Chapter Fifty-Eight

Sunny knew she would fail her secret mission this time. Clutching her fists tightly together, Sunny held her breath nervously while waiting for the flames to die down as she stared at it intensely.

Her heart was beating unusually fast. Well, who wouldn’t? When they were facing a demonic Kim Taeyeon who might kill them anytime now.

Sunny swallowed the lump in unconsciously when she saw the flames were finally gone. There, in front of her, Taeyeon was standing at where Tiffany was, glaring at her with a pair of murderous eyes. One of her arms was encircled around the unconscious hunter’s waist, who had her head resting on Taeyeon’s shoulder, while the other hand was holding up a glowing fire ball which, no doubt, was aiming at herself.

“Sunny.”

Her cold voice was more than enough to send shivers down Sunny’s spine. Sunny frowned at her own reaction and clutched her fists even tighter.

She had a bad feeling about this.

“You’d planned to take her life right from the day you stepped into my house, isn’t it?”

Sunny took in a deep breath to calm down her racing heart. She replied nervously, “Look Taeyeon, we are only trying to help you––”

“YOU DON’T HELP ME BY TOUCHING HER BEHIND MY BACK!” Taeyeon wasn’t going to be patient with her friend. The unconscious hunter in her arm now is not just anyone.

She is Stephanie. She is the love of her life!

The fire ball in Taeyeon’s hand expanded twice its size along with her outburst anger. She clenched her teeth tightly and hissed, “I call this betrayal!” Without any warning, the fire ball in her hand launched itself at Sunny in lightning speed.

Sunny was prepared for this however. The moment Taeyeon lost her temper at her, she knew right away what was going to happen next. Casting a magical barrier around her, Sunny successfully blocked down the fire ball just second before it reached her.

“Damn!” Sunny cursed under her breath and teleported to the other side. “Icicles!” She launched an attack back at Taeyeon too.

Talk about hating Stephanie? That is all bull! Taeyeon is freaking attacking her just because she tried to take that girl’s life!

“Bombard fire!”

While Sunny teleported constantly to dodge Taeyeon’s fire, Taeyeon never once moved from her position and only created magical barrier to block Sunny’s ice from reaching her. Sunny tried using target-lock on her icicles too, but it was easily dismissed by Taeyeon despite her friend was busy juggling herself between attacking and casting the barrier around her and Tiffany.

“Damn it!”

Sunny teleported away just as the fire balls were about to hit her.

Taeyeon was no doubt the strongest among them, although they used to be on par before those ugly incidents happened to her. Taeyeon was originally a bright person. She was the kind of person who would never feel dejected easily despite numerous failures. But it all changed when that bastard tried to her. Sunny remembered when she saw Taeyeon right after they saved her from that bastard’s hands, her eyes reflected nothing but hopeless. Sunny had never seen Taeyeon with such gaze before. It was as if she gave up on her life. She lost her will to live.

She was forced to recover however, because there was still a clueless Stephanie waiting for her. But they all knew Taeyeon was never the same anymore. She became tensed easily whenever someone got close to her, be it them or strangers, and she never let her guards down even when she was with them.

“Icicles!”

Sunny aimed her icicles at Taeyeon again, only to be blocked by Taeyeon’s magical barrier again. She frowned and teleported away. The fire balls hit the space where she was standing previously right after she left.

However, it was different when she was with Stephanie. Taeyeon was the same old Taeyeon whenever she was with Stephanie, though Sunny wasn’t sure if that was really the case or she was just forcing herself to act normally in front of Stephanie. Still, they were ruined when the betrayal incident happened. Taeyeon changed completely and there was even a period of time where she refused to talk to anyone. She was always seen in the wilds practicing her magic madly, as though there was nothing more important than that. It was only until the war between Wideon and Satron erupted, they rushed back to their hometown and found everyone was gone, Taeyeon naturally started talking again as anxiety overtook her when she found her family and friends went missing.

“Lightning Strike!”

Shock was written all over Sunny’s face when she heard the next magic coming at her.

God dammit! And she thought she was fast enough to keep Taeyeon from using a more advanced skill.

