The sounds of blades clashing echoed through the forest. Two figures were rapidly traveling throughout the forest: Elaina the cat and the assassin, the mouse.

  Elaina was chasing after a cloaked figure, swinging her dual daggers and occasionally throwing them with red cords of blood attached. With a flick of the wrist, they returned to her hands. The cloaked figure, meanwhile, was backpedaling while fending her off with his own dual daggers.

  "Tight Formation!" Damian cried out.

  Higgins jumped in front while Damian and Alex stood at her sides. Fergus was right behind Higgins, and Frey and Donna were at his sides. There was just enough of a gap between Higgins and the forward defenders for their back line to fire their magic.

  Damian was running his Air Flow Sensitivity to its maximum. He could barely sense the movements of the person Elaina was fighting; he was blending in with the air around him. The only reason he could sense him at all was that he was making such large and fast movements.

  We need to break his flow. Before he could say anything, Elaina lit up in a bright light, receiving Fergus's empowerment.

  She almost teleported forward, bringing down her daggers and stabbing into his chest. *Poof* What she ended up stabbing was not the assassin, but a block of wood. Substitution? What the hell is that?

  The assassin only moved a couple of steps from where he was, and Elaina was hot on his heels, throwing and retrieving daggers.

  Ok then, something more instantaneous might work.

  "Fergus, Frey!"

  Damian moved aside slightly to give Frey a better shot. She began to shine in a bright light, and the fire building up in her hands started to glow ominously. It swirled in on itself faster and faster until the bright red light flashed before his eyes.

  It flashed right by his side. He should have felt heat from the attack, but surprisingly, Frey's Scorched Laser didn't radiate any heat from the beam. It concentrated solely within.

  In an instant, the laser engulfed the fleeing figure. Not only did it engulf the assassin's torso, but it also moved into the forest and struck several trees, finally stopping after penetrating fifteen.

  The trees were punctured, with scorched holes. Instead of being knocked over, they began to smolder from the puncture points, the embers spreading outward, threatening to consume the rest of the wooden flesh.

  But even this powerful attack seemed to have its limits. The spreading fire began to die out, leaving some trees to tumble to the ground and others with large holes in their centers.

  "Careful!" Elaina screamed while charging in their direction.

  Damian could barely feel it, but the cloaked figure was running at them, now completely invisible.

  "Attack in front of us!" Damian cried in a panic.

  Donna and Frey began to blindly fire magic, not coming even close to landing a hit.

  "More left!" Damian then pointed his saber toward where he could sense their enemy.

  His party was now on target, but the cloaked figure was dodging around the lightning-enhanced projectiles. Alex proceeded to swing her own sword down, sending out earth shots at a rapid speed. The invisible man dove in a panic to the side and landed in a clatter. He must have witnessed the powerful attack earlier.

  He was getting closer and closer to their group, and all of their firepower only seemed to slow the man down slightly.

  Why the hell didn't he just run away?

  Higgins proceeded to take out the hand crossbow Elaina had gifted her and fired an enlarged version of the bolt, along with the smaller physical version. Both landed wide, missing the figure by a wide breadth, but Damian could sense that during his dodging, he had almost dove into their path.

  What a way to go. Expertly dodging every attack, only to get hit by one stray shot from an inexperienced archer.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  The man was almost upon them now, and so was Elaina, but she was a couple of steps behind. Higgins swung an enlarged mace across the space in front of them. Damian could feel the figure duck low below the ethereal mace.

  This was his chance! Damian bounded forward, swinging his sword down while it was swirling with his wind blades. There was no lightning this time; he had used it all on the last assassin.

  Damian could barely feel it, but the dagger in the assassin's left hand flashed out and met his own. His sword was being deflected to the side. His blades of wind were moving from his sword and down the dagger, but were getting stopped by an invisible force. His skill wasn't going past the guard of the dagger!

  Now that he was so near the invisible foe, he could clearly make out his movements. The man was trying to slip past Damian and target Frey! The assassin was winding up his right hand, ready to strike out.

  Damian dropped his sword and tried to grapple with the man. Anything in an attempt to slow him down. But this proved fruitless, too. His strength was too great, and any force he applied was ignored.

  Damian could feel it. In horror, the dagger was approaching Frey, aimed at her neck.

  NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! He screamed in his mind.

