The True King Behind the Board.
Julian and I kept watching Jinta, but he didn't move, he just smiled.
"Well, I won't be exaggerating if you already know… I guess that-"
Jinta was saying until Julian's high-speed strike cut him off, sending him like a projectile through the cave wall into another area where Julian went to continue his fight. The impact caused the rubble to block the opening, leaving me alone with the shapeshifter.
"It seems he doesn't even care about leaving me with a monster."
I grumbled silently about Julian's actions. Now that I think about it, Jinta was the only one who had the shapeshifter gagged...
I turned to see if she was still there, but she was gone...
"Haha, I'll have to settle for you…"
The shapeshifter said, though I couldn't determine her exact location. Her voice echoed throughout the cave, and she also had the ability to camouflage herself. After a while, she continued:
"Black hair… yellow eyes… too bad, the other one seemed tastier."
Wait, wait, is she technically calling me ugly? Comparing my looks to Julian's, how superficial. Don't you know that what matters is the heart?
"Ahhhh!"
With a surprised scream, the woman lunges at me to attack my neck, but since I had the equipment, I used it to cover myself, causing everything to shatter and fall. The woman, seeing that she didn't achieve what she wanted, moves away and propels herself towards me to attack a second time. At that point, I decided to take something from the bag to defend myself, and the most notable thing I found was a pot… Yes, it sounds ridiculous, but it was a better option than a blanket. So, each swipe from her was blocked with the pot.
"Can you only defend, won't you attack?!" the woman shouted.
That comment made me think, what the hell am I doing? I mean, Julian isn't here.
"What's wrong with you, fight!"
Damn, while she was attacking me, I forgot that I was defending myself. Maybe my instinct was acting on its own. Better finish this.
"Mind!"
"!!!"
The woman stopped attacking as she began to see some of her deepest fears, making her move uncontrollably as if trying to escape them.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Good, now the next:
"Body!"
"…"
Controlling her body and mind, I made her visions stop, leaving her immobile and confused. Now for the final act:
"Leave."
"What!?"
Yes, the woman obeyed and left the cave the way Julian and I had entered. It was really annoying and boring dealing with her.
Well, I should see how Julian is doing…
"…"
I turned around and there I saw… a terracnia.
"KIGGGGGG!"
"!!!"
Damn, that did surprise me, it was right behind me, and I didn't even notice… A terracnia is like a surface spider, but these are much larger, and instead of having that cocoon where they release their web, it has 3 tails, each with the function of digging like sharp pincers. The shape of the tails is similar to that of a centipede.
"KIGGGGGG!"
The first time I saw it, it tried to devour me, but I dodged it. Now that I'm on the ceiling, it notices my presence and propels itself with its tails to devour me again. But I greet it with a kick in the face before it reaches the ceiling, knowing it could hurt some of the people wrapped in its web.
My blow, which sent it to the wall, didn't seem to be enough, as it got up as if nothing had happened. So, positioning myself on the ground, I secretly made the shadows emerging from mine shape a rock from the cave into a stake.
"KIGGGGGG!"
The terracnia charged wildly towards me, but midway, I attacked it by surprise, throwing the stake I created with my shadows into its eye.
"KIAAAAAAAAGGGGGG!"
Now that it stopped from the pain, I focused a stronger blow to its abdomen, sending it like a projectile in the direction where Jinta and Julian should be, easily piercing through the wall.
At that moment, the destroyed wall didn't block the way, so I quickly headed in that direction.
Entering, I wasn't surprised to see a lot of rubble and dust, but as the environment cleared, I saw a slightly injured Julian. However, his expression was more of surprise. I glanced around to see if I could spot Jinta, but to my surprise, I didn't see him.
"Julian, where is Jinta?"
He pointed to where the spider was pinned to the wall.
"Don't tell me…"
"What did you do? Where did that terracnia come from?"
"I didn't do anything, it appeared out of nowhere and stepped on a cartiga."
Cartigas are like explosive mines that hunting pits generate when energy is not evenly distributed throughout the place but concentrated at one point.
The spider detached from the wall, and we quickly checked on Jinta… but Jinta wasn't there…
"!!!"
Julian took a defensive stance, looking around. He formed another crystal sword with his hand. From afar, I knew how I could defeat him, but I had to shout to get his attention.
"Julian, I know where he is! I'll tell you the direction, but form another sword with your other hand."
Julian looked at me with disdain.
"Why don't you just tell me where he is and do your job?"
How stubborn! At that moment, Jinta quickly injured him from behind and disappeared.
"That's not how it works! If you want to finish him, trust!"
And with some reluctance, he formed another sword. Maybe it was because he cared more about defeating Darkness than anything else.
"Alright, tell me where he is."
"I'm still looking."
Obviously, I already knew where he was, but I wasn't going to say it since Jinta could hear… and there I saw how he kept moving towards Julian, hidden in the ground with his shadow. I just waited for the exact moment…
"Now, one sword, stab it into the ground!"
Julian's Sico level must be reasonably high, so by stabbing the sword into the ground, he expanded his crystal throughout the area, from which spikes of crystal over 2 meters high emerged. Jinta, who was taken by surprise, managed to dodge it by coming out of the ground in time, now high above us. But he wouldn't dodge the second one:
"The ceiling, quickly!"
Julian extended his sword to the ceiling to touch it quickly. Similarly, the area spread with crystal, and spikes emerged, piercing Jinta completely.
Julian was panting, and I was disappointed, I didn't think he would make it…
The crystals dissolved like dust, causing Jinta to fall to the ground without any reaction. Julian approached Jinta as if he wanted to confirm if he was dead… Maybe he couldn't believe it.
"Alright, Teo, or rather Jinta, let's call the guard."
"Yes."
Mission accomplished.
Summarizing everything else: since we were near the hunting pit, we went there to call the guard to help us. Upon entering, the terracnia was gone, but we proceeded with everything else… We rescued the 6 people wrapped in the web and anything else of value. Everything was taken to the guard center near the hunting pit, except for the man Julian killed in the carriage, as he wasn't there.
Those who died that day would have a grave near the guard center. So, returning in the carriage with Julian, he commented that he would overlook the fact that I let the shapeshifter escape for being weak and that he would approve my enrollment.
…
The next day we agreed that I would meet an academy teacher at the graves of Jinta and the man from the carriage to give me all my identification and the approval letter.
…
I had been standing in front of the false Jinta's grave for a while, holding a bouquet of flowers and dressed in black for the occasion. Beside me was my servant, yes, I have a servant, dressed in black like me. Beside me, she appeared to be 18 years old, her hair a very light blue color tied in a ponytail, and her red eyes weren't very visible as a black veil covered her entire face.
After a while, the teacher arrived…
"Jinta, right?"
"Yes, that's me."
She handed me the papers and, with a slight bow, left.
I opened the letter.
My heart was pounding… Many things didn't matter to me, only the end of the letter which read: "Congratulations Jinta Crowe, you have successfully entered Archer Academy. We hope you enjoy your time at the academy." End of the letter… I had only one reaction:
…
…
…
…
…
…
"Ha… ha…"
"Ha… ha… ha"
"Ha… ha… ha… ha"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"