I scanned the area behind the woman, she wasn’t alone. I counted perhaps ten soldiers in the distance behind her. It was too far for me to see clearly, but my guess was that they were elves as well.

I quickly turned off “appraisal” and turned back to the others. “She isn’t alone! I count about ten soldiers behind her. They’re quite some way back, it seems like even her own companions are giving her a wide berth.”

Altria looked at me calmly. “I’m not surprised…” She turned to Ontari. “How many of your unit survived?”

She glanced across the meadow before answering. “About two thirds of them. Most are covering down by the riverbank or under the bridge, waiting for my signal. It was only the unlucky bastards up here that were hit in her first strike. I’m surprised you all came through unscathed.”

She shrugged. “We were lucky…”

Ontari glanced at me, ruffled her hair, and turned back to Altria. “Anyway, how can he even see her?”

“One of his skills… Actually, I have an idea.” Altria said, pulling two arrows into her bow. “Theo, where is she now?”

I quickly turned on “appraisal” once again. “Hold on a second.”

The woman was still at the far edge of the field, she didn’t seem to be in any hurry to come after us and finish up the job. She knew she hadn’t got everyone, so she was probably just waiting for anyone dumb enough to move from their cover.

I pointed in the general direction. “At the far edge of the field, about forty meters from here.”

Altria grabbed her bow and notched two arrows. “Forty meters, are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Altria signalled to where I’d pointed before. “Directly over there?”

“Yes.”

The woman was standing still exactly where I’d indicated. Ping, Altira loosed the arrows. She was shooting blind only using my directions to aim. Both arrows shot high into the sky, before curving back down to earth. I couldn’t tell exactly where they were going to land, but the woman seemed unaware, for now. She was still looking over the bodies at the far end of the field. I held my breath as the arrows fell back to earth faster than my eyes could follow.

Then at the last second and without even looking, the woman pulled a whip from her hip and with a single swish it flung up into the air. It cut through the arrows, leaving just the broken pieces to fall on the ground around her. What was worse, was that she then immediately turned to our direction. I knew it was impossible, but I felt as if we made eye contact as she did. I broke off my gaze.

I panicked a little, turning to Altria. “I think we’re in trouble…”

She tilted her head. “Did I miss?”

I shook my head. “No… I think your shot was on target, but she destroyed the arrows before they hit her.”

“Damn… Well, it was a longshot.”

“But now we’ve drawn her attention… She’s heading right for us!”

The woman had slowly and calmly been walking in our direction. She didn’t seem to show the slightest bit of concern that someone with the skill to pull off that shot was waiting behind the cart.

Altria looked to Serin for direction. “What do you want to do Serin?”

Serin had already drawn her rapier and had edged to the far left of the carriage when she had asked. It was clear she was planning on fighting.

Ontari gently took Altria’s shoulder. “Wait Altria, you should all flee. My unit will hold her off for as long as we can.”

Altria shrugged her off. “No.”

“But we can’t allow you to be caught or worse.”

“I know, but even if we did get away, she would only come after us again. She found us here and there’s no telling how long you could delay her for. Our best bet is facing her here while we’re at our strongest.”

Serin looked over her shoulder from the corner of the carriage. “I agree with Altria. Our best chance is now, while we have the numbers on our side.”

Ontari’s face dropped. “But…”

“We’re staying and we’re going to need your help to do this.” Altria said firmly.

Ontari sighed. “Okay.”

Altria looked towards the river. “Call over your strongest fighters, the rest should remain out of the way for now.”

“Right.”

Still following the woman’s movements, I could see she was still slowly strolling towards us. She had covered almost half of the distance between us. “We don’t have long.” I cautioned.

Ontari turned and gave a strange whistle behind us, followed by a series of hand signals I couldn’t grasp the meaning of. Four of her soldiers jumped up from the riverbank and ran in our direction.

As they ran, Altria let off a series of arrows to distract our enemy. “How are we going to do this Serin?”

