"Yuna! Now!"
Atalanta's voice cut through the din of the approaching horde. Behind her, a teenage girl in Far-Eastern miko attire stood poised, a bow nearly as tall as her petite frame gripped in her hands. Her long, jet-black hair streamed like a banner in the wind as she drew the string, her entire world narrowing to a single point a hundred meters away. Her eyes, sharp as a hawk's, locked onto her prey.
"My arrow is true. My mind is empty," Yuna chanted, her voice a whisper of pure focus.
As she spoke, the bowstring began to glow with a violet light. The glow intensified, pulsing with raw power as she pulled the string back, further, further, until the bow groaned at its very limit.
"Kokoro no ya!"
Plunk!
The release was a thunderclap. The arrow tore through the air, not flying but rippling, its passage heating the air and leaving a crackling wake of lightning. It became less a projectile and more a bolt of concentrated destruction.
It struck the lead Goblin Square in the head, but it didn't stop. It was a force of nature, ploughing through the horde in a straight line of carnage until it buried itself deep within their center.
Crack!
BOOM!
A sphere of purple annihilation erupted, swallowing half the monster army in a single, deafening roar. The ground trembled, and for a breathtaking moment, silence fell, punctuated only by the sizzle of fading magic.
"Good job, Yuna," Atalanta said, her praise tight with urgency.
But the praise fell on deaf ears. Yuna collapsed to her knees, her bow clattering beside her. She gasped for air, her face as pale as parchment. "I'm sorry, Captain... I'm at my limit."
Kokoro no ya—the Arrow of the Heart—was a technique that demanded everything. It condensed her entire reservoir of mana into a single, world-shattering shot, a blast with a fifty-meter kill radius. The cost? It left her utterly drained, a weapon that could only be fired once every two days.
Atalanta gave a sharp, understanding nod. "Jena! Get Yuna out of here. Fall back to Lady Artemis's position."
"Understood, Captain!" A blonde-haired girl darted forward, slinging Yuna's limp form over her back with practiced ease.
"I'm sorry, Jena," Yuna mumbled, her consciousness fading.
"Sorry? You just carved a path through them! Now rest." Jena adjusted her grip as Yuna went completely still.
Atalanta turned her grim gaze back to the battlefield. The monsters, though halved, kept coming. But their movement was wrong. Illogical. Their killer instinct should have driven them toward her, the immediate threat. Instead, their tide was shifting, flowing with a strange, singular purpose around her defensive line.
"Archers, hold the line! No close combat until my command!" she barked. "If you run out of arrows, you fall back to the town! Is that understood?"
A chorus of "Understood, Captain!" echoed behind her.
Unseen by the defenders, a figure of stone and earth observed from the tree line—a golem, its magical senses recording every shouted order, every strained breath. High above, hidden by a conjured cloud and a spell that bent light to his will, I watched.
My eyes widened. "A skill that rivals saint-level magic..." I breathed, staring at the smoldering crater where the arrow had landed. The sheer, raw power was breathtaking. "But the cost... it breaks the user to complete exhaustion."
My gaze followed Jena carrying the unconscious Yuna. The girl's attire marked her as being from the Far East, a land reportedly torn apart by its own version of the Sengoku warring states period. I shook my head, forcing my mind back to the present. The battle below was the immediate puzzle.
"If a vow to a god can birth such power..." I murmured, a cold dread settling in my stomach. "The Elven Kingdom wouldn't last century."
If such a war came to my people, I would have no choice. I would become the monster they needed—a creature of slaughter, feared and hunted by all out of fear. I knew that loneliness intimately, the pain of being the thing that goes bump in the night.
("Varda, maintain surveillance. Only intervene if their hope is truly lost.")
("Understood, Master. But, if I may...")
("What is it, Varda?")
("Are you not concerned they will grow suspicious? Your timing will be... convenient.")
("I know. But it's the fastest way. Even if they question my motives, the fact that I am saving their lives is undeniable. Plus I am using the Magic armor Prototype it covering most of my body and true high.")
Though it hid my bulk, my elven ears were partially visible. It was a calculated risk. From the outside, no one would ever guess a nine-year-old was inside this shell of metal and magic.
("Master, the monsters are altering their course. They are heading directly for the town.")
A cold realization dawned on me.
'That's not right.'
Monsters in this world were different, but they shared a universal trait: a primal killer instinct. They should be swarming Atalanta's defiant line, not bypassing it with such coordination.
'This isn't a mindless assault. This is a directed one.'
Knowledge was power, and it was the very strength I lacked in this new world. To prepare for the enemies ahead, I needed to understand this one. I leaned forward, my magical lens focusing.
"They're being herded. Let's see what the gods' children are truly capable of against a guided threat."
