One hour later...

Vicente and Nova were currently walking along one of the western sides of The Rocky Gorge, slowly approaching the end of their journey to escape this forested area.

Vicente had used as much as he could to get Nova and himself as far away from this dangerous area as possible, flying without a trace on their original path.

But as soon as he had used up more than half of his strength, Vicente stopped moving in that way earlier to conserve his energy.

A few minutes ago, Vicente and Nova stopped in an area with no signs of enemies nearby and began their journey on foot.

By now, they were close to the exit of this area and already quite tired. Thus, they slowed down to avoid exhausting themselves completely.

Like runners in a marathon, they wouldn't use all their energy for most of the race, so they moved more slowly now so as not to reach the point where they would have to stop to meditate.

Nova had used up all her potions earlier, and now they only had what little mana was left in their bodies to deal with this challenge.

As they went through this last part of their journey, Nova asked Vice. "Why did you show yourself before? If you had stayed hidden, none of this would have happened.

Perhaps you could have escaped... But now it's impossible." She said. "You killed soldiers. Now, the whole kingdom will be after you, Cesar!"

Vicente heard this, but he didn't despair. He had a way out of this problem. "I was only defending myself against corrupt soldiers. Captain, if you testify in my favor, I can easily escape this situation."

"I testify on your behalf?" She looked at him with disgust. "Why would I do that? I'm withholding from arresting you, Cesar."

"Because I'm innocent. I was just defending myself against corrupt soldiers."

"I don't know about that. If you were innocent, you stopped being innocent when you killed the leader of my group." She replied.

He laughed and said. "In any case, I had no choice. It would either do that or compromise my position. But I would never allow the second option to happen, no matter what the cost."

Nova looked at him in silence, a little surprised at his determination. Even though he was a despicable person, a murderer, the way Cesar was willing to risk himself was worthy of respect.

"I'm going to arrest you, Cesar. Don't worry. I'll hear your side of the story when you're locked up." She said as she changed her position and drew a sword.

Seeing this, Vicente narrowed his eyes and drew his pistol, seeing that his temporary ally was no longer friendly.

"Captain, what are you doing? We're in the middle of an escape." He said to her, his tone changing somewhat.

"We are far enough from the center of this forest. Cesar Mazzanti, surrender. I don't want to hurt you." She poured her mana into her sword, making her green gem glow brightly.

"Captain, I'm the one telling you this. Have you forgotten what I can do?" He showed her his skill, forming several sharp blades in the air aimed at her body.

As a swordsman, Nova had no defensive skills. Her defense was to use her sword against enemy attacks.

But if she couldn't dodge or counter enemy attacks, she could get hurt more easily than Vicente!

She laughed when she heard that. "Something tells me you won't do that to me." She advanced towards him, slashing with her sword at the weapon in Vicente's right hand.

But as she moved, Nova noticed something coming fast against her back, and her expression changed.

"It can't be!" She looked away, distracted by Vicente, not believing that he would attack her after he had not attacked her even once all night and had even rescued her when he would have had a lot of trouble escaping earlier.

But when she least expected it, a metal shield formed behind her back, and Vicente threw it over her right shoulder.

BOOM!

Nova felt the sound of the shot very close to her right ear and expressed pain, not expecting this action from Cesar.

But as she fell to the ground, having missed him, she saw who Vicente had shot at when she heard a loud sound of pain coming from a beast in the distance.

Seeing the monkey screaming in pain from the bullet that had hit it and noticing the shield breaking in front of the tree trunk that had been thrown, Nova understood what had just happened.

'He was protecting me even though I was attacking him?' She clenched her fists as she felt the worst feeling of all; being protected by someone she despised and had acted against.

In a way, Cesar, a criminal and murderer of army soldiers, had acted more nobly than her, even after being attacked!

Vicente didn't care what his temporary ally was thinking and used all his remaining mana to attack her and the other three beasts that had just appeared.

He didn't have much, so he did his best to finish off the already wounded one and at least take down one of the strongest enemies.

'Shit! I hope that damned basilisk doesn't go after its subordinates!' Vicente broke out in a cold sweat but didn't think about anything else, acting as he formed his spells and spears with his innate skill.

Forming spears at the limit of the 1st grade, he attacked those creatures with a rain of spears and lightning, exhausting himself in his first move.

The four beasts, including the one that was hit in the chest by Vicente's bullet, protected themselves by placing the non-vital parts of their bodies in front of the vital ones and withstood Vicente's attack that could hurt even level 3 Acolytes.

These were level 4 Acolytes, so even though Vicente's movements hurt them, only the one wounded by the previous bullet couldn't resist his sudden movement.

"It's up to you now, Nova. If you can't beat them, we'll die!" Vicente shouted, making the woman look at the three beasts and no longer hesitate.

She moved her mana through her body and made her two pentagrams appear, ready to deliver a single blow and finish off these opponents.

Dimensional Slash!

She opened her mouth and screamed in agony, leaping into the air while making a diagonal movement with her sword until she launched a blade of energy that came out of her sword and slashed rapidly at the three creatures.

Swooish!