Hecatolite couldn’t help but grin as she scanned over Clipped-ear and his accompanying soldiers, guessing there were around maybe… a lot of them. 

Yes, a lot. More than 10… which is far too many for a casual stroll at night. She nodded to herself as she gave up counting the group of men who all looked oddly alike. All tall with sharp features, it didn’t help that they were all wearing the same armor… Wait, I think that one’s a woman. She narrowed her eyes at the female elf who stood with a spear at the front of their formation. And it was definitely… possibly a she… maybe…

Am… am I racist!? She scrunched her face as she cocked her head to the side trying to make out any discerning features…  No, they don’t all look alike… I mean…. Yes, I can tell them apart damn it, look there is Clipped-ear and…. None of them look like Eryl! Pff I’m definitely not racist. It’s just dark out here and it’s hard to see them. 

Her internal debate was interrupted as Clipped-ear stepped forward, the soldiers behind him tensing as she called out to her, “Hecatolite,” He started in a calm but authoritative tone, “We felt… something, and came to investigate. Would you like to… enlighten us as to what is going on?”

Hecatolite couldn’t help but laugh. How he spoke, trying to be commanding but still dancing around the words, was just too amusing. It was obvious to her that he was tense, the tentative fear she could feel coming off him a clear indication of that, but she did respect that he didn’t back away as their eyes met. He even stood his ground as she scanned his soul which was… pleasant. 

It was the same pride she felt from the Elder that allowed him to not waver even when afraid, but unlike the elder, Hecatolite felt that Clipped ear was, at his core, a good person. Honorable, like Hans, someone she could trust, though he was still young she had no doubt he would be a good knight someday. 

She couldn’t understand why so many people had such a hard time meeting her eyes. Outside of their family or powerful mages most people look away when their gazes met so it was always pleasant to her when someone could maintain eye contact. It is, after all, a key thing for proper communication. “Just a bit of late-night training.”  She smiled as another wave of her sister’s power washed over her, Amethyst’s mana making her skin tingle as it surrounded her. 

“Training?” The disbelief in his voice irritated her as she rolled her eyes. 

“Yes, training. Old grabby hands back there was nice enough to volunteer to help Amethyst practice fighting mages with barriers.”  Hecatolite answered with a wave of her hand, “Though it should be over soon… Well, hopefully. I do want to get back to bed sometime tonight. Though with the way Calamari and Amethyst were looking at each other maybe I should get my own room... or one with Eryl…”  She hummed as she turned to watch the fight.

It wasn’t so much that she was ignoring the group of soldiers behind her, just… Well if they were going to attack her it didn’t really matter which way she was facing in the end. Given how many there were, they would surround her quickly. Besides, Clipped-ear feels like a good guy. She doubted he would stab her in the back… 

If he did, I would have to eat him on principle at that point. She nodded to herself as she turned to find Amethyst… 

Hecatolite’s entire body jerked to the side as what looked like a wall of water crashed into her, the thin vale of glass like water covering her in dozens of little cuts as she shielded her eyes. 

“You,” the elder hissed pointing his broken stick at Hecatolite, his eyes filled with what could only be described as a wild intensity that she did not much appreciate. After all he was still currently fighting Amethyst and it was hardly fair to her if he wasn’t paying her any attention. But…

Hecatolite couldn’t help herself, putting her hands on her hips and puffing out her chest she replied. “Me!” She declared in a jovial tone as he swung his stick at her, the slow movement easy for her to dodge though doing so did cause her tail to touch the wall of water that appeared to have increased in voracity as it tore a small patch of skin from her tail. 

He took another swipe at her causing her to dodge again. Is it just me or is this bubble getting smaller…  She thought, glancing back at the now much closer wall of needle-like water droplets only to see Amethyst standing beside Clipped ear watching her through the glass like wall. 

Hecatolite waved at her sister as she danced around the clearly unstable man who was now waving a stick at her.  “You want me to just… you know, take care of this while I’m in here?” Hecatolite called out to her as she noticed the loss of another few inches of space. Oh, that’s not good. Every time the area shrunk the wall appeared to become more… violent, the water picking up speed as it now started carving a clear line in the dirt around them. 

Hecatolite didn’t wait for her sister’s reply, after all he was actively attacking her… Amethyst will forgive her for taking over her fight just this once, right?