====x====
Artemis now learn there was frothy of monsters made Goblin, Kobold, and what worrying her the most was the sense of someone are watching.
Artemis buried her thought and only had one think must she think through. After hour of battle one after another her children back to her relieve with empty arrow until the last one Atalanta the captain are still stay behind.
After half an hour finally Atalanta back toward her goddess side this time with miserable look it look like she could pass out any moment.
"Huff, huff, I- I am sorry Artemis-sama… I failed."
"It Fine Atalanta we delayed them long enough." Artemis observe each of her children and each one of them are all in complete exhausted and just that she bite her lips in frustration.
Her children give everything to pull the horde from the town and yet it useless it almost like the monster are already had an objective in their mind.
"Artemis-sama, I can use my skill do-"
"No!" Artemis spoke with unfazed gaze toward Atalanta.
"That skill are too dangerous. You should aware that it will cripple you."
Atalanta had one skill that called 'Phoebus Catastrophe' a skill that called hundreds of arrow raining down toward the enemies. Artemis found her skill when she give her blessing, but she forbade her to use it with an excuse it can cripple her enough make her unable to become adventurer. In truth is the skill consume it lifespan of it user.
The monster marched toward the open field with murderous gaze they rushed forward.
Just then Artemis felt it like shooting star fell it land just front of the monster.
Boom!
A sound of heavy metallic clashed with the earth causing large crater and tall dust surround the impact.
It like time are stopped as the cloud of dust dance with the wind as it get cleared a single humanoid figure stood with full plate of jet black armour that four meters tall and sword tree meters in length on his back.
"What is that thing… wait that ears?"
Atalanta and Tania seeing a silver hair with long pointy ears clearly shown from the helmet.
"An elves? What and where he came from?"
It the same question that crossed each of them who laid their eyes on towering knight just front of them just then the knight pulled a jet black sword from his wrist and charged forward with terrifying speed.
Like unrelenting force he swipe the monster like spear of light force forward leaving trail of dust at the end. Not stopping the armoured figure dance around the battlefield.
"Who is that elf?"
====x====
"Twenty-seven. Twenty-six. Twenty-five…"
I whispered the countdown, a death knell for the horde. I was a storm of steel and rune-fire. My blade fell like a guillotine, splitting a monster in two with such force that the shockwave cracked the pavement. Blood misted the air. Before the gore could settle, I pivoted, the hydraulics screaming in harmony.
Whom-crack.
Three more heads tumbled away. My body felt light, untethered by the laws of physics that bound my enemies. The exo-frame hummed, turning the tonnage of my sword into a mere extension of my will. Any beast foolish enough to close the distance was carved apart between heartbeats.
'I see…'
SLASH!
Horizontal slashed cut through the goblin and the kobold monsters.
'They feel no fear at all. Still…'
They walked into a trap they couldn't see. My Gravity Field expanded, a silent, crushing dome. Five meters out, their mass quintupled. I watched them stumble, their muscles tearing as they fought to lift weapons that suddenly weighed a ton. They were slow. Predictable. Pathetic.
For me, this wasn't a battle. It was harvest time.
"It's been too long since I cut loose."
====x====
The silence after the massacre was heavier than the din of battle. The lone elven knight stood amidst the ruin, Before Artemis could speak, the earth at her feet erupted. A small golem, shaped like a child's earthen doll with a head too large for its body, burrowed out, sending Atalanta's hunters scrambling back, weapons raised.
"Greetings." The voice was feminine, melodic, and utterly incongruous coming from the lump of animated soil.
Artemis lowered her bow a fraction. "What are you?"
"Pardon my and my Master's rudeness, Goddess Artemis." The golem gave a slight, courteous bow. "I am Varda. A spirit. And the elf who stands there is my Master, with whom I have made a contract."
Artemis's eyes widened. A spirit? Contracted to a mortal? Her divine senses flared, rejecting the impossibility—until the pieces snapped together. The knight's preternatural strength, the way magic bent around him… it did make sense.
"I see," Artemis breathed, the revelation cold in her gut. "That explains his power."
"Please, do not be afraid. My Master is here only to lend a hand," Varda chimed.
Jena stepped forward, her practical mind cutting through the shock. "Does your master know why the monsters behaved like that?"
Varda went still, a pause that felt heavy. "It is… speculation. But we discovered something… disturbing… hidden beneath this town hall."
THWIP.
An arrow sliced the air, piercing clean through the earthen doll. It shattered into clods of dirt.
Artemis whirled. The shooter was a town guardian, his face a mask of grim duty. "That thing was a monster, Goddess!"
"You fool!" Artemis roared.
