Chapter 1 - A Strange Encounter

A Girl ran through a forest shrouded in a deep fog. She was a young swordsman with long blue hair flowing behind him as she moved. Above his hempen clothing, he wore light iron armor and an iron forehead protector. The sword in his right hand, though somewhat small, was sturdily made.

"Haa...haa...haa..."

The Girl had been injured. His hempen clothes were ripped all over, exposing sharp cuts on his skin. His iron armor was heavily damaged and both of her hands had burn marks. In addition, blood spilled down his body and stained his shoes a deep red. They were wounds that would have taken out an ordinary woman.

The girl's name was Kathleen Ailis and she was 20 years old.

Kathleen looked back over his shoulder while she ran. The fog and the thick leaves obstructed the light and made the center of the forest dark. But looking towards the thick dark fog, he could see the faint silhouette of humans.

They had been following Kathleen. They closed the distance to within twenty meters of her.

This is bad. The moment she thought that a voice echoed through the forest.

"There!" the shout came from a woman, her voice like a soft, high-pitched baby bird.

"Shit!"

At the same time as she heard her speak, a blade sprung out from under Kathleen's feet and some arrows flew just past her missing by an inch from her face. Though it was about three meters of white steel it suddenly sprouted out from the plain ground. The tip was aimed precisely at his heart.

Kathleen swung the sword she was holding in a reverse grip and the quartz adorning the pommel of his sword just barely managed to block the tip of the attacking blade. Kathleen's body was flung backward from the recoil and the attacking sword shattered into pieces.

Tumbling backward, she thrust his sword into the ground, then lifted his body and jumped using just the power of his arms. The next instant three blades sprung up from the ground to attack. Their tips only grazed his body.

"Did I get you?" his female pursuer asked.

"How optimistic. You'll have to be stealthier than that if you want to finish me off," Kathleen replied as he landed on the ground and immediately resumed his escape. His pursuer's figure faded into the fog to the point where she could no longer see her.

"Try harder! Do you think you can catch me like that?"

"You're so stubborn," the girl shouted as she continued her pursuit.

As she ran, Kathleen applied pressure to his right arm. Truthfully, he hadn't been able to completely repel all of her attacks before. And now his upper arm was torn open with blood dripping down. So, acting like she was composed and calm was just him bluffing to the best of his ability to hide his injury.

Kathleen asked himself " how the heck did I get into this mess? "

As far as she remembered everything was fine she was living a very happy life in the village with his friend and all of a sudden she was persuaded by a psycho path girl and his army who want to kill him for a crime then she didn't even commit.

"You still haven't given up?" shouted the voice of his pursuer from behind him.

Kathleen was desperately running from both her and the swords rushing upwards in attack beneath his feet. But all the blood loss was causing his vision to blur. His fingertips were growing numb and his legs were tripping up under himself. However, that didn't mean she stopped running. If she caught up with him she'd be killed.

Why is this happening? Kathleen thought Again.

Suddenly Kathleen heard a strange voice from above. it was a male voice, she looked up and saw a man coming down from the tree and then out of some luck Kathleen's legs gave up because of the blood loss.

" Please down kill me " with these last words she can't run anymore because of that her pressure caught up with them. Kathleen thought to herself "am I going to die now after putting this much effort into it"

The strange man who jumped from the tree was standing there with a puzzled look on his face. And then he spoke for the first time "Who are you? And why do they want to Kill you? are you a criminal?

Kathleen gathered his last breath and just managed to say one thing " NO " and she lost her sense.

"....."

"....."

"What happened? where am I? am I dead?"

Kathleen slowly started to regain his sense "It's hurt a lot " because of the attacks Kathleen's whole body was hurting like crazy. Then she finally noticed the man sitting next to the fireplace.

"...."

" Who are you and what happened to the woman and the soldiers? " Kathleen asked with a very low voice.

To Be Continued