33. Threat

Ast had kind of figured it out that the professional elementalist or pro's have a habit of forming a strong defence near all their vital spot and thus he hadn't tried to hit Ray's vital spot.

The arrow in question was a lightning element arrow shot by Anya. " Remove your skill or Tim here dies" said Anya holding an unconscious Tim by his hair with a dagger near his throat.

Ray was surprised by the turn of event. He thought Tim would be fine on his own he guessed wrong. Now he was in a pickle, he knew if Tim dies his life was over. Blair family although had its fief in a secluded area but in the capital of the continent it was one of the most powerful.

Ray had to make a deal with these two kid or trick them now otherwise he would loose Tim.

" Anya kid you can't kill him, he has a secret artifact on him. If he dies by your hand your father would know instantly that you killed him and you would become Blair family traitor" Ray was now trying to reason out with Anya hoping she would fear the Blair family.

"First undo your skill,otherwise..." Anya said while moving the dagger closer to Tim's throat, drawing some blood. Ray was surprised by Anya's decisiveness. Ray quickly ended his skill.

Ray threw out a mouthful of blood when his skill ended. Seeing this Ast again threw his huge hammer towards Ray. 'Again with the same trick' thought Ray.

Ray just shifted his body towards a side, enough to dodge the hammer and prepared to catch Ast coming out of his shadow. But to his surprise instead of coming out of his shadow, Ast came out of the shadow the hammer and struck Ray's waist with a kick.

Ray was surprised but realised that the kick wasn't that strong so he endured the pain and caught Ast hand quickly. According to Ray it was finally checkmate for Ast. Ray first wanted to trade Ast for Tim and then kill both Ast and Anya in one go.

As soon as Ray caught Ast, Ray felt a sharp pain at the back of his head like a puncture of some sort. Ray let go of Ast's hand and tried to move away, but he tripped and fell down.

Ray looked around and saw his legs tied by some whip, which was quickly covering his upper body as well. A small blade attached to the same whip was struck to Ray's head at the back and Ray could feel his life force being drained rapidly by this blade as if it was sucking his life and elemental essence out of him.

Within seconds Ray died. What had actually happened was that Ast had carefully planned the strike so as to kill Ray but his soul weapon 'viper' sucking Ray's life and elemental essence was a surprise to him as well.

Ast had earlier used the hammer to make Ray into a false sense of security. When Ast tricked Ray by coming out of the hammer shadow he tried his best to kind of make viper invisible(using light absorption) and moved it along Ray's blind spot so as to land a perfect hit. But for the perfect hit he also wanted Ray to feel as if he has won so he faked his attack.