Dragon's Love with Dangerous Letters

Chapter 20

The air in Artemis's throat was like a ball that refused to move and refused to let her breath normally. Her heart rate felt like it was going at speeds that no normal human being had ever experienced before and all her eyes could focus on was that blade with the moonlight shimmering off of it into her eyes. She shifted herself slowly so that her back wasn't facing the man yet her front side wasn't exposed completely to him either, the shattered pieces of the vase moved and shifted around as her foot hit them gently.

"W-Who are you?" The female asked, her arm going up in front of her out of instinct to protect herself.

"Me? I don't think that matters but if you'd like to call me something just call me a face hunter, someone who's a part of an elite assassination group." The man replied and stepped forward with the blade rising from his side.

"What d-do you want with m-me?" She stuttered, the assassination group idea putting her into a worse panic.

"You? That's an easy one, I'm here to retrieve what I've been told to target and that would be you." The man answered without hesitation.

Artemis assumed that the man, or face hunter, wouldn't care if he told her everything he was supposed to do since he seemed like he thought he was going to get away with it, whatever it was anyway. Artemis backed away from the advancing male and lifted her other arm for protection making the 'x' that indicated she was ready to her shield as she needed though the brunette would have to be careful for it still drained her rather quickly even if she had improved with it.

"Such a shame to kill such a beauty. You look like you'll give me a hard time and since you have four dragon slayers currently resting here that just makes my odds even worse. It's a good thing that his highness told me I could bring you back alive or dead." He chuckled.

He lunged at Artemis while she quickly shifted her hand in front of her, a smaller blue shield that replicated her usual larger one formed around her hand which helped to block the blade which he swung at her. She stumbled back trying to gain distance from the face hunter who was constantly trying to get the blade to connect with her skin in a fatal way. Artemis already felt her magic dropping from forming so many small shields at once to protect herself that she knew that she would have no choice but to turn and run in hopes of finding Sting's room and wake him up to help her. It was a good thing he told her where his room was during their training session earlier in the day but now she wasn't quite sure she'd be able to make it their before her life was literally ripped away from her.

The brunette used the last bit of strength she felt that she had left to form a large barrier that stretched from the wall next to her to the windows about five feet to her left. The man who happened to have already lunged at her as she made the barrier had no way of stopping which caused him to slam into the blue wall and fall backwards, his blade slipping from his hand and sliding under one of the small stands that held another flower vase. She took this time to turn and run in the direction of the blonde prince's room while the assassin behind her scrambled for his knife quickly in hopes of not letting too much distance get between them. Artemis took a sharp left down a new hall and mentally screamed at herself to run faster even if her depleted magic was making her lack the strength she needed at the moment. After another left and a right down two more halls she found herself rushing down the hall she believed Sting's room to be down. If she remembered correctly he had told her that his room was the fifth door on the right in which she scrambled to stop in front of. Without any hesitation the frightened girl slammed the door open and rushed into the room as it connected with the wall causing a loud 'bang' to erupt through the room and a little into the hallway.

Artemis's emerald eyes scanned the room wildly hoping to find any sign of someone being in here but all that was there were traces of someone having been here earlier. The bed sheets were all messed up which looked as if someone had thrown them away so they could get out of bed and the window was slightly cracked to let in the cool night air but other than that nothing about the room gave Artemis any hope of finding help here, a complete dead end for her. She rushed to the window and opened it wider to see if anyone was outside that she could scream to but nothing occupied the garden below besides a few birds and other small animals that bustled their way through the bushes and flower beds.

"Looks like a dead end for you sweetheart."

The brunette whirled around to find the man standing right behind her, his sadistic smile still spread a crossed his face. He had his blade placed firmly into the palm of his hand once more and had begun to shuffle towards the younger one. Artemis's looked frantically for a way around him but she had so little space to move around in him that there was no way of getting around him with the current speed she could move at due to depleted energy and she didn't feel like she would be able to put another one of her shields that would be able to stay intact long enough for her to maneuver around the face hunter. She had really hoped sting would be here to help her but that option seemed to be thrown out the window and she had no clue where Laxus or Cobra's rooms were so that option was also out of the question. She knew where Wendy's room was but even if she could get around this guy and to Wendy Artemis knew that Wendy's magic was mostly for support so the young girl wouldn't be able to hold the man off for that long so that Artemis could get away. It would give the teen even more guilt if she knew that she left a young girl, the princess of this kingdom all by herself to fight an assassin just so she could get away. Artemis didn't feel like bearing the title of 'Young Girl and Princess Murderer' all her life.

"Look at you, so fragile and helpless. I wonder how many people have been killed just for you to be able to escape for this long." The male mused and tilted his head slightly, his hood finally shifting just enough for Artemis to spot his golden eyes, beady ones that seemed as if they were staring right through her.

She had lost her words somewhere inside her jumbled mind after hearing the man's words fall from his lips. How many people have been killed? As if it were an old childhood habit she began to list off the people she knew had been hurt or killed in the process of protecting her or because of her in general, Juvia, Romeo, all those people caught in Pyre's destruction, . . . and Natsu, him most of all had to have been the one she caused the most pain to both physically and mentally. Tears pooled in her green orbs quickly and slipped down her cheeks. She wanted it to end, right now realizing and thinking everything over made her want to kill herself and rid her from this world so no one else had to get hurt, she wanted this face hunter guy to kill her no matter if she still wanted to finish living the years she knew she still had left but she could live through them knowing she caused so many people pain and that she would have to live with all that guilt for the rest of her life.

". . . Many. . ." She whispered.

"What?" The man asked confused by her simple word.

"Many people have been hurt and killed because of me and I don't want that to happen anymore." She replied and curled her fingers so that her nails dug into the palms of her hands roughly.

The man had said nothing about her statement and didn't bother to comment on it. He seemed bored by what she said to be perfectly honest so he carried on with his task and inched closer to Artemis until he was a mere five inches from her, the blade raised above his head. Artemis closed her eyes and waited for him to strike. The sound of the blade whistling through the air rung against her eardrums as the sound of piercing skin followed but she felt no pain once so ever. She sat there confused until her eyes cracked open to find a hand gripped around the dagger's blade, blood trickled through his fingers and stained the blade and the rug as it slowly dripped down from a cut that was probably formed onto his hand. The brunette sat there with her eyes as wide as saucers when she looked at who was standing right next to her, his blonde hair shading his eyes.

"If you think I'm going to sit here and watch you let this guy kill you. . ." Sting began and shifted his head so that his blue eyes pierced through her fiercely, ". . . You're completely insane."