It was all thanks to my own instinct and also my [Shadow Glide] that I was even able to move out of the way before the arrow pierced through my head.

I immediately activated [Shadow Wall] again, allowing myself to disappear into the darkness and retreating from the asshole.

I tried leaping up into the sky, only to find that I couldn’t no matter how I flapped my wings.

I quickly realised that he must have controlled the air around this area to prevent me from gaining any lift under my wings to fly.

Just as that thought came to mind, my air supply was also suddenly cut off as no air was allowed into my lungs.

This son of a bitch…

I sent out one of my max percentage summons to charge at him, letting her equip a pair of daggers and some leather armour made of shadows.

At the same time, I made a dash in the opposite direction, my shadow summon only managing to dodge the first arrow shot at her before the second arrow pierced through her neck, instantly dispersing her into nothingness.

The area of effect for his stupid air spell was relatively big, too big for a normal person to escape the radius before running out of breath.

Thankfully, I am experienced in moving through this terrain and I had [Shadow Glide] to speed up my movements too, allowing me to escape before I started to pass out.

I gasped as air finally reentered my lungs, breathing in lungfuls of air.

There was no time to rest as I ducked my head, avoiding another arrow that would have skewered me from the back of my head.

I cursed under my breath, spreading my wings in an attempt to fly.

A jolt of pain came from my back as I realised he had caught up to me, kicking me in the back to send me crashing against a nearby tree.

I rolled away onto my feat, barely missing the impossibly fast arrows that nearly pierced me from above.

That must be his Chronomancy at work, using some kind of time manipulation to speed up his arrows.

Another arrow was shot in my direction, but this one flew too far to my right to hit me.

I glared at the trash who had already knocked another arrow with inhumanly fast movements, taking his time to aim his next shot at me.

Seriously, [Shadow Glide] and [Shadow Wall] may be simple spells but they’ve been proving to be extremely invaluable so far.

I’m still invisible to him, so he should be using his Aeromancy spells to guess my location by reading the movements in the air. As I was moving around quite a bit just now, he managed to pinpoint where I was accurately but not so much when I’m staying still or moving minimally.

Deciding to take a risk, I used twenty five percent of my remaining mana to cast [Shadow Summon], materialising the new summon behind the bastard.

The summon immediately swiped at his legs with a shadow dagger, managing to nick his ankle before he turned around and shot the arrow right between my summon’s eyes.

I did not let that opening go to waste as I leapt into the air with my wings outstretched, already flying away from there as fast as possible.

I was most definitely not delusional enough to think I even remotely stood any chance against him with my current stats.

But before I could even flap my wings a second time, a force hit me at the side of my head, sending me crashing back down into the ground with enough force to create a large crater.

I groaned, feeling pain all over my body as I tried to recover from being kicked. The bastard could even use the wind to propel himself into the air…

He landed at the edge of the crater my crash made, an amused smirk on his face.

“I admit, I didn’t think you would put up much of a fight. You picked Umbramancy didn’t you? I admit it has its uses but seriously, the main strength of that magic is to rely on summons, summons that are weaker than yourself. Just numbers aren’t going to save you from a stronger opponent.”

I really want to disagree with him, especially if I have the time to summon a million of me to jump on him, let him decide if numbers don’t mean anything then.

Instead, I croaked out, “Why?”

“Why do I want to kill you? It’s my task of course. Not all the Gods are happy that we are here and the God of Death in particular doesn’t like our presence in this world. I was given the task to hunt down and kill other Off-Worlders in return for more power and the promise of an afterlife that is filled with bliss.”

“You would… Urk… Kill your own people?”

He snorted, “My own people? Please. Like as if humans weren’t killing humans for their own selfish benefits back in our world.”

“But… Why? You could… You could live a good life here… Why go to the effort to hunt others?”

That’s when his smile turned feral and he lifted his bow, “It’s simple really… Because it’s fun.”

The arrow flew straight in between my eyes, my head thrown back from the impact as the fatal blow connected with me.

All strength left my body and I felt myself collapse back on the ground, my [Shadow Wall] and [Shadow Glide] dispersing as well.

I was not dead of course. The boon [It Only Takes One] had made sure I managed to survive that death blow. My only hope is that he thinks that I am truly dead and leaves without checking.