Sunny held her hands in front of her and shouted, “Haste!” She casted it on herself just before the lightning struck from above. She teleported nervously, dodging each and every lightning striking from the sky.

Lightning Strike is different from Bombard Fire. At least she could still see where those fire balls were coming from, there was no way for her to know where those lightning were going to strike, plus their speeds were crazy. Sunny could only determine their positions with her hunch.

One thing about sorcerers, they mainly focused on one or two types of elements. The better ones who are able to cope with the two elements may learn up to four though. But for Taeyeon’s case, she is insane. She did not only try to learn every single one of them, she even tried to master them all. Eventually, she did succeed in mastering most of the skills, but that was mainly due to their long stay in Everlast.

This was why Sunny said Taeyeon was one of the strongest among them. She was the strongest in terms of offensive attacks since she was capable of so many offensive skills.

“Icicles!”

“Bombard fire!”

The fire and ice elements hit one another head-on and created a small explosion. Sunny turned away and pulled her cloak together to cover herself from the smoke. Then, she chanted, casting a gentle breeze to disperse the smoke. Letting go of her cloak, Sunny saw Taeyeon was still standing in her original position. Her attacking hand was now covering Tiffany’s face, as though she was trying to shield that hunter from the smoke.

Correction. She was, indeed, shielding her.

Sunny narrowed her eyes at Taeyeon and questioned, “How long are you going deceive to yourself, Taeyeon?”

Taeyeon smirked at her, “Trying to change the topic, Lee Soonkyu?” She removed her hand from Tiffany and casted a fire ball again.

“We don’t have to do this Taeyeon.” Sunny removed the hood from her head and took off the scarf that was covering her face. It was troublesome for her to talk to Taeyeon with all these unnecessary objects restraining her. “We will find the Princess and ask if we can take her,” Sunny pointed at Tiffany. “Along with us back to Everlast instead.”

Taeyeon became panic instantly, “Wha–What  are you talking about? She has to die––”

“Don’t craps with me anymore Taeyeon! If you really want her dead, then pass her over to me right now! I will end her life for you if you can’t bear to do it with your own hands!”

Dead? My . The possibility of Taeyeon saving her is so much higher than she will kill her. Sunny snorted as she thought to herself.

Taeyeon gritted her teeth but looked away, “I can do it myself.”

“Well then, kill her now!”

“Now is not the right time––”

“Then when is the right time? Until Everlast meets its end?!” Sunny yelled at her angrily. She had had enough of Taeyeon. “We all knew what you’re thinking Taeyeon. Don’t make up excuses to delay your task.”

Taeyeon inhaled a deep breath and glared at Sunny.

“You don’t know anything!”

Sunny returned her a glare as well. It was a waste of breath to argue about this with Taeyeon. Firstly, she is just too stubborn. Secondly, this is about Stephanie… her one and only love. No matter how much they bickered, Taeyeon will never listen to her.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Sunny decided to just stop this childish staring competition with Taeyeon. She broke her eye contact away from Taeyeon and walked to the other unconscious hunter who was lying on the ground.

Taeyeon and Stephanie… or Tiffany, whoever she is now, Sunny doesn’t want to get involve with them anymore. They are seriously giving her nothing but headache, headache and even more headache!

“Leave that hunter alone.”

Sunny snapped out of her thought when she heard Taeyeon talking to her. She took a quick glance at that katana user hunter before turning back to her friend, raising an eyebrow at her.

“Why?” Sunny was obviously displeased with Taeyeon. She can have Stephanie for all she wants, but no way is she going to take this hunter too.

Not when this hunter may be a threat to them.

Taeyeon tightened her arm around Tiffany’s waist unconsciously, “She will be looking for her when she wakes up.” This might only be her second time meeting Yoona, but Taeyeon could tell that Tiffany cared a lot for her from her experience in the café the other time.

“Are you kidding me?” Again! It is all for Stephanie again!

“I’m not in the mood to joke with you right now.” Taeyeon averted her gaze to Tiffany. “She won’t be happy if that hunter went missing.” She reached for Tiffany face and pushed the strand of hairs which was covering her face away gently.

