As I was watched on still hoping for an opening, the woman switched from merely defending against Serin and Altria. She parried their attacks and threw daggers at both in an instant. The girls easily deflected her shots, but they had both stepped backwards to do so. This gave the woman just enough space to bring her whip back into play.

I didn’t see the movement, only heard the cracking sound. Both Serin and Altria had jumped backwards to avoid the attack. At first glance it looked as if they had avoided it successfully, but then their wounds begun to open. It was nothing as severe as the others had received when she first appeared, but they were both hurt. They must have managed to have glanced her attack. I didn’t want to think what would have happened if they hadn’t. Things weren’t looking good, though. Their ability to dodge her strikes would be hampered now.

Despite that, I finally had my chance and a clear shot at her. I didn’t know how well the others would be able to capitalise on any opening I made, I didn’t have time to think it over. I just had to trust they would be able to use it. I quickly reeled off “Disorient” and “Disarm” the woman’s clothes flew off her, but she wasn’t fazed in the slightest and “Disorient” seemed to do little to slow her movements. The next thing I knew I couldn’t breathe. Her whip had tightened around my throat before I realised that she had moved her hand. I was already on my knees. All I could do was grip the whip with both hands and try to resist.

Sein and Altria weren’t one’s to miss and opening a both sprang into action, despite being injured. Neither of them was able to move as quickly as they were before. The woman countered them as soon as they moved an inch, throwing the last of the daggers she had on her. Two a piece, each of the girls managed do dodge one, but they were both hit. Serin was hit in her thigh and Altria in her abdomen. I needed to heal them, or they wouldn’t be able to continue the fight like this. Just how powerful was this woman? I had a feeling she wasn’t even using her full power.

With girls down, I used one more skill just as I felt the whip tighten once more. Just before I started to lose consciousness. “Interrogate”, I hoped it would work. I was filled with hope as the whip loosened ever so slightly and I could breathe once again. I looked up to see the dark elf woman standing over me.

She didn’t even seem slightly concerned by the others around her anymore. She leant down and holding my chin turned my face, so we saw eye to eye. “What was that?”

I looked into her eyes looking for a sign it worked. “A skill.” I replied.

She grinned. “Hmm, interesting. I think you might have had me if it wasn’t for my psychic resistance. I didn’t sense anything that strong from you before.”

The skill hadn’t worked.

She let go of my chin. “Just who are you?” She asked.

“Theo…”

She laughed loudly. “Shame, you are the one I must not allow to live. You might have been fun to toy with.”

“Why are you doing this?”

Her reply was flat and serious. “It’s my job.”

My eyes dotted side to side. Serin and Altria were both still down, clutching their wounds. Ontari wasn’t even moving. In desperation I activated “Special heal” at the very least at this range it might help the others. I could tell by the look on the woman’s face that she was feeling it.

“I suppose I should end this, before you create problems for me.”

The whip tightened again. I thought it was the end, when I heard a click from behind her. A bolt protruded from her chest, and she slumped top her side holding the wound.

She turned to the person that had crept behind her, shocked. “How did you?” She coughed and blood came up. “I didn’t sense you.”

The answer came from the voice of the person I least expected. Rosa. “There isn’t much to sense from me, I don’t have any power or much presence.”

I quickly deactivated the skill. The woman’s whip was still wrapped around my neck. She had thrown all the knives she had hidden on her body, there was nowhere left for her to have more. She could still be dangerous even with an arrow in the chest. I pulled the whip giving myself enough space to move and hit my fallen enemy with all my strength, just to make sure.

Rosa turned to me looking slightly flushed. “What was that sensation?”

“Oh, sorry that was one of my skills… It won’t have done you any harm. It’s a healing ability.”

“That’s okay, it er, felt good.”

“Yeah, it does seem to have that effect…”

Rosa then turned to the unconscious dark, winced then looked back at me. “Did you really need to hit her like that?”

“Well…”

Altria answered before I could say a word. “He did.”

She and Serin had walked over to where the woman lay on the floor. They were both still injured but had recovered a little.

Ontari’s soldiers began to appear from their hiding places once they realised that the fighting was over. Some of them immediately set to attending Ontari’s wounds. The group of soldiers that hung back in the distance and had seemed to have accompanied the dark elf woman here, still hadn’t approached our group. Even with our numbers thinned out it didn’t seem like they want to try their luck after what had just happened.

The woman was still unconscious, and the crossbow bolt was still poking out of her chest. She was going to need some medical attention if she was going to make it. Serin stood over the woman and pressed her sword against her head.

I worried what she was going to do and called out to her. “What are you doing?”

Serin looked back. “We can’t leave her alive. She will only come after us again. We barely survived this time, we probably won’t next time.”

“Really Serin? We don’t know she will and well, I’m not sure I’m comfortable with her being killed when she’s like this. Maybe if she’d died in the fight, but not like this!”

Serin gave in a moved her blade to side, she looked relieved she hadn’t done it.

Altria was already sliding her own knives back into their sheaths. “She was never going to go through with it anyway.”

Serin shrugged. “I would have. We probably should…”

“Yeah, we probably should, but that’s not really us, is it? You wouldn’t want the first time you kill someone to be like this do you?”

Serin looked in the direction of Ontari’s remaining soldiers. “No… Still, what do you think is going to happen once they realise that she’s still alive?”

Some were still healing Ontari while the others were working their way through the bodies left on the field. The dark elf had ensured not a single person that had survived her first strike was left alive. She mercilessly killed them. She clearly planned not to leave a single member of group alive. The soldiers that followed her were likely just tagging along to clear up the mess after her.

I could sense the anger of Ontari’s group growing as they reached their comrades bodies. To be honest I could understand how they felt. If Serin or Altria had been killed, would I want to let her live? Probably not. As it was, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to stop them carrying out vengeance on the woman.

Altria crouched down by the woman. “I don’t expect they will be happy about it. If I tell them we’re going to spare her life, they won’t argue.” She bound her arms and legs tightly with a length of rope. “Give me a hand Theo.”

“Sure.”

We carried the woman to one of the few trees nearby. Altria then finished tying her to the tree. No matter how strong this woman was she was going to struggle to escape from this, at least until her allies came for her. After she finished securing her, she broke the tip off the arrow and pulled the shaft from her wound. Then she begun to heal her. I could feel the gaze from the soldiers as she did so, but not a single one of them dared to say anything, they already knew what this meant, and they weren’t going to challenge Altria.

The woman still hadn’t regained consciousness by the time she was finished healing. Once she was done Altria threw a cloak over her and left her there. We collected up her whip and other weapons that lay about the place and stashed them inside the Carriage.

By the time we had finished Ontari was healed and was back up walking around. She headed towards us. “I thought we weren’t going to make it through that.” She said walking over to us.

Altria stood up to meet her. “You shouldn’t be so pessimistic… But it was touch and go for a while back there.”

“I don’t know how you managed it.”

“Well, you have Theo and Rosa to thank.”

Ontari looked to us and bowed. “Thank you both. We all owe you our lives.”

I laughed awkwardly. “Don’t mention it… We just got lucky.”

Rosa was nodding in agreement. “He’s right, if she wasn’t distracted, I never would have been able to sneak up like that”

Ontari glanced sadly around the field. “I hate to ask, but I’ll need another favour from you all.”

Altria was quick to answer seemingly guessed what the request would be. “There’s no need to ask. We need to carry their bodies. They’ll have to ride in the carriage, we can use the spare horses.”

“Thank you, Altria…”

Altria was right. There was no way that we could just leave them here lying in the field, not when we had a way of moving them.