Nylah was blurring between trunks, her footsteps barely whispering across the moss. Amara followed just behind, her breaths tight and trying to keep pace. The forest grew darker the deeper they went, branches weaving overhead like the ribs of some sleeping beast.
"Keep up, Amara." Nylah said, her eyes constantly sweeping the massive tree trunks.
And in that moment, a blinding flash of red light tore through the heavy green canopy.
Nylah's instincts screamed a millisecond before her mind registered the threat. She slammed her shoulder into Amara with force, sending the girl tumbling hard to the side.
But Amara didn't escape unscathed. The laser grazed her left arm. She hit the ground hard, clutching the sudden bloom of blood soaking through her sleeve.
Nylah spun, landing on her knee and she scrambled up instantly. "Amara! Are you okay?"
Amara winced but nodded quickly. "Y-yeah… I'm fine. It just grazed me." Her voice shook but she forced herself upright.
Suddenly, a slow clap echoed between the trees.
"Well, well. Would you look at that. You were actually able to dodge my beam?" Douglas stepped out from behind a colossal root, almost bored but his lips curled into a half-smirk."You gotta possess some sweet moves." he said, tilting his head. "Or maybe was it just a little bit of luck?"
Nylah straightened, fixing her gaze toward Douglas, letting confidence return to her posture. "That was nothing actually." she said calmly. "Like dodging a ball."
Douglas pressed a hand to his chest dramatically. "Ouch."
His tone dropped, the emitter thrumming louder as the energy built.
"Well then." he said, raising his arm and sighting down the barrel of light.
"Let's test your theory."
Douglas didn't waste a second.
A beam snapped toward Nylah, ripping through a line of trees behind her as she vaulted away. She landed in a crouch and her breath was sharp.
Another beam followed instantly.
"Move!" she hissed to herself and she did, springing sideways. She moved at a speed that made the surrounding forest seem slow as the blast carved a molten trench where she'd been standing and leaving behind only obsidian crater and a shower of burning splinters.
Douglas was following her deep inside, as her instinct kept forcing her farther from Amara.
The forest swallowed Nylah in thick shadows, the towering trunks offered cover.
And Douglas lost track of her, his eyes scanning the tangled forest. He scratched his head. "You can't hide forever, miss." he called out. "So come out wherever you are."
He increased the volume on his emitter higher. His grin stretching wider.
"Or I'll force you out."
The gun discharged.
A blistering beam tore through every tree on his left in an instant, the trunks evaporating in vertical lines as the laser swept through them.
Then he swung the beam toward the last tree, where Nylah had slipped behind.
She ducked just as the blast sliced through it, the trunk detonating above her in a spray of burning splinters.
"Seriously…" Nylah muttered. "At this rate his gonna destroy the whole forest." she clenched her fist and peeked around, she saw that there was still some trees surrounding Douglas.
Nylah took a deep breath and pushed mana into her legs and exploded upward, landing on a thick branch with a crack of displaced air.
And she moved, flashing from tree to tree and zig-zagging so fast her silhouette broke into flickering afterimages. Douglas fired beam after beam at every spot she'd just vacated but every time the blast arrived, she was already gone.
Nylah spotted a clear opening.
She dropped down from above, twisting mid-air and driving a sharp kick toward him.
Douglas jerked his gun up in time, the metal ringing as it caught her heel.
She used the recoil to launch herself back into the canopy, returning to her circling pattern.
Another opening, she appeared next to him, breath against his ear and ready to whisper but Douglas reacted instantly, swinging the gun at her, though she had already vanished.
He exhaled sharply through gritted teeth, frustration leaking through his composure. [If she keeps this up.] he thought. [then it's only a matter of time before I'm pinned down.]
One of the sigils on his Arc Seal fractured.
"Arc Seal: Solar Flare Discharge." he growled.
And a blinding beam erupted in a sweeping ring. Every tree around him vaporized instantly, reduced to drifting motes of glowing dust.
But Nylah was nowhere in sight. She had already retreated deep into the forest.
Douglas slammed a furious stomp into the scorched ground.
"Dammit! She got away again!"