Orwell was not having a good time right now, he had been born and raised in Querum as a hunter by his father and from his mother he learned all the nuances in working with the kills he would gather in his hunt. He learned the ways of the bow and sword and how to skin the beasts later on, so basically he knew how to fight a brainless, bloodthirsty beast of the forrest and while not skilled enough to actually beat anyone with actual training, he was under the impression that he could hold his own in a fight against a more intelligent being, like a human.

So what was he supposed to do against an bloodthirsty beast with human intelligence? Under normal circumstances he would have never had to worry about that, since the forrest near Querum didn’t house any such beasts, normally that is.

With every second going by, he felt himself getting more tired and exhausted against Hanna‘s endless spur of attacks, she was so fast he could barely block her claws any given time and from the way it seemed to Orwell, Hanna was not taking this seriously at all, she was constantly laughing and taunting Orwell, feeding his burning fire of rage, but he knew that is exactly what she wants. To her this was all nothing more then a game.

On the other side the fight seemed far more in his companions favour, with Lady Kathrin clearly having the upper hand against Adeline, being far more skilled and experienced, while Luisa and Klara seemed to be evenly matched, with neither side being able to get through the others defences, as a result, Orwell deducted that he just needs to outlast Adeline. If he could do that Hanna would have to fight two opponents and they might just be able to win this.

"Orwell, honey, you aren’t doing yourself any favours here right now. If you really wanted to get on my nerves you shouldn’t have made this so much fun!" She suddenly grasped his sword by the hilt with so much speed, that Orwell barley saw it happen, and before he knew it, his sword was ripped from his grasp and thrown into the nearby bushes.

Grabbing him by the chin, she pulled him closer, with her other hand near his throat. Her smirk grew as the reality of his situation finally caught up to him, he was going to die now. There was no way for him to escape these claws now, no way to fight back and despair grabbed his soul.

Hanna suddenly licked Orwell‘s face and she released a shudder of pleasure, there was simply nothing more beautiful then the fear of beings at deaths door, when all rational thought leaves the body and pure instinct to survive grasp the body, only to fail and to resemble a fish on land, flapping helplessly in despair and fear.

"You were always so suspicious of me, yet you never did a single move, you were just to smart for your own good. Now before I end you, I want you to answer me a few questions can you do that for me old pal?"

Orwell, obviously didn’t answer, so Hanna simply continued as if he had answered with a yes.

"Did you remember our meat we often brought back from our hunting trips? Tell me, how did it taste? Did you like it? Do you wanna know where we got it from?" Again Orwell didn’t speak or move, something Hanna did not enjoy. As she threw him to the ground.

The sound of bones cracking rang into the forest air and Orwell screamed in pain, before Hanna put her foot onto his stomach and snarling at the man. Both Lady Kathrin and Klara cried out Orwell‘s name and tried to help the old hunter, however both Adeline and Luisa used the opportunity to attack, keeping them preoccupied and unable to help Orwell.

"Did you ever notices how there were fewer bandits then before? Well you guys have to thank me for that. I sure hope you enjoyed the taste of them, because without me, you will never be able to get their meat ever again!"

Still a bit dazed from his fall, it took Orwell a few seconds before he could truly understand what Hanna had truly said. Once it did finally click, his eyes bulged to a degree that shouldn’t be humanly possible and he suddenly had the very strong urge to vomit, with Hanna‘s foot on his stomach, he could feel the contents of his stomach crawling back up and into his throat. When Hanna raised her foot.

"Time to end this game, it was fun but every toy will eventually become dull, try not to take this to seriously." Her foot raised, her eyes glowed a crimson glow before she licked her lips a final time.

"Farewell Orwell, but don’t worry the rest of Querum might join you very soon! Hahahahah!!"

He closed his eyes in acceptance, brazing himself for unimaginable pain, as suddenly a loud scream rang into the forest.

"Get away you monstrosity!"

Opening his eyes once more he was surprised to see Julia, rushing forward and she tackled Hanna to the ground. They rolled around on the forest floor for a bit, but of course Hanna easily overpowered the young girl and was now sitting on top of her, holding Julia‘s arms above her head with one clawed hand, and the other close to Julia‘s eyes.

"Now now little princess, don’t you know how rude it is to interrupt someone while playing? Guess I have to punish you now. Say goodbye to these little eyes of yours!!" Hanna rose her hand and slammed it onto Julia‘s face, her claws tearing through flesh and as Hanna raised her hand again, an eyeball was hanging from on of her claws.

