Infinite Arrow-Chapter 46 - 44: Battle on Order (1)

Street lights were turning on, the citizens of Ordelia had done enough work for today and all of them were cleaning up for tonight to rest.

An old woman can be seen sweeping the floor with a broom, removing the amount of trash that was left by countless travelers going through the market. It was a peaceful night, no crows, no crickets, and it was a full moon.

She took a deep breath, inhaling the clean air of the night... until she was pushed aside by a shadow that went by. The old woman fell onto the ground and felt her body ache "Urya–! Damn you–!"

She pointed her hand to where the shadow went but pointed at the wind instead. It was just a few seconds yet they were gone already, her eyes blinked a couple of times, checking if that happened or not. After thinking, she decided that it wasn’t worth it. She stood up and patted her back to remove the dirt that she gathered from falling to the ground.

Suddenly, at the corner of her vision, a man holding a bow can be seen running and jumping through countless shopping stands and swiftly jumping through obstacles that stand in his way. It was believable at first, but he kept speeding up after jumping through obstacles one by one.

"I– I need to retire." Seeing how many things played out tonight, she went inside her house put out the flames of her candle and went to sleep.

Honestly, my [ Ranger ] active movement skills may not be a lot but I’d be damned if they didn’t exist!

Running through countless objects, he managed to find something out about one of his passive abilities. His [ Perfect Evasion ] temporarily boosts his speed after dodging anything that can damage the user. If he didn’t test this out, he wouldn’t have known that it does this. It may look like a normal description, but focus on "dodging anything that can damage the user." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Anything can damage the player. By running through a narrow space with tons of obstacles, he can spam [ Perfect Evasion ] every single time and get a speed boost.

By constantly activating his passive skill

[ Search ] every time the cooldown ends, it allows him to follow where the assassin and Her Highness are at, it also increases his proficiency by doing so.

However, the gap between their distance isn’t closing anytime soon. This assassin knows the layout of the city, they’ve probably infiltrated the entire military camp and surveyed the area to prepare for the arrival of the knights.

I need to shoot an arrow before they fully escape with the princess... The problem is, they have the princess.

Despite being an Archer, Cliff doubted his accuracy. From the amount of combat and training he has done for the past month or two, his proficiency over archery hasn’t gone up since. Not even during his second expedition to the Infinite Dungeon.

Shooting an arrow would mean that he has to accurately hit the target without missing because if he misses... a high chance, that it would be the princess that would get shot by the arrow he released.

"Shit–!" He angrily shouted, running through the corners of the city while pursuing the assassin who had the princess hostage.

"Get off of me! Don’t you know who my father is–!" The child violently brought her balled-up fist onto the assassin’s shoulder, but it was useless. She could feel how tough her flesh was like it was hitting a metal armor. How can somebody as fast as her be also durable?!

Seeing how useless it was to use her strength, the princess shook her own body to loosen the assassin’s grip over her, she was like a wriggling worm desperately trying to escape through the ground.

"You better stop wiggling around before I stab your fucking neck!" The assassin violently warned the princess, which made the poor child stop moving and tremble in fear. She hadn’t heard anybody scream at her and threaten her that way, her body froze. Tears started swelling from her eyes, and she threw... a tantrum.

"WAAAAAAAAAAA!!! PLEASE DON’T KILL ME...! DADDY!!! HELP ME PLEASE!!"

"Argh–! Shut the fuck up!" The woman in black got annoyed by her screeching cries, she couldn’t do anything to stop her from crying because she knew she was being pursued. "This is why I hate children–!"

"Then give her back, you old bitch–!"

The female assassin quickly turned around as soon as he heard a voice from behind, and her eyes widened as soon as he saw an archer catching up to them by dashing.

"Fuck–! This is annoying...!" Without hesitation, she took a throwing knife and sent it towards the archer moving at a fast speed. If he’s moving that fast, he wouldn’t be able to react in tim–

In the blink of an eye, Cliff evaded the throwing knife that was thrown at him by tilting his head to the side. However, that wasn’t all. As soon as he tilted his head, he spun his body grabbed the throwing knife that went past him and threw it back at the assassin’s foot.

"Hey! Allow me to return this to you!"

