Áz - The Battlefield

Don't Look Down Now

Age of Sin. Year 1027.

The end of the dusk took over the sky in the horizon ahead, the weak rays of sun that passed between the trees together with the silence of the insects and animals of the forest left everything in full and absolute silence. A painter faced with that forest could find a striking inspiration of late autumn, if it weren't for the sound of two people running between the trees desperately for their lives everything would be perfect... Or would there also be beauty in that scenario? Only the Paint Lord and great painters perhaps knew the answer to that.

Hand in hand with the other girl, at the front was what appeared to be a royal guard, wearing light metallic armor in gray clothes with a long sword attached to the scabbard at her waist, a young woman with white, half-tanned skin with long black hair. who looked to be about 20 years old was running for his life. Being pulled by her as a younger girl, she would appear to be about 17 years old with her curly hair and chocolate tone skin, her long white dress that hours ago could have been considered beautiful was now torn underneath for better use of her unhindered escape. .

— Noell!... We won't make it! — She almost screamed as the girl who was being pulled ran panting.

The royal guard showed no interest in her words, kept running, pulling her. The girl still didn't notice any more if she paid attention to her arms, they were full of blade cuts and even so the royal guard kept pulling her.

Voosh!

A knife crossed the air towards the back of the girl in the dress when she looked back, luckily a sword blocked the blade that fell to the ground in an explosion, however the knife that fell exploded in green smoke with a foul odor.

— Noell! — Frightened the girl cried out for her faithful friend who blocked the blade with her long sword.

— Not yet! — She replied as she pulled it again and they started running again. 'Don't wear anything!' Not yet!

Although the girl eagerly accepted, that green smoke probably had some effect on her friend, however she knew how to handle herself better than the girl herself whose fear of death was stamped in her eyes, if it wasn't for her royal guard friend's resistance she would herself would have given up without even noticing.

— Un.. .— The girl replied slowly as she ran being pulled.

Shadows followed them through the trees, shadow killers that clearly aimed at her life. Hours ago in the middle of their journey the girl, her royal guard and the rest of the royal guards who escorted them were ambushed, all were dead at this point and only the two of them had managed to escape, faithful men and women killed cruelly, still they had to run but otherwise they would have died in vain.

— Haa... Haa... Where... We're going... — Asked the girl running.

— Do not speak! Save energy for running! — replied his royal guard.

In the girl's vision they were running blindly through the forest. There was only one possible destination at the end of the forest, but the girl didn't know that. The shadows that were chasing them had already tried several types of attacks, being elemental, from poison, indirect traps... With the attacks overlapping and wearing down the royal guard it wouldn't take long for one of them to succeed and kill them both, clearly her royal guard had been poisoned in place of the girl, the royal guard himself knew it and so did the girl.

— Noell, you can't take it!" Let me help! — The girl complained.

— I know! Yet you can't! — She replied in a clearly annoyed voice.

Noell felt his whole body slowly numb, his eyes wanting to rest and his mind too, she spent the rest of all the magic to make her body resist the effects but it wouldn't take long, but it was enough time. If they hadn't been killed by now then she could resist a little longer, just a little longer... Just a little longer.

Having managed to reach the end of the forest the two came across a strip of stones and after that the yellowish white could only be seen, there was no life ahead, the cold wind coming from the east directly confronted their bodies demonstrating that there was no escape beyond to face the Salt Desert ahead. The royal guard did not stop and pulling the girl continued to run over the stone strip towards the Salt Desert. There was no way to hide in an environment without slopes, but at the same time there was no way for their enemies who were chasing them to plant. an ambush too.

— Hold on, I'll go full throttle. — Deploy your barriers behind us! Noell pleaded as he grabbed her arms and lifted her.

There wasn't much time, so she replied quickly, a translucent cyan shield-shaped barrier formed behind them accompanying them, Noell had put the girl on his back and using his own mana to strengthen his body he made several jumps expending everything he had remaining towards the front in a disorderly manner. As a royal guard her body had to be strong enough to sustain her post, at the very least she was also a blue aura master and as she had to be tough enough to be able to withstand anything like a study.

Although it would hardly be comparable to a simple aura master with a follower of a lord like the shadow assassins, even more so in a one-on-many situation…

Your efforts would be considered futile in the eyes of your attackers, coming out of something bad... and into worse. It wasn't that simple, as one of the twenty seven most dangerous places in Áz, the Salt Desert was reputed to have the last of the twenty seven locations within it, near the edge of the desert hundreds of years ago a huge hole had appeared. the size of the capital of Aggron, which was the nearest kingdom.

What was at the bottom of that hole? Nobody knew. Even Lords died trying to unlock its mysteries and enter it and before that there were not a few who tried. All they discovered in everyone's death was that monsters inhabited the bottom and not even the undead escaped their clutches. Going there was considered a form of suicide by certain madmen and Noell knew it well, he knew too much and despite everything that place was his goal, that place whose name no one should mention in vain, Aven'Nath Abyss.

