Infinite Arrow-Chapter 49 - 47: Battle on Order (4)

The girl remained hidden in the alleyway, watching the two individuals fight to the death. She continued to get worried because all of this happened because of her and her family. She doesn’t wanna die, she wants to return home even if she has to deal with her mother’s scolding.

Yet she can’t. These people are in the way. She already felt bad because she had the knights die trying to protect her, but now she dragged along a party of adventurers.

Please... just stop...

Will it all stop if she surrenders herself? Wouldn’t that cease the efforts of the people who kept protecting her? But what if they get to live if she gives herself up? At the same time, she doesn’t want to die.

What are these emotions...! I hate it...! I can’t understand anything...! Why are they even trying to protect me? Why are they even trying to kill me...? Somebody, tell me what’s going on...

The princess is but a lost child. Caught up in a feud between commoners and nobles, which is why she shouldn’t be captured. She’s an innocent bystander, but Ombra Fattoria wouldn’t understand that.

Which is why...

Cliff sighed as he continued to glare at the thiren mercenary of Ombra Fattoria. An individual who is not afraid to kill a helpless child for money.

The thiren mercenary lunged forward, spinning his armor-destroyer sword to show how proficiently dangerous he was with this weapon that could slice armor like butter. However, the archer didn’t seem too intimidated by it judging by his relaxed expression. Yet, he still ran away like any archer does but not without fighting back.

He kicked countless objects towards the mercenary and each of them was deflected by the sword and caught by his thiren hands, long and sharp.

Suddenly, a large box was thrown– no, kicked towards him. It blocked his view, letting the archer named Cliff disappear from his sight "NO NO NO~~ I WON’T LET YOU DISAPPEAR FROM MY SIGHTT–"

Randall heavily slashed the box in half, splitting it into two but what he didn’t expect to see was the archer in front of him, with an arrow being released as soon as the split box fell to the ground.

"Quick Shot." A skill that makes the user release the arrow as soon as it is pulled from the bowstring without thinking about its accuracy or power.

There wasn’t any time to dodge, it already reached his face. A few nanoseconds and it will pierce through his head, so he moved his head as fast as he could to evade the arrow.

THUNK— SCHLOIS–

The result wasn’t pretty. It pierced through his left cheek and left him with a gaping mouth. However, he didn’t stop moving. His adrenaline was too high to stop, he’s enjoying this, why should he stop? Fighting a worthy opponent isn’t something everyone comes across with.

Cliff can be seen running through the scattered obstacles, like a rabbit running away from the wolf. Randall pants like crazy, he huffs and he puffs. Like a big bad wolf, he smiles maniacally. The big gash on his mouth didn’t help either, it turned the left side of his mouth into a horrifying, big smile "RUN RUN RUN, LITTLE RABBIT~!"

Then suddenly, Cliff raised his short bow and shot the five arrows into the night sky. Randall raised his eyebrow, asking himself...Why did he do that? I should look– that’s what he probably wants me to do, to take my eyes off of him so that he could disappear!

"YOU WON’T TRICK ME WITH THAT FLIMSY ARROW!" The wolf thiren lunged forward, with the intent to kill the little red rabbit and mangle him into pieces of flesh.

But the red rabbit will not go down easily. He threw rocks toward the big bad wolf, they were hard and sharp, it left small dents in his torso and shoulder armor.

"WHY DON’T YOU USE YOUR ARROWS?! C’MON! SHOW ME HOW AN ARCHER FIGHTS, DAMMIT!" It pisses him off. How dare he call himself an archer but not fight like one? He bit his lip in anger as he threw a large pole at the cowardly rabbit.

Cliff looked above him, his eyes widened and attempted to roll to the side, the pole landed on the ground without hitting anything, however, Cliff twisted his foot in the process because of the amount of trash on the ground. Cliff faced the thiren with his bow pointed towards Randall, he shot three arrows consecutively as the thiren got closer, but the wolf kept deflecting the arrow.

"Shit–! Don’t come any closer!" Cliff’s voice trembling from fear.

"I’ve gotten used to the speed of your arrows, it is useless! Haha!! Admit it that I’m stronger and I’ll grant you a death with no sufferin–"

Suddenly, he felt something heavy fall down on his back, and again, and again, and again, and again. It dug through his armor that it pierced through and he felt electricity shocking his entire body that came from his spine. He fell to the ground in pain, his jaw hitting the ground and rendering him concussed.

It was as if a metal spear fell on his spine. He looked back and vividly saw five sticks pierce through the back of his torso armor, and blood coming out of his back "W-what...?!" His vision was blurred. Yet he knows exactly what pierced him.