Narrowly dodging the attack, unable to back up do to the water wall behind her; not that it hurt her, but she couldn’t imagine losing large parts of your skin was exactly healthy for her. Besides, she liked her tail and its fur and Hecatolite was uncertain if healing magic worked on fur… It didn’t work on hair, which was a shame, but fur isn’t hair so maybe… 

Hecatolite didn’t notice the two attacks her tail deflected; the blunt club being batted away easily as she just… stood there. Only coming back to the fight as she heard the man taking a ragged breath behind her, the sound causing an uncomfortable shiver to run down her spine as she looked back at the nearly drooling man, his eyes unfocused as he clutched the staff in his hands. It was then that Hecatolite decided she didn’t much like being trapped in a tiny bubble with Mr. Grabby-hands. Which if she thought about it, wasn’t really a surprise since he was called… well… Mr. Grabby hands.

“I will kill you!” The man bellowed trying to stab her with the pointy end of his stick, his ragged breathing causing his voice to come out hoarse as he charged.

“I won't even remember your name.” She brought her foot up and, much like she had seen her dad do, kicked the man in the chest. Not as hard as she could, he was Amethyst’s prey after all, but hard enough to make him think twice… about… 

“Oh wow, I think I overestimated how much he weighed.” She said out loud as he vanished into the forest… backwards. Noticing everyone’s eyes on her, Hecatolite, now dripping with cold water, frowned. “Oops… I’ll go get him.” And much to her surprise no one followed as she chased after the elder, she had kicked; though she didn’t notice Amethyst standing beside Rilitar, a terminal in hand translating a exasperated conversation the two were having.

Eryl would later explain how lucky Hecatolite was that Astari had either completely lost focus on his spell when she kicked him, or hadn’t been maintaining it properly; given a barrier like that is typically firmly fixed around the caster. If Astari’s barrier had been cast properly it would have likely shredded her as he was ejected from their makeshift ring. 

Though for whatever reason, Hecatolite steadfastly maintained the belief she simply kicked him so hard magic couldn’t keep up properly, instead of moving along with him, the water that surrounded them violently jerked as if to follow him before splashing down onto her. 

Astari had… miscalculated. He could admit that, surely there was no shame in it either, he reassured himself as he careened off a tree. Making no headway in his fight with the sister, though he was positive it would only have been a matter of time until he would have finished her off, and seeing the creature just standing there talking to his useless nephew…

He may have lost his temper; there she was the source of all his problems just standing there… What were the odds really? Sure, the creature’s “sister” was apparently a very powerful and rare spacemancer, but she hadn’t shown any combat capabilities outside of the strange rifle she had with her. 

As long as he could keep the sister at bay, killing the creature that obviously had some form of charming magic, given her ability to sway his nephew into not helping him; the boy had always been weak willed. That would be simple enough, his barrier had proven to be rather effective in slowing the sister down. Meaning if he just shrank the area down, even with the pitiful amount of water, the increased pressure should be enough to hold the sister off long enough to finish the creature off. 

It really shouldn’t have taken that long after all, he was a trained mage, he should be able handle a child in a fight. 

That was his first miscalculation. As he assumed, the creature showed absolutely none of her sister's magical capabilities during their brief fight, but as it turns out she was… faster than he expected. If he hadn’t been focused on his barrier, he could have reinforced himself, or simply finished her off with a spell which given her brawling fighting style would have been the safest idea. Though clearly, he had her on the back foot during their fight, given she couldn’t even counter as he attacked her.

His second mista… miscalculation was that he got overzealous, the girl’s ability to dodge and deflect his blows with her tail had taken him off guard but he was able to quickly identify her weakness in that regard. No, the blunt blows of his staff didn’t seem to bother her as she deflected them with her tail, but it was still just flesh and blood. Meaning a sword… or spear would be better. He had however gone for a killing blow, having not expected her to completely dodge the attack and opened himself for…

That was it, she wasn’t a caster like her “sister”, the creature had to be capable of self-reinforcement. That’s what those black lines on her body had to be, no wonder he could feel magic from her, she had to be circulating all of it in her body. That’s the only explanation as to why he was currently skidding across the forest floor. 

But this was… fine. He could… salvage this. Yes, it wