4 Don't throw the Gladius!

A grumbling stomach, hunger. That was the only thing she felt other than her panic over having killed someone for the first time. Though this panic quickly ceased, this was a battle of life and death. If what seemed to be happening was true, she had already died while playing a game. She is finding herself in this world, one which defies the rules she knew existed.

However the resolve in her eyes was strong. Anno wouldn't be defeated here, not if she could help it. The last thing she needed was to die again and forfeit this chance to live to her fullest. She was now once again a prodigy and nothing would stand in her way again!

Glaring at her from a closing distance, the Prince wasn't happy. His legs were covered in steam burns and his horse had blisters. However his anger and adrenaline kept him pumped and his pain suppressed.

"You think you can win this, pointy ear?" The Prince asked with a tone of confidence, no longer wanting to experiment with the Elf.

Anno could feel the blood thirsty intentions, the killing intent. She licked her dry lips and slowly moved into a standing position as she ripped a piece of fabric of the overcoat belonging to Gel, and wiped the nether region between her legs, casually.

Her mind was moving at a thousand paces a second, her heart was bashing against her chest. It was acutely visible on her chest, the beating of her skin, like someone was playing the drums beneath. However even she didn't anticipate the exhilarating feeling of the adrenaline which was running through her own veins. It was like she was wired on the newest and greatest energy drink from the convenience store.

"I do, little smooth eared bitch," The girl stated with a mocking and over saturated tone, twirling the weapon held backwards between her fingers slowly and carefully due to its weight.

The anticipation could be felt, even by the little horseshoe crabs which were all burrowing out from beneath the sand and heading for the ocean. It was as if they were trying to escape the killing intent which spread across the surface of the beach.

Her mocking tone made the Prince pause for a few moments. He called her pointy, she called him smooth. Clenching his teeth together in an aggravated fashion, he grasped the hilt of the sword at his own hip. He charged, yet didn't draw immediately. It seemed this man indeed was going to use his draw to cause some damage if he could only get close enough.

As the man continued to run towards her, he would have stumbled a bit in the sand due to the unstable terrain. It slowed him a great deal compared to running on solid ground. Even though her mana was much lower than before, she still had some low cost magic.

Raising her free hand, she pointed her index and middle finger up to the side, showing the back of her hand to the Prince. Closing her eyes partially, she subconsciously activated the Ice Magic skill and summoned three ice bolts which rapidly formed above her head, suspended.

Seeing her actions, Sven had no real way to confront her. The summoning of the ice weapon had taken a lot of his mana, he wasn't really trained as a mage. He had only dabbled in it as he did with everything else he could find himself experiment with.

A look of shock decorated the man's face. Was this going to be the end of him? 'I don't want to die,' was the only thought that could be written on his face a he attempted to charge faster. It was no use.

Launching one of the ice bolts at the man, he drew his weapon and broke the first attack, but he left his wrist out in the open after the upward slash.

Flipping the gladius in her hand to be held up right in her fingers and she threw the weapon with a nimble movement.

Seeing the weapon coming, airborne, he couldn't react in time. However despite its target being the man's hand, it landed much to soon in the sand with the ball of it's hilt pointing up towards the afternoon sun.

Both of them stood there for a few seconds, staring. Anno looked as if she was frozen in time with the stance of her throwing the weapon still prevalent. She smiled blankly as she had missed the target greatly.

"…" Sven let out a hefty sigh of annoyance as he looked at the incompetent which he had just been fearing for his life before. Completely dismissing, or planning to appear ignorant, of the ice bolts above Anno's head.

"Why'd you try to throw a short sword from that distance?" He asked with a confused tone, as if he was in the middle of a spar. "Shouldn't you know your own strengths and weaknesses as an Elf? Let alone your physical stature… You know martial arts, yet you don't have a great deal of physical strength despite your high constitution." He was making verbal observations, statements of what he had been watching. What was he? An instructor? The change in his personality was unprecedented, unwarranted.

Standing erect and fixing her posture, Anno tilted her head to the side slightly, letting the bolts fly towards the man. However he was still on guard and smashed by of the bolts with the blunt side of his gladius. He then walked over, bent down and picked up the other blade.

The man was quick in her eyes. His anger seemed to have calmed, but his arrogance couldn't be kept hidden. Was his current personality just a ruse to get closer to her? Her eyes watched his feet as they were sinking into the sand under his will.

Then, just before he was about to charge a group of individuals came walking from behind the dunes which protected the beach. They were naval officers whom were patrolling the shoreline. Though they were acting friendly with one another, chatting each other up and even teasingly shoving at one another.

That was until they noticed two people on the beach. One of them they recognized as the Prince, but the other one was a stark naked short eared elf girl. They just stood there with puzzled looks on their faces before noticing there was blood on one of the blades the Prince was holding. Blinking a few times, the officers' eyes looked over towards the dead body of what looked to be one of the knights belonging to the Kingdom.

"…" Noticing the pause in their fight, Anno glanced over towards the men which seemed to be silently standing there. No longer talking with one another and just having a rather solemn and puzzled set of faces.

At first glance it would seem like the Prince had killed Gel for some unknown reason and now was preying upon an unarmed, undressed, elf. Was the Prince wanting to assault an elf out on the beach? Did Gel try to stop the Prince from doing so? The Soldiers couldn't really figure out what was going on here.

Seeing the thoughts mirrored in the eyes of the onlooking men, Prince Sven blinked a few times. "This isn't what it looks like. She's the one that killed Gel!" The Prince stated and pointed at her with the blood stained end of the sword.

The men looked to the Prince then towards the girl. 'I swear… This doesn't look good for the Prince,' the girl would have thought to herself with an indifferent expression.