It doesn't get more annoying than this. Why would you go out of your way to hunt a human being? They're so boring and not even a challenge.

Percy had no real knowledge about hunting humans though; maybe it was fun in the way of playing a game on easy mode.

The spirits were still around him so he wasted no time casting.

"Drive of the world, swift and free, Rush the gale, surge through me!"

The wind hissed as it picked up; his casting was a bit rushed and sloppy, but it did the job. He heard another arrow coming at him, and the wind was able to slow down the projectile enough for him to dodge.

He rolled and planted his back against a tree, heart pounding in his ears. There was no way he just survived that. The archer was on this side of the river with him, somewhere between the trees twenty meters behind him.

Who the hell was it? An agent of House Eurides or just some random guy that hunts people down for fun? You'd be surprised how many psychos were out there.

But there was that nagging suspicion he had. They were getting closer to where Philip's had said the temple of Gaia was. He expected that there would be more spies out here from House Eurides since they were secretly trying to enter the temple.

Did they see us when we entered the forest or before that when we fought the wolves with that other caravan?

Wait a minute, is this one of the Spiritmancers i met after the wolf fight, maybe Pethros?

No, that's not possible. Pethros is too strong to settle for such a method of killing. He could just confront me and there wouldn't be much I could do.

Percy really hoped it wasn't Pethros, because he would leave the shit list and get upgraded to the make-your-life-a-living-hell list.

Percy couldn't even be sure if Thalos had followed him. Sometimes his father did that to test Percy's senses for being followed. But he hadn't felt Thalos' eyes on him this whole time.

Could the archer be Thalos himself? And this is some kind of ill-advised test he cooked up to catch Percy off-guard.

Pushing aside those thoughts, he groaned and loosened the sack on his back, letting it fall to the earth silently. Then he took two things out of his storage.

One was a flashbang he made with his customisable rewards a long time ago, and the other was a magic tool that he was still working on.

It was a necklace, modelled after the magic tool he saw Sirena use in the marketplace all those years ago. And it was intricately designed and hard to replicate. It was one of the magic tools that the Tower of Hermetics still struggled to understand to this day.

That was because of how it was created: the necklace had magic circles in its gems. How they were carved into the gems without breaking or fracturing them, no one knew.

Before Percy came along, of course. After five long years of study, and a bit of knowledge from his previous world, he understood the method.

They were engraved with some kind of laser was his first guess, then kept from cracking using a spell. So he recreated the laser device using sunstones, mirrors and an easier magic circle.

He hadn't yet perfected the nuances of the circles and the infusion stage, but the necklace could automatically activate a shield to block incoming projectiles. It would block arrows while he tried to find the enemy and fire back.

He crawled low over the ground and kept his eyes out for any movement. Every few seconds he would make a fast but unexpected move in case the archer was just watching him. He felt like he probably looked stupid.

His main plan was to get close enough to the archer first, then he would get shot and block with the necklace magic tool, so that he could decipher where the archer was hiding and shoot back. He didn't want to rely on the necklace much because it was unstable.

One shot, one kill. That was all he needed.

He got within a couple meters when he heard an almost completely silent shuffle of movement. He tightened his grip on the Spellbolt and jumped out of his hiding place, scanning the darkness carefully.

Instead of jumping towards the sound, he jumped out in the wrong direction to make the archer think he was confused.

The assassin took the bait easily; only a couple seconds after he jumped out from behind the tree, an arrow was sent right at his head.

It took more willpower than he ever imagined to ignore the arrow coming for his head and shoot at the archer, whose dark form was just barely revealed by the tree.

The arrow was stopped just inches from his head, frozen by an invisible forcefield, and a loud crack and flash of blue light brightened up the dark forest. Percy grabbed the frozen arrow from the air after his shot.

He let out a heavy breath as he got back behind the tree, thanking every god he knew that the necklace didn't malfunction. As if it heard him, the crystal in the necklace suddenly cracked and crumbled.

Of course, he thought, slipping it up under his shirt and cursing quietly. He stood and walked around to see the fallen figure of what looked like a man.

That better not be Thalos, or some random person hunting in the woods.

But I mean, what can I do, did they think I was a deer or some shit?

His spirit screamed danger, once he got too close. Without a second thought, he rolled backward; he heard the deadly hiss of a blade a moment later. A kick followed the slash, slamming into the Spellbolt and taking it from him.

He rose to see a man standing in the darkness. The other body was still there, definitely dead. This must have been an accomplice.

"So many new friends," Percy snickered, speaking casually. "Can I ask for your name?"

The man was fully wrapped in black camouflage clothes, decked with fake branches and leaves and a cloth mask. His black eyes looked dark and menacing.

"No, you can't, Amphene bastard. But you can die."

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