Her figure vanished from the spot in an instant. The black-robed man retreated several meters back.
Estelle let out a steady breath, her feet shifting ever so slightly—the gap between her gray sword and her sword qi and his body was now just a single centimeter. Had it been any longer, it would have left a mark across his face.
Estelle didn’t halt her assault. She raised her longsword and pressed the pursuit.
The forest flickered with constant motion. An ordinary person would struggle to track their movements—their speed had already reached the point of leaving afterimages behind.
The figures of the young woman and the black-robed man wove in and out of each other throughout the frost-covered woods.
The black-robed man grinned wide. After being chased and slashed the entire way, he’d built up a bit of temper as well. His pair of claw blades spread open.
“Not bad, not bad. Just a pity—your order of magic is still too low!”
A pitch-black, murderous aura shot straight toward the young woman.
On Estelle’s delicate face, her usually calm expression shifted slightly. Her brows knit together as she used the Bladeless to block the ferocious black wind surging toward her.
She didn’t pause to catch her breath. In an instant, she gathered her sword qi and condensed it onto the blade, delivering a diagonal slash that met the pair of claw blades hidden within the black wind.
After a resounding clash, the young woman was sent flying backward.
Her feet, wrapped in white stockings and fitted with long boots, landed against a tree trunk. After dispersing the force from her body, Estelle’s pale golden eyes grew ever brighter.
Another sword strike in a single kshana—she clashed head-on with the charging black-robed man.
They passed each other, and Estelle landed lightly on the ground. She glanced down at her clothes, and upon seeing three gashes torn across her long robe, the young woman narrowed her eyes.
From the moment she heard the whisper in the wind, Rosily had been sprinting at full speed toward a single direction, even leaving the rest of her team behind in the dust.
The situation was clearly off. Scarlett barely managed to catch up and asked, “Rosily, what exactly are you doing?”
Rosily didn’t turn her head. She spoke directly to Scarlett behind her. Less than a second later, as if she’d made some kind of decision, she hesitated while still running.
“What?”
“You don’t need to follow. Find a safe place and wait for me.”
Scarlett was thoroughly confused by those words.
But Rosily had no time right now to explain to her what was actually happening.
She kicked up her speed another notch, weaving through the treetops as if she were flying, shaking off Scarlett—who was known for her speed.
In less than three seconds, Rosily vanished from Scarlett’s field of view, leaving her feeling somewhat dazed.
Scarlett kept running, gradually slowing down, until she finally came to a stop.
There was a gap between Rosily and Scarlett, and another between Scarlett and the other three girls.
The team had been stretched extremely thin—this was a taboo behavior during exploration in the northern mountains, absolutely forbidden.
Scarlett let out a sigh and turned back around. She informed the other three that Rosily had already abandoned them.
After Elqi heard the full story, even though she’d only recovered a tenth of her magic power, she still resolved to continue the chase without hesitation.
“Wait—she’ll be in danger all alone…”
Scarlett grabbed hold of her.
“If she said that, then it probably means she doesn’t need us. Besides, the way you are right now—do you want to be a burden to her?”
Seeing that Elqi wasn’t insisting on going, Scarlett breathed a sigh of relief. She turned to look in the direction Rosily had gone.
Elqi froze for a moment, then lowered her head and said no more about chasing after her.
“Don’t worry. She’s not an ordinary person. There’s no way her life is in danger.”
“Mm.”
Hearing those words, Elqi raised her head and glanced at Scarlett’s back. Her gaze was distant and deep, but she quickly tucked away the bitterness stirring in her heart.
Scarlett only used the corner of her eye to observe this young miss of the Ophield family—the academy’s rare magic prodigy.
She’d sensed a trace of hostility in that gaze just now, directed at herself.
Scarlett smiled helplessly, thinking to herself:
‘Could she be annoyed that I acted like I know Rosily better than she does?’
After Rosily had informed Scarlett, she trusted that the girl would keep the team in place and not follow her into this danger zone.
The golden-haired young woman, gliding between the treetops, came to a stop on a branch. Rosily tilted her head up and sniffed the air, then furrowed her brows slightly and muttered to herself:
“Such a cold presence.”
In the middle of summer, she could actually catch the kind of aura that only frost breath carried.
Rosily felt puzzled.
“What is that?”
“Well, I’ll find out when I get there.”
With that, she once again leaped with her slender frame, weaving through the forest. Before long, under the light of the starry night, she spotted a figure fleeing along the ground.
Rosily dropped straight down, blocking the path before that figure.
With her escape route cut off, the young woman looked as if she were facing a formidable enemy. She hurled a fireball spell without hesitation.
Rosily’s eyesight was exceptionally sharp—before she’d even landed, she’d already recognized who was coming.
The fireball was promptly swatted away by Rosily’s palm.
Rosily stepped forward and grabbed the young woman by the collar, her expression cold and stern.
“Ariel, why are you alone?”
Rosily was well acquainted with the girls at the academy. She could easily recognize their names and even recite their information from memory—that was one of her greatest talents.
She recognized the young woman before her. Wasn’t she the magic user named Ariel from her sister Estelle’s team?
Ariel had used the light of the fireball she’d thrown to see the newcomer’s face clearly. She froze for a moment before snapping back to her senses—and by then, she was already being held by the collar.
The young woman’s eyes, already a bit red, now overflowed with glistening tears that streamed down without stopping. She directly grabbed hold of Rosily’s hand that was gripping her collar.
“Rosily, hurry—go save Estelle! Those people came for her. No, don’t go—they’re really strong! We need to find reinforcements. We need to find Teacher Tristan and Teacher Samuel… and—right, find the city lord!”
Rosily fell silent, and in that moment her expression grew even colder.
She released the hand that had been gripping Ariel’s collar and pulled her other hand free from Ariel’s grasp.
Then, her magic power exploded outward in an instant. She charged toward the direction the whisper in the wind had indicated, toward the source of that frost breath, leaving Ariel alone on the ground.
Without her support, the young woman’s legs lost their strength, and she collapsed to sit on the ground.
Ariel knew Rosily was incredibly capable, but she was still just a young girl. Her talent hadn’t fully bloomed yet—she needed time to grow before she could match those people.
“She should have found help…”
But Rosily and Estelle were sisters. How could she possibly turn around and look for help at a time like this?
Rosily drew closer and closer to that place. She could already hear the clash of blades, and could see the chaotic magic ripples scattering outward as two auras collided with each other.