Hunter Of The Forest II

*Zzsh!* Arrows rained from above, showering Kies from every direction. Kies ran around the branches, seeking cover under them. The branches that she created to give herself an edge could also be used against her. However, it only provided a temporary safe haven from the arrows. Nyana was constantly on the move, jumping from branch to branch, firing arrows at Kies. It didn't matter where Kies was hiding, she would find an angle where she could hit him with her arrows.

Kies ran out of his cover, and the moment he did, he heard an arrow bury into the sand behind him. "..." This wasn't good. The entire arena had basically turned into the elf's playing ground and Kies was nothing more than prey trying to escape her arrows. The branches also made it difficult for him to use his wind magic as they had to travel between, around, over, and under the branches. They were obstructing the path, causing them to take longer to reach where he wanted them to go. In other words, he had no way of attacking Nyana from here. The only thing he could do was protect himself.

Kies raised her arm, calling the winds to converge at his location. They rushed to him, creating a loud roar as they soared in from the narrow branches. The winds wrapped around his body, creating a protective layer and also enhancing his physical abilities. Kies jumped up onto the branches and looked around for Nyana.

*Woosh!* An arrow flew past his face, deflected by the wind, or otherwise it would have hit him square in the face. Kies quickly turned to the direction where the fire had been fired from and surely enough, he found the elf crouching on top of one of the branches. Kies slashed his sword, shooting a blade of wind at her, forcing her to jump to another branch. The wind hit the branch she had been on top of, sending splinters of wood everywhere.

"..." Kies looked down at the branch he was standing on top of. He raised his sword and cut down with all his strength along with the power of the wind but it just bounced off, leaving a small gash on the branch.

"Sorry, but you need very powerful magic if you want to cut apart these branches," the elf's voice came from above him. Kies' head shot up and he saw the elf standing on a branch directly on top of him with her bow and arrow aimed right at him. He had no idea how she got there so fast but quickly moved out of the way himself as she fired the arrow.

Kies landed on another branch behind him and he kept his eyes on Nyana the entire time. It was a mistake to take his eyes off her and he couldn't afford to do it again. The elf also moved to another branch and was getting ready to fire another arrow at him. From the look of things, he couldn't destroy these branches with his sword or magic so he had to play by her rules...

*Twack!* Nyana fired the arrow and it flew through the air. Upon reaching the halfway mark to Kies, it split into a volley of green magical arrows. "What!?" Kies immediately jumped away from his branch to get away from them but to his surprise, they followed him. The arrows curved and changed direction from the spot on the branch he had been standing on to him.

Kies held out his hand and created a cone of wind, dispelling the green magic arrows. "Not bad, but can you handle this many?" The elf rapidly fired five arrows which all dispersed into green arrows. They bolted out the sky with their number and converged onto him from every single direction possible.

"..." Kies looked around, stunned by what he saw. But he didn't have the time to stand around like an idiot. He needed to do something before the arrows reached him. Kies sent out his winds to destroy the arrows closest to him, but it was too slow. He could only take them down one by one and from the look of things, he estimated that there were at least a hundred of them. In other words, every normal arrow that Nyana fired, split into twenty or so magic arrows. This number was nothing to scoff at.

Kies only managed to take out a little more than ten of the magic arrows with his wind magic and the rest were closing in on him. He only had a few seconds before they hit. 'Come on, think!' Kies yelled at himself in his head. Dodging them won't do any good as they would just continue to follow him. He couldn't just create a cone of wind like before because these arrows covered every single angle and direction.

This wasn't as much of a problem as he couldn't handle it since he could easily wipe them all out if he decided to use his actual magic, but he didn't want to expose it right now. He needed a way to destroy or avoid all of these arrows without showing too much... In other words, he was trying to figure out a way to deal with the arrows using as little means as possible.

'Got it!' An idea flashed through his head. It was a risky one, but it should work. Kies surrounded himself in a layer of wind and charged at Nyana. The elf was taken aback by Kies' decision and watched as he ran straight into a cluster of arrows. They exploded when they touched Kies, but the wind surrounding him protected him from the explosions. He then continued to move towards Nyana, not bothering to pay attention to the arrows that were chasing him. Nyana's eyes widened as she realized what Kies was trying to do.

Nyana turned around and started running away from Kies. He was planning to use her own arrows against her by running behind her and having them hit her as they flew by. But she guessed wrong. That wasn't his plan at all. All the arrows behind him eventually gathered and concentrated into a single green ball of mass destruction. Kies stopped and turned around and held out his hand. Nyana was too busy running to notice what Kies was doing and she didn't see him catch the green ball with his winds, wrapping around it and turning it into a giant bomb. He then looked around for the elf and found her atop one of the branches.

Nyana shot a quick glance back, expecting Kies to still be on her tail but was surprised to see that Kies had stopped and even more surprised to see that he had caught all her arrows. With a wave of his hand, Kies sent the ball of arrows at Nyana. The elf saw the danger she was in and knew that she wouldn't be able to avoid it in time. At most, she could make it to the edge of the explosion if she moved at her fastest speed, but that was too risky. Instead, she jumped away from the branch that the ball was aimed at and ducked behind another branch, angling herself so that the branch would protect her from the explosion.

When the ball of magic collided with the branch, a huge explosion went off, sending splinters of wood and leaves flying everywhere. Kies held his hand out and created a barrier to block all the debris. When the smoke cleared, Nyana was nowhere to be seen, but Kies knew for a fact that the elf was still perfectly fine. Something like this wasn't enough to take her out. As if on cue, the elf poked her head out from behind the branch that she was hiding under and fired an arrow at Kies.

Kies didn't do anything and watched as the arrow flew right into his wind barrier, bouncing off just like the debris before it. "Tch... I was hoping that I could get you with that..." Nyana said disappointedly as she jumped onto the branch, slinging her bow over her shoulder. She jumped onto the branch in front of her where the explosion happened. The branch had lost its bark and its lost inner layer was charred black from the attack. Surprisingly, the entire thing was still in one piece despite having been hit by an attack like that.

"Those branches... Just what are they?" Kies couldn't help but ask. Making equipment from the wood of these branches may be better than steel.

"These?" Nyana tapped her foot against the branch. "These are the branches of a star tree. They feed off magic instead of sunlight and water."

"Interesting..." So the trees take in magic power... No wonder these things were so hard to destroy.

"Very little things in this world are as tough as these trees," the elf went on to say. She held her hands out and smiled. "That's why..." The world around Kies began to shake, and at first, he thought that Nyana was somehow creating an earthquake with her magic but he saw that it wasn't an earthquake. The branches of the star tree were shaking. All of them, including the two he and Nyana were standing on. Kies quickly jumped off the branch and landed back on the sandy ground.

He looked up, unsure of what to make of the situation. All the trees were shaking and he had no idea what to make of the situation. Was she planning on using the branches to fight him? If so... then this was going to be annoying...

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