Lilly looked at him with guilty eyes. she really didn’t want to kill someone, but she had to in order to not disappoint Esther and she knew that she had to kill sometime if not now than later.
The bandit looked at her guilty look and knew that she was a kindhearted girl and would hesitate to attack. He suddenly had an idea ‘If I take this girl hostage, that woman won’t dare to attack me and I’ll be able to leave here safe and sound.’
He wielded his dagger and slashed at her chest as soon as she entered his attacking range. He didn’t use any mana in this slash as he only wanted to injure and not kill her.
Slash!
Lilly was feeling conflicted and wasn’t focused. Therefore, she couldn’t react in time. Subconsciously, she raised her hand in a cross to defend against the attack and was slashed at her left forearm, leaving a deep gash. Blood flowed out uncontrollably.
The pain in her hand woke her up and she looked at her hand and then at the bandit who was already slashing at her again.
Seeing this she suddenly grew furious. Here she was thinking if she should try and persuade Esther to let him go and this bandit didn’t even think before attacking. Most importantly he was now targeting her stomach.
She knew that this wound on her forearm might leave a scar. No woman would like that and Lilly was no different. She also wanted to look good, at least in front of her love. If he cut at her stomach and it left a scar there, it would look bad and Max might not like it. She knew that he loved her unblemished body so she couldn’t help herself from being angered.
Ice shield!
She gathered her mana and formed a shield in front of her to block the attack. As the bandit hadn’t used mana into this attack too, it could only damage her ice shield before being completely stopped by it.
Lilly didn’t let him react after blocking his attack and cast another spell.
Ice thorns!
Tens of small ice shards materialised around her. She waved her hand and all shards shot toward the bandit. But he wasn’t like her who didn’t have any real battle experience. He quickly twisted his body and dodged most of the ice shards. Although his agility was very good, he couldn’t dodge all of the shards and on five inch long shard pierced his right shoulder.
Arggh!
He was surprised to see that she had awakened an element at such a young age when she was only a one-star mage. However, seeing this, he didn’t retreat instead chose to attack her again. He knew that most of the elemental mages are usually long-ranged fighters and be was a close ranged fighter. If he fought in close range, then it would cripple her advantage of being an elemental mage and would be more advantageous to him.
But this time, he used his mana to empower his attack. Lilly could see that this attack was almost tow times faster and deadlier than previous attacks.
She quickly formed another shield in front of her. This time she used more mana and made it sturdier.
Crack!
As his slash landed on the ice shield, a crackling sound was heard, and it was destroyed. But before he could rejoice his expression stiffened.
Sssss~
The point where his dagger had touched the ice shield was frozen and in a moment, the dagger and whole forearm was frozen with a thin layer of ice. He felt as if countless needles with stabbing in his forearm.
The pain was unbearable. He retreated in a hurry and used his mana to remove the layer of ice. It broke apart and fell down, leaving a numbing sensation. Just as he sighed in relief, his expression changed drastically.
“How is it possible?” The white-haired woman watching their fight had a look of disbelief. Esther on the other hand wasn’t surprised at all.
Ice thorns!
Just as the bandit retreated, Lilly had already conjured up another hail of ice thorns and before he could react, she fired them at him.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The bandit was caught off guard and could only raise his hands to protect his head and chest. Ice shards pierced his legs, thighs, stomach and hands but no blood come out as it was frozen by the ice shards. After getting such a injury, his agility was reduced to a very low level and his hand felt stiff. He could barely wield his dagger.
Without a second thought, he turned around and ran inside the forest. Lilly was still angry and shouted, “You cruel person, do you think I would let you leave.”𝑶𝑽𝓵xt.𝓒𝒪𝓂
She used all if her remaining mana and conjured up tens of five-inch long ice shards and fired at him as fast as she could.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Before he could run around ten meters, almost half of the sharp ice thorns pierced his back and one shard pierced his head. He suddenly stopped in his tracks and fell down, dead. He looked as if he was a porcupine.
Watching him fall, Lilly sighed in relief. She finally killed him. “Kill?” She softly murmured.
She turned to look at Esther and pointed at him with shaking hands “I kill-killed him. I killed him. Ahhh, I killed a living person.” He was frightened by the fact that she had taken a life with her hands. She suddenly stooped shouted and fainted on the spot.
Before she could fall, Esther appeared by her side and supported her. She sighed “I know it had been hard and would take some time to come out of this shock but you’ll realise that it was for your good.”
She then turned to the Knights and ordered “Destroy these ice statues and take your fellow Knights bodies with you. We will give them proper burial after returning.”
Two Knights were killed in this bandit ambush before they could react. Other Knights quickly followed her order and destroyed the statues to clear the path and took fallen Kinghs’ bodies.
Esther took Lilly inside the carriage, and their entourage continued their journey toward Claymore town.
…
The white-haired woman was starting at their carriage as they disappeared from her sight. She still had that shocked expression and kept mumbling something.
After some time she calmed down and looked towards the direction they had disappeared and looked up. Her expression become firm and she said “I didn’t expect to encounter one of you in this remote land. Fate really plays with us. I’ll protect this child, and when the time comes, she will have to decide for herself.” After saying this, she also disappeared.