Serin looked deep in thought. “I’m not sure… Theo, is she in range of any of your skills?”

“Not yet, maybe “special heal” but that would distract all of you as much as her.”

“Then we’re going to have to get closer.”

“To her?”

“Yes.”

“But how?”

“Just stay behind me. I won’t let you get hurt.”

“But what about you? Last time you barely saw her attack.”

“This time I know it’s coming, and I can prepare… Altria, you and Ontari take the right, Theo and I will take the left. Ontari ask your men to back us up once we’ve engaged her. The rest can take care of those soldiers hanging back on the road.” Instructed Serin.

“Okay.” Replied Ontari.

Serin gripped my arm and looked me in the eye. “Theo, we just need you to get us an opening, nothing more. There’s no room to push your luck against this opponent.”  

“Got it.”

I already felt like just poking our heads out from behind the cartridge was pushing our luck after what had happened earlier. Still, I agreed with Serin and Altria in as much as that if we were going to face her, we were better to do it here whilst we had the support of Ontari’s unit.

Serin crept to the edge of the carriage and then look back. “Altria, we’re going to have to throw everything we have at her. Are you ready?”

Altria already had two arrows notched in her bow. “Yes.”

“Good… Rosa you stay here. If things sound like they aren’t going well, you should try to run while we’re still fighting. I don’t think she is likely to follow you.”

Rosa’s shoulders dropped. “But…”

“Sorry, but there’s nothing you can do to help us.”

Rosa lifted her crossbow, she looked intent on helping. “I can at least cover you.”

“Please, just escape if you have the chance.”

“Fine.”

Finally, Serin turned back to me. “Where is she now?”

“She’s just stood there in the middle of the field.”

It was strange, as soon as we started getting ready for our counterattack, she stopped there. It was like she had sensed what was going on and stopped there waiting for us to make our move.

“Okay…” Serin took in a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

Serin said a few words under her breath and stepped out from the carriage. As she did, she was enveloped by a faint white glow. Whatever she was doing, I hadn’t seen her use this technique before.

At the same time Altria and Ontari stepped out from the righthand side of the carriage. Altria let off several shots from her bow, her hands moving like a blur. She then let it fall to her side and pulled out both of her daggers from her hips and ran at the woman. Ontari followed in her footsteps her sword drawn.

As soon as Altria ran forward, so did Serin. Her movements were even faster than usual, and she was still surrounded by the faint glow. The woman was still stood there, she hadn’t moved an inch from the spot. All she had done as we appeared was crack a grin and watch on. Then she reached to the whip on her hip. I couldn’t even see it move, I realised she had attacked because Serin and Altria both came to a dead stop. It was so sudden I almost crashed into Serin. She had somehow avoided the woman’s whip, but it was now wrapped around her rapier. She was pushing back as the woman tried to pull her forward.

Altria had seen this and had quickly tried to close the distance between her and the woman. Without turning to see, the woman flicked three daggers from her wrist. Somehow Altria deflected two of them but the third hit Ontari in the thigh and instantly brought her to her knees. She screamed and Altria turned and went to her aid. She was bleeding heavily.

Ontari was pushing Altria back. “Don’t worry about me. Focus on the fight.”

Altria quickly checked the seriousness of the wound before turning back to the fight. Serin at the same time tipped her blade and managed to free it of the whip and charged the woman as quickly as she could. She managed to get in close enough that the whip wasn’t effective, but the woman switched to yet another dagger and seamlessly parried her attacks.

I was watching the entire time, looking for an opening where I could use my skills without them hitting Serin as well. It was no use though, because the fighting was too frenetic that I couldn’t be sure that wouldn’t hit her. Just to make things harder Altria joined the fray. The woman was somehow able to fight them both off at the same time and she still looked as if she wasn’t breaking a sweat. She was seriously some kind of monster. I had to do something, as things stood, we weren’t going to turn the tables on her. There was no way that Serin and Altria had the time to use one of their big attacks, the woman was never going to give them the opening.