Antagonist Protection Service-Chapter 275: Antagonist of Earth (20)

’...It’s coming.’

Behind her, Sophie sensed a familiar magic energy, and right as she thought so, a cloud of thick fog rolled over her, quickly flowing down the tethered islands one to the next like a waterfall, even engulfing that which the masked figure was standing on.

Like he previously stated, Anders’ fog was naturally something that would have its effectiveness severely dampened in a situation with no solid ground like this where they were practically stranded on a vertical cliff face of islands.

However, if the fight was turned into a vertical one, then it could still be useful in this way.

"..."

The more the fog rolled in, the denser it grew, until Sophie could no longer clearly see her own feet.

At the same time, the fog’s inherent magic energy obstructed her already-lacking ability to sense through that, and before she knew it, everything grew silent.

Anders’ fog was more than just something half-hearted to hinder enemies’ vision.

It toyed with all of a person’s senses, and this was a situation that encapsulated the benefits perfectly.

After all, even if she and the enemy were affected in equal amounts, it didn’t suddenly mean their positions were equalised.

She was above them. She also knew the rough direction of their small platform.

Climbing up would be far too risky in this environment where one could see, hear, and feel practically nothing, at least not enough to be confident of where you were going.

Relative to her, they would be stranded on that thin trunk of wood.

The advantage unequivocally belonged to her.

And so, taking a step forward, she took the plunge.

Withdrawing just one of her katars from its hold on her waist, Sophie voluntarily stepped off of her own solid ground and fell.

Through that impenetrable, inviolable fog, like a void of its own.

Plummeting for a time that felt as if it could only have been for far longer than the distance she had just previously measured, and yet she hadn’t arrived at a stop.

Her ability... wasn’t active. In the first place, that wasn’t something that would affect the speed of her fall.

On the other hand, if anything, it should have been over quicker than she predicted.

After all, the islands were moving constantly upwards, and fast.

Naturally, as someone falling down, while the islands were rising, it could result only in her reaching her landing spot before she expected, not later.

...So then, did she make a mistake?

In the direction of her step, in the distance of her stride off the edge, the location of the enemy... Was her estimation off? Right now, was she falling off of the tethered isles entirely?

With the nature of how Anders’ fog functioned, it was impossible to know for sure what was reality.

Nevertheless, she retained one hundred percent of her focus.

Despite the fact that it couldn’t possibly be the case judging by her own, internal sense of time, she believed that it was.

There was not a glint of self-doubt in her eyes, and that was proven by her actions.

At some point, a time that, from the outside, would have doubtlessly appeared utterly random, Sophie stretched her free hand out.

One beat later, it suddenly pierced through the fog under her.

Resembling a circumstance of something unseen emerging from an infuriatingly short-set render distance, it was a black mask.

"...!"

In the single instant that the entity appeared, its resplendent, crimson eyes widened, reflecting Sophie’s own diving figure.

Before it had the chance to react, she roughly grabbed the figure by the shoulder, clutching tight onto the black material and continuing forth, landing on the trunk behind it for just a moment before rolling off and falling once more.

Pulling the figure close as they fell, Sophie wrapped her legs around the other’s and squeezed, immediately following up by doing the same with her arm, circling it around the other’s chest and pulling tight, trapping all of the figure’s limbs with her own and entangling the two together for a conjoined freefall.

With her remaining arm that held the katar, she unhesitatingly plunged it deep into the figure’s neck――

Clangg~!

―Or at least, she tried, but the tip of the blade was stopped just inches before by a magical force, like a barrier, causing the halted force to reverberate back into Sophie’s body.

"Gh...!"

Utilising the abrupt weakness in her form, the figure forcefully swung its arm to break free of her hold, continuing the combo by slamming its elbow into her stomach, forcing her legs to likewise let go.

With the two finally separated, yet still freefalling adjacent to each other, the figure pressed even further by kicking Sophie mid-air, serving both to distance themselves as well as to push itself back towards the rising islands.

Like that, the figure reached out to grab onto the nearest hold, a rock sticking out of the ground near the bottom of an island.

The gloved hand barely managed to catch on; its body swung, dangling for a period as it quickly turned to watch Sophie still falling down, spotting her teeth tightly grit before falling completely out of view due to the fog.

’Damnit...! How did I lose that...?!’

Her surprise attack having not gone at all like how she desired, Sophie’s mind raced in panic.

’I didn’t know there was a barrier...!’

Grunting under her breath at the light pain in her abdomen, she momentarily pushed the ache aside and hurriedly aimed for the tethering roots nearby, doing her best to swim through the air towards where the islands should be.

Fortunately, with no one left to stop her, it was easy enough to accomplish, albeit utterly shameful to admit that it never should have been a necessity in the first place.

Even more so under the well-understood context that she had initiated the exchange with a clearly-defined advantage.

"Disgraceful...! I need to get back... Anders..."

Muttering her teammate’s name, Sophie didn’t grant herself the time to lament on her mistake or shabby display, nor even to resent the yet unidentified enemy who had beaten her so seemingly effortlessly. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

Without a shred of complaint, she climbed, one hand after the other, until she eventually reached the base of the next island―and in doing so, glimpsed the rock that the enemy had been saved by.

Of course, they were not still there.

By now, they had probably made it over halfway up the island, even, or perhaps further on their way to pursue the remainder of her party.

"..."

She still had no idea why they seemed so incredibly hellbent on hunting them... But that was more or less irrelevant to the matter.

All she needed to keep in mind was that her friends were in great danger.

That alone was enough motivation to fuel her drive.

’Stop wasting time. I need to--’

Interrupting her self-admonishment, Sophie noticed something.

Her senses were beginning to return, albeit gradually. Looking up and around, it wasn’t long a question as to why.

"The fog is thinning..."

Rather, it might have been more accurate to say she was reaching its endpoint―Or that it was reaching her.

After all, Anders’ fog was only given form thanks to his magic energy. The more he produced, naturally, the more energy was consumed.

In this place, where the fog’s higher density simply couldn’t allow it to stay floating to the island as if attached, he would need to be constantly pumping it out in order to retain its effects.

That’s why he must have ceased its production, in order to conserve magic energy.

The other alternative was that he simply died, but needless to say, Sophie hesitated entertaining such a gruesome idea.

In any case, Sophie understood it would mean the climbing pace of the masked figure would only increase as its senses grew sharper until everything returned to normal.

’...No. They were already higher up than me from earlier, so they would have started receiving the benefits even before I did...!’

The belated realisation dawning on her, Sophie’s eyes shot wide open, a silent gasp exiting her lips.

Snapping right back to reality, she filled her legs with power and jumped, resuming her scaling of the island with more than just a hint of urgency.

And then―

"Ah-- Nghh...!"

RUMBLEE~~!

A prolonged tremor hit the tethered islands once again, naturally evoking recent memories of a colossal, phantasmic monster as Sophie took a knee, bracing herself against the violent quakes ricocheting throughout the matter beneath her feet.

Still, something about the shaking of the ground here felt different to before, albeit subtly...

The reason for that didn’t take long to reveal itself.

In one moment, Sophie was kneeling firmly against the ground, her fingers digging into the dirt itself beside her to stabilise her position.

In the moment following, she felt a wave of abrupt lightness wash over her, as well as a rush of wind, tricking her mind and body just fleetingly with the feeling of riding an exhilarating rollercoaster.

"?! Hiiiik, no, wait...!"

All of a sudden, she felt her fingers slip and her feet rise inadvertently off the ground, accompanied by a shrill shriek of realisation that escaped her lips.

Before she knew it, she was soaring into the air, removed from the chain of islands entirely.

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