  In a panic, Damian was flooding all of his mana into one action. Even he didn't know what he was doing. He was acting solely on instinct to preserve Frey's life.

  That action turned out to be his Wind Form. He was channeling all of his being into transitioning into his wind form and pulling his enemy into it.

  The core of Damian's own being was screaming at him to stop. It felt like his own essence was tearing at the seams. There was something deeply wrong with what he was doing. It felt as if his soul was being laid bare before everything and that everything around him was trying to dig in and tear it apart.

  AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!! Damian began to scream from this pain, but he had no voice. He had successfully entered his wind form and dragged his hateful enemy into it with him.

  The invisible dagger aimed at Frey passed around her like a gust of wind, leaving her skin pristine and unmarked. Both Damian and the invisible man fell past her and onto the ground.

  "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Damian's scream could finally be heard. All heard the blood-curdling howl. A scream that would make you think someone was suffering horribly in their last moments.

  "GASP, GUH, GUH, GASP!" Damian was desperately trying to breathe. He was blind to everything happening around him. He was losing himself. He didn't know how to breathe anymore.

  His lungs were clawing at his chest, begging for air to flow once more. Only little puffs of air were making their way in. It felt like an eternity, and his future existence would only contain this pain.

  "GASP, GUH, GUH, GASP!"

  Something met his lips and forced something in. "Gasp, Guh, Guh, Gasp!" His lungs were still desperately trying to move and receive air, but their cry wasn't as loud. Again, a force pushed air into his lungs forcefully. "Gasp, Gasp." He was starting to breathe, but roughly so.

  Damian started to feel a horrible pain in his stomach. He didn't know what was wrong. But not before long, a warm feeling began to overcome him. Something was knitting back together.

  But even then, he felt exposed to all. And all were trying to rip him apart. Something else met his lips once again, but this time, it wasn't warm and comforting. It was something cold. A cool liquid started to make its way down his throat. Luckily, not going down the wrong pipe.

  "Gasp, Gasp, Gasp." His breath was still ragged, but now stable. Slowly, Damian felt he could piece himself back together, protecting himself from exposure. That everything was no longer trying to tear him apart.

  His vision cleared, and the first thing he saw was Frey, crying over him. Tear drops were falling onto his face. It wasn't a pretty cry, more of the ugly kind you'd see in someone who wasn't able to contain themselves.

  Fergus was to his left and had his hands placed on his stomach, blood everywhere. His hands were glowing with a bright light. He, too, had an alarmed look on his face. The whites of his eyes could even be seen—a rare occurrence.

  "Huh?"

  He was swiftly wrapped in a tight hug. The pain in his stomach hadn't abated yet; instead, it had flared up. To compensate for the pain, the warmth spreading over his gut redoubled its efforts to close some terrible wound.

  "Ouch! Ah! Ah!" Damian was trying to communicate his pain, but the words were getting caught in his throat. He was still pulling the last pieces of himself back into one whole.

  Did anyone get hurt? What happened? What happened to the assassin? Did he get away?

  Damian tried to squirm his head out of Frey's embrace to see what was happening. His Air Flow Sensitivity wasn't working, and he feared trying to push mana back into the partially passive skill.

  He felt sore in an existential sense. That any attempt to channel mana would be met with the same backlash he had just suffered. He feared feeling that pain again.

  Is this what Ms. Sanderson felt? And she pushed through and used her skills against a tier 6 wraith in this state?

  Damian was unsure if he could do the same at this moment. Although if he saw that Frey or his party were in danger, he'd be willing to dive into that hellscape. The sentiment wasn't without hesitation, though. He honestly never wanted to feel the same way again.

  Frey's squeeze tightened as she continued to sob, threatening to force all the air out of him. She felt a lot stronger than usual... No, he was weaker. Only a trickle of mana was flowing through his body. All the passive benefits from it were severely reduced for the time being.

  Making one more attempt to squirm out of Frey's embrace ended up being a futile effort. Instead, he let himself rest and enjoy the embrace.

  Facade: The Girl who will Destroy the System

  Facade: The Girl Who Will Destroy the System

  The world is governed by a hidden System.

  Llyne is not chosen. She gains no powers.

  She is simply aware—and the System was not built for that.

  Comedy first. Psychological collapse later.

  Read before the System notices her. ????