Sugitani Wen carried her beloved longbow and walked among the trees with her waist bent, vigilantly observing everything around her. Even if a leaf falls, or a bush changes slightly, she will immediately find cover and crouch, then pull the string with her arrow, ready to fight back.

In the quiet forest, except for the sound of the wind and the "shalala" of the leaves in the wind, only the monotonous footsteps of themselves remained. She listened to the tiny sound of her feet stepping into the dead leaves, monotonous and terrifying. It was as if with each step, one step closer to death. With every footstep, it could be the last footstep she heard.

It made her feel bad—she was holding a longbow less like a hunter and more like a prey.

She took a deep breath and slowly quickened her pace. In such a mountain forest, she should be more flexible and comfortable than the foreign longbowman, how can she be so restrained.

Sugitani traveled quickly through the mountain forest's house, constantly thinking about how she would dodge if she was suddenly attacked—but it didn't seem to be very important, because Charlie only had an arrow in his hand, and there would be no follow-up attack. If that arrow hits you, it's all over. If you miss, Charlie loses.

But even so, Sugitani Wen still didn't dare to take it lightly. She understands that for a marksman, one arrow is enough. How many people in the world can beat Charlie, as an archer, in a battle with iron cannons - and in the ninja's favorite mountain terrain - and in the forest terrain that the ninja loves?

"Where will he appear?"

Sugitani muttered to herself uneasily, and casually turned her head to look to the right—only to suddenly notice a figure flickering on the rocks in the distance. Almost without thinking, she jerked her bow, and at the moment she pulled it, she adjusted her direction with the force of twisting her waist, and shot an arrow in that direction. But the figure apparently noticed the arrow, and dodged with a cat's waist.

"Can't let him run away!" Sugitani, who finally caught Charlie's traces, naturally wouldn't let him go, and immediately chased after him with a bow and arrows. The sound of footsteps, which had been slow and orderly, suddenly became chaotic, and all the dead leaves were lifted up by the wind she ran to, and slowly fell after the dust settled.

She ran as fast as she could, trying to pick up her ears to catch footsteps in the distance—it must have been his. The footsteps were also very fast, and the speed was about the same as that of my own running. Listening to the direction of the footsteps, he seemed to be running in a northwesterly direction. If you want to run northwest from that hillside, you must pass by that stream!

The idea that popped up in her brain was immediately put into practice by the girl. She slammed onto a bluestone in front of her as she ran, then leaped high enough to keep her chest high above the bushes in front of her. In this short moment, she suddenly pulled her bow open, and shot a sharp arrow in a very exaggerated and stretched posture, and shot it towards the stream.

Then, she fell to the ground with gravity, and there was no way to see how the arrow would turn out. Still, though she didn't hear the screams or the sticky sound of the arrow sinking into her flesh, she heard Charlie's footsteps suddenly mess up - it looked like the arrow almost hit him!

Sugitani Wen chased after him excitedly, turned several corners, jumped onto the hill where Charlie had just been on the road, and found that Charlie was indeed moving in the direction he had predicted. She immediately fired two more shots at Charlie's distant back, but Charlie, who realized that there was someone behind him, dodged him - he jumped into the bushes by the side of the road.

Sugitani immediately fired three blind shots at the bush in disregard, but it didn't seem to hit anyone. It was only then that she realized that she shouldn't shoot arrows so remarkably. She touched the feathers in the quiver with her hand—there were only four left.

At this moment, she suddenly realized the danger of her situation - she was standing on a striking rock at the moment, and once Charlie fought back, she would definitely not be able to dodge. Her identity is not only a hunter who can shoot calmly, but also a hunted prey. Thinking of this, Sugitani immediately jumped off the rock, shuttled back and forth between bunkers, and advanced towards the bush that Charlie had just jumped into.

However, when she arrived in the bushes, she found that Charlie had already left. Judging from the footprints and other traces left on the spot, Charlie probably left in the direction of the woods to the east. Just as she got up and wanted to continue the pursuit, she suddenly felt a chill - where she was now, perhaps Charlie had expected, waiting for her somewhere to check the footprints. Sugitani Wen seemed to hear the wind tighten in her ears, and then there was a sharp pain in her forehead - but the arrow she imagined did not hit, and everything was a false alarm.

"Obviously, he didn't shoot an arrow..."Sugitani Wen swallowed a little hard, not knowing why he was scared like this, "It's really..."

She followed Charlie's footprints all the way. However, Charlie seems to have run over a creek and waded in it for a long time, and the footprints disappeared again. Sugitani searched by the stream for a long time, and finally saw a dark mud soaked with water, and it seemed that Charlie had landed here.

She looked up ahead and suddenly had a hunch that there was a small high ground in front of her right that was perfect for snipers. If she were Charlie, she would have chosen that place. So, she immediately bent her bow and aimed at the high ground, intending to shoot an arrow at the sight of Charlie's outcrop. Sure enough, about a few breaths after she had finished aiming, a shadow flickered behind the high ground. Sugitani immediately shot an arrow, excitedly waiting for the result of the shot—only to find that the arrow had hit a branch—which Charlie had used as cover.

