Chương 53: Chapter 52: Escaping from Trisha

Despite my panic, I tried to remain calm. I needed to remain rational to think of a way to escape from Trisha. Selen kept completely calm in the current situation, so I couldn't panic either. Trisha seemed very amused at the moment and was beaming with confidence. She probably felt that the situation was now completely under her control, so I needed to take advantage of her overconfidence. While she waited for us to respond, I took the opportunity to attack instead.

I slashed my sword the moment I felt it was just right and hoped to catch her off guard. Trisha noticed my attack immediately and formed a spear of light, which collided with my sword. I felt pressure immediately, as our levels still had a decent gap in between. Seeing as my attack wasn't going to injure Trisha in any way, I quickly pulled back and tried to run away with Selen again. The moment I pulled back, Trisha retaliated with her own attack, forming several more spears of light that rushed towards me.

Feeling the danger, I could only deflect them, as Selen was still nearby. The weight of the spears of light was heavy as I strained to push them away. After knocking the last spear of light away, I started to feel some exhaustion, as Trisha was still too powerful at the moment. Perhaps it was due to her being the strongest God for so long and having plenty of experience in combat. Unsure what to do next to escape, Trisha was still taking her time playing around with me.

"Well, haven't you gotten strong?" Trisha mocked, seeing me struggle.

"Perhaps if I gave you some more time, you might actually be able to fight against me. Well, too bad, as I won't be letting you go today." Preparing for my next move, Selen came and helped instead. With a powerful thrust, she attracted Trisha's attention away from me, which allowed me to back away. The strike was very concentrated and contained destructive force. The result though didn't go very far, as it was stopped not long after contact.

Trisha easily neutralized Selen's attack, but it gave me time to attack her again while her attention was still split. With another slash, I managed to graze Trisha, making her bleed slightly.

"How dare you!" Trisha angrily yelled.

"You two are beneath me, yet you dare make me draw blood! Originally, I was going to continue playing with you two, but I have changed my mind. I will make both of you suffer for daring to hurt me!" In anger, Trisha started shining brightly with light as it split off of her to form countless spears of light. I felt fear coursing through my body, as this was simply far too much to handle. I quickly rushed up to Selen to take this on together.

The moment I arrived, all the spears of light came crashing down like an ocean. Selen and I covered each other's backs while we constantly deflected the countless spears of light. My stamina was constantly draining, as one wrong move meant a fatal injury. Selen was barely managing to hold on while I was in the same situation. As the situation progressed, I started to suffer more injuries, and more spears of light began breaking through my defense.

Wondering how much longer Trisha could keep this up, I continued to do what I could to survive. After a long period passed, the spears began to become weaker, which allowed Selen and I to maintain a neutral balance. The spears of light no longer were as threatening as before, but we still had to keep our focus. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Finally, after an unending number of spears of light were blocked, they finally stopped, allowing us to breathe. Standing exactly where she was before, Trisha was sweating slightly, seemingly tired. Selen and I were also in the same boat, as we were very tired with our bodies filled with injuries. Still, this was an opportunity to escape, as Trisha had finally stopped attacking us. I quickly grabbed Selen and ran towards Freed's forest.

Due to Trisha being tired, she lagged behind for a moment before noticing we were trying to escape and gave chase. That single moment gave me a decent head start that allowed me some room for error. Trisha constantly shot at us with more spears of light, but we managed to barely avoid them, sometimes getting grazed. Still, with my exhausted body, I pushed myself forward with Selen close by. This continued for several days, as Trisha was very persistent in seeing us dead.

I didn't have time to rest, as Trisha didn't seem to give up. My stamina was running completely dry, but I had to painfully move forward to not fall into Trisha's grasp. Whenever I completely ran out of energy, Selen would be the one to lead the way instead. In this way, we managed to evade Trisha's attacks several times before we finally got close to Freed's forest. It was now the last stretch until we reached safety, so I went all out with whatever energy I could squeeze out to continue moving.

Trisha noticed where our destination was and became even more frantic to not allow us to escape. She suddenly gained some speed from out of nowhere and was beginning to close the distance. I felt a shiver run down my back as she was getting closer, but Freed's forest was now within sight. Ignoring my fear, I continued forward with Selen to reach safety. Trisha seemed to understand she couldn't make it in time, so she stopped in place, created a highly concentrated spear of light, and shot it towards us.

With Freed's forest now being so close, I threw Selen inside while I dodged out of the way, which resulted in a deep cut on my arm where I could nearly see my bone. The spear of light had some kind of targeting system, as a moment later it came back towards me. I started to roll towards Freed's forest to escape, which gave me several more deep cuts. Finally, after one final dodge, I managed to make it inside the forest, which completely blocked any attacks from coming in. I was now finally safe.

My injuries, though, were very painful, as everywhere on my body had near bone-deep cuts that would take a while to heal. On these wounds were lingering power from the spear of light that stalled my healing. I didn't know how long it would take me to recover, but I knew I wouldn't be stepping outside the forest for a while to wait for Trisha to leave. As I continued deeper into the forest, I soon regrouped with Selen, who had already entered deeper into the forest so as not to get in my way.

Her injuries were a lot more minor than mine, so I felt reassured. While we sat down to recover, I started hearing yelling from outside the forest.

"Come out here, you cowards!" Trisha yelled, as she couldn't come in.

"Why are you hiding in this forest? Come out and accept my wrath!" Of course, I didn't dare go outside and face that monstrous woman and ignored her. I began to heal my injuries, as did Selen, now that we were in safety. In the months that followed, Selen had completely healed and was scouting the edge of the forest to keep an eye on Trisha. I, on the other hand, was still recovering from my injuries. I had taken powerful attacks that continued to linger on my injuries, and they healed very slowly.

It took me several months to dissipate the energy, and I was now slowly healing. In these months, Trisha continued to try and come into the forest and kill us, but she still couldn't break in. Despite this, she continued to try, as her hatred for us ran very deep. Every day, she would yell outside the forest to try and provoke us to come out. When that didn't work, she would surround the forest with spears of light, which couldn't penetrate inside.

Finally, after an entire year, Trisha got impatient and finally left, seeing as we refused to come out. In her place were several mid-level Gods who watched us nearby to see if we would come out. They kept a distance to not be attacked by us, but close enough to continue their surveillance. They were put here by Trisha to inform herself if we tried to escape the forest. At this point, I finally healed from all my injuries and completely recovered to my peak power.

This meant I was ready to plan out my next move now that Trisha was gone. The mid-level Gods outside were far too weak to pose any threat to me, but I still had to be wary of Trisha, as she was still too strong for me to take on. Still, I needed to go out to kill Gods, or I'd never get stronger. The current state of things wasn't ideal, as I couldn't just continue waiting. Wanting to brainstorm a plan, I went to find Selen to hear her opinion on the matter.