Chapter 18: CH. 18 | Against Arvin’s party

Hearing that threat snapped Theo into action, sharpening his focus instantly. He turned and told Thalia to run into Sarka Forest.

Thalia’s task was simple: get into the forest, avoid danger, and gather ten types of herbs along the way. Meanwhile, Theo’s job was to hold off Arvin and his party.

"Go, get into the forest. I’ll hold them off!"

"But there’s no way you can beat them," Thalia said.

Theo drew his sword and pointed it forward, his eyes locked firmly on the four grown men standing in front of him.

"Let time be the judge of that!"

Thalia hesitated for a moment, then turned to face forward again and decided to follow Theo’s order. She ran into Sarka Forest, wand in hand.

One of Arvin’s party members started to move, trying to chase after Thalia, but Theo immediately cut him off.

"I won’t let you get past me!"

"If you want to chase her down, you’ll have to kill me first!" Theo said firmly.

Arvin gave a small smile, stepping forward with his right hand gripping his sword tightly, "Sure. This’ll be as easy as taking candy from a baby!"

Theo closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again, activating his Foresight Skill.

This caused the world Theo was seeing to shift into gray, with shadowy future images of Arvin and his three companions appearing before him.

[Authority of Mystic Eyes Triggered!]

[Foresight Skill Activated!]

[Future Observation Duration: 00:00:00:05]

Theo spent five seconds observing the future, focused on the shadow image of Arvin swinging his sword down at him in a downward arc.

In those first five seconds, only Arvin showed any meaningful movement, while his three companions stayed still.

That let Theo lock his full focus on Arvin, purely to find an opening in his attack.

After studying it closely, Theo spotted an opening in Arvin’s attack.

[Future Observation Duration: 00:00:00:10]

His eyes closed again, deactivating the Foresight Skill. When he opened them, the world returned to normal, and Arvin was still standing right where he’d been before.

Theo felt confident in his ability, his future observations had never once let him down. All he needed now was to wait for the right moment to land a decisive blow on Arvin.

"Die, damn you!" Arvin shouted.

The young man watched Arvin’s sword swing come in, then sidestepped smoothly, his sharp gaze fixed on Arvin’s face the whole time.

Arvin’s expression twisted into shock, clearly stunned that Theo had dodged his attack with such ease, as if he’d already known exactly what was coming.

Theo leapt to Arvin’s side and thrust his sword toward the man’s face. Arvin, still frozen in shock, couldn’t react in time to dodge.

STAB!

"AAAAAAKKKHHHH!"

The tip of Theo’s blade drove straight into Arvin’s left eye, sending the man into agonized screams, blood pouring from the stab wound as both his hands let go of his sword.

"Get away from me, damn it!" Arvin screamed.

Theo pulled his sword free, a wide grin spreading across his face as he used Arvin’s back as a springboard to leap away from the group.

He landed on the ground, back near the edge of the forest, sword still raised in front of him, its blade now stained with blood.

Theo stood tall, settling into a mid stance ready to fight, gripping his sword with both hands, holding it close beside his face.

Arvin had collapsed, writhing and groaning in pain, clutching his ruined left eye, likely blind in it for good.

One of his party members rushed over to try and heal him.

"KILL HIM!" Arvin screamed.

The other two party members sprang into action, an assassin and an archer. They drew their weapons and charged forward, the assassin moving fast in a blur of shadow steps, while the archer loosed several magic arrows straight at Theo.

[Authority of Mystic Eyes Triggered!]

[Foresight Skill Activated!]

Without even closing his eyes this time, Theo activated the Foresight Skill and watched the shadow images of their attacks closing in.

The assassin was coming in from the side, while the magic arrows shot straight toward Theo from the front.

He glanced to his right and saw no one there. He leapt in that direction just to see what the future would look like if he did.

[Future Observation Duration: 00:00:00:15]

Theo noted he’d burned fifteen seconds on this observation. What he saw was that the assassin’s attack ended up interrupted, accidentally struck by his own archer’s magic arrows.

The assassin spent four full seconds tangled up dealing with those magic arrows. Theo could use that window to strike while the man was distracted, caught up in the arrows.

He immediately deactivated the Foresight Skill, and the world snapped back to normal. The archer had just fired off a fresh set of green tinged magic arrows, while the assassin closed in from the side.

Exactly as Theo had observed, he sidestepped, and the arrows ended up hitting the assassin instead. Seizing that momentum, Theo lunged fast toward the assassin and thrust his sword forward.

"LOOK OUT!" the archer shouted, warning his friend.

The assassin flinched in shock, turning right just in time to see Theo standing beside him.

"You...?"

STAB!

Theo drove his sword deep into the man’s stomach with full force. The assassin winced in pain, his movement stopping cold as several magic arrows lodged into his body.

"H-How could you... kill me like this?!"

"You’re... just a rookie!"

Theo twisted his sword sideways, tearing open the man’s stomach until his wound turned catastrophic, organs spilling out.

He collapsed to the ground, his face drained of color, blood pooling beneath him.

Arvin looked on in shock, "LUCAS?!"

The archer tried to rush over to Lucas, but Theo raised his sword and aimed it forward, clearly threatening them.

"If you try to get any closer, I’ll kill you too!"

The man froze at Theo’s threat, even though it was obvious he could see Lucas was in a state far beyond saving. Death was already certain for him, given wounds that were severe.

"I’ll make sure... you pay for everything you’ve done to us!" Arvin threatened.

Theo crouched down and grabbed Lucas’s inventory bag, leaving the man’s body lying right there on the ground.

The archer came to carry Lucas’s body away, while Arvin stormed off, his face twisted with fury.

Right as they had walked far enough away, Theo’s body suddenly gave out and he collapsed. He threw up, his face turning pale, his breathing ragged, his heart pounding hard in his chest.

He tried to steady himself. He’d thrown up partly from the horrific state of Lucas’s wounds, and partly from activating and using the Foresight Skill back to back without pause.

Sure enough, Theo sat down and leaned against a tree at the edge of the forest.

He’s the second person I’ve killed... and I still can’t get used to it.

But I need to stay strong. Arvin threatened to kill me without a second thought. Seems like killing a fellow adventurer isn’t exactly taboo around here.