Just A Pawn - Chapter 8 Five Years Later..

“Run faster, they’re catching up!” yelled the terrified sounding female combat sprite to her four comrades, they ran alongside her, also fleeing.

They were currently fleeing down the street of a demonic village, no different from the ones that had been so easily to decimate in the past.

-Boom!

As they ran past a nearby trash bin it suddenly exploded, hundreds of shards of iron shrapnel bombarding them as a result, pin-cushioning two of the sprites.

“Ugh!” they let out a painful grunt as they both collapsed.

Dozens of figures clad in a dark green robes, the ones chasing the sprites then swarmed their two fallen comrades, while dozens more appeared and continued to chase the sprites which had continued to flee.

They didn’t understand why this was happening, demons that should have been terrified by the mention of their names, were now hunting them down mercilessly.

“This way is blocked too, dammit, how the hell do they know our strategies!?” shouted one of the sprites, the group’s support sprite.

She had used clairvoyance to look ahead, a saw yet another of there escaped routes to be blocked by the figures.

“Tch, were not gonna make it… send a message back to camp, warn them about this- Ugh!?” began the groups leader, as she spoke to the support sprite, though she was quickly silenced at a crossbow bolt pierced her shoulder.

She let put a pained grunt as she collapsed.

The support sprite, Amy, quickly withdrew a communications orb from her satchel, and did as commanded.

“Commander Lumin, Commander Franklin, We are currently being pursued by a large number of demons! The demons of sanguine village are-” she spoke frantically, trying to convey the message as quickly as possible.

…Though not quickly enough.

-Thud!

A ball of iron, hurled by one of their foes, quickly rendered her unconscious, leaving only one sprite among not incapacitated.

“Damn demons, you lot dare to resist ‘us,’ we the embodiment of justice, we’ll remember this…” he said as he unfurled his wings, and using them, took to the sky.

Such was his plan at least…

“Finally!” came a voice from directly above him.

“Wha!?” he exclaimed, knowing the rarity of demons capable of flight, in this demon continent at least.

The being quickly latched onto his wings with both hands, preventing him from retracting, or using them to keep himself aloft, she stood atop the now falling spirit with two feet pressing against his back.

She then quickly retracted her own wings as she didn’t want anyone to see them, not using them to slow the fall of the duo in any way.

-Thud!

They then collided with the ground after having fallen together for several dozen metres, her fall was safely cushioned by his now unconscious body.

…

“Alright… man that was a rush, good job everybody!” said the figure to the surrounding demons, all of which wore outfits identical to her own, green robe and leather boots, all handmade by Lace.

Now gather ’em all together, I wanna drain their energy quickly, if they die from their wounds the amount gained will be greatly reduced,” she said as she lowered her hood, revealing herself to be Pawn, now with short, spiky, black hair, and purple eyes, closer to red than blue.

“Also grab that communications orb, Warden said she could use it to track its counterpart,” Pawn ordered, smiling at the success of this mission.

The surrounding demons bowed in response and then left the area to carry out their tasks, taking the fallen sprites with them.

Only three people remaining behind at the scene of the conflict, Pawn, a demon who lowered her revealing herself to be Ember, and the fallen sprite, wings still exposed.

“Now watch this…” said Pawn as light enveloped her hands, a mischievous smile on her face

She then began putting one of her new skills to good use, drain, a twisted version of a healing ability…

Gripping the exposed wings of the fallen sprite tightly pawn began absorbing the sprites spiritual energy, his wings twitching frantically as the light of them was drained away into herself.

…

Later in the Spirit realm…

Lumin stooped over the bodies of the 5 withered sprites, they had been deposited at the edge of the demon town that they had been sent to do recon on.

Upon being found, they were promptly evacuated to the spirit realm, kept hidden from the other spirits under the direct orders of Lumin.

“Haa… their still alive, but having lost more than 99% of their energy… they’ll fully recover in a century or two… or if we give them some from the higher ranked spirits” she said to Franklin who was also present, her voice sounded confused.

“…Your sister’s doing?” Asked Franklin somewhat hesitantly, as a spirit who valued physical abilities highly, he was rather shocked to see the half-broken state of the 5 sprites.

“Not… the sister I came here to kill…” she said, a cold sweat running down here back at the implications of what she was currently thinking.

And then from her communication orb came an unexpected voice…

“Oh little sister of mine, how goes the struggle…? I’ve been having ever so much fun with our other little sister you know, the one that ‘you’ betrayed… she’s rather upset about that you know… hahaha, I know that feeling well…” the mocking voice came from her communications orb, the voice was identical her own.

“would you like to meet her perhaps, I can arrange it, and I’m sure she’d just lo~ve to do some catching up?” offered the voice in a mischievous tone.

The voice’s owner was Pawn’s elder sister, the one who had betrayed her, Lumin’s elder sister as well, older by a mere 17 seconds, Iris.