The sun was setting. That had to be long enough, right?
Hunched painfully inside a trash can, Melita held back the urge to sense where Teresa was. Her pursuers were probably looking for traces of magic being sent into the environment. She had to trust the other.
Her body was slick with blood and sweat, and the smell she was surrounded by wasn’t exactly pleasant. Not that she was particularly bothered. Boars were fine with filth, as long as it helped their own purpose. They were suited to sitting amongst disease and disarray, of sifting through the dregs till they found the gold.
Furthermore, outcasted amongst even the Boars for her apathy and callousness, cloaking herself with the stench of the unwanted was a normal for her.
No passerby would let her anywhere near them, however, which would make blending in a little difficult. Perhaps she could make her way to the sea to throw herself in before finding a new home, unfortunate as the situation was.
The warehouse had been decrepit, but it had been her base for the past few weeks, and Melita would miss the owner's gruff nod when she came in, or her rug.
Lifting a blood soaked hand, Melita gently probed the groove on her shoulder. She’d dug out the bullet once she’d had a bit of respite, and had been focusing her magic on healing the shoulder. Luckily enough, magic boosting one’s own body was a lot harder to sense than illusions, so she was able to use the limited time to recover much faster. The blood was no longer flowing, only occasionally seeping out the wound when she moved. She needed a bit more time, but then her side had been grazed by yet another bullet and she had to focus most of her energy there.
Whilst most of that guy’s forces were novices, she had to admit that their sniper was a deadly one, managing to hit her twice even though they had to only see her illusions. Their skills had forced her into hiding sooner that she would have liked, but there wasn’t much she could do about that.
Ah, really. Melita sighed as she leaned back, trying to even her breathing. I’m a terrible guide even to the end.
If she’d been better, if she’d given Teresa the kind of guidance that she had gotten… Would this situation have turned out a little better? Melita personally taught the other herself, resulting in a weird mix of skills and lessons that she still remembered or had to learn when on the run. By the time she'd turned Teresa into one of the Liviae, the Academy had been dissolved, so there was no real record of the other girl.
But then again, the Academy being dissolved meant that there was no way they would know about Teresa. Melita was a little concerned about the guy that had seen her, but with Teresa's terrible magic ability, she didn't have any real presence distinguishing herself as Liviae. To their knowledge, Melita was the one bonded to the insignia. She was really the prized hog, in more ways than one.
Truly, if she was smart, she might have bonded to the insignia when she could. It would have allowed her to manifest the form of the boar, as well as boost her own physicality and abilities, the exact area she’d never been particularly good at, amongst other benefits. It would have been the reasonable move. The insignia was useless if one didn’t use it.
But… Whenever she’d tried to put it on, Melita couldn’t help but see blood on it, see Leon pushing it into her grasp… and each time, it slipped out her fingers.
It wasn’t like Leon didn’t know the risks when he accepted it with pride, and if anything, the insignia gave him a fighting chance. She knew this. She knew it.
And so she’d still kept it like an errant hope, lying low for a whole year. When she still couldn’t put it on after all that time, she’d accepted it. She’d probably never be able to use it, despite it being everything the Academy had trained for, the highest honour. She was the odd one of their branch in every way.
In a way, she hated it. Was it really so important that others' could lay their lives down for it and the underworld would search so hard? She'd considered tossing it into the ocean, to end it all, but Leon's face had stopped her each time. Whether she thought it was worth it or not, he definitely had, and she didn't want his effort to have been for nothing.
Still didn't mean she had to protect it. She'd done what she was expected to do, and the ring would be as safe as it could be with Teresa, a wielder that could actually utilise it. She was done.
There was more than enough time in eternity for self-pity. Certainly, she’d spent a hundred or so years doing that already. Cracking open the lid of the trash can, she scoped out the area cautiously.
It seemed clear.
Taking a few more breaths to stabilize the wound more, Melita stood shakily and stepped out the trash can, taking her best not to make any noise. With the accuracy of the shots, there was a high chance there was a magic sensor, so using an illusion probably would draw their attention more than anything else.
The evening sun was working in her favour, the rays stretching long swathes of shadow across the alleyways. Ducking in the cover of darkness, Melita waited.
The smooth click of a gun’s safety slid through the air, to settle with the fear in her chest.
“Get up and turn around.” A voice stated, the implicit threat hanging clearly in the air. Had they been waiting for her? All that time? The voice was one she was implicitly familiar with and one certainly capable of something like this, but had the situation really derailed so far? She didn’t want to turn around to look, but even without seeing, she was astute enough that she wouldn’t distrust her own senses.
Meino the Contemplative, Tracking arrow. Current holder of the horse insignia. By the sound of it, traitor to the Liviae.
This was very possibly the end.
