As soon as the guards appeared, the girls jolted and immediately broke into a sprint, like naughty children caught mid-prank.
They shot down the street at full speed.
"How were we discovered?" Soryn asked sharply, breathing steadily despite the speed. Wind tilted her head while running beside her. "Discovered for what?"
Soryn stared at her. "All five of us are wanted criminals!"
Wind's mouth opened.
Oh yeah, she had been around Petra for so long, it seems as if her brain had stopped working normally… She had completely forgotten about the wanted posters.
Whoops—
She nocked her head with her hand. Tehe-he-he~~~!
Behind them, shouts echoed as multiple voices roared at them.
Orders rang out, overlapping and frantic, almost desperate. Their names were being yelled, carried through the streets of Old Hand, mixed with things like, 'for the sake of the empire', 'stop!' and 'catch them!', and a lot of other nonsense Petra tactfully tuned out.
She clicked her tongue.
"I guess we have to leave the city, huh," Petra said casually. "Oh well, it was kind of dull anyway…"
Soryn glared at her, "You just said you liked it!"
"I was being emotional!" Petra cried!
"How could that man abandon his own daughter's friends!" Lilly yelled as they cut around a corner.
Swoosh!
"What friends!" Soryn snapped. "You don't still think that's how he recognized us, do you!? He knew us from the posters!"
"Really?" Petra blinked in a comically unreasonable disbelief. "What posters?"
"Did you notice," Soryn continued, "that he never mentioned his daughter's name, not even once?"
"But he looks so similar," Petra muttered, looking down in disbelief.
As she ran, she used her hands to hold down her hat.
"They probably are father and daughter," Soryn said flatly. "But the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, isn't that what you said? Don't you remember what she was like when we met her?"
"…Ah. Right." Lilly nodded, finally remembering.
How could she forget!
Petra, on the other hand, looked confused.
"So, that uncle was a scammer…?" Petra asked, not understanding. She looked so innocent that one might believe her if they didn't know her personality.
"Obviously!" Soryn snapped. "Have you already forgotten what Yuna called her father?"
"What?"
"You threw her into 'that room' to get information! Before she told us the truth, she basically gave you her whole family tree! Were you not paying attention at all?"
"…Ahaha." Petra stuck out her little pink tongue.
She really wasn't…!
The twisting room was just too much fun…
Soryn grimaced, suddenly feeling bad for the young girl.
"She called him 'untrustworthy' and 'disgraceful'," Soryn recalled. "One of the biggest black market businessmen on the continent! If he isn't being chased, he's hiding or cheating someone! I thought she was just overexaggerating, but... Either way, he's not a good person! How can you forget that!"
Petra: "..."
It did seem like something she should remember…
"Then, how could he just approach us like that…" Lilly muttered.
"He recognized you!" Wind said, suddenly realizing something and pointing at Petra.
Soryn nodded, but Lilly just tilted her head further.
"Oh yeah," Petra replied. 'That makes sense…'
Swoosh!
They turned another corner—
Then three more guards dropped down from the nearby rafters.
"Split!" Soryn barked.
Woosh!
The girls scattered instantly!
Petra and Wind vaulted over a short stone fence, then vanished into a narrow alleyway. Luna grabbed Lilly's wrist and ducked into a crowded marketplace, overturning a crate as they escaped. Soryn jumped up using two buildings, her boots barely touching the ground as she vanished into the rooftops.
And Noah, with the remaining servant girls, all vanished soon after.
Shouts erupted everywhere!
The guards were shocked at their speed. In their minds, they felt more like professionals than little girls!
-
Swoosh!
Petra and Wind burst into an abandoned courtyard and skidded to a halt behind a stone well, then quickly used it to hide. A group of guards ran past...
Petra peeked out, her little eyes sparkling.
"…They're fanning out," Wind whispered from right beside her, mirroring Petra's little peak.
As an elf, the excitement caused her face to redden and her ears to flutter, smacking Petra in the head a bit like a dog's tail—Bop-bop-bop-bop-bop…
"Of course they are," Petra replied, pushing her away with a grumble.
