Yevdokiya scoffed at the sight as she pointed the barrel of her gun away from it.
A crooked smile appeared on her mouth while she raised one of her eyebrows.
"I thought you were one of those stubborn kinds, but looks like a mistake on my part... you're just actually really stubborn!" she mocked at the entity, disregarding any danger it potentially posed.
Slam.
One of the fabric tentacles suddenly grew bigger and smashed against Yevdokiya, who was caught off guard, knocking her dozens of meters away. But she was completely unscathed—her spherical shield only flickered momentarily, but there was no heavy damage.
Her mocking face turned into a poker one as she rested the forestock of her rifle on her shoulder, then wiped away at the imaginary dust on her other shoulder as if she was trying to instigate the entity. But when she looked at it, it remained just as emotionless as before.
As for Nuriel, he maintained his hug despite the sudden attack.
He was unscathed, but he thought that given the fact he somehow felt the smoke and heat from before, he could only imagine what would've happened to him if it weren't for Yevdokiya's shield.
But he couldn't confirm his hypothesis, obviously there was no way he'd let himself get hit by those strange tentacles.
[Network is being further disturbed]
Nuriel looked at the sudden message appearing and pointed at it as the potential source for his strange form of apparition.
Then he looked at the entity, who was preparing three of the fabric like tentacles for another attack.
The fabrics were swung horizontally at a speed that seemed to be only a blur to Nuriel's eyes.
Swoosh!
Yevdokiya accelerated upwards, dodging all three of the blade-like fabrics. However, the three fabrics did not stop after the attack as they simply reversed their course and went to attack her again.
Yevdokiya dodged again by pulling away much further.
'So scary…' Nuriel thought in silence, ignoring Yevdokiya who was lifting her rifle to aim.
Bang!
An ear-piercing whizz confronted the entity, to which it blocked with one of its fabric-like tentacles.
To Yevdokiya's surprise, it successfully blocked her projectile without being shredded to bits as it only suffered a minor hole in one of its tentacles before it quickly regenerated.
Bang!Bang!
She followed her shot with another two rounds, but it yielded the same results, which made her furrow her eyebrows in hesitance to shoot more.
Yevdokiya was sure she used enough essence in each shot—the same amount which previously tore through its fabric and body like butter.
While she was thinking, the entity did not hesitate and suddenly rushed at her at blurring speed.
Yevdokiya turned and flew away towards the skies—down the roads, with only meters away from the ground, between the gaps of buildings, into the blazing fires of the College of Magic. But the entity kept its pursuit.
Nuriel maintained his strong hug to prevent himself from being shaken off by Yevdokiya's agile flying and instantaneous dodging.
Despite some attacks being mere inches away, not once did her shield flicker. She dodged everything efficiently as she performed aerial acrobatics around the entire campus.
"What's wrong? can't hit me?!" She shouted at the entity.
While flying, Nuriel noticed a familiar road that Yevdokiya was flying along with.
It was the same route Vivienne took before they crashed.
He decided it was the perfect time to let go, imagining himself to be weightless as he slowly floated down towards the roads. But since it was at a time where Yevdokiya was flying at high speeds, he had trouble slowing down, he could imagine himself to instantly freeze but he feared that the sudden stop might kill him.
Turning into something like a bird would've been also dangerous, as he still had little experience controlling them, especially at a time where he didn't have a clear idea on what's going on.
Slowly,
he let his shoes kiss the ground, just a tiny peck as if he was kissing his lover.
Nuriel slid across the road as if he was on a surfboard, he could tell that he was slowing down.
'Good, I landed safely—
Crash.
To his surprise, an unexpected pebble was in the way, which made Nuriel crash down face-first as he rolled along the road.
But at least the crash made it so that he stopped much earlier than predicted.
He felt every bit of the pain, but his form wasn't broken at all. He slowly stood up, trying to ignore the pain, before he heard a whooshing sound followed by a shockwave that knocked him down once more.
Turning his gaze towards the source, he saw the entity giving chase to Yevdokiya, who was already so far away to the point that she was a tiny blue dot.
Nuriel followed the blue dot, which suddenly shot straight up as it left a long blue trail, much like a comet.
He continued following the blue dot, which was running circles around the entity as it struggled to land even a single hit. As he continued observing the battle, he gradually calmed down, knowing that Yevdokiya was handling herself much better than he thought.
Nuriel looked back at the scepter that he gave her from before. It had a specific ability that he wanted to try out.
[Scepter Fragment of the Blessed Desacares] Previously the [Tainted Scepter Fragment of ???]
[Class: Saint]
[Can now project magic on other scepters]
He questioned himself whether to try it now or later as he watched the distant fight unfolding.
'Now that I'm looking at it, she hasn't even fired a single shot since…' Nuriel shook his head. For now, he held the idea off since Yevdokiya wasn't in any dangerous situation just yet.
Looking behind him, he saw the distant fires and dozens of figures who were trying their best to quell it.
Returning his gaze toward the direction where he and Vivienne once drove along, he began floating along it.
After a minute of following the road he remembered, he saw the truck that was completely turned over.
Nuriel swallowed.
What would happen if his physical body was dead? He feared that he might stay a ghost forever and be forever stuck with the Scepter System.
Building up the courage to inspect the crash, he went toward one of the windows.
There he saw his own upside-down body that was hugging the inflated airbag.
He then floated on top of the truck and went towards the other side to see Vivienne, who was much in the same condition.
Nuriel floated back towards the other side again.
'Let's see if I can get myself out…' Nuriel reached towards the door handle.
He could feel it beneath his hands as he gripped it tightly, however—
When he pulled, nothing happened!
He continued pulling it with all his might, even using his legs as extra force, but the door wouldn't budge.
'It won't open?! Is it broken?' He observed the state of the door, which was still in good shape.
He sighed and decided to stop the effort.
Nuriel wanted to confirm something.
Looking down, he saw a tiny pebble that was once part of the road, a pebble so tiny and so light that even a baby could lift it.
Reaching down, he pinched it with his thumb and index finger and pulled.
. . .
Nuriel couldn't move the tiny pebble. However, he could feel its sharp texture.
'It seems I can manipulate the things around me, yet the things around me can affect me? That's ridiculous…' He lampooned at the innocent pebble.
But if he could still feel, he could still inspect other things.
Since the window of the door was shattered and broken, he reached out his hand to touch his physical body—specifically the carotid artery, which was located just under the side of his jawline or rather in this case, above it.
. . .
Ba-dump.
Nuriel breathed a sigh of relief. 'Still alive, thank goodness…'
Pop!
"!!!" All of a sudden, Nuriel saw Vivienne's airbag exploding. He could see the sharp claws on her fingertips, which quickly disappeared as they returned back to her normal delicate hands.
Vivienne coughed multiple times before she undid her seatbelt, which made her fall upside down. However, she was agile and quick enough to catch herself and land on her legs.