Amos's gaze, upon recognizing Coppelia, instantly turned from surprise to severity. Without a hint of hesitation, her cold voice cut through the air:
"Seize these two foreigners!"
The guards behind her reacted with extreme speed, immediately drawing their weapons and fanning out to surround them, the clash of their metal plates ringing out.
Coppelia didn't pause for even half a second. The instant Amos's words were out, she was already charging forward, clutching the unconscious Columbina!
With an almost brutish posture, she lowered her shoulder and slammed directly into the chest of a spear-wielding soldier in front of her!
"Ugh!" The soldier, caught completely off guard, was thrown backward by the immense force, and an opening instantly appeared in their formation.
Like a cheetah escaping a trap, Coppelia shot through the gap!
"After her!" the guards roared, giving chase relentlessly.
Amos's expression was ice-cold. A white longbow was now in her hand, her right hand resting on the bowstring.
An arrow formed purely from blinding white light materialized out of thin air! She didn't aim for a vital spot; the arrowhead dipped slightly, locking onto Coppelia's calf before flying from the string with a whoosh!
She wanted to capture Coppelia alive.
As Coppelia sprinted, the faint sound of the light arrow cutting through the air reached her. At the same instant, she shot a glance back over her right shoulder, the corner of her eye catching the deadly white light.
Her body reacted accordingly, dodging to the left with everything she had!
"Whoosh—thump!"
The light arrow grazed the cuff of her right pant leg and slammed into the ground where she had just been, blasting open a small crater. A shower of dust and debris washed over her.
"Get out of the way!"
"Move!"
"The guards are making an arrest!"
The crowd's shocked cries, shoves, and chaotic footsteps flooded Coppelia's ears like a tidal wave.
She didn't look back. Using the momentum from her sideways slide, she adjusted her course and plunged headfirst into the dense crowd ahead.
Amos's gaze remained locked on the gray figure weaving nimbly through the crowd, her eyes as cold as ice.
"Flank her! Force her out of the crowd!" she commanded sharply. The guards immediately split into two groups, attempting to circle around from the sides and shrink Coppelia's space to hide.
They're sticking so close. Is this to be expected of an archer? Such sharp eyes?
Coppelia felt the cold gaze from behind and the pressure of the flanking guards, thinking to herself.
At this rate, I'll never shake them while carrying Columbina.
I have to find a way to secure Venti and Columbina first, then I can use an elemental reaction to force that troublesome archer back!
Her eyes quickly scanned the chaotic figures around her. Soon, she spotted the area where the bards were relatively concentrated, and among them, the young poet Himmel, who was holding a wooden lyre and wore his hair in two braids!
Himmel was still reeling in shock and confusion from the Solitary King's city-wide proclamation when the sudden commotion in the crowd pulled him back to reality.
He only registered a blur before his eyes as a gray figure sped past him. Something bumped gently against his chest with enough force to make him involuntarily take two steps back.
He subconsciously raised his hands to shield his chest, only to realize with a start that something new was now in his arms.
He looked down and saw an orange-yellow sphere. Its shell was slightly transparent, and inside, a faint cyan halo could be seen, pulsating slowly.
A wind sprite! It's Venti!
Himmel's heart leaped. He instantly understood what the person from the high tower had just done.
Without any hesitation, he clutched the geo sphere tightly to his chest, cleverly concealing it with his sleeves and the lyre in front of him. Then, he shifted his feet and silently melted into the shadows of the denser crowd nearby.
Meanwhile, the second after "passing off" Venti, Coppelia, still holding Columbina, had already shot out of the bards' area like an arrow loosed from its string, sprinting toward the residential district.
However, she had only made it a dozen or so meters out of the crowd, stepping onto the open stone path that connected the square to the residential area...
"Whoosh—bang!"
Another light arrow, as if perfectly predicted, slammed viciously into a rock behind her and to her left!
The boulder exploded on impact, sending shrapnel flying backward like rain! A sharp fragment, carrying immense kinetic energy, struck Coppelia's calf with a smack. A sharp pain shot through her, causing her to stumble.
Coppelia came to a sudden halt. It wasn't entirely because of the pain in her leg, but because this road to the residential district was almost completely empty. It was wide open, with practically no cover to dodge behind.
Before that master archer, carrying a person, she was nothing but a living target.
Those definitely aren't ordinary arrows. Their power is too immense...
Coppelia quickly assessed the situation. If this mechanical body gets broken, I have no idea where I'd even get it repaired!
Seeing her target stop, Amos once again placed her right hand on the bowstring, and a light arrow manifested.
