I ran through the streets alongside The Hero and The Archer. While I would have preferred to get to a higher position, I didn't have confidence in The Hero's ability to keep up on the unstable footing, not yet.

We'd stopped seeing crowds of people about halfway to our planned location, but the few stragglers here and there told me that not everyone had evacuated quite yet. I hoped that no one would be foolish enough to remain in the area after we started drawing the enemy's attention, but I felt that it was wishful thinking.

Our destination was a shop pavilion similar to the one I'd met with The Hero's party. I wasn't a fan of the location, preferring less open combat and more terrain to use to my advantage. But, to draw the attention of the sniper, we needed to stand out.

Even with the plan to remove the sniper's fire, I felt that it wasn't enough. Something told me ranged attacks would soon become the least of our concerns. From the familiar tension in the air to the rising levels of tainted energy in the city, everything pointed to a plan far more sinister than an assassination attempt.

I hated not knowing the entire situation or the fastest way to resolve it.

On my own, I would finish this quickly, but that wasn't an option right now. If I were too capable, I would stagnate the growth of The Hero; if I failed to meet a certain standard, I would fail to be of use. Both options were contrary to any potential plans I had. I felt it best to remain by The Hero's side, but I needed her to grow strong enough to stand without assistance, should the time come that such a thing is necessary.

"What's the plan when we get to the plaza?" The Archer interrupted my frustrated thoughts with his question, his tone lacking any of the joviality it held before the attack.

"We have two options. Both suck, honestly." The Hero responded. "The first, we draw attention to ourselves, place ourselves in the line of fire in exchange for the safety of the people." The Hero paused to let us take in what she said before continuing. "The second, we attempt to take out the enemy before they notice us." The Hero looked conflicted about the two choices.

I didn't falt her. The first option had a high chance of injuring or killing one of us, while the second would use the city as bait, killing any unlucky enough to become a target to one of the blasts.

However, I saw another path that would be no more than a push in the right direction for The Hero.

"We can do both." I wrote for the two of them to see, conscious of how much mana it took for each letter.

"How?" The Hero asked, seeming a little more than uneasy about the answer.

"You can dodge." I wrote, pulling the mana back promptly to write more. "While he sets up a shot." I gestured to The Archer to include the information I could not write out.

The Hero's face was a mixture of fear and nervous excitement, something I hadn't seen in a long time. "I can't even see the shots before they hit, let alone dodge them." The Hero said, her statement was only half true. She would be able to doge if she knew when to do so.

"You will have help." I wrote out, aware that I wouldn't be the one assisting her.

"Sorry to burst the bubble, but without someone to act as a spotter, I won't successfully hit anything that far out." The Archer said, sounding a little like he was embarrassed by the statement.

"I will act as such." I wrote out, but before I could pull my mana back to continue, The Hero asked the question I was about to answer.

"Then, how are you going to help me dodge those attacks? You can't be in two places at once." The Hero said, in a matter of fact tone. "Can you?" She asked, with genuine curiosity.

"I won't; Scales will." I displayed the message in front of them while having Scales fly out in front for them to see. "When he squeezes, dodge."I pulled the mana back to give additional instruction. "Tighter equals further." in response to my message, Scales wrapped himself around The Heros arm, where he would hopefully be able to fulfill his duty without issue.

With the final plan set and our destination only slightly away from our current position, we split away from one another. The Hero went to the plaza, and The Archer and I headed for a more hidden location.

The Archer and I stood in the corner room on the fourth floor of what I guessed was an inn. The window to my left had a view of the plaza down the road, where I saw The Hero preparing to give notice to her presence. The window in front of me had a near-perfect view of the hills to the east. The two combined created a perfect spot for what we had to do.

"Linked Sense, Perfect Shot, Blasting Broadhead, Overloaded Arrow, Accelerated Flight." The Archer started naming off skills as he used them. I didn't know if it was a habit or for my benefit. Regardless, the first skill he used informed me that my suspicions about him were, in fact, correct.

The spell, Linked Sense, allowed him to share a single sense with a target, but it was one way. He could either let the target experience what he did or experience what they did. But, he could not do both at the same time.

When I felt the mana leave him and begin to fade without a target, I latched onto it, allowing it to take root inside me, with the consequence of a little pain. The benefit was that I could now see where he was aiming and use my own sight to assist him in his aim. We would likely only get one shot.

A bright flash from the window to my left indicated that The Hero had begun attempting to draw attention to herself. And, the explosion a few moments later revealed that she'd been successful. Now all that needed to be done was to put an end to the sniper before The Hero met an untimely end.

>THIS SUCKS

That Wasn't the first time Luna avoided a shot with such a small margin of error. The first two times, she'd slightly misjudged how far she needed to move to avoid getting hit and had been thrown across the ground by the ensuing explosion. Luna quickly learned that it was better to throw herself further and take a moment to recover her footing than it was to barely dodge the shots and get dozens of new injuries when the explosion occurred.

Luna continued to dodge the explosive shots. Occasionally looking towards the general direction mask had indicated to see if she could spot when she needed to move without Scales assistance.

Luna slowly got better at avoiding the blasts from the ranged assault, eventually getting to the point where she could focus on looking towards the eastern hills with the occasional glance towards the building that Mask and Shu-Na had entered earlier. Noticing a small flash off in the distance, Luna prepared to jump to the left when Scales gently squeezed her arm, telling her to change the direction of her movement.

