CHAPTER 59: DISCIPLE CULTIVATION SYSTEM CH59 ARTEMIS.

Ellie’s arrow whistled through the air, carrying with it a trail of pale aura, diluted by a tint of pink.

She was drawing the stage of achieving intent, and the first to suffer her achievements was Cheshire.

Cheshire blinked, too stunned to move as the tip of the arrow pierced through her clothing—but...

It never made contact with her skin. Ellie never had the intention of eliminating her.

No, her goal had been different.

As the arrow tore through the fabric of her uniform, Cheshire’s body was overcome by a sensation of weightlessness, launching her back just in time to avoid another arrow that came from above and stabbed where she had once stood.

"Cheshire, hide!"

Ellie screamed, taking another arrow from her quiver before leaping forward to hide behind an abandoned truck.

Cheshire, confused but trusting her friend’s words, ran into an alleyway.

Multiple arrows stabbed the entrance of the alleyway just as she made it, missing her by a second.

"Archer!"

Tearing Ellie’s arrow from her uniform, Cheshire said in panic, observing the arrows embedded in the ground beside her.

They were green, thin, and seemed to be crafted from flower vines.

Their tips weren’t made of metal but of the same material that made up the body itself.

"Magic arrows!" she whispered, her heart pounding rapidly.

Arrows made of vines weren’t common, but in the country of elves in the southern continent, there existed trees reinforced by mana and tough enough to be mistaken for steel.

The elves usually used them to create weapons, but the academy didn’t have any of this type in their storage.

Hence, the only logical conclusion was that these arrows were created by magic.

Either it was a mage who used nature magic or someone using said magic to restock on arrows.

"Nature magic... arrows. It must be Artemis."

She had heard from Ellie that in the Magic course, there existed a specialist mage who fancied archery.

Mages weren’t individuals who relied on weapons.

They couldn’t augment them like aura users, and to them, a few chants or runes could provide a larger output of destruction than a measly weapon.

So this unique mage, who combined archery with her magic, was shunned.

A few recognized her unique form of fighting, and if not for her specialist type of core—which didn’t allow her to practice any other type of magic—she would have been one of the strongest students of the year.

All she would have needed was to learn the new physical enhancement spell, and she would have bridged the gap between a mage and a knight.

A magic knight would have been the name given to her.

"Huff... I need to find her location."

Cheshire, her chest rising and falling, crouched and tried taking a peek out of the alleyway.

An arrow flashed past her face just then, leading to her falling back and leaning against the wall in despair.

Her position was locked on; the only reason she wasn’t already eliminated was because of the thick wall she hid behind—but she doubted that would last much longer.

"I need to get to Ellie."

Gripping the arrow that had once pierced her uniform, she whispered and looked out the entrance again.

About five arrows stabbed the asphalt, each shot lodged closer to the entrance by the second.

"She’s moving!"

Cheshire couldn’t gauge Artemis’s position, but the shots were fired too far apart to have been from the same sniping point.

"Ellie is awfully quiet."

From where she hid, she couldn’t keep track of Ellie, but unlike their sniper, she knew where Ellie was hiding.

"Magic casting has a lag!" she mused, her mind racing for a way out.

Artemis was an archer, but she relied on her magic, not modern weaponry.

Meaning her bow and arrows were crafted anew.

"She must have an arrow ready to shoot, but I move faster than she can reload. She relies on magic, so after her first shot, she just creates a new spell in her bow instead of taking one out of her quiver."

Cheshire glanced at Ellie’s arrow in her grasp and tightened the katana strap around her neck.

Artemis had her position locked on, and with each passing second, she was moving across the rooftops to gain a clear visual for firing.

Ellie was out of commission, probably waiting for her to proceed. As for Cheshire herself, her goal was to avoid being cornered at all costs.

"I can move faster than she can reload!" she muttered again, trying to spark some confidence in herself.

She was never a confident person.

All her life, she had been compared to the best of her generation.

Trish, the daughter of the Sword Saint, who had supposedly mastered all the stages of the [Snowdance.]

Princess Morgan, who was known not just for her martial skill but her intellect.

Kiara, the mage prodigy, and even the resident clown, Damien Silver—all were better than her.

The only thing she had going for her was her intent, which she had awakened much earlier than others—but she doubted that would last long.

As long as she didn’t improve and stayed stagnant, eventually, all these geniuses would overtake her and strip her of the one thing that made her stand out.

"I can’t lose to them... not to him."

Cracking a confident smile, she tossed the arrow in her grasp forward.

She didn’t move and waited, observing as it soared out of the alleyway and was shot down.

She moved then, her body surging forward with an increased burst of speed.

She crossed the entrance and onto the main road before the arrow shot down hit the ground, then slid across the pavement. She locked eyes with her sniper.

Just as she expected, Artemis was moving—approximately two blocks from her position—sniping from a blue skyscraper.

She was manifesting an arrow into her bow, getting ready to shoot her down, but...

"I got her—two blocks ahead, the terrace of the blue skyscraper." Cheshire screamed.

Ellie, once inactive, leaped over the truck she hid behind, nocking a crystal-like arrow into her bow and releasing the string to shoot at her target.

The release ignited with aura, diluted pink, as it whistled through the skies and struck the terrace Artemis stood on.

"Bang!"

Noticing the panic even from her distance, Ellie smirked and offered a salute, watching in amusement as the whole terrace was engulfed in a massive explosion.

[Student Ellie has accumulated a point.]