She didn't shoot immediately. Instead, she advanced slowly with steady steps, signaling with her eyes for the flanking guards to close in, forming a gradually shrinking circle of encirclement.
Coppelia slowly turned around, still cradling Columbina. In her free right hand, a sphere had appeared.
The sphere emitted a faint blue light, and inside, it seemed as if water was swirling.
Amos drew her bow to its fullest, the arrowhead, glinting with dangerous white light, aimed precisely at Coppelia's face.
"Throw that sphere on the ground," Amos's voice was devoid of any emotion. "And put down the person you're holding."
Coppelia looked at her without speaking. Following the command, she opened her right hand, and the blue sphere fell.
"Clink!"
The moment the sphere hit the ground, it burst open. But there was no violent impact; instead, it transformed into a thick cloud of water vapor that spread out rapidly, enveloping Amos and the several guards who had drawn near!
At the exact same instant the water vapor erupted!
Amos's fingers, holding the bowstring, released abruptly! The light arrow flew from the string, heading straight for Coppelia's cheek!
And in the moment she threw the sphere, Coppelia had already mobilized her energy. A Geo elemental shield, glowing with an earthy yellow light, instantly covered her entire body, isolating her and Columbina from the spreading water vapor!
At the same time, her body tilted sharply to the left as if she had anticipated it, her head jerking to one side!
"Shhhk—!"
The light arrow pierced through the Geo elemental shield, tearing two small holes in the front and back! The arrow's momentum was not yet spent, and it grazed past Coppelia's cheek, which she couldn't fully move out of the way in time, with a sharp hiss!
A cold touch was followed by a searing pain! The skin on the side of her cheek was torn open, revealing not flesh and blood beneath, but a silvery-white mechanical structure that gleamed with a faint metallic luster!
This was the first time her mechanical body had sustained such a visible injury in this world!
The intense pain stimulated Coppelia's nerves, but her eyes remained calm.
In the instant she dodged the light arrow, she had nearly drained the last shred of energy she had that could be instantly converted.
A portion of the energy quickly repaired the hole in the Geo shield, while the majority of it erupted on the shield's surface and around her body as arcs of crackling purple electricity!
"Zzzzzzap—!!!"
The water vapor that had just exploded had already applied the Wet status to Amos and the several guards within its range.
Now, the moment this spreading water vapor came into contact with the crackling Electro element, a violent [Electro-Charged] reaction occurred!
"Argh!"
"Hss!"
Amos and the guards' bodies convulsed violently at the same time! It was as if countless invisible needles were piercing their muscles, and an intense numbness instantly spread from the parts of their bodies touched by the vapor to their entire beings!
The electric current coursed through their bodies, bringing waves of uncontrollable spasms and tingling numbness. Their muscle strength seemed to vanish in an instant, and their movements became stiff and sluggish!
Though not fatal, this sudden and powerful paralytic effect was enough to make anyone lose their precise motor skills for a short time!
An opportunity!
Coppelia moved! She charged forward, holding Columbina, her free right hand lashing out like lightning, grabbing for the white longbow that had loosened slightly in Amos's paralyzed grip!
Amos, though startled, did not panic. Her powerful will fought against the paralysis as she gripped the bow's body tightly with her left hand!
However, Coppelia didn't engage in a contest of strength. The moment she grabbed the bow, she leaned forward and threw her forehead forward with all her might!
"Super Headbutt!"
"Thud!"
A dull thud! Coppelia's hard, mechanical forehead slammed solidly against Amos's!
First, the intense electrical paralysis had made Amos's mind buzz and her reactions sluggish. This was immediately followed by an indescribable, agonizing pain and a jarring sensation in her frontal bone!
Amos's vision instantly blurred and went dark. A powerful wave of dizziness washed over her, and her body staggered backward uncontrollably. Her grip on the bow finally gave way due to the dizziness and paralysis.
Seizing the opportunity, Coppelia put force into her arm and wrenched the white longbow from Amos's grasp!
Without lingering in the fight, she immediately retreated, turned, and sped toward the residential district without a single look back!
Amos clutched her throbbing, dizzy forehead, fighting back nausea and the paralysis wracking her body. Watching the back of the figure who had stolen her longbow and was now rapidly disappearing, she squeezed out a command through gritted teeth:
"Get... get her! Don't let her escape!"
But at that moment, the guards were likewise struggling to move, tormented by the Electro-Charged reaction. They could only watch helplessly as the gray figure disappeared after a few leaps and bounds into the shadows of the residential district's intricate alleyways.
___
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