It was the arrow that Cliff shot into the sky. Randall looked back at the little rabbit that he thought was weak. But from a distance, he can be seen...smiling.

With an arrow already placed and being pulled by his bow, his crimson pupils pierced through the thiren’s soul.

There was no bloodlust. He couldn’t feel any type of emotions that were negative towards him. Yet he was smiling, why?

"Don’t take your sight off me now..." He stood up from where he was and walked towards the wolf that had been crippled. He pointed the bow at his head, between the wolf’s vision was an arrow near his face.

"I agree with what you’ve said because I’ll be the last thing that you see, before meeting with this...lovely arrow."

It wasn’t because he had no emotions- He does have one.

He wants to hunt. He wasn’t a prey, he wasn’t a predator either.

He’s a hunter.

I don’t accept it. I can’t lose to a fucking kid who wields nothing but a string and a stick–! No, to hell with that logic...!

The wind was particularly strong that night. Though it was cloudy, the wind swept the clouds away and cleared the night sky, revealing the moon that was full tonight.

Just when Cliff is about to shoot an arrow at the thiren’s head, his body starts twitching like crazy. The nails of the thiren slowly grew larger and sharper, and the fur increased and spread throughout Randall’s entire body.

"What the..." Cliff jumped backward. Though he should’ve just shot him straight away, he couldn’t take that risk. Suddenly, the moonlight shined down where they were located. The mercenary stood up and his appearance had changed drastically, it was more animal-like than before.

He has completely transformed into a version of himself that is stronger. A Werewolf, the armor that he was wearing suddenly burst outward. Sending it towards the Archer, it was traveling fast.

"Fuck–!" Cliff immediately jumped to the side, where a stall was placed. Unfortunately, he landed on the stall and brought the whole thing down, burying himself with heavy objects.

Countless items fell on top of his body, pain spread through his entire figure but he couldn’t stay down any longer. He quickly removed what was on top of him, including the cloth that is blocking his sight, making it difficult for him to see where the mercenary went "Agh- Shit– Why are these things so– Heavy!"

After removing the cloth, he could hear the sound of footsteps getting near where he landed.

He’s getting closer, shit–!

Cliff’s whole body suddenly glowed and jumped upwards, removing what was on top of him and going up the air, revealing his magical circuits glowing.

[ Mana Amplification Activated. ]

In the end, he had to use magic to amplify his body. Now that his status has been increased for a few minutes, he wouldn’t have problem with the mercenary–

If only he stayed in his normal form. Below him, is a full-on werewolf. Wielding a sword on his right hand, while having deadly sharp claws on his left hand. Not only that, the damage he sustained earlier has vanished.

"He regenerated–?!" Cliff was shocked. He landed on the ground gracefully and immediately jumped backward to gain some distance between the two of them. But no matter how far away he was, he couldn’t shake the feeling of uneasiness.

Back on square one, are we?

He sarcastically thought to himself as he raised his bow– but as soon as he raised it, the wolf thiren lunged at him at great speed and immediately closed the gap between them. Cliff’s eyes widened as he noticed that the wolf’s claws were already near his chest, he was about to get impaled with sharp nails–

[ Adrenaline-Rush Activated ]

Cliff suddenly bent backward, like how the dude in The Matrix dodged the bullets. He did it to avoid being impaled, but he knew that the wolf wouldn’t stop there. The wolf brought his claws downward, attempted to claw the man’s chest and opened up his stomach "GRUAH–!!"

Suddenly, Cliff performed an impressive feat of acrobatics by doing a backflip when he bent his back to avoid that claw. Not only that, he kicked the wolf’s arm upwards to not get clawed. Then, he performed a backward somersault to gain distance but to also avoid attacks from the wolf by being unpredictable with his actions.

"THAT... That was close...!" He panted. Cliff could feel his entire body aching and wanting to give up, but he couldn’t. His developed skill of pain tolerance kept him at bay, and his [ Adrenaline-Rush ] skill is numbing most of the pain already.

But the fact that he could feel pain meant that his exhaustion/fatigue meter must be close to the edge already. The lad wanted to rest but that’s impossible, this wolf wouldn’t let him have the rest he needed.

After all, this is the same wolf...

That massacred an entire village. Killing not only adults but the children and the pets as well. This is not an easy battle.

Cliff already knew that. There is no easy battle in this world, only a battle he can win or lose, no in-between. The situation is dire, yet for some reason... he could feel his lips twitch, curving upwards in some cases. Is he... no, he cannot be.

Am I enjoying this?