Their pursuers slowed down the speed with which they were chasing them and yet they were still on their trail. For them there was no difference, if they managed to kill them by themselves or if they landed in that place their service was complete. Flames were launched towards them, just like that lightning also came out of the hands of the assassins, now clearly visible, who chased them keeping a speed a little faster than Noell's.

Crack!

Shield after shield formed by the girl was destroyed after several hits of elemental magic and in the same second they were destroyed others were built to take their place. The problem wasn't the strength of the shields, clearly they were tough enough to withstand even an attack from a Lord, however, Shadow Assassins were always the most apt to find fault by reading the magic flow, where the shield was weakest. , where the attack would be most effective, as was the state of the opponent. The "Adaptability" of the Shadow Assassins was feared in all realms and now their hands have reached them.

— Noell! — Seeing her goal, the girl complained scared. — Th-that... We're going to die!

Would that be Noell's goal? The suicide? For the girl, in her beliefs, suicide, with rare exceptions, was considered a serious sin and just the thought of it in her mind already made her shiver. Although it wasn't her decision, the girl clearly trusted Noell more than her own brother, in terms of Noell's trust for her, she was second only to her mother and father, seeing that they had no alternatives if that was their decision. the girl would not disagree.

— Maybe... That's the answer… — replied Noell, unhappy seeing that there were only a few hundred meters left to reach the edge of Aven'Nath Abyss. — May the gods be with us...

Even if she didn't have full faith in what she was doing, it was still her obligation not to back down. When she thought it would all end, she heard the sound of something cutting through the wind, she instinctively looked up and saw a few moments before reaching them an arrow covered in electricity, looking full of energy. She was in the middle of a jump, there was no way to escape, even more carrying someone in this situation, Noell with all the strength he had left one of his arms that held the girl and put him in front of the arrow that hit him full.

— Urrgg! She gritted her teeth as she endured the pain.

Her arm had been destroyed leaving only the broken and severed remains of what could be called her arm, the two had fallen to the ground on impact, at which point the girl implanted a full circular barrier on top of them and raised her royal guard.

— Noell! Without you I won't go forward! — The girl complained as she lifted her up.

Smaller and weaker as she was, it made it difficult for the girl to lift Noell with her full strength so she dragged her along with her, looking ahead she noticed that she was on the edge of Aven'Nath Abyss, just another 100 meters and they would fall into it. The barrier that protected them was close to breaking and the girl did not know what to do, they had not told her anything, when she noticed that something was wrong they had already been attacked. She held back the bitterness of not being trusted for things like that, yet there was one thing she knew… that whatever it was, she would trust her royal guard.

Boom!

At some point dozens of explosive objects were thrown towards the barrier which constantly cracked and broke and even then she quickly built another one.

— Come on Noell... Um... — Doing a low count the girl was getting ready to remove the barrier, it might look like suicide but it was still a chance... And it wasn't so suicidal when she launched herself down there. — Two three!

By the time something that looked like a needle exploded in the barrier the girl weakened the barrier making the explosion reach them throwing them away, Noell was already half unconscious due to blood loss from her arm and the girl watching her while they were thrown at Aven'Nath he grabbed her as if nothing else mattered, as they fell she noticed that something thin had penetrated her shoulder, it was probably those miserable assassins not giving her a chance, she just noticed her mind going dark as with what was left of her will she implanted an anti-impact barrier around the two.

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A storm was beginning to form in the sky above, the clouds darkened and presented the end of the calm hunt of the assassins, among those people who pursued the two were three women and two men dressed in black whose faces could not even be seen and hair, only their eyes were visible, these five were standing on the edge of Aven'Nath Abyss looking into the darkness below.

— Would it be safe to say they're dead on this? — asked a woman with a crossbow in her hands, she was the one who shot Noell.

— It doesn't matter. — Coldly replied a man with dozens of bombs of different sizes hanging from his clothes and the tip of two arrows as he put away his bow. — Even if the arrows survive, unless a miracle occurs they won't survive long.

— Whether they survive or not is not for us to worry about, just the fact that they fell, even more poisoned, can be considered mission accomplished. — Answered a woman who had a whip on her waist.

— I want to go to sleep… — grumbled a woman with dark circles under her eyes, however she wanted this all along. — Boss... Can we go?

— Yea. — The last one replied, this man didn't seem to have any weapons in his hands and despite that he was still the leader of that squad of assassins. — We have nothing else to do here. The main target will be presumed dead, let's head back to Aggron. We will need to follow the next targets.

After the boss's words, being swallowed by their own shadows as they took advantage of the end of sunset and the darkening of the sky by the clouds, everyone returned to start their next missions. Yet none of them knew what lay at the end of Aven'Nath Abyss, not even those who fell into it.