Chapter 26: Young and Gold

Lu threw a feather aimed at the attacker's head out of instinct, and she dodged it by the skin of her teeth, dashing away.

Her hair is black and the manablade gold, indicating that she was an aurum.

Lu caught Autumn before her body hit the floor. He felt much of her blood pool below her, and all he could look at was the mysterious girl for her next move.

"She's the one...that killed my brother" Autumn explains.

"Stop talking. You'll feel worse" Lu tells her.

"Hey you felt bad so I thought I would wake...WHAT HAPPENED!?" Esther exclaimed after a quick observation.

"Sorry, but can you tend to Autumn for a while?" Lu said, carefully watching the aurum for sudden moves, not taking his eyes off her for a millisecond.

"Yes but I can help for a while. I can't save her myself. I can only create, not repair. Can you shout out for healers?" Esther said.

Lu did it immediately and asked for help while watching the aurum. However, when some civilians came they turned tail as soon as the aurum fired a gold feather near their feet as warning shots.

"What are you doing? We can't let her live" The masked aurum said.

"What is wrong with you!" Lu angrily shouted at her.

"The question is, what is wrong with you? We have to take her soul now or she will hatch soon" The aurum casually flicked her golden scissor manablade to take the blood off of it.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I can't let you lay another finger on her without any explanation"

"We don't have time for that, Lu. She can hatch any moment, and we wouldn't want that, so give her to me or you can take her yourself, I don't care, really" she tilted her head and put her free hand on her waist.

Lu knew then that he had to at least chase her away before he could get help for Autumn, since running away seemed more dangerous than fighting head on and hoping Autumn can hold on until then.

Lu sees that he has to end the fight with the aurum quickly.

"Go away, or I will end you instead", Lu threatened, fully knowing that the threat would not make her move an inch. However, he would do anything to get help for Autumn now.

"I was about to say 'move or die' or something, but I guess we both know where this is going" she sighed, titling her head and mounting the scissors on her shoulder.

Lu uses his last smoke screen and was surprised that the girl was instantly right in front of him even though she was at a distance just half a second ago.

He dodged her swing and carried Autumn away.

A few feathers tracked him, and luckily only one of them hit and caused only a minor cut on Lu's arm. He then shot at a nearby metal rim that was the only thing keeping the nearby tall building from collapsing. The debris created a wall between them which Lu used to buy time before she could catch up.

Lu hid Autumn's body just beside one of the few standing buildings, then whispered to Esther to stay with her while he crept to a different direction silently.

He heard footsteps quickly approaching and sent feathers flying to the direction. Clashing of metal was heard after, and it was likely that she had blocked his attack.

Lu felt that she might be able to blink to close the gap so he retreated and kept distance from her.

The small figure finally showed itself, and Lu estimated she was about fourty meters away.

Lu thought that if her animus lets her blink but he was still alive, that means that the teleport has a set distance of around twenty meters or less, because if she wanted to close the distance she could easily do so this moment and land an attack on Lu by using it twice. If she could dash to him but land right in Lu's front, their odds would be around even, and she would run out of animus, so it would be a medium risk low reward for her, that was why Lu kept in mind to keep at least fourty meters away.

Lu prevented her advance by backing away when she ran closer, and they exchanged quills, each of them clashed among each other, no feather coming through the defenses of either side.

After a few more turns of this trade of steel, Lu resorted to just hiding and reserving his mana, because he knows that if it went on, he would run out of mana earlier since he was fighting since earlier, losing in a battle of attrition.

After she pushed Lu far from their original position, she smiled then ran back the way they came - to Autumn.

Lu noticed her tactic and ran after her instead, while still keeping the distance between them to avoid digging his own grave.

The girl ran up a tall tower and Lu thought that she wanted to gain a vantage point in hopes of getting a glimpse of her prey. While Lu was sure that she would not find Autumn this way, it would help her by knowing where she was not, which would ultimately cut the time she needs to search.

He tried to prevent the aurum from getting this advantage and tried to throw her off by distracting her with projectiles.

Before she could reach the top of the tower about 35 meters away from Lu, she jumped off, her scissors aimed at Lu.

She blinked almost twice the distance in one use, and was on ground level when she appeared. That was when Lu realized, she wasn't teleporting. She was pausing time.

She could run about twenty meters during the time pause so she couldn't reach Lu in two uses. However, if she used gravity to accelerate, then given the right circumstances, she could close the distance in one use and attack Lu during the second usage.

If Lu's estimations were correct, then the girl could only pause time for around two and a half seconds as he has seen how fast she could run firsthand.

In response, Lu sat down and caged himself in feathers pointing upward. While feathers cannot stay in place, they should also stop during the time pause.

Indeed, when the aurum used her animus, she could not breach Lu's cage and stab him using her scissors. However, she set up feathers aimed through the gaps and at Lu's vital points.

When time resumed, Lu was greeted with feathers, which he expected and blocked using his shield, that was why he sat down to fit his figure into the shield when it comes.

Lu sent a feather to his opponent for a counter attack, and it landed on her left shoulder, making her scream in pain as blood gushed out of it.

At that same time, she slashed on Lu's side to follow up her previous offense, and the damage was about the same.

Both parties backed away and caught up with their breath.

"Why would you even!? Are you seriously helping out that little blonde fox sprite!?" She furiously screamed her thoughts.

"You can see her?" Lu asked.

"Of couse I can! They will pretend to be close to people because they need them! The sprites need humans and titans to reproduce! Haven't you noticed that you're seeing more titans than you should recently!?"

Lu remembered the banding titans and looked at Esther, who was struggling to heal Autumn. Because of the situation, he was confused.

The aurum could be bluffing, but at the moment his faith in Esther was also faltering as well. He wondered, what if he was wrong after all?

Then he would take a glimpse at Esther who was trying her best to keep Autumn alive. Then again, it could be that she was only using Autumn and she can't afford to lose her.

He remembered his sister, and her words when she had to make a difficult choice. "Always go for what you think is best. But there will always be a time where thinking has its limits, and by then, go for what you feel is best"

And at that moment, he felt that he still had a friend to save. It didn't matter what kind of evil might be born through her. If it does, then he, no, they would deal with it later. What mattered to him more now was that she lives.

"She's going to die anyway! Wake up Lu!" the aurum shouted. "It's going to be her, or her and many others!" she threatened.

Lu could no longer think clearly. He did not care what she said anymore. He could only give her a look that says he will not back down if she still wants to harm Autumn.

"Fine! Have it your way! Don't come crying to me when you've doomed yourself!" The aurum said and disappeared into thin air. Rain then poured down heavily following the end of the battle.

Lu did not even care to find out what she did. He only thought about Autumn who was drowning in her own blood as he fought.