Stellar Sight was still active, so Kelly watched everything unfold in slow motion.
Her thoughts were a mess.
'Their attacks cover too wide an area. I can't dodge all of that. I can only defend.'
The barrage hit just as she threw up a wall of Cosmic Dust.
A deafening blast followed.
The wall shattered into falling sparks, ripped apart by everything thrown at her—fire blades, ice arrows, sound bursts, lightning lashes, poison bombs—just attack after attack stacked on each other.
It bought her time. Not much, but enough to turn and run.
The wall had slowed the attacks, weakened them, but it didn't erase them.
Kelly glanced back—two fire blades and a cluster of sickly green-yellow bubbles were still coming for her, closing in fast.
"Shit," she hissed, activating Star Dance.
Her body moved with the rhythm of the dust, and she slipped past the fire blades. They shot by her and slammed into a row of stalls, setting them ablaze.
But the bubbles—dozens of them, maybe hundreds—didn't fly past her.
They detonated the moment they touched her.
BOOM.
The blast threw her through the air, sending her tumbling, putting even more distance between her and the people chasing her.
But the moment she felt her body—weak, nauseous, heavy—she knew it wasn't just an explosion.
Something was eating at her from the inside.
"I'm poisoned," she muttered through gritted teeth, her stride stumbling as the world tilted. "This is bad."
"Blitz, son of a bastard — today's the day you die!" one of the armored men bellowed, and the market erupted: people scattering, stall owners slamming shutters to keep thieves out of the chaos.
"I am a girl, idiot," Kelly muttered under her breath, resisting the urge to curse. Although she could remove her hood and settle this mess, she decided not to.
And that's because she was enraged!
Her petty guts couldn't just swallow it in after they had almost killed her without even analyzing things clearly. So if the stupid book in her pockets was the reason they wanted to kill her, then she was going to take it and nobody was going to stop her!
And the actual thief that had set her up.
Kelly's eyes hardened.
She was going to find him, she was going to make him pay!
The poison crawled through her veins, dulling her limbs. She dodged a burst of red mist from a man by a stall, not slowing. She wrapped her legs in Cosmic Dust; faint trails ghosted behind her as she ran.
But some of them were faster—too fast.
She could feel one of them right behind her now, closing the distance fast. The exit was just a few meters ahead.
'I not making it out like this,' she realized, strangely calm. 'Not unless I take him out first.'
Kelly inhaled sharply and spun toward the armored man now only seven meters away—but she didn't stop running. Her feet kept moving, now backwards, her body gliding toward the exit while her gaze stayed locked on him. Star Dance activated, ready to pull her out of the way if anyone attacked from behind — or if she crashed into something blind.
Cosmic Dust swirled to her call. In a breath, she forged hundreds of arrows, glowing purple and humming with force.
The man didn't attack. He just stared, stunned for half a heartbeat, then anger twisted his features and he shot forward like lightning.
"You're not the damn son of Blitz. What are you, girl—an alibi?"
Kelly didn't waste breath answering.
She fired.
The arrows tore through the air like a swarm of purple meteors.
"Two-Star Dust Spell," the man muttered. Two Cosmic Wheels flared to life in front of him.
Kelly's stomach dropped. Dust Mage. Fifth stage or higher.
"Cyclone Reversal!"
A vortex of wind exploded around him, every arrow she'd fired spiraling into its pull.
He snapped his fingers.
The cyclone whipped faster — then launched the arrows back at her, twice as fast.
Star Dance took over.
Kelly darted, twisted, knocked aside what she could and slipped between the rest, but the storm kept coming.
'Damn it!' She gritted her teeth. 'If I knew he could do that, I would've held back.'
Most of the returning arrows slammed into the ground, tearing it apart and shaking the whole street. The tremors threw off her balance, slowing her just enough to be a problem.
She glanced back — the blue-armored men were almost on her, and that annoying Dust Mage was closing in even faster.
The exit was right there now. A few people stood in the way, but their auras were weak — she could blast through them in seconds.
"System, is there any way to boost my speed? Even for a few seconds?" Kelly asked, fists clenching as she felt the Dust Mage gathering power for another spell.
"And whose fault is that?" she snapped. The so-called free info slot had been wasted because the stupid system kept dumping random facts she didn't even ask for — and now, when she actually needed help?
Nothing.
Talk about an irresponsible system!
Kelly skidded to a stop, turned, and faced the Dust Mage and the soldiers closing in.
If she couldn't outrun them…
She would have to fight.
'I have to take the Dust Mage out before the others reach me,' Kelly thought, Cosmic Dust pulling together into a long, violet-glinting sword in her hands. 'If he's still standing, things could get troublesome.'
The Dust Mage was already on her, launching a barrage of compressed wind bullets that tore through the air with a blast.
Star Dance guided her steps. Kelly dodged, twisting between the blasts, batting away the ones she couldn't avoid with the flat of her sword. The bullets that hit the ground detonated, shaking the street.
With her free hand, she formed a spear out of Cosmic Dust and hurled it straight at him.
The man clearly hadn't expected her to attack while dodging. Panic flickered in his eyes as he threw up a quick wall of wind. The spear hit — and the wall shattered like paper, momentum tearing it apart.
But the distraction was enough for him to force out another spell.
"Silent Diversion!"
A cosmic wheel spun into existence, and the air twisted. The currents around him bent, knocking the spear off course so it shot harmlessly past him.
But Kelly was already on the move, sprinting straight at him. Behind her, hundreds of dust-needles formed, floating like a swarm, primed to fire—
She didn't get the chance.
A streak of light shot toward her from the plaza ahead.
Kelly's instincts screamed. She triggered Stellar Sight on reflex.
The world dropped into slow motion.
The Dust Mage, hand half-raised to block her attack.
The armored men behind her, closing in with heavy steps.
The crowd, shoving, yelling, trying to get as far away from her as possible.
And that beam of light — cutting through the air, aimed straight at her chest.
Kelly narrowed her eyes, anger boiling up like fire in her lungs.
On the balcony of the plaza, she spotted him — the red-haired boy who'd stopped her earlier, watching with calm, almost bored eyes. A tiny smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Beside him stood the old man, holding a massive rune-gun braced on his shoulder — the weapon spitting out the beam meant to erase her from existence.