Two more guards ran past—
Then another group doubled back…
Then they looked at the incredibly conspicuous well!
They shared a glance.
The Guards: "…"
The Girls: "…"
Petra grabbed Wind's sleeve. "Now!"
She shot out from behind the only cover, violently carving towards the wall with the ferocity of two little girls. They slipped through an old laundry window, climbed a wall, and dropped into a parallel street before returning to running away.
At the same time, whistles shrieked behind them.
Moments later—
Bang! Lilly crashed into them from a side alley.
"Ow-ow-ow! Dang!" What was she feeding this girl! Why was she so freaking heavy!
Petra asked while rubbing her shoulder, "Luna?"
"Still running," Lilly said, a little breathless.
Another shout echoed from not far ahead.
"Again," Petra said. "Split up again!"
Petra jumped up, grabbed a horizontal pole, and spun her little body before playfully shooting up to a rooftop alone. Wind and Lilly slipped into a busy building, rolled through a group of elderly ladies, and exited through a back door that led to a quiet residential block.
Guards thundered all around them, disturbing the peace!
Why were these people so determined?
That was the question Wind had…
They waited for a moment, then Luna dropped down from a balcony above with Noah and almost all of the other servant girls. The girls moved fast, easily losing the guards again.
Their ability to 'escape' had really improved over the last year!
They crossed a damaged bridge, cut through a dying garden, slipped under a large cart in a long line, and leapt into another alley just as another patrol rounded the corner ahead.
At last, they reached the final stretch of street…
The city gate appeared just ahead of them.
Swoosh!
Petra emerged from a rooftop and landed beside them, doing a dramatic spin mid-air, completely unharmed, and landed lightly on one foot like a little fairy.
"Everyone?" she asked with a wide smile. Petra was having a lot of fun. In her hand, over thirty money bags were clinking as she moved.
She looked around, "Where's Soryn?"
Swoosh!
Soryn jumped out from a nearby carriage a moment later. "Present!"
Petra nodded.
That was everyone!
Ahead—
Gong-gong-gong-gong! The not so 'massive' city gate was already 'lowering'!
"That's the gate up ahead!" Lilly shouted, covered in sweat.
"Oh no," Wind yelled. "It's closing!"
"…Do they think we won't blow it up?" Petra muttered, confused at their reactions…
"If you do that, the law enforcers of the empire might just hunt you down forever," Soryn warned.
"Mm, so what?"
Petra looked at her with a naive expression.
Soryn opened her mouth, wanting to answer, but—
Petra didn't wait.
Swoosh!
Mental Energy erupted from her hands, coiling and condensing until it formed a massive hammer nearly three meters tall!
She leapt forward with a tiny cry and swung down!
Swoosh! Ba-boooooom—!! The gate exploded! Wood, stone, and dust blasted outwards as guards were thrown aside, engulfed in the explosive shockwave!
The ground collapsed beneath the impact.
The girls sprinted through the wreckage without slowing down, burst past the ruins of the gate, crossed the plains outside the town, and vanished into the forest.
* * *
Not far behind, the guards from Old Hand, along with several local forces, charged into the forest!
Swoosh, swoosh-swoosh, swoosh-swoosh-swoosh!
The moment the trees swallowed them, everything changed. If the girls were considered to be nimble in town, then they were almost like monkeys in the forest!
The guards cursed at them.
Petra took the lead, Wind and Soryn soaring just aside while Lilly and Luna stayed close behind, never losing ground, making their previously 'out of breath' appearances look like a complete joke!
Their giggles echoed into the ears of their pursuers.
Roots were stepped over, and vines were slipped past, fully displaying the nimbleness one needed to possess to survive in the Green Wind Forest. Fallen trunks were ducked or vaulted, while large rocks became stepping stones, and wet moss or slippery slopes were ignored entirely.
