Surviving as a Broken Hero

[[«Aim»]]

Koise’s already falcon-like sight grew even clearer, hyper-focusing on the man climbing the cliff in the distance. Everything else became inconsequential.

The path between his arrow and the target…

It was as if he could feel every bit of the wind, every change in air pressure, every molecule between them. He could see the individual puffs of vapor coming from the adventurer’s mouth, the way the man slipped on a piton and had to regain his grip, the rise and fall of his chest.

Whooo.

He exhaled a breath, a low whistling sound spreading out.

[[«Charge»]]

Despite the chilling cold, beads of sweat were dripping down his face. The suffocating aura around him only increased, a palpable thing that would cause anyone inside of it to be pressed into the ground.

A deep, scarlet light formed on the arrow’s edge, creeping down the rest of the arrow and twirling in a spiral pattern around it to meet his fingers on its end.

He took one last moment to make sure that his shot was perfect before loosing the arrow in a crimson burst of color.

Whump.

A shockwave spread around Koise, the air visibly rippling as space itself seemed to warp and a supersonic clap of sound warbled in the ears of the Lion members nearby.

***

{{Behind.}}

‘Behind?’

Just as soon as the Second System message appeared, I felt something prickle along my neck, a primal instinct warning me of something I could not yet see.

I wasn’t sure what was happening, but the combination of my instincts and the Second System both warning me at the same time was enough to persuade me to drop my attempt and prepare however I could.

It had to have been a projectile attack of some sort, either magic or a long-range attack. If that was truly the case, then moving as fast and unpredictably as possible would be the safest bet.

Not willing to let go of my progress and drop back down to the ground where I would set myself up for being caught, I remembered when I had last needed a strong burst of speed to take me somewhere.

I remembered the incident from the village dungeon, when I had used everything at my disposal and launched myself across the landscape.

As much as I hated it, I had to do it again, fast.

The warning I had been given didn’t have a time limit, but I could only assume that I had to move immediately if I didn’t want to take my chances with an ability that even the Second System was warning me about.

Never mind the fact that the Systems I knew were just that, Systems. According to everything I knew of it, a System couldn’t be intelligent or show favoritism, but my view had been changing a lot in those times, and things I had previously thought impossible were in fact becoming the norm.

I surged the earthen energy through my body again, using «Strike» as I again sent power erupting through my feet. I did my best to pull myself upward as I did so, afraid that the force of my jump would smash through the piton I was leaping upward from.

At the same time that I kicked off into the air…

Whump.

I had enough time to briefly register something hitting the cliffside below me just after performing my leap.

The leap itself was much more successful than my previous attempt. From where I had jumped, about halfway up the cliff face, I guessed that the jump would have taken me up most of the remaining distance.

…That would have been under normal circumstances.

As whatever it was impacted the side of the cliff, a shockwave spread out from its point of impact and exploded outwards, serving as a sort of booster that aided my jump even further.

‘Fuck…’

The sudden surge of power sent me on a straight upward trajectory that made me feel as if I had truly taken flight.

The wind whipped at my face, and it became hard to keep my eyes open from the sheer force of it. Before I knew it, I cleared the top of the cliffside and blasted past it, rising higher still.

Looking down at it after reaching the apex of my acceleration high above, a field of jagged crevices, rocky hillsides, and sharp points extended into the distance, blinding me as the sun reflected on the snowy surfaces and flashed brightly.

I frantically surged energy through my body again and performed a concussive «Eruption» away from the cliffside. It would be bad enough to fall that distance back down to the top of the cliffside, but if I fell all the way back down the cliffside itself…

Forget about the Lion Guild, the sheer force of the fall would likely kill me in itself.

The recoil from the blast sent me tumbling at a forward angle on a downward arc, and just before hitting the ground, I braced myself with «Walk it Off».

[[Mana: 50/100]]

Thump.

I became firmly embedded in a bank of snow, crashing through it and slamming into the jutting points of a few sharp protrusions from a rocky hillside.

Pain stabbed through me as one of the points pierced just to the side of my abdomen, a slow crimson stain spreading across the snow.