Sugitani immediately sensed that something was wrong, and hurriedly leaned over and dodged behind a rock to avoid being shot back by Charlie. Now, the offensive and defensive forms are reversed as well. She shot the arrow too hastily, missing anyone, but revealing her position. At this moment, she hid behind a stone where there was no other cover nearby, and there was no way to move. As long as Charlie stands on a high place and aims at the stone with a bow and arrow, Sugitani Wen is in a catastrophe - because she is hiding behind the stone, she no longer knows where Charlie will appear, and even if she wants to draw the bow and shoot, she doesn't know where to aim. And her position is a certainty. As soon as he shows his head, he will be shot by Charlie.

Sugitani leaned her back against the stone, gasping for air, trying to figure out how to get out. She looked around and suddenly saw an old tree on her right, and its branches were a little decayed. With an idea, she put an arrow on the bow and drew it fiercely, shooting it at the base of the great branch. There was a sound of wood cracking, and the branches drooped crumblingly, but they were not broken. Sugitani Wen then quickly bent her bow and shot at the broken point of the previous arrow. This time, the arrow pierced the old branch, and the huge branch fell from the trunk and fell on the big rock where Sugitani was, and smashed heavily into the ground next to the big stone, stirring up a lot of dust. Taking advantage of this dusty one, Sugitani Wen quickly rushed out from behind the rocks and hid behind another bush.

There was only one arrow left in the quiver.

Sugitani took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down as she quietly looked through the gap in the bushes at the high ground where Charlie had just stood—it was empty.

"Where is he hiding?" Sugitani Wen reached behind her back and felt the rain of arrows from the last feather arrow in the quiver, and muttered a little uneasily. Now, he and she are on an equal footing, and they will rely on the last arrow to decide the winner.

Just as she was thinking wildly, the hill beside her suddenly flashed with light and shadow—it was a person moving. Sugitani Wen hurriedly turned her head to look at the hill while bending her bow and arrow, but she was blinded by the dazzling sunlight in an instant.

"It's over!" In that brief moment of losing vision, Sugitani's mind went blank, and only this lonely thought remained. Charlie had long expected what she would do and where she would hide, so he deliberately made a detour to the hill. In that position, his back was to the sun, and Sugitani was facing the sun - there was no way to aim.

It was at that moment that Sugitani heard the sound of sharp arrows breaking through the air in front of her - it was Charlie's only arrow, the only arrow he shot today, but he had already killed himself.

Sure enough, for a real archer, one arrow is enough. And for a weak person like her, it is useless to give her no number of arrows.

But.

"I'm not reconciled!"

At the last moment, Sugitani Wen roared in a slightly immature voice.

Even though she couldn't aim, she pulled her bowstring to the full, so that when she was killed, her let go of her hand would shoot the last aimless arrow—yes, she knew it was almost impossible to hit anyone. But as an archer, I didn't even shoot the last arrow in the counter-shooting, which is really too much!

·

The whistling of sharp arrows tearing through the air rang in my ears.

It's over.

However, to Sugitani's surprise, her ears suddenly remembered the crisp sound of the bowstring breaking. Immediately afterwards, the hand that was holding the bowstring was pulled out like a force, and the arrow on the bow also fell. The next thing that came to mind was the sound of sharp arrows nailed to the wood behind him.

There is no pain.

·

"Did I break the bowstring?"

This was Sugitani's first thought.

"I'm not dead?"

This was Sugitani's second thought.

She opened her eyes in disbelief against the sunlight to find that her bowstring had broken in two. And the incision at the fracture is obviously cut by a sharp object.

She looked in amazement at the blonde archer who stood straight with his back to the sun and maintained an off-string posture on the hill in the distance, and then looked back incredulously at the bow and arrow nailed to the trunk of the tree behind her. The facts are self-evident.

He shot my bowstring.

·

By the time Sugitani came back to her senses, Charlie had already walked to her side.

"Let's go, I won't arrest you back, you can leave."

"Why?" Sugitani Wen had just been humiliated by this foreigner in archery, but now that she learned that she had been released, the humiliation and resentment in her heart could not be suppressed for a while.

"Because you have the same character as your father. During the duel in the mountains and forests just now, you had countless opportunities to escape into the surrounding mountains and avoid the pursuit of the Red Leaf Army, and you chose to fight. Charlie gave a simple salute to Sugitani, "This is a knight's respect, please accept it." It's also a favor for my young lady's father. ”

Sugitani Wen stared at Charlie's blue eyes with some unwillingness, which were so clear that there was no trace of distraction, and some were just faith in bows and arrows. After a long time, she took a deep breath, gritted her back molars with some difficulty, and asked her father-killer a somewhat unspeakable question:

"My lord, can you teach me how to shoot arrows as well as you do? Why can't I practice archery even though I practice it so hard? ”

Charlie was stunned when he heard this, and his eyes moistened in an instant. After a while, he chuckled lightly and whispered to the girl in front of him:

"Because there is no emotion in your arrows."