39. Dance of Daggers and Knives

He managed to hurt two of his adversaries, but a third one worthy of being called a hero now stood in his way.

"Garron won't move unless Averin does. Lucien also seems hurt. It's your chance to escape, Yumino! All you have to do is get past Nimera!" Gauntmere prompted the elf.

"Her name is Nima!" Yumino imposed. "How do you want me to get past her? I've spent myself on the others enough!"

"I can think of one way..."

"I am not hurting Nima!"

Yumino's refusal earned the vampire a clean hit on him. Yet she didn't use her weapons; she punched him in the cheek instead.

"What are you standing there staring at me for? Aren't you going to fight back? The first one was to wake you up. This time I'm cutting you down for real!"

Yumino tightened the grip on his bow, but at such close distance, there was nothing he could do with a ranged weapon.

"Perhaps I could help you with that!" a completely new voice spoke in his head.

"Who are you?" Yumino asked.

"That doesn't matter now! Grab those kitchen knives next to you and listen to what I say!"

Without probing too much, Yumino did as instructed, dodged Nimera's attack, and lunged at her with the knives.

"Really? Knives from my own kitchen?" she scoffed, but her disappointed expression was quick to tighten as Yumino's strikes kept up with her well-trained moves.

"She'll go for your head! Now return the strike! Careful at your feet, she's really flexible!"

Instructions flowed through Yumino's mind, and all of them guessed how Nimera would act with no exception.

For Yumino, it was the first time to try new weapons in a serious fight, yet the spirit helping him was so good, the elf managed to keep up with the girl.

"What's this about?" a confused Nimera screamed, barely dodging a strike from the elf.

Like they had done many times, the two entered a dance, yet this time the stakes were their very lives.

Every strike Nima made, Yumino dodged perfectly. Every time Yumino grabbed her, Nimera freed herself with swift moves.

"Be it an arena, a tavern, or the city, those two never change..." Garron spoke, his gaze filled with admiration and a hint of pain he was trying to hide.

"Garron, why did it end up like this?" Averin asked, standing next to him.

"Sometimes things just happen, Averin. When the wind starts blowing, all we can do is try and stand tall."

Only this time, it was not the wind, but a greedy vampire who started it all, and the giant made sure with his gaze that the lord knew how Garron truly felt about being used.

"Well then, I'll be on my way to the castle now that Garron is here. Averin, don't forget to make sure the elf dies. That's an order."

"Understood!"

"Not so fast, Lord Lucien!" Garron intervenes, grabbing Lucien by his mantle.

"You're going to stay and watch with us until the end," he said, not giving the vampire any other option.

*****

The dance slowly came to a close. Both of them were breathing heavily, yet nobody got hit even once.

"Damn it! Since when do you know how to fight like this?" Nimera asked, annoyed.

The elf didn't answer. It was not that he couldn't, but he chose not to converse with Nimera, as the more he heard her voice, the hotter the scar on his chest burned.

Thanks to a lapse in the girl's concentration, Yumino was able to grab Nimera and throw her over his shoulder. As always, the girl landed graciously on her feet at the edge of the hole, but she was now far from the elf, who took the chance to pull out his bow.

As if replaying a scene from their duel, Nimera threw one of her daggers in the air, turned around, and went to kick it. On the other side, Yumino already had his arrow ready.

Seeing the scene, everyone wrote Yumino off as being already dead, yet something was different from last time,

Instead of pointing his arrow at Nimera, Yumino pointed it at the ground, and before she could strike, the elf had already released the bowstring, shooting below the girl, right between his two unsuspecting friends in the hole, at the vampire who was hiding behind them.

For Lucien, everything slowed down, realizing the position he was in just after the arrow had passed everyone else.

Reacting on instinct, Lucien used his gravity magic to push away everything around. Garron grabbed Averin to keep her safe, but Nimera, who had been caught defenseless with both of her feet in the air, was knocked back right as she kicked her dagger.

The dagger barely missed Yumino, breaking the window of their old house.

"Now!" Gauntmere screamed.

This was the moment the elf waited for.

As everyone was panicking, he turned around and ran as fast as he could.

"You've made the right choice, hero," Gauntmere added. "You've fought well."

"Shut up!" Yumino screamed in return.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

As the elf ran for his life, he shot at every moving vampire around, including the guards at the entrance who may or may not have actually been humans. Soon, his figure got lost past the horizon, heading straight for the place where it all started.

*****

"Are you sure he'll go there by himself? I doubt he wants to meet those drakes again."

"Come on! I think drakes are the last of his worries right now."

"But why are we going after him? It doesn't really concern us, does it?"

"How can you say something so cruel?" she asked, but she thought the same thing.

"Just trust me on this one, ok? This little witch has something she wants to confirm~."

"Ah! I almost forgot! I was supposed to stand guard in a nearby village for a while!"

"... What?"

"The pay is good! I can't miss out on it! We can go to the forest after this, I promise!"

She sighed.

"That's why I hate this hero thing, you know?"