Julia screamed in pain, she twitched and desperately tried to get the monster off of her body, but it was to no avail, Hanna was to strong for her to shake off. Orwell looked on in horror and a sudden adrenaline boost let him ignore his still injured body, as he rushed towards Hanna, intending to save the same way she had saved him, before he could however, someone else had reached the two girls.

Running as fast as her legs would allow her two, Lady Kathrin slammed into Hanna, to Orwell she seemed like a raging bull, as she charged at the beast in human clothing. Hanna was again flung into the air and off of Julia. Lady Kathrin grabbed her daughter and quickly ripped parts of her own clothing apart, so she could use it to stop Julia‘s wounds from bleeding, then she called for Orwell, who stood next to her, mouth wide open in astonishment.

"Get my daughter back to the camp and let the healers there investigate her body and wounds, move quickly, the poison these beasts hold acts quickly. Now move you fool!"

Orwell wanted to rebut and try and help her in the fight, but with one look into the nobles eyes he decided against it, he silently grabbed the young noble and slung her over his shoulder, with a final good luck he ran towards Querum and the camp.

As Lady Kathrin watched the hunter disappear into the dark woods, she released a breath she didn’t knew she was holding, finally she knew her daughter was save, finally she could focus on the threat at hand without fear. And it was good timing, because the moment she looked back towards where Hanna had been flung, she saw the beast running towards her, her claws raised, she could barley block the attack.

"You know a joke can get quite stale really quickly, one time is funny, two times is fucking annoying and three times is just pissing people off."

"If it weren’t for my daughter trapped underneath you, I would have split you in half." Lady Kathrin all but spat towards Hanna, the two had a silent stand of, neither side moving a muscle, the forest air blowed around them and the silence was only rarely broken, by the fight the two mages still had in the background.

Hanna looked towards one of the trees behind Lady Kathrin, where a bloodied and bruised Adeline laid against a tree, Hanna didn’t know if she was dead or just unconscious, but that didn’t really matter, what did matter was that this bitch right in front of her had damaged HER property, HER pet.

As the last rays of the sun finally disappeared behind the green leaves of the trees, Lady Kathrin spoke a short incarnation and her sword suddenly burst into flame, bathing her face in red And orange shine, while Hanna‘s eyes started to glow slightly crimson red. Then suddenly Hanna jumped forward, her right claw raised above her head.

"DIE YOU BITCH!"

————————————————

Orwell stumbled through the ever growing darkness of the forest, he knew the forest well, but trying to navigate through it with no light and while carrying another person on his shoulders was a step above even him.

Julia had started to quite down from her earlier screams of pain and they had turned into more of whimpers and heavy breathing, Orwell could feel the sweat from her body starting to cover his own back and he grew more and more worried by the second, this poison was really quick, just as Lady Kathrin had told him.

Suddenly bright orange light started to glow onto his path, looking backwards he could see flames suddenly erupting from the tree crowns behind him, he worried for the First Lady, but knew he had to keep going and now with his way laminated he was sure he would find the way back in no time whatsoever.

As he turned a sharp corner, he suddenly ran into some hard like metal and he staggered back, for a moment he feared the worst but his worries were lifted as he recognised the voice that spoke soon after.

"Hunter Orwell what is happening here?" That stern voice of course belonged to the captain of the Cloud Order, Feralt.

"Master Feralt, we found the young Lady, but we ran into trouble not soon after, we have no time for details, the young Lady was struck and his now suffering from severe poisoning!"

Alarmed, Feralt acted quickly, taking the young girl from the hunter and calling forth three of his accompanying men, who worked in the medical corps of the Cloud Order, they laid the Young noblewoman on the ground and with the help of a torch took a closer examination of the young girl and they all came to the same conclusion.

"Sir, this poison is not curable with even more advanced healing methods we possess, we can probably delay it, but there is not guarantee, we would need Divine Magic to completely cure her."

With a grim, yet saddened expression Feralt ordered 5 of his men to accompany the three medics back to camp, making sure to send a messenger into the nearest church as quickly as possible, once back to camp and Julia has been examined further in the safety of the camp.

Left with only twelve of his initial force, he turned to the Hunter and asked him to return to camp as well, Orwell, however, had different ideas.

"Lady Kathrin And Lady Julia saved my life, by endangering their own and I want to return the favour by saving them now in return. I know I might not be of much help, my Lord, but this is something truly personal. So please, I will accompany you."

Under normal circumstances and once, a long time ago, Feralt might have ignored such things, there was no need to needlessly endanger innocent lives life, if at all possible. And, truthfully, he still thought so even now, but looking into Orwell‘s eyes, he saw the same determination he had seen First Lady Kathrin, a determination to always do what they perceived as good, no matter the cost,

And Feralt respected it.

