As soon as Fjodra’s body recovered, she fed a potion to her familiar, Lausa.
Even though a familiar’s attribute resistance stats are generally higher than a human’s, it had taken a direct hit from lightning at an unexpected moment.
She must have judged that the damage would not be light.
‘Or maybe she felt guilty for taking a potion alone after they were both hit by the same attack.
Or perhaps she realized how much it hurt from personal experience and assumed Lausa was feeling the same.’
Reysir watched the scene quietly, then gathered Aether in his hand the moment Lausa finished recovering.
After drinking a potion, its effect is halved if another is consumed shortly after.
By waiting until now, Reysir was essentially signaling that if they were hit by the same attack again, they wouldn’t be able to recover fully even with another potion.
Therefore, when Reysir reached out his hand, filled with golden Aether, Fjodra’s reaction was only natural.
She pulled Lausa into her arms and threw herself to the side, urgently calling out a name.
“Liolikin!”
At the shout, Liolikin burst through the thick bushes as if he had been waiting for the signal and lunged at Reysir.
Reysir had also been waiting for this situation.
He was determined to break free from the marks of Liolikin and Lausa this time.
Without even checking if the lightning he had fired hit its mark, Reysir shifted his grip on his spear with both hands and turned toward the side where Liolikin had emerged.
I suspect that the lightning he fired just now wasn’t a strike he expected to land with absolute certainty.
It felt more like an ‘if it hits, great; if not, whatever’ kind of attack.
The readers probably know why I am bothering to guess the actions of the protagonist of another novel.
It is to activate the [Character Analysis] skill.
Now that Reysir and Liolikin have clashed, it is time for Fjodra to use [Space Leap] and attack.
‘Not immediately, though.
She’ll fire an arrow first.
She’ll want to aim for the moment I react to it!’
Sure enough, I saw Fjodra steadying herself, nocking an arrow, and drawing the string.
‘Wait a minute.
Just now, did she nock the arrow before pulling the string instead of pulling it from her [Inventory] as she drew?’
Since the arrow appeared out of thin air, it was reasonable to assume she took it from her [Inventory].
I wondered why the timing of nocking the arrow felt important, but it nagged at me for some reason.
‘If she’s using Pret’s [Camouflage] skill, she could easily make it look like the arrow appeared in midair as if it were taken from an [Inventory]…’
And above all, the direction the arrow was flying was subtle.
‘If it stays on this trajectory, it won’t hit anyone.
It looks like it’ll just pass right between Vigdis and me.’
Since it was an arrow shot by Fjodra, who manipulates the power of wind, its direction could change at any time.
It wasn’t something I could ignore.
As the possessor of the [Iron-Blooded Steel Body] skill, Vigdis wouldn’t be particularly damaged even if she were hit.
That meant I was the target…
or so I thought.
But just as I decided to deflect the arrow, I saw a thin red line being drawn in the air, as if the arrow were leaving a trail.
The arrow was infused with teal Aether.
If one stared at that light for too long, a red afterimage—its complementary color—might appear.
‘But the line is far too clean for that.
Besides, it’s not following right at the tail of the arrow; there’s a slight distance between them…!’
She had clearly tied a wire to the arrow.
The red glow of the line was likely due to Hailga’s fire-attribute Aether.
‘The moment Hailga pushes Aether to the end of that wire and ignites it, the fire will meet the wind-attribute Aether in the arrow and create an even larger blaze.’
If I were to strike that with my Aether-infused whip, it was obvious that it would cause an explosion, sending sparks flying everywhere.
With Hailga’s current skill level, she wouldn’t be able to control all those sparks.
However, the possibility that she could use some of them to create fire arrows and fire them could not be ruled out.
It would be quite a threatening attack.
‘Not just to me, but to Vigdis as well.’
But what if I just left the arrow alone?
Judging by the direction it was flying, Hailga’s Aether-laden wire was likely intended to separate me from Vigdis.
Despite being able to readjust the arrow’s movement at any time, Fjodra had a habit of always aiming precisely at her target.
‘Is her main goal to isolate me so I have to fight alone?’
Not only was the risk of deflecting the arrow too great, but me holding out on my own also fit our team’s plan.
Thus, instead of swinging my whip, I pushed Vigdis’s shoulder and took a step in the opposite direction myself.
The arrow passed through the gap we had created, and the wire following it erupted into a large flame, creating a barrier.
Since Vigdis and I were a certain distance away, there was no danger of being burned.
‘Besides, maintaining a flame large enough to form a wall consumes a lot of Aether, so it’ll go out soon!’
My prediction was correct.