Compared to the little monkeys, the guard team was much more tragic…
When the main path narrowed and blurred, their targets turned sharply, diving into a half-forgotten and choked outgrowth of greenery. As the girls shot forward unimpeded and without pausing, the vines and branches only continued to claw at the armor of their pursuers. Metal screeched and scraped against stone, as the guards struggled to keep up, their shields catching, their boots sinking into the mud.
One could only imagine how they felt right now…
Fortunately—
They were not falling behind, no, not because of the useless guardsman, no no no, they kept up because of the experts that emerged from the small forces that had joined in the chase!
Seeing this…
A glance was exchanged between the girls, then—
Swoosh! They split up, each shooting in a different direction!
* * *
Petra was left 'alone'—
Immediately, she sped up, shooting into the trees with a blur! Woosh!
She could feel it, the instant she was separated, almost all of the pursuers immediately locked onto her.
Her body flickered with a bright green light.
Unlike before, when she didn't have a method to control her immense pool of mental energy, she now rippled with a thin veil of emerald light that clung tightly to her skin, and with it, the sparse patch of green dragon-scales that had started to grow along her flanks was outlined outside her clothes.
It wasn't armor, no, it was more like a shell, or a second set of skin. It was refined and shapeless, a technique she had 'started' to create to allow her body to push past her current immature limits!
Boom!
Petra launched forward, spiritual energy splitting as she moved like a comet in the forest.
Branches snapped before they even touched her, leaves were shredded into green mist, and she struck a tree mid-run, carving straight through its trunk, then redirecting herself off a stone outcrop just beyond its shadow. When she jumped again, the rock exploded beneath her feet!
Woosh—! She sped up!
To the outsiders, this little girl seemed to have an unlimited amount of stamina, and indeed, they weren't too far off. Petra's veil of mental energy was more than just a quickly formed set of light armor. It was a technique used to control the body with her mind, allowing her to apply her mental strength to her physical body's movements.
Woosh—! She sped up again!
Petra flashed onto a nearby tree, then another, and another, her feet barely touching the ground before she sprang up again and again!
She ran along a slanted trunk, spun upside down beneath another, then rolled into a forward spin and used the recoil to shoot herself forwards even faster, skimming under a web of roots that jutted from an exposed hillside.
As she moved, her eyes were wide open, unblinking—
The black from her pupils stirred, 'sensing' the shadows.
And the 'darkness' spread to her senses.
Anything with 'darkness', she could feel it. In fact, the sensitivity she had towards darkness far exceeded the sensitivity of her other senses combined. Whether it was the environment, the human body, or even the human mind, she had slowly begun to detect it after a long year of training.
After reaching the third level of the immortal cultivation pathway, her ability to manipulate the darkness element had increased, but most of these improvements were outside of combat.
From behind—
They were still closing in!
As for why, well…
She could escape, but she was having too much fun!
Woosh!
A blade of wind screeched past her head, shaving a slab of bark clean off three trees. Petra laughed, spun mid-air, and hurled a condensed blade of moonlight, something she could now do, backwards at her pursuers!
Shrooonnnnnng! It's sliced through the forest as a beam of spinning white light!
A scream followed, and multiple trees collapsed.
Swoosh—Something lunged from the side!
Petra's eyes widened even further.
It was a forest monkey, panicked and feral, flying at her furiously.
Petra's energy rippled, launching the flashing furry away!
Woosh! Boom!
The beast was plastered against a nearby trunk, the impact tearing a hole straight through!
She landed, skidded under a fallen log, then vaulted over a ravine. Petra wiped the smear of monkey blood from her cheek, snorted, and exploded forward even faster!
Booom—! The chase continued!
-
To escape, it took another twenty minutes of relentless pursuit—
Petra burst into a wide clearing, and finally stopped.
The pursuers had already been lost long ago, but…
She turned.
Silence filled the air.
With the sweetest smile she could possibly muster, she clasped her hands behind her back and called out sweetly, "Grandpa~ it's not very nice to follow people into the forest. Why don't you come out?"
The leaves stirred, but nothing answered.
After a long pause…
Then, from somewhere deep within the shadows—
Tap, tap, tap…
* * *