The knife missed the target and stuck to the ground in front of her instead.

FUCK, I HATE MY LUCK!

But, the assassin didn’t notice where the knife went and managed to cut her front toes, which made her wince in pain and lose her balance.

Nevermind! Thank you, luck!

Resulting in stumbling over the ground and loosening the grip she had over the princess, which freed the girl. However, their landing wasn’t so ideal.

[ Perfect Evasion ] + [ Front Dash ]

After throwing the knife back at her, the effects of the [ Perfect Evasion ] skill boosted his speed and by using the other movement skill [ Front Dash ], he managed to run even faster and catch up to them in no time.

He immediately grabbed an arrow from his quiver and drew it on his bow, pointing it towards the assassin as he went over the princess’ side to make sure she was fine. His sight never left the assassin, he wouldn’t allow that previous mistake to happen again. [ Assassin ] is a class upgrade that stemmed from the original class [ Rogue ].

They are not the combative type, more on the secretive, cautious powerful classes that exist in the game. Their hidden ambushes and stealth attacks are one of their strengths, they are one-shot attacks if performed and executed correctly. But what makes them deadly isn’t their attacks, but their terrifying proficiency over stealth.

[ Shadow Step ] is one of their main skill sets that comes when upgrading their class from [ Rogue ] to [ Assassin ]. It allows them to hide completely underneath a shadow, which is what she managed to do earlier. It’s terrible, because right now...

He is at a disadvantage.

It is nighttime, and countless street stalls and buildings create a shadow around him. Even his own shadow is dangerous, thanks to the moonlight being so bright tonight.

"How... dare you...!" She exclaimed, using her arms as clutches to stand up.

"Fuck you." He released the arrow from his drawn short bow. It flew right towards her chest, but she disappeared and went underneath.

Her body was touching a shadow, particularly the shadow of a building right in front of him connected to other buildings. However, he didn’t lose his cautiousness. She could still be trying to attack him and she’s just finding the right opportunity.

No use trying to rely on my sight alone.

Search.

His five senses heightened as soon as he activated his skill [ Search ]. By looking at the shadows only, he was able to narrow it down and make it possible for him to find the woman hiding under a shadow.

However, his natural GPS isn’t telling him anything. There was no person near him or the princess at all.

"Tsk- She got away..."

He lowered his bow and breathed deeply before turning his back. Cliff went towards the princess and found her unconscious, he immediately knelt and checked her head for any injuries.

"No bleeding, but there is a lump on the forehead..."

Nothing serious. The forehead is one of the toughest parts of the skull, she could survive a minor fracture. Probably.

[ Danger Detected, Avoid Immediately! ]

A message popped up inside of his mind and he quickly grabbed the princess and rolled on the ground while carrying her. Cliff felt a violent wind brush against his back while rolling, he quickly placed the princess on a building now that they are in an alleyway and turned around to see which fucktard attacked him.

A knight wearing a full set of armor, holding a weirdly shaped sword that he recognizes. It was as if a true soulslike character came out of nowhere and decided to attack him. Unfortunately, it wasn’t out of nowhere. It was intentional.

"Hehe~ This would’ve been easier if you just stayed still and died, but no~ you just had to move away... Don’t you know how annoying that is when your prey dodge–"

"Oh my fucking god! Get on with it, you yap like a grandma!" The teenager didn’t let him finish his external monologue, and that reply made the knight visibly annoyed thanks to his hand gripping the sword handle tighter than before.

[ Taunt has been activated. ]

"You sure are one disrespectful animal~! I will enjoy cutting you down like what I did to your friends!"

The sinister knight rushes forward, wielding a dangerous sword that disregards any kind of physical defense.

Dodging is the only way to avoid his attacks– or so anybody would think.

[ Front Dash ]

Cliff immediately reduced the distance between him and the sinister knight. With a simple, yet powerful spartan kick, he managed to knock him back a few distance, back to the open streets surrounded by buildings and a few street stalls where they could fight freely.

"Sorry! Had to change the arena, I hate fighting in narrow spaces! It triggers my claustrophobia!" Cliff giggled, smirking like the troll that he is as he grabbed an arrow from his quiver and prepared for combat.