Quick to listen to the creature, Luna rolled right and looked toward her left to see the closest building to her get hit and catch fire in the ensuing explosion. The flames surprised her. But considering the pillars of smoke in the distance and the black marks on anything left where one of the blasts occurred: flames were not out of the question.

>Honestly, it was a wonder nothing had caught fire around here until now.

While Luna was musing over the now burning building, Scales kept watching the hills as he had been. Breaking Luna out of her thoughts by tightening around her arm slightly, the serpent showed that it was far more used to things like this than Luna anticipated.

Luna dashed towards the center of the plaza, away from both the flames and the incoming shot. But to Luna's surprise, the incoming blast didn't occur close to where she'd stood previously. Instead, it missed by quite a bit and hit a building far to the left of the burning one. This one ignited much like the first, and the flames began to spread quickly, engulfing the entire building and beginning to spread to others.

"I really hope that they're just getting tired, and this isn't something I need to be concerned about," Luna said out loud, to which the only response she received was a shiver like wiggle from Scales.

Several Explosive attacks later, Luna knew that It wasn't something as convenient as the attacker getting tired or running out of focus. Almost every building directly bordering the plaza was either already burning or quickly on the way. The flames spread from each one to the next and blocked the alleys and streets like a wall. The entire plaza became a cage of fire and ash, trapping luna inside with heat too high for her to breach.

When Luna looked towards the building that Mask and Shu-Na had gone into, she couldn't see through the smoke to see if they were still inside. When she looked towards the streets, she saw that the fire was spreading outwards from the plaza in a ring, blocking the area off from the outside, and locking Luna inside. When she looked to the sky, she saw smoke and ash floating through the air in a way that would have been mesmerizing if Luna hadn't been at the center of the flames.

While Luna was looking to the sky, Scales Tightened around her arm hard than he had any time previously. The force caused Luna a decent amount of pain. But the sudden insistence that she move cause Luna to ignore that and throw herself as far forward as she could toward the center fountain.

Landing in the water of the fountain head first, Luna expected to feel a blast wash over her. Remaining underwater for several seconds, Luna waited and waited, but nothing happened. Scales did not clutch her arm, nor did a blast wash over her head. Nothing happened until the sound of metal hitting metal rang through the water into Luna's ears. When Luna resurfaced and looked back, what she saw stunned her.

I kept track of The Hero's situation while assisting The Archer in adjusting his shot. I could only barely make out where the sniper was, and from what I could tell, The Archer couldn't see them at all. But, that hopefully wouldn't be an issue with how much spirit and mana The Archer poured into his arrow. If he hit at all, the target would lose more than a few chunks of flesh as a result.

With The Archers Arrow on target, I took to observing The Hero. She wasn't the best at avoiding the assailant. But with how little experience she had, it was amazing that she hadn't acquired more than a few cuts and bruises. With her current display of skill, I was confident she hadn't slacked in whatever training she'd received up to this day, even if her movements could use refinement.

Occasionally I saw a blast outside the plaza and assumed that they must be a tactic to convince The Hero to sit still. But, a particular shot closer to The Hero revealed I was wrong. The building caught fire faster than anything I'd seen near or in a blast, quickly spreading to the neighboring storefronts. When another store further from The Hero went up in flames, I asked the world for it to be a coincidence, it ignored me. The Third burning building showed the pattern, and I was too late to stop it.

"Let loose when you can." I showed The Archer, trusting he could land the arrow into its intended target.

"You going to help her?" The Archer asked a rhetorical question, never breaking line of sight with the window and hills. "Find a way to let me know if you need help." He continued, his tone almost cold, a stark contrast to the humorous man I met before.

"I will," I wrote then erased. I don't know what prompted the next action I took, and I don't know if it was worth it, but I asked The Archer a question I don't know if even he knew the answer. "Who are you," "The joyful archer, or" "The hardened inquisitor?"

If my statement had shaken him, he did not show it. Nor did he answer me. But, I felt that my asking changed something about the young man. I could only hope it was a worthwhile change.

I observed the plaza, prepared to act should it become necessary. I ignored the flames licking around my body, the smoke rising in the space I sat, and every other nuisance that attempted to draw my attention. I watched the cage of flames come into creation, and the man make his way into the plaza. But, I did not yet intervene. I could tell that Scales saw the man, and I could tell he hadn't yet decided how much he should be concerned about the man.

A moment before, the man moved toward The Hero, who looked up to the sky like she was in a trance. Scales used the gem on his head to indicate how dangerous he found the man.

Scales gem flashed a deep black. The man was a killer.

This man's entire reason for being here was to put an end to someone or everyone.

I rushed out of the flames with a few thoughts. Why was a dedicated killer after The Hero? Why did they bother with the sniper, who even now continued setting blaze to the environment? And the dumbest one. I was happy I hadn't yet put on the new coat because this one was burning from the ends, and I didn't have the time to put it out.

All of this rushed through my mind as I stepped between The Killer and The Hero. Taking his inversely curved blade with the metal braces inside the armor of my arm, I barely managed to deflect his blow away from my own chest. I heard The Hero splash into the fountain behind me, but before I could confirm her safety, The Killer beset me with another blow.

"What is this?" The Man asked, looking over a room covered in pictures of the most complex magical formations he'd ever seen.

"This room is all of your past research into a particular subject." The Husk rasped out. "Each formation failed, and each one has marking to tell you how it failed." The Husk continued while moving around the room.

"What was the subject The Woman asked, understanding the complexity of the formations but not heir use.

"Simply put," The Husk rasped out before being interrupted by THe Man.

"Reincarnation." He said with wonder.