If he does… Well… The drawback of this is that I am literally too weak to move my body right now…

I laid there, as still as I could, hoping against all hope that he wouldn’t come here.

The sound of feet stepping on gravel got closer and closer to me until it stopped right beside me.

“You’re not the first one I had to deal with that has the boon to escape from a death blow once, you know?”

Fuck.

I racked my head, what could I do? I was literally weak and exhausted, I couldn’t even move any part of my body even if I wanted to.

Wait… I think I can use my summons that I’ve stored in my shadow to carry me away… Yes, I’ll have a max stats summon carry me and run away while sending the rest of my summons to distract him.

Yes! This could work! I just need him to be momentarily distracted to pull this off!

I groaned as pathetically as I could and turned to him, “So… Am I… The first child you killed?”

He scoffed, “You’re no child. And if this is an attempt to play at my conscience, you can save your breath, I don’t feel any remorse for killing children in the first place. I am, after all, a serial killer back at our world. Ever heard of the Midnight Slasher? That was me.”

The bastard who had been killing people indiscriminately at night. He got caught recently and was put on death row…

“You… Really are… Trash…”

“Well guess what? This ‘trash’ gets to live while you don’t. How does that feel?”

“You really… Like to talk about… Yourself huh… Let me guess… You were a complete loser… In your previous life too…”

I must have been right because his face immediately scrunched up in anger, “You know nothing about me.”

“Do I? You had no job… No girlfriend… Your parents probably never talked to you… You just stay at home… And live your days counting the hours… When you’re not killing people… Am I right?”

He let out a roar and reared his fist back, ready to strike down on my face.

I got ready to unleash my summons when unexpectedly, the asshole was sent flying away to crash into the wall of the crater.

There, standing in his place with her wings outstretched protectively was my dearest mother.

“YOU DARE HURT MY CHILD?!” She roared, the entire ground shaking with her voice alone.

“Mo… Ther…”

She was immediately at my side and holding me with concern clear on her face, “My sweet, sweet child. Mama is here now, you are safe. Nothing can hurt you now.”

I still don’t know how strong mother is and whether she could even beat that asshole. But for some reason, I felt completely safe now that she’s here. A feeling that I was most certainly not used to.

Is this… What a mother’s love is like?

The bastard stepped out from where he crashed, dusting himself off.

“So… You’re the mother of that girl? Do you know that she’s an Off-Worlder?” He asked.

“I do not remember letting you speak, trash,” Mother glared back at him. “You dared hurt my precious child. You will not live to see the next day.”

“Hmm… You are indeed strong, but unfortunately for you, I have ways of dealing with you as well.”

He disappeared and reappeared beside mother, lifting a finger that was clad with darkness to touch mother on her shoulder.

“Touch of Death.”

I didn’t need my [Screen] to tell me what that was supposed to do.

And yet, even with that spell touching mother’s skin directly, nothing happened to her.

Mother placed me gently on the ground and stood up, the bastard’s expression shifting from confidence to confusion to fear within a second.

“Im… Impossible… This… This touch is supposed to–“

Mother interrupted him, “I said I never allowed you to speak.”

She grabbed him by the wrist and twisted, the sound of bones snapping reverberating around the area.

He screamed out in pain and mother did the same to his other wrist, this time the crack sounded even louder.

He tried to run, only to fall forward as his feet had been separated from his body, leaving bloody stumps behind as mother swung her hand down to her side.

He pulled out his bow and shot several arrows at her, only for all of them to be incinerated with black flames the moment they got close to her.

She slapped his weapon away and picked him up by the throat to lift him up into the air, holding the trash up with a single hand.

“Ple… Please… I’m sorry… I’ll leave… I’ll leave… You won’t see me again… Don’t kill me… Please…”

“Pathetic trash… You’re not even comparable to my child.”

“No… No, please…”

“I’ll tell you one thing, trash. You aren’t going to your little paradise with this death.”

She clenched her hand and her fingers pierced his skin, her other hand reaching up to hold him in place before she ripped his throat out.

He gurgled and clawed at his throat before he got tossed aside like trash, being left there to bleed out.

…

Mother is… So cool.