A searing, blinding lance of lightning answered for her. It cracked from the elven knight's outstretched palm, striking the guardian down with a thunderclap. Before the echo faded, the earth stirred at the knight's feet. Varda reformed, good as new.
"Master," the spirit said, her voice now hard. "The sinister aura from that man confirms it. There is a slave pit. Directly below us."
Another guard began to tremble, sweat beading on his brow. "A lie! There's no such place!"
"You lie front of me!?." Artemis's voice was winter frost. Her power flashed, and a glaze of ice sealed the man's boots to the ground. As he struggled, Jena was already moving—a blur of motion that ended with a devastating punch. The man crumpled, skidding meters away.
"Jena, you overdid it," Atalanta said, though her tone held no real disapproval.
"My hand was just… itchy, Captain."
The elven knight moved then, closing the distance with silent, deliberate steps. He stopped before the pile of earth that was Varda, bent down, and carefully lifted the small golem, placing it upon his armored shoulder.
Varda's clay head turned to the goddess and her hunters. "Please," the spirit said, as her master's glowing eyes dared them to follow. "We will show you."
====x====
A restless itch had me stealing a glance at the goddess Artemis. Her hair was not merely blue, but the deep, silken hue of a twilight sky, and her skin seemed to glow with a light of its own. Then she sensed my gaze. Her eyes—ancient and knowing—found mine, and she smiled. Not a regal nod, but a warm, genuine curve of her lips that made my heart stutter.
'This is troubling.'
My pulse became a frantic drum against my ribs, heat flooding my face. 'Don't tell me she has a passive charm ability? No… Artemis in the myths never had such a thing.'
("Master, I do not believe it is a charm. It may be her blue… did it remind you of someone?")
A certain person flashed through my mind, and I jolted as if struck.
("Varda… you are not making this any easier.")
My golem companion tapped my shoulder, a silent attempt at comfort.
From behind me, I heard Atalanta's bewildered mutter. "Weird."
"Hm? What is it, Captain?" Jena went her captain side.
"His armor is clearly heavy steel, yet his movement, his footfall… it is identical to Eryn's."
A ripple of surprise went through the hunting party. Jena and the others checked for themselves, their eyes widening.
"Perhaps a form of spirit magic?" Jena offered.
As the group arrive at the town hall Artemis turn her gaze toward her children close behind her.
"Some of you, fastest runners, spread the word that the town is safe," Artemis instructed.
"No need, Goddess," the spirit replied respectfully. "I dispatched my minions some time ago. They should be returning now."
"Oh? You two have thought of everything, hmm?" Artemis's gaze lingered on the silent elven knight.
Varda guided us through a hidden entrance, down a passage where the air grew thick and a foul scent became unmistakable. We emerged into a circular room, dim save for a single weak light. I summoned a light spirit, and its glow washed over the scene.
The Slave.
Artemis trembled. The entire hunting party froze, faces painted with horror. I, perhaps numbed by past horrors, felt only a heavy sigh within me. While they stood paralyzed, I moved to the nearest cage and shattered the lock. Dozens of eyes—human, beastman, and many Pallum—snapped toward me, wide with fear.
"Do not worry," my voice spoke through Varda. "Master is here to help you."
The palpable terror in the air lessened, replaced by fragile hope.
I unsealed a summoning scroll, calling forth a bag of emergency potions and all the food I had stored. My attention was caught by a Pallum girl, so frail her breaths were mere whispers. Our eyes met, and I saw a brokenness no potion could ever mend. Removing my gauntlet, I knelt before her. I placed a gentle hand on her head, and as I did, I cast a saint-level healing spell, washing her pain away.
"Your past is painful," Varda conveyed for me, my own voice thick with emotion. "But your future remains infinite, and it can hold happiness."
"An elf… willingly touching another race?" Artemis observed, her tone rich with intrigue. "I have never seen such a thing."
It took half an hour to heal the worst wounds and break the crude magical shackles. Then, Varda's voice chimed in my mind.
("Master, there is another hidden room. I just found it.")
("What's inside?")
("Unknown. A potent barrier surrounds it.")
("Then I go alone. It's likely trapped.")
If they hid it this well, it must be a treasury—or something worse. Resources for my future projects, either way.
As Artemis directed her followers to aid the freed captives, I moved to the room's center. A focused pulse of magic reduced the earth to sand, revealing a dark, circular stairway descending into deeper blackness.
A new odor hit me first—copper-tinged blood, yes, but underneath it, something else. Something that clawed at the edges of my memory, a familiar dread I couldn't quite place.
I was about to descend when Varda patted my shoulder. I turned.
Artemis stood there, having closed the distance without a sound. She was mere inches away, her bright, curious smile once again sending a disconcerting leap through my chest.
"Can I go with you, sir Knight?"
++++++++++++++
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