"You stupid girl!"

Kaede was still trying to extract the siphon from its dead owner when she heard Major Karen's voice. As she glanced back on reflex, she saw the Major use her swordstaff to pole-vault over trench and snow alike.

"Flourish, Animated Assault!"

As the Major rotated her body around the shaft in midair, her red hair gained a life of its own as it shot forward with thousands of tendrils. They grew like wildfire even as they flew through the air, before wrapping themselves around the translucent arcane armor of the huskarl leader that was about to cleave Kaede in two.

The massive zweihander blade came within a finger's reach of the snowy-haired familiar.

Then, as Major Karen landed, her carpet-length hair pulled its grappled foe aside like the bent arm of a giant. The large man was thrown aside with ease as braking skis made for poor footing. His body was hurled across the snow before slamming into another. A wardbreaker rune inscribed into his sword discharged itself as the blade cut into his unfortunate comrade.

Two more Northmen rushed up before braking in parallel, which kicked up a massive wave of flurry and ice to blind the red-haired major. But Karen used her momentum to swing her swordstaff around in a wide arc, over the kneeling Kaede before slicing deep into the oncoming wave.

"Negation Surge."

The Major imbued her weapon with the ward-penetration aid, just before the sweeping blade met the thigh of one skier. The cut was blind and shallow. Though it nevertheless sent its victim into an uncontrolled crash.

"Cyclone Blast!" A lieutenant yelled as he stepped up beside Kaede. He aimed towards the ground at a low angle. His wind spell blew the wintry wave back towards the attackers while intensifying it with freshly loosened snow.

His spell was still taking effect when his stomach was sliced open, as a huskarl erupted from the concealing vortex and banked hard while leveling an outstretched sword.

However his killer, blinded by the snow, didn't turn fast enough and fell into the communication trench behind them. A pool of lingering rimefire soon set him alight in screams.

Got it!

Kaede raised her head as she finally yanked the siphon out of its previous owner's death grip. Her struggle had at least shown her where the trigger was.

Better yet, the rune-inscribed handle of the lower-barrel pump continued to push in and out automatically -- probably as the result of an Animate spell.

It couldn't have been a moment too soon.

Zweihander-equipped ski infantry now poured into their position, claiming the lives of more soldiers who had followed their commander across the trench. The common Weichsen footman served as little more than fodder before the huskarl retinue troops, who all had heavy warding from their runes. However the same could not be said for the magic-capable officers -- as Major Karen pulled her swordstaff blade out of yet another northerner, he fell to become the eighth enemy corpse that cluttered the nearby ground.

Standing just ahead of Kaede and to the side, the Major was the only one left who protected the familiar from the barbarian horde.

The huskarl leader, a Västergötlander nobleman based on his gold-studded helmet, stood back up to rejoin the fight. After clenching a runestone and tossing it aside, his skin darkened to a stony texture while a sheet of ice crystal layered over his chainmail-and-hide armor.

His massive sword swung in and pinned Karen's blocking shaft into a contest of strength, one that she quickly began to lose. Yet even as her life was endangered, the Major's prehensile hair continued to trip incoming foes to keep the smaller girl safe.

With limited precision involved in a flamethrower, Kaede simply aimed it towards the enemy and pressed the trigger against the lower barrel. Her first victims were two skiers charging in from the right. Their faces melted away in grotesque sight as the jet of rimefire sprayed into them.

Keep shooting. Keep shooting! The Samaran girl repeated to herself, trying hard not to stare at the gruesome fate of those whom she had just killed.

Strafing the siphon without releasing its trigger, Kaede swept the field with its curtain of flames. Over a dozen foes ignited into human torches under her fire, their piercing shrieks drowning out even the sound of battle. A crashed but merely injured siphoneer knelt in an attempt to return fire. However she noticed his movement first and sent him to a fiery grave.

After a brief pause to adjust her aim, the familiar then tapped a burst at the huge man who was about to overwhelm her guardian.

At just a few paces of range, Kaede nailed the shot on the nobleman's left shoulder. But some of the liquid fire splashed off the ice, which landed on Major Karen's right forearm and wrist...

"AaaaAHHH!"

The Major immediately lost her right hand's grip on the swordstaff. As though trying to escape the burning pain, she half-leaped, half-fell to her left.

Even after receiving enough rimefire to engulf his shoulder, the huge northerner continued to press in like it was just a flesh wound. His zweihander easily brushed aside the now one-handed swordstaff before hacking into the Major's upper arm. More wardbreaker runes triggered as the massive sword cleaved its way into a gap below her steel-plated spaulder, then skin, muscle, and bone alike, before severing her entire right arm in a spray of blood.

Ohmygod what have I done...

Kaede stood frozen with horror as her protector wailed with pain on the snowy ground. Her arms felt paralyzed by shock as they trembled without end.

Meanwhile the northern nobleman, dripping flames with his entire icy torso now ablaze, took a heavy step towards Kaede.

Tall as a bear and covered in frozen furs and chain-linked steel, the enemy seemed an unstoppable ice devil wreathed in hellfire. His deep growling felt more like the haunted voice of an anguished soul than the pained weakness of a dying man.

But before he could finish taking another step, the one-handed Captain stabbed her swordstaff -- its shaft supported by wraps of wavy red hair -- straight into his groin.

"KEEP... SHOOTING!" She yelled as blood continued to flow from her arm stump.

The Major's cry hit Kaede like a slap before the familiar snapped out of her paralysis. She adjusted the siphon with shaking fingers before sending a burst straight into the devil's smoke-concealed face.

Not even a magically-enhanced berserker could survive that.

Kaede swept leftward on reflex. Her weapon incinerated a squad of sword-and-shield huskarls who had almost reached her from the side. The curtain of flames then swung back right in a wide arc, forcing a new wave of spear-equipped infantry to bank hard and steer away from her blazing arc of death.

However it didn't stop some of them from hurling their spears. Most of them either missed or deflected off her wards. Though one of them managed to penetrate and plunge straight into her upper thigh.

Kaede cried out in pain as she fell down onto one knee. But she never stopped shooting.

Within a massed charge of ski infantry, there wasn't much room to maneuver without intruding upon another's lane. Fallen soldiers already littered the area as evading skiers rammed into those less accomplished. This in turn increased the obstacle count for those behind them.

Yet despite her efforts, Kaede felt certain that the defense was broken. She couldn't afford the time to assess her surroundings. However her peripheral vision could already see enemy troops crossing the trench en masse atop frozen ramps, overwhelming the far smaller number of defenders who stood their ground.

There was only so much so few people could do.