And so was my guess that Fjodra would attempt a close-range attack using [Space Leap].
However, the location where she appeared after using the skill was somewhat unexpected.
When the wall of fire subsided, I could see Fjodra on the other side.
Fortunately, because Vigdis had been holding onto the knot of her ribbon with one hand, it didn’t come loose immediately when Fjodra snatched the tail of it.
Still, if she pulled harder, the ribbon could come off.
Vigdis immediately swung her training sword, and Fjodra was forced to let go of the ribbon and retreat.
I had to turn my gaze away from them just as Svein swung his spear toward Fjodra.
‘Even though the finish was sloppy, Fjodra did succeed in suppressing me earlier.
I thought she would try to face me again this time…’
Pret, holding training daggers in both hands, was rushing toward me.
I had to swing my whip to stop his approach.
He put on a terrified expression as the whip cracked through the air toward him.
However, Pret’s movements as he wove through the lashes and threw daggers at me were incredibly nimble.
As I continued to swing my whip, I drew a dagger with my left hand to deflect the ones Pret threw.
Suddenly, I was reminded of my duel with Skadi.
Pret was a superior version of Skadi regarding traps, but an inferior version in terms of direct combat.
It was a natural association.
‘But their combat styles aren’t exactly the same…!’
I would be in trouble if I fought purely based on those memories.
I observed Pret’s movements closely.
His mouth was moving incessantly, chattering away.
Thanks to the effects of [Mental Acceleration], I combined the slowed-down voice and his lip movements to decipher what he was saying.
“Why are you just standing there, neither retreating nor approaching me?
If you’re trying to stall for time, you should open up some distance.
If your goal is to take my ribbon, you should come closer!
Oh!
Are you being careful because of the traps?
Wow, you really didn’t believe me!
You’re so mean, sob sob.”
It was nothing more than nonsense meant to provoke me, and his dialogue wasn’t even worth describing.
I could safely ignore everything he said.
According to the original work, Pret knows how to use even the direction of his gaze as a means of deception.
He might look at his opponent’s right shoulder the moment he throws a dagger, even though he’s actually aiming for the heart.
That was why the thing I had to focus on was his hands.
A dagger slid out of Pret’s palm.
In the next moment, his thumb and ring finger briefly met and then snapped apart.
The meaning of that finger-flicking motion was clear.
‘He must have fired a needle coated in transparent Aether!’
Just as he had done during his duel with Caldrun in chapter 204.
Thanks to the effect of [Mental Acceleration], I was able to realize that Pret had fired a needle at me, but capturing the needle itself was not easy.
It was simply too small and thin.
For that reason, I only discovered the needle when it was right in front of me.
Even then, I didn’t perceive the needle itself.
It was because the transparent Aether surrounding it caused the surrounding space to look very slightly distorted.
The needle was flying toward my right shoulder, which was busy swinging the whip.
I twisted my body to avoid it while moving my left hand to deflect a dagger flying toward my solar plexus.
After that, I saw Pret’s eyes widen in an expression of genuine admiration.
‘The [Mental Acceleration] effect of the [Character Analysis] skill really is a cheat-like option…!’
The problem was that even though I knew the side effect of overloading my brain if I maintained it for too long, I had no choice but to rely on it.
Unaware of this, Pret wiped away his fake terrified expression and replaced it with one of genuine excitement.
I have to be more on guard from now on.
He means he’s going to attack for real, without holding back.
Pret reached out his clenched fist toward me and spread his fingers wide.
In that moment, the space around his hand seemed to distort slightly.
He had undoubtedly fired multiple needles coated in transparent Aether.
It was beyond my ability to deflect a multitude of nearly invisible needles with a whip or a dagger.
Especially since they would spread out over a wide area as they flew from a distance.
‘I have no choice but to dodge this.’
Coincidentally, as Vigdis and Svein dealt with Fjodra, they had moved from their original positions.
I dove into the spot where the two of them had been standing.
Naturally, no traps were triggered, but it was too early to relax.
Pret reached out his clenched fist toward me once again.
I struck the ground with my whip to confirm there were no traps and stepped into that spot.
Thanks to that, I managed to avoid Pret’s attack without falling into a trap this time as well.
However, this was essentially the same as telling him, “This is where I plan to move.”
‘That means I have to choose between fleeing back the way we came or moving forward into the area where I’ve been swinging my whip while dealing with Pret…’
Since we hadn’t stepped on every inch of the ground as we walked, there might still be traps left behind us.
Running backward in a mountain with uneven terrain carried a high risk of tripping, even if I didn’t hit a trap.
Therefore, I quickly threw myself forward, toward the ground my whip had already swept over.