Sunny swore she saw an excessive of love pouring out from Taeyeon’s eyes.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Taeyeon! This hunter here,” She pointed at Yoona. “She is able to immune my magic! She is a threat to us!”

Taeyeon tore her eyes away from Tiffany annoyingly and glared at her friend again.

“I’ll take Phanie home first and I’m expecting you to be at my house with that hunter right behind me.” Without waiting for Sunny’s reply, Taeyeon disappeared from the ground along with Tiffany.

“KIM TAEYEON!” Sunny made a chase after Taeyeon but to no avail. She was a few seconds slow. “God damn it!” She cursed to herself and threw a fist on the tree bark beside her.

As much as she wanted to defy Taeyeon’s instruction, she couldn’t. The battle earlier on was only an exception. If Tiffany wasn’t there to distract Taeyeon, her best friend wouldn’t have let her off so easily.

Sunny huffed and turned around, walking back to where Yoona was.

She didn’t carry Yoona right away. Instead, she searched through her body, going through every single pockets, making sure that she did not miss out any suspicious items.

But there was nothing suspicious on her at all.

Sunny dropped herself to the ground and sighed in frustration. There must be something which allowed this hunter to immune her magic, but what could that thing be? She had already searched her from head to toe and found nothing suspicious.

“It couldn’t be that she knew how to nullify my magic right––” Sunny mumbled to herself but stopped suddenly when she realized what she had just said. She snapped her head towards the unconscious hunter again as a certain memory flashed through her mind coincidently.

*

“The Princess is here.” Taeyeon’s voice trembled with fears.

“What?”

“The Princess is here!” Taeyeon repeated herself with a louder tone. “There is no reason for her to say I have misused the mutants unless she knew what I was doing!”

Sunny folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at Taeyeon, “Don’t try to change the topic.”

“I’m not changing! I’m telling you to be bewared!” Taeyeon stood up and stared at her. “Look, why would the Princess said I have misused the mutants? That’s because she knew what I was doing!”

“Well, that doesn’t mean she is here. You know how capable the Princess is, she can even talk to us without showing herself, what’s there she can’t do?”

Taeyeon snorted, “You think too highly of her.”

“Whatever.”

*

“She… she can’t be the Princess, right?”

Sunny couldn’t stop herself from trembling. What if Taeyeon’s assumption was correct? That the Princess was here without their knowing and could be hiding somewhere observing them?

She stole a glance at the unconscious hunter again.

And what if… she was hiding her identity as a hunter?

Before Sunny could gather her thoughts and come to a conclusion, she felt something vibrating against her thigh. She jumped up in surprise, only to find it was her phone that was scaring her with its rings. She slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone hastily. The screen was showing a photo of Taeyeon having a cup of her usual cappuccino which she secretly snapped some times ago.

“Taeyeon––”

The only thought she had right now was to inform Taeyeon about her discovery.

“Where are you now? I’ve been waiting for you since forever! If you’re planning to take that hunter back to our base secretly, I’m telling you, our friendship is going to end here.”

“Taeyeon!” Sunny groaned out loud. Now is not the time to even talk about this! “Listen to me! Taeyeon, I think this hunter is––Hello? Hello? Taeyeon?” Sunny pulled her cell phone away from her ear and found out that Taeyeon had already hung up on her.

“Damn it!” Sunny couldn’t help but groaned again.

Taeyeon is really such a pain in the whenever it comes to Stephanie.

Slipping her phone back into the pocket, Sunny reached out for Yoona and pulled her up from the ground.

Oh wait.

Sunny was about to teleport away when she noticed something was missing.

There should be one more thing… There!

Sunny surveyed through her surroundings and found Yoona’s katana lying right on the spot where Yoona was lying on before. Tiffany must have unknowingly placed her on top of it since she was eager to attack her just now.

Pinning the long sword between her arm and waist, Sunny picked up Yoona again before teleporting towards Taeyeon’s house.

Strange…

Sunny frowned when she realized she wasn’t travelling in her usual speed.

I never knew carrying an extra person will shorten my teleportation distance?