The Turmoil in Baluo (Revised)

"Whoa~!"

(?˙o˙?)

"Hey, Green Swordsman uncle, you're amazing! You almost really did chop him to death!!"

(*?????)?

You were this close. What a shame...

Little Annie quietly sighed to herself. She wasn't sure whether she was lamenting the "Green Swordsman" uncle's narrow defeat, or regretting that the Archmage hadn't been cut down with a single slash.

Or maybe both?

(...)

?;￢д￢?

The battle had already ended...

Then, the three of them naturally left the chaotic battlefield, where thick smoke still billowed from the magical flames consuming it. Annie transported them with a single Teleport spell to a place a fair distance away—far enough that even if the badly injured Archmage fell asleep completely unguarded, he wouldn't have to worry about the spirits of the trees taking revenge in his dreams, say, by strangling him to death with vines.

In a rather dramatic turn of events, after one troublesome little girl had stood by and watched for the better part of the day as the wandering Archmage Ryze and the Wuju Order's Master Yi, the "Green Swordsman," fought a dazzling, life-or-death battle of magic and swordsmanship, the fight had ended in no time at all—just as she was still hesitating over whether to step in and help one of them. And it had ended with the complete victory of a crafty old mage.

So,

Just as she was privately betting with her teddy bear and wondering what the ruthless old man would do with the captured "Green Swordsman"—would he question him first and then beat him up, or beat him up first and then question him?—

That petty old geezer, the wandering Archmage who had shamelessly chased her halfway across the planet over some stupid rock not long ago, had simply let the "Green Swordsman" go?

And now,

The two