Frustration beating against her ribs, Melita stood up to her full height. This wasn't what she meant when she thought that she'd no longer have to care about the affair. If this was the end, she would never forgive herself such a lackluster one. Suddenly throwing her magic behind her, she made an image of her running toward Meino as she fled, dashing quickly toward the street beyond.
Meino was best in an open plain. If she could just turn the corner and go somewhere with more obstacles, she could even the playing field just a little.
Meino’s face flitted at the edge of her eyes, before a figure darted right before her. Cursing, Melita tried to stop, but Meino quickly turned, spinning and sending her heel right into Melita’s solar plexus.
Impeccable aim, as always. Not fair, Melita found herself thinking as she flew back with the blow, slamming her arms into the wall as her back made contact to try and lessen the impact, she got faster. Not able to completely dissipate the force, her head whipped back, smacking against the wall and causing the world to whirl.
“Won’t you give up?” Meino asked, her eyebrows furrowed as she approached.
“How did you know where to find me?” Melita asked instead.
Another quick movement, now too fast for her to catch. A crushing pressure at her side, before Melita hit the floor, the pain at her side sharp and piercing as she coughed. There went her ribs. Then again, she would have died if she were a normal person, taking multiple kicks from a horse. “It was the first chase that was really unexpected, but I knew that as soon as you could, you would find somewhere to hide. All the same, you wouldn’t hide for long. It was just a matter of scoping out the possible hiding spots.”
A toe, worming painfully under her shoulder and rubbing the healing wound raw, before a deft movement flipped Melita unto her back. Then, a foot on her neck, applying just enough force for her to wheeze as Meino continued. “You always were impatient and lazy. You never grew out of that, did you?”
“Nope.” With a cough, Melita grinned, casting the image of a dagger in her injured hand as she dug it into Meino’s ankle, picturing the sharp pain, the grinding of blade against bone. As Meino gritted her teeth, obviously trying to fight through the illusion, Melita's other hand grabbed her actual dagger, piercing her other foot through as if she could somehow stake it to the floor below.
Ignoring the screams, Melita pulled the dagger out whilst keeping the illusion up. No sense in giving a weapon to the enemy.
Rolling to the side, Melita barely dodged a punch that cracked the ground, before stumbling to her feet with a smile. Meino should have expected this, if she had chosen help the underworld go up against the Boar branch.
She could understand their thinking. The organization was probably trying herbivores that lived in the city first, but Meino should have told them that Boars were low in status amongst the Liviae not necessarily due to a lack of fighting prowess.
Boars were greedy, bad tempered and aggressive. However, what made them so fearsome was their stubbornness. Once a boar had decided you were an enemy, they would always charging straight ahead without fear, negotiation or thought for consequences. Even if she was dying, she would use every fading breath to gore her opponent through.
Letting her magic flow with her determination, Melita drew it from where it raced through her, trying to heal the numerous wounds. Redirecting them instead toward Meino, Melita shut off all the other's senses, leaving Meino with nothing but pain and blackness, as she moved toward the other woman.
The horses were known for their speed, reflexes and power. Healing wasn’t really on their checklist.
With a grunt, she sank the dagger’s blade deep into Meino’s stomach, her other hand clamping on the other girl’s mouth to muffle the scream. Meino’s hand gripped hers around the hilt of her dagger, before her other hand grabbed Melita’s collar, bringing her leg up quickly.
Pain.
It bloomed across her stomach, and Melita felt her consciousness stutter for a beat, her magic wavering. Then Meino’s hand was a tight vise round her neck, wringing out whatever life was left within her body. The dagger was no longer in her grasp… Where was it?
“Damn.” Meino cursed, the pain she wore a beautiful balm to Melita’s anger. “You really tried to kill me.”
“I thought you knew me well?” Melita spat with a frenzied grin, digging her nails deep into the other woman’s forearm, kicking her feet at the other’s chest, face, anything she could try to hit in the precious few moments she had left. Her vision was starting to blank at the edges, and she tried to gasp for air, but the grip only tightened. “Come now, what’s the evaluation, Tracking Arrow?”
Meino pursed her lips, and for a second, Melita thought she read a deep sadness in the other woman’s features. But then it was gone, and Meino let out a bitter sound, the both of them knowing that she didn’t need to do anything else. “It was a good attempt, but that’s Mrs Arias to you, Melita.”
Melita could no longer quite see anything in front of her, everything shifting and swimming before her, making her thoughts come slowly. Still, Meino’s words reached her, slowly gaining meaning in her head. No, she thought viciously, Leon’s face appearing in her thoughts. She wasn’t their teacher. Not anymore.
“Pardon… me.” She tried to sputter smartly, but then she was falling, no matter how she tried to reach.
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