Robyn ran through the forest, wiping the blood from the nosebleed she'd gained because of Penny's headbutt before looking off to the side.
Penny was there, flying parallel to her, a few trees in between them. Her right arm was back to normal, and her mechanical eyes were fixated on Robyn. Both of them were moving at a speed unreachable by any normal human or even monster, and they were weaving through the trees all the while. No, if one looked closer, they could see that Penny occasionally grazed the trees, but she didn't pay it any mind.
"Target locked. Fire!"
Penny shouldered her rifle and aimed. The tracking bullets spat out by the rifle avoided the obstacles in the way of their target, rushing Robyn while taking trajectories normally unthinkable for a bullet. But Robyn unleashed violent winds around her, changing the trajectory of the bullets and firing a magic arrow of her own as a counterattack.
But no arrow fired directly at Penny would work on her. Once again, she used Jaune as a shield and shot lasers from her eyes. Robyn dodged them, but immediately afterward, Penny's palm opened up, revealing another barrel. It turned out to be a flamethrower.
"You plan to burn down the forest?"
Robyn quickly changed her magic to the Water attribute, launching it as an arrow to put out the fire. But that left an opening for Penny to launch her arm as a fist-rocket towards Robyn. This was more commonly referred to as a rocket punch.
But Robyn was capable of more than just long-range combat. She was still part of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians. Her base stats were high enough for her to be competent in close combat. Robyn slammed her own fist at the rocket punch, canceling out its momentum.
The arm returned to Penny. Penny reattached her arm while muttering in a cold tone. "It seems like that attack just now fractured bone. Will update predictions to consider reduced accuracy."
"You really are amazingly hard to fight."
The two had finally made it out of the forest and were currently standing on a rough, rocky mountain. This change in terrain now put Robyn at a disadvantage. This area would always put Penny, who could fly, at an advantage, especially since there was no cover.
But Robyn simply continued up the mountain. Her horse lower-half continued to run at full speed up the almost-vertical, rough mountain rock. Penny continued to give chase, but Robyn continuously produced magic arrows, launching them to hinder her pursuit. Penny dodged every single shot and returned fire of her own. But Robyn wouldn't be beaten. She dodged Penny's bullets with equal agility and continued to attack. Arrows and bullets crossed many times, but their skills showed and neither was hit.
In the midst of all that, Robyn was the first to show her hand. She nocked a large arrow and concentrated magic power at the tip of it.
"I see. You're going to use Al Nassr, the arrow that once fired will never miss?"
"Exactly. Even you won't be able to dodge this one."
In Midgar, several feared skills existed and were referred to as having absolute accuracy. Some were the type to leave no room for escape, like Penny's Brachium, while others would simply continue to track the target until it was hit. Naru's Shine Blow, which traveled at the speed of light and thus couldn't be avoided, was also considered to have absolute accuracy.
But Al Nassr fit into none of those categories. As soon as it was fired, it would have already hit its target. In other words, there was no travel time. Far from being possible to intercept or dodge the attack, this skill was on an entirely different plane. Just launching it equaled a hit. Even Penny had no method of avoiding it. Her only recourse was to stop it from being fired in the first place.
Of course, Penny also couldn't just stop the arrow with Jaune. Even with his covering ability, he couldn't get in front of an arrow that didn't even travel. But Penny still considered this to be opportune.
"I see. But the instant you attack will be my greatest chance."
In response to Robyn's attack stance, Penny threw away Jaune and transformed her right arm. Penny was aiming to fire at the same time Robyn did, leaving him no room to dodge either. Even Robyn would be unguarded at the moment she attacked. Since she wouldn't be able to avoid the hit anyway, Penny steeled herself and committed to bringing Robyn down with her.
Both parties glared at each other without a single twitch, waiting for the moment to unleash their attacks.
"Al Nassr!"
"Zuben El Genubi!"
An arrow of fire shot out from Robyn's bow, and in less than a tenth of a second, a beam of light came out from Penny's right arm. At the same time that her beam of light was fired at Robyn, Penny activated her jet thrusters.
While the damage from Al Nassr would be coming in just a moment, Penny decided not to pay it any mind. She had no idea where it would hit. It could be her torso, her chest, her neck, or even her head. But no matter where it landed, she was confident she could take it. And, as a golem, she knew she could continue to fight, even with some damage. So there was no need to be worried over some damage.
I just need to chase her down and finish her!
But in the next instant, Robyn defied Penny's expectations. The arrow she'd fired didn't hit Penny. Instead, Robyn disappeared.
She hadn't escaped by running. And she hadn't flown at high speeds either. Robyn had managed to literally disappear in a way that Penny could not detect. That was the only way it could be described, and in a rare turn of events, Penny was truly confused at the situation. She stopped on the spot and looked around the area, searching for her enemy and finding no traces. There was no hide nor hair of her. There was no sound or even any residual heat. She wasn't hiding. Robyn truly was no longer in the area.
Penny immediately switched to attempting to find out what happened, and she played back the visual record of what had just occurred. She observed in great detail what Robyn had done just seconds earlier before she'd unleashed the arrow. And she noticed that right after launching her arrow, Robyn had grabbed onto it.
"She got me…"
Robyn's target had never been Penny. She had most likely targeted something far away, like a far-off tree or something. Then, Robyn had grabbed onto the arrow that exceeded causality to always hit its target and was taken along with the arrow to whatever she targeted.
This was the first time Penny had ever seen an arrow used like that. Robyn had used the skill one thousand years ago, but she had never once done that with it. Penny was able to discern the future from past data, and she could do it with better accuracy than any modern computer. But looking at it the other way, that also meant that she would never expect something that she didn't have in her memory. And that was a hole in her defenses, a secret loophole in her thought processes. By using a trump card that Penny hadn't seen one thousand years ago, Robyn had managed to escape from Penny, a feat that was said to be impossible.
Having gained knowledge of Robyn's trump card was still a large boon. But given how troublesome she and Sienna would be combined, though, Penny considered her failure to capture Robyn here too high a price to pay.