I Just Inherited The Arcane Emperor's Legacy

He waved his hands, unleashing a powerful aura that pushed them back to the ground. It was partly because they were unprepared to face an attack, but it still went to show how strong he was.

The two tried to creep back but their bodies were frozen with fear. As the man in front of them approached them menacingly, they could only watch him get closer.

"Where is she?" He asked with his deep voice.

Jennifer looked at Damian to see how he would react. She saw a still face that didn't seem like it would crack even though he was in a precarious situation.

"Looks like we have a very stubborn person here. It shouldn't matter though. We always have a second option," one of the persons behind the man in the front said as he got off his horse.

He made his way to Jennifer and squatted in front of her.

"So, I am assuming that you are Jennifer, right?" He asked her.

Her face showed surprise, as she didn't expect him to know who she was. Even Damian was similarly surprised. Looking at their expressions, the man squatting in front of Jennifer chuckled.

"Did you think we just blindly rushed into our mission? We know every single person in your caravan. There wasn't supposed to be anyone except you two who could take out our initial team. So why wouldn't we know who you are?"

His words seemed to make sense to them, but they raised a new fear. If he knew who they were, how much more about them did he know? 

"Damian, single, and your parents are dead. Devoted to your work and essentially married to it. You are very useless to us. But Jennifer, on the other hand, isn't like you. Parents alive, and a sister too. It would be a shame if anything happened to them."

Jennifer was ready to lunge forward at him. Her family was a line she hoped no one would cross, but unfortunately, her work caught up to it. However, as she was about to get up and attack him, he put his hand forward.

A blast of aura hit her in her face, knocking it back a little. The blast wasn't powerful at all, only enough to hurt her neck. However, the timing of it, just before she was about to launch an attack, was what made it dangerous.

"Don't try to do anything that wastes my time. If you want them to stay out of this, then tell us where they jumped off. After that, we will be on our way," he said.

"Jennifer! Don't fall for-" As Damian was about to warn her, a quick blade of aura from the leader of the pursuers sliced off his neck.

She looked to the source of the voice and was met with a detached head that rolled to a stop right beside her. As she saw the head, she imagined who's head could have been there.

A picture of her young sister's head right beside her filled her mind, throwing away any thinking ability she had left.

"I'll... I'll take you there." She forced out a reply.

"Good." The man in front of her said and got up.

"Someone, take her on your horse." The leader said while getting atop his own. One of the two on a horse rode forward a little and stopped his horse in front of her.

"Get on, and don't try anything funny." 

She jumped onto the horse while the other one got on his own. Once everyone was on their horses, they turned around and rode at full speed in the direction they came from.

Meanwhile, a couple of miles away, Leo was meditating on the tree, regaining his aura. He was also keeping an eye open for anyone entering a dangerously close radius of him. At the foot of the tree, Mira was sleeping peacefully.

Her face didn't seem to show any hint of what she was going through, nor did it show discomfort. Leo turned his attention to the sky and frowned. It was turning dark like he expected, but the effects were a lot more pronounced. 

A lot of Magical Beasts around them were starting to wake up and roam around. he underestimated the nocturnal population of the woods he was in. He looked at Mira and decided not to wake her up.

Even if they did travel in the night, it would only exhaust her more which wouldn't be good for him at the end. He would have to make sure she was completely healthy since she was such a valuable target.

Even if the others caught up to him, it wouldn't be hard for him to shake them off. 

In the distance, their pursuers were nearing the point where Leo and Mira had jumped off. Jennifer's heart was starting to beat incredibly fast as she got closer to where they were able to escape.

During the short journey, she was able to think clearly for a minute. Her death was guaranteed at this point, but she was hoping to save her family. But what credibility did the guarantee of a bunch of killers hold to her?

What would stop them from killing her family anyway? But if she could stop them from finding the target, then she would be achieving a lot more. She knew who the target was, so she knew that there was a small chance that it would actually save her family.

She liked the odds that the girl she had been traveling with for a few weeks would go back safely and use her new power to reward her saviors' families with protection. It was a lot higher than the words of the people in front of her.

With this in mind, she decided to give them a location a lot further than where they actually jumped off. She would even take them to the wrong side of the road, completely throwing them off.

As she was devising all these plans, the leader who rode in the front raised his hand. The entire party of five slowed down to a stop.

"It's not here. They jumped off a lot further back," Jennifer said. As she said that, a blade of aura flew to her, cutting her neck off. Her head dropped to the ground with her body following it.

"One of you will be taking the horses. The rest of us will be going into the forest," the leader said.

As three of them got off their horses, the two behind the leader saw where he was headed. There was a particular tree whose branches were all broken off. Right behind it was a similar tree with a few branches snapped off.

They quickly realized why their leader stopped them. He knew that this was where the people who escaped had gotten off the horses.

"How many are we looking for?" The person who talked to Jennifer asked the leader. His question was met with a moment of silence.

After thinking, he said, "Two."

"Only two?"

"Yes. The second one should be more powerful than the 3rd Circle Aura Knight you just killed, so do not hold back any of your power." He said and jumped onto the tree that Leo had used to sling through the woods.