Descending Into A Novel-Chapter 63:First Mission (10)

"By the way. Lucy should have tracked us down and is probably rushing to our location as we speak."

Her head turned sharply at that, the reveal of Cador Ashfield the human and Ashfield the wolf being the same was already a surprise. But she quickly realized what he meant.

’If he is Ashfield, that means she’s already learnt the Art, and bonded with Cador, so she knows where we are!’

"Make sure to keep him sleeping, and how sturdy is this warehouse?"

"I’ve already casted another sleep spell, and the warehouse should be able to withstand F-ranks? Slow her down a bit while I prep this place."

She nodded, firing an arrow connected to a rope at the skylight. She rappelled her way upwards, mantling onto the roof of the warehouse.

Activating her innate power, she scanned the direction of the town.

Normally, she would struggle to find someone like this. But Lucy was special, because just like Zachary, Raymond and a few others. Lucy was also someone who had red appear on her whenever she used her innate power.

All she needed to do was find the red.

And find it she did, a large red blob was quickly moving in an almost straight line towards her. Once she found her target, she deactivated the part of her innate power that let her see the colours.

With the enhanced eyesight, she could see Lucy was running towards them in an odd manner. Small arcs of lightning formed at her feet, her eyes seemed slightly more...reptillian, and her limbs moved more fluidly then they should have. Her regular long brown hair become a bright shade of blue.

Either it was an entirely new Art, or she was using the Art which let her fuse with her bonded pets.

Ellen could tell it was the latter right away, she had never seen Lucy use such an Art before, but she did know that one of Lucy’s pets she would own in the future was a purebred thunderclap viper.

Her brain spun as she tried to remember everything she could about the purebred thunderclap viper and snakes as a whole. Searching for any weaknesses she could utilize. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Her movement speed was shockingly fast for a G+ rank. Ellen estimated that she would reach them within a few minutes, maybe around six or seven at most.

She nocked an arrow into her bow, as much as she wanted to use her Kairos bow. She had already used it during the mission, Lucy would definitely recognize her if she did use it.

The arrow she used was another one of her tranquilizer arrows, she doubted she would be able to hit Lucy with how fast she was moving and how far away she was. But she wanted to test anyways.

Taking a deep breath, she almost instinctively used her World Crossing Bow Arts. Before hastily switching to a different Art. She had also used her World Crossing Bow Arts in front of Lucy and while there were lots of Arts that resembled hers, Lucy would be able to tell.

An almost invisible, faint sheen of grey appeared on the tranquilizer arrow. Resembling a sticky miasma rather then the almost solid looking light of her World Crossing Bow Art.

Exhaling, she released the arrow the moment her body went still. The sticky miasma leaving a small grey trail in the air as it arced its way towards Lucy. Faithfully following the blue pathing that only she could see.

Using her innate power to observe Lucy, Ellen could see her pause mid-run. Stopping in place, her arms seemed to ripple slightly as blue scales grew on her limbs. Her face becoming more reptilian.

At the last moment, her body seemed to twist in a manner that would have been impossible for a human. If a regular person tried it, they might have pulled several muscles. The tranquilizer arrow burying itself harmlessly into the dirt

Lucy quickly resumed running towards their direction, this time. Her movement seemed to speed up even more.

She nocked another arrow, a regular basic blunt one that could be found in any awakened shop. She only had a few special arrows left and she didn’t want to waste any of them.

Firing off another trail of grey miasma. This time, she made no attempt to hide her location. Making it obvious where they were originating from.

Lucy got close enough that Ellen could see her without using her innate power now. Her pupils were thin, slitted. The scales on her body rippled again, disappearing and revealing her regular human limbs instead.

Jumping into the air, a green platform appeared under her feet midair. Letting her jump again in zig-zagging patterns towards Ellen on the roof.

Sky Steps Art. One of the most common Arts alongside weapon auras, body enhancement, status removal and manifestation. Although Lucy was likely using some better version from the Floriza family.

Ellen never stopped firing her arrows at Lucy, annoyingly however despite each one accurately aiming at each of her weaknesses. Lucy seemed to posses an inhuman reaction speed, right before the arrow would hit her, her body would twist and turn in impossible ways—as if she didn’t possess any bones.

She needed to hit at least one of her arrows for her Depression Miasma Art to kick into effect, despite not possessing a mana attunement currently due to her lack of a mana core. The Art was still effective, albeit much less then if it was wielded by Killian or her future self.

Luckily, Arts that could affect emotions weren’t rare. It was only the emotions-attunement that was rare. Otherwise, Ellen would have severely limited options she could use.

Lucy soon reached within fifty meters of her. Causing Ellen to start backing up away.

Firing off another two arrows in quick succession at her, she felt a bit of surprise when one of them actually hit her.

’Snakes have poor vision...but she can change between her human eyes and snake eyes whenever she wants. She’s using her snake eyes right now, is that why I hit her just now?’

Lucy’s mouth opened slightly as she released a grunt, the blunt tipped arrow hitting her in the shoulder. Grey miasma stuck onto where it hit her.

With a thought, Ellen activated her Depression Miasma Art. The grey miasma stuck to Lucy’s shoulder suddenly bulged, before exploding into a thick vapour.

Lucy had no time to react, inhaling the vapour before she could hold her breath.

Instantly, her movements slowed down massively. Her mental state deteriorating with thoughts of overwhelming sadness and despair. Hopelessness taking over and causing her eyes to start watering, her body turning weak.

Lucy smirked suddenly, with a shout. The thick vapour was blown away, Lucy’s body enveloped in a green aura. Free of the miasma.

How many Arts did she have?!

Ellen gritted her teeth, she could see Lucy’s normal clear eyes rather then the vertical slits. Meaning she had quickly realized it herself why she had gotten hit.

Jumping backwards, she released a mini barrage of arrows at her. Each one leaving trails of the depression miasma behind in the air as they flew towards Lucy.

It was even more infuriating that she couldn’t aim for as many weak spots as she would like.

Lucy would quickly realize that she was aiming for her weaknesses and get suspcious. She hadn’t exactly tried to hide her ability to see weak points from Lucy.

That left her fighting with only around half of the strength that she could actually utilize. She couldn’t use her Kairos bow, her World Crossing Bow Art, or even her innate power too much.

Jumping backwards again, she notched another arrow. This time, she was using a different art.

Aiming at Lucy again, she fired off the arrow. While the arrow was halfway towards her however, it shimmered slightly before splitting into ten arrows. Each following a different trajectory.

While Ellen could utilize multiple Arts together, doing so would drain her mana far too quickly. It was better to just utilize what could be used instead.

Like right now, originally the Shimmering Illusory Arrow Art and the Manifestation Art. She combined the two Arts together. Rather then shooting fake arrows which would just pass through harmlessly, combining it with Manifestation which could create solid objects with mana. Successfully creating an attack which fired off ten true arrows.

Lucy’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the ten arrows each aiming for a different part of her body. Scales rippled onto her limbs, before abruptly twisting her neck and spine.

A few dull thuds echoed as the blunt arrows hit her thigh, forearms and shoulder. Each covered by her blue scales.

Ellen was rather surprised again, Lucy had managed to detect that they were all real arrows that could cause harm, and then dodged to protect the most important parts. While letting only the scale covered less important parts get hit.

For someone so young, her battle iq was terrifying.

As far as she could remember, while Lucy was definitely a formidable opponent in the previous timeline. She hadn’t been so strong, had she been hiding her true abilities from them?