Together they ran further into the forest, towards the ever growing flames, they prepared for the worst and all had a truly bad feeling inside their stomachs and once they turned that final corner, they saw a field of devastation and destruction.

Everywhere they looked were pieces of trees like a child threw them around with reckless abandon, all plant life was either burning or already charred completely black and were turning into ashes, in the middle of this field of destruction four figures stood and were clearly fighting against one another, and only after a few moments of disorientation, the men saw the whole picture.

Two mages were bombarding each other with spells left right and center, only ever barely dodging or blocking the others attacks, although it was pretty easy to see that both were extremely tired, gasping for air multiple times during incarnations.

The other two were engaged in an extremely fast paced brawl and on closer inspection, Feralt recognised Lady Kathrin, although her armor seemed slightly burned and multiple dents were visible even from their distance, splashes of black blood were seen everywhere and Lady Kathrin was fighting a seemingly losing battle.

Before anyone of his men or Orwell could really do anything and were still trying to comprehend the absurdity of the situation, Feralt drew his sword and ran towards the fight, a burning hate deep inside him being reawakened by seeing one of his archnemeses.

Hanna had never felt so angry before, even back in her old life she had never been this angry before, just the fucking audacity of this ugly bitch to come here and not only ruin her fun, but also damage one of her pets!! In the back of her mind she knew what she was doing was idiotic at best and suicidal at worst, this woman was probably part of the army camping outside of Querum and they would certainly come and look for her sooner or later and she was clearly capable and trained in combat, seeing as she could beat the only actually trained person in their group, that being Adeline.

A quite voice in her head told her to get her pets, leave and seek revenge later, either with actual training under their belt, or with a plan to ambush her, but sadly that was only a quite voice, there was also a far louder voice telling her to skin this person alive. And that‘s what she trying to accomplish at this very moment and it is all that matters.

Hanna went on the offensive, with no plan other then attacking, she needed that women to be dead. She swung widely around with her claws, using her in human strength and endurance to release an unending assault, not caring for anything that happened around her.

Of course for a experienced and skilled fighter, like Lady Kathrin, who spend decades of her live training and hunting for this exact moment, it would be not a problem to simply bide their time and wait for the other party to tire out and beat them from there, but because of the sheer ferocity of the attack even she was pushed to her limits not getting hit.

Lady Kathrin got multiple smaller hits on the raging Hanna, yet they didn’t seem to bother or slow her down at all, she ignored her black blood dripping onto the surface of the earth, burning through any plants like acid, and ignored the hot flames that burned her outfit into ashes, revealing the pale, almost white, skin underneath.

They fought in this hectic brawl for minutes without stopping, under the blazing heat Lady Kathrin‘s sword‘s flames had created and it all started to take a toll on the older lady, her movements got slower and her breathing got heavier with every breath she took, adrenaline was keeping her in the fight, but she realised she was fighting a battle she couldn’t win, unless the monster in front of her tired out as well and while it seemed like Hanna‘s movements also slowed down and her breathing getting heavier, it was at a far slower pace then Kathrin‘s.

It was in this peculiar situation where one of Hanna‘s blows finally caught Kathrin off guard and although she wasn’t sliced by the venomous claws, she still got knocked to the ground, her sword falling through the sky, and into Hanna‘s hands.

Hanna quickly pinned Kathrin to the ground, with one of her feet. She glared at the women beneath her and held Kathrin‘s sword into the women’s view and promptly split it in half over her other knee.

Lady Kathrin was stunned, her blade was forged from old eleven metal, know to be harder then even the mighty dragon‘s scales and yet it was broken so easily by someone not even taller then most 12 year olds.

"Oh, ohohohohohoh, Ahahahahahahaha… AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I‘M GOING TO ENJOY THIS! 
Your people will be finding prices of you for the next three months!"

Hanna raised the women by her collar, Lady Kathrin wriggled and fought back as hard as she could, trying to get free, but it was all for nothing, as suddenly she was thrown to the ground and the sound of cracking bones could be heard. Lady Kathrin wailed in pain, before Hanna stomped onto her chest with foot, breaking even more ribs and the raising her foot on last time. She aimed for Kathrin‘s face, to end it all.

But it never happened.

She had raised her foot, ready to crush Lady Kathrin‘s skull and winning fight.

But the foot never came down, nor did any terrible spell or any of her claws. Nothing came from Hanna.

The wet sound of her black blood dripping onto the floor hit Hanna‘s ears and expression was that of terror and pain, as she looked down.

Where saw the tip of a blade was protruding out from her chest, wet with black blood.

The blade was soon removed from her chest and Hanna grabbed onto her wound and with a grunt,

 She fell to the forest floor.