It wasn’t enough to be lethal, but it hurt like a bitch.

Koise raised his eyebrows in surprise, drained from having used his ultimate skill.

It was the first time that anyone had ever dodged that skill.

The arrow from the skill had launched through the air at such a speed that it had seemed to be instantaneous, extending from his bowstring to the distant target in a mere fraction of a second, far faster than any bullet from Earth could have traveled.

It was a skill that was impossible to react to and dodge, its primary downfall being the time required to fire it.

And yet, that adventurer had somehow realized he was being targeted and leaped at the precise moment when he could no longer adjust his aim. It was truly a masterful dodge, something that required such precise timing that even he, as the user of the skill, couldn’t be sure that he could pull it off…

Krrrrr.

Rocks fell from the crumbling cliffside, a large crater visible where his arrow had hit it.

His mana reserves were dangerously low, but that was what mana potions were for.

Though they were usually prohibitively expensive, a perk to being an authority figure in the Lion Guild was access to an essentially unlimited amount of funds.

Tink.

After downing the bluish, bitter-tasting liquid, he let the vial drop to the rocks at his feet as he readied his next skill to take chase, determined not to let his target go even while begrudgingly acknowledging his target’s skills.

‘I’m going to have to have a word with whoever told me he was a pre-5 Awakener…’

He drew his next arrow in the bowstring, still utilizing the massive bow, but with a markedly different arrow that time.

It was a feathered, blue arrow that was extremely lightweight, with most of the weight being in the arrowhead itself.

Koise simply drew the bow using the massive Strength required, not relying on the aid of a skill. He took aim towards the top of the cliffside that the adventurer they were in pursuit of had literally flown over and loosed the arrow at an angle to account for the light wind.

Thwick.

The bowstring snapped forward and the arrow flew on a curved path up the cliffside, reaching the top after a few seconds before cresting over the side, just visible still.

[[«Transpose».]]

It was an emergency skill that had a cooldown of 24 hours, but while the Awakener he was after had good escape skills, even if the Awakened was above level 5, he wouldn’t stand a chance against Koise’s level of 11. Of that, Koise was certain.

The arrow and Koise switched places, the arrow piercing into the ground where Koise had previously been as Koise plummeted downwards on the arrow’s original trajectory.

Boom.

Koise slammed into the ground unaided, flexing his legs and leaning forward with his landing, coming to rest with one hand on the rough, rock-hewn ground beneath him. The force of his landing sent snow flying.

The sharp rocks below simply snapped away and went flying from the force of his landing, leaving him unharmed, standing on the rough, snowy field.

He only needed a moment to spot the adventurer’s landing point, a clear indentation in the snow that the adventurer was even then pulling himself out of.

Koise’s sharp eyes caught the crimson stain left behind in the adventurer’s struggle and frowned.

He enjoyed the climax of the hunt just as much, if not more, than the hunt itself. The moment when the prey had no option but to turn and fight. If he couldn’t or didn’t want to kill the prey outright, he liked to avoid affecting their fighting ability if at all possible for a thrilling conclusion. Fighting against a severely injured target was no fun, after all.

***

Tink.

A vial of red liquid landed in the snow in front of me as I finished extracting myself from the hole I had created in the snow with my landing.

‘A health potion?’

It didn’t make sense, but that’s what it looked like. Either that, or it was some twisted attempt to get me to drink poison in front of him.

“Drink it.”

The man stood not far away from me, the snow rising to the middle of his shins. His black hair was pulled back in a disheveled ponytail, and he had a massive bow in one hand that was almost as big as he was. I recognized him as the leader of the expedition from before, the one I had previously tricked into going down a different path to buy myself time.

He didn’t look angry. He could have taken that moment when I was extracting myself from the snow to kill me then and there. Judging by the bow he held, I believed him to be the one that had launched whatever had caused the shockwave at me—probably an arrow.

“Why…?”

The man stood still.

“What’s your name?”

“Aizen…”

I picked up the tincture he had thrown at me and downed it, warmth spreading through my body and focusing on the puncture wound created by my fall.

Before long, the bleeding stopped.

I didn’t know what game he was playing, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.