian knew his chances were even slimmer.

The last time he had a face off with a servant of the Goddess, they inhabited a human’s body and that greatly limited them.

And in the words of the possessing angel, whether it was exaggerated or not, he never used one-twentieth of his power.

Knights were at least more than half of an angel’s power, and Killian nearly lost his life to a one-twentieth of that.

"I just want to save my sister—"

The axe shook on the ground again, then slammed itself into the Knight’s palm. She dropped it on her shoulder nonchalantly. Her eyes shifted to the spark moving ahead.

"He sent you that... to follow us?"

"Yes," Killian answered quickly. "He doesn’t mind if I take her back. It was something of a misunderstanding too."

His tone was flat as he spoke. His words weren’t much of a lie anyway. The orc did say he never knew Quara was a strong Warden.

He watched the Knight for a reaction, but her brown eyes only remained on the spark indifferently.

"Hmm..." a smirk curled up on the Knight’s face. "Too bad we don’t take orders from him as his only role is giving us the girl. Our Master will be waiting for us."

Killian frowned. He shouldn’t have expected more from a Knight serving that angel, they would be despicable.

<Shadow Barrage>

"Slow her down."

The tendrils morphed, no longer slithering on the ground.

They rose, stretching and thickening, looking like massive shadowed limbs. They shifted in the air like the arms of a sea creature, then they moved.

Fast and slamming down in succession, striking the ground like spider legs. Each impact cracked the earth as they surged towards her in relentless barrage.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

Killian watched in awe, before snapping out of it and checking his footing. The effect of the barrage was evident by the dust rising from the ground.

"Let’s go." He moved with Thistle, leaving the Knight to her fate. But she didn’t panic, and stepped into the barrage.

One tendril struck her bare arm, grazing her but it didn’t cut through. A dark mark spread where it touched. Her grip tightened on her weapon and she swung.

The axe cleaved through the tendrils’ but did not cause much damage. Her eyes narrowed at the tendrils. They kept coming again and again, blocking and forcing her back.

Killian didn’t look back, even when the barrage slowed down. He kept running, but being alert for when the Knight’s weapon would break the air again.

"Don’t you dare turn your back on me again, boy!" Her voice cracked through the noise.

Killian waited for the weapon.

However—

A violent surge of wind tore through the tendrils like a blade. They scattered instantly, ripped apart and thrown away as if they weighed nothing.

Killian lost his footing.