Scout's Support

Standing above everyone else on the walls of the colosseum, Nyana had an eagle-eye view of everything. She took slow breaths. Her training taught her to stay calm under all circumstances. Everything was in utter chaos but Nyana picked up most of the information she needed to know with her eyes.

It was an attack by a half-human, half-something else monster. If she had to guess, she would say that it was a demon. A demon... As much as she tried to hold it back, she felt some rage start building up in her chest. Her face was a little heated and she was tempted to shoot at the creature with her bow.

But, that was a foolish idea. No one knew that she was up here yet. She needed to take the time to get a read on the situation so that she could make the best decision. The majority of people were all going towards the exit, flooding it and pushing each other. "Should've made another entrance..." Even though the one and only entrance to the colosseum was pretty big, it wasn't designed for so many people to go through at the same time.

"And what is that...?" There was something that caught her attention. Actually, there were two things. One was Kies, who was lying lifelessly in the middle of the chairs. She wasn't sure if he was dead or not but hopefully he was alive. She didn't have the time to worry about him since there was something bigger going on.

A number of people were on the floor, groaning in pain and she had a very bad feeling about it. The hybrid demon threw a bomb into the air and it hit most of the guards and some of the crowd too. Nyana carefully observed one of the victims. They were wiggling around like a worm and something strange was happening to them. Parts of their skin fell off and were replaced by scales.

"By the forest..." There was no more waiting. Nyana drew her bow and started firing arrows, not wanting to find out the end result of their transformation should she give them time. Within a single breath, she sniped five of the transforming hybrids before they could fully turn. But before she could proceed to shoot more, something was thrown into the air in front of her.

Nyana looked up and saw that it was another bomb. "Another one!?" She tried to use her magic to grab it with a vine before it could go off but an electric field hit her and prevented her from using her magic. "What is this...?" She traced it to a man standing between some rows of seats and staring down the two royal guards. It was coming from him, and it was also very likely that he is behind this entire attack as well.

Nyana bolted for safety away from the bomb as it went off, barely dodging the needles that flew out of the bomb. A couple almost grazed her, but luckily, none of them actually touched her skin. When she was out of the clear, she backtracked and went over to one of the needles which was wedged in the wall and carefully plucked it out. A clear liquid coated the tip of the needle, likely the culprit behind the transformations. Nyana couldn't believe that it only took this much to turn someone. Whatever this was, it was dangerous.

Nyana tossed the needle aside and looked back down to see what the situation was like. The second bomb seemed to have hit a couple of the people at the back of the mob by the entrance and they were on the ground. Just like the previous people who got hit by the needles, they were squirming and transforming.

Due to all the chaos, the crowd didn't see what was happening behind them as they continued to push out. Nyana glanced over at the remaining guards. Other than the two royal guards, there were only three left and they were all too busy with the hybrid demon and the traitor to handle anything else.

"This is going to be tough?" Nyana sighed. None of this was supposed to be her problem, but she didn't want to sit by and do nothing. As a soldier herself, it was her duty to help those in need, even when "those" in question aren't even her people.

Nyana gave up on trying to use magic since she wouldn't be able to with the traitor around. She drew her bow and nocked an arrow. She aimed it at the one that was closest to finishing its transformation and shot her arrow. It hit the hybrid accurately in its heart, piercing through cleanly and dropping the creature onto the ground.

"I sure hope that one won't get back up..." Nyana said hopefully to herself as she nocked another arrow on her bow. She didn't have many arrows in her quiver and couldn't do anything if the ones she shot down got back up again. Most of the time, she relied on her magic arrows and not these and so she wasn't stocked for something like this.

Nyana aimed her arrow at the next target but waited a second. She kept her gaze on the first one she shot to see if her attack had any effect on it. If it didn't, then she didn't want to waste another arrow shooting down a second one. The last thing she wanted was to have no arrows left considering the fact that she couldn't use her magic.

"Please..." Nyana watched the hybrid with the arrow in its chest. The hand flinched and it suddenly reached for the arrow. Suddenly, out of the blue, a girl came running towards the hybrid. Nyana raised an eyebrow, unsure of what she was trying to do. Whatever it was, the hybrid ended up pulling the arrow out in one swift motion, before throwing it away.

"...Just what is that?" Nyana had no doubts now. The monster wasn't just half-demon. It was part of something else as well. Regeneration abilities... What animal or monster had that? No answers popped up in her head. She was clueless. But what was more important than that... What the h*ll was the girl doing!? Nyana couldn't see clearly from here, but she was pretty sure that she recognized the face.

Never mind, forget it. Nyana lowered her bow and stopped observing the girl. She didn't have the time to worry about someone else. There would be more casualties if she didn't act fast. Shooting the hybrids would do her no good. She needed to find out their weaknesses, assuming they had any. For now, she had something else in mind.

Nyana turned towards the traitorous soldier who was very likely behind all of this. Otane's people weren't so weak that they would die so easily. She knew that there were at least a handful of people in the crowd that could take on the hybrids and stall for enough time for the soldiers to arrive.

Nyana closed one of her eyes and aimed at the man who was watching the royal guards as they fended off the hybrids that were attacking them.

They were standing back to back with each other, skillfully keeping all of the hybrids off of them. Just from looking at them, anyone could see that this was not the first time they fought with each other. To be able to confidently leave their backs to each other... These two were very used to fighting together.

"The Iceblade and the Earth Weaver..." Nyana recalled the two's nicknames. It came from their powerful magic, but magic wasn't the only thing that they could do. Their swordsmanship was vastly different from each other's, but it complimented each other's very well. While one was focused on defense, the other was focused on attack.

Rui advanced forward, taking down everything that stood in her path while the other royal guard watched her back, making sure to cut off anybody that tried to get past him. Doing this, the two slowly gained ground and made their way towards the soldier, Ayrete, if Nyana remembered right.

He had been one of the competitors for the tournament and held a grudge against the Iceblade. The elf searched the man for the item that was nullifying all of the magic but couldn't find any that stuck out to her.

"Where is it?" Nyana couldn't find it. He wasn't wearing a red scarf like the previous times. Was it something inside of his armor? No, it didn't seem like it either. Nyana has a look at the type of armor that Ayrete was wearing before. It was heavy and designed to take on a demon's magic. In other words, it was extremely effective at blocking magic, from both the inside and outside.

Nyana was pretty sure that the electric field was being generated by magic. If it was underneath his armor then there was no way that the magic could activate or work this well.

Whatever the case was, she will find out about it later. Right now, she doesn't have any time to waste. The newly transformed hybrids were up already and tearing part the crowd. There were a number of people trying to hold them back but due to all the people in the way, it was hard for them to fight properly. The civilians could only keep them at bay for so long.

Nyana fired her attack at Ayrete from a blind spot. The arrow zipped past the air, silent as an owl. The soldier was too busy commanding the hybrids to notice it in the air.

This was going to be an easy kill, Nyana thought. The arrow flew closer and closer until it was just a couple of meters away. But that was when Ayrete suddenly turned his head, a huge smile showing on his face. He tilted his head slightly and the arrow barely scraped by his neck.

Nyana clenched her fist. "Tch!" How? How did he sense it? Never mind that. She needed to move. Nyana got up and started sprinting across the wall. Ayrete sent two of the hybrids to scale up the wall and chase after her.

"These things can climb!?" Nyana shot a glance behind her and saw that they were almost up the wall. This situation... It was far from ideal. She needed to lose them somehow.

The two hybrids made it to the top of the wall in just under a minute and chased after the elf on all fours. "You have to be kidding me!" Not only could they climb, but they could also do that!? Nyana was beyond shocked. Just what the heck were they? Demon and what else?

The two hybrids gained ground on Nyana and closed the distance to her by nearly three-quarters. These things' physical abilities were unreal. Not even demons were this fast without magic. Nyana jumped and turned around, firing two arrows, one for each of the hybrids, before landing and turning back around to run.

She didn't need to look back to know that her arrows hit. She heard two loud thuds, followed by the sounds of the hybrids screeching in pain. Her arrows hit the mark. She aimed for their arms and legs so that she could slow them down. This would buy her some time to think of something... Well, if she could figure out something, that is.

Six arrows left... She needed to use them wisely. Things were not looking good for her, and things certainly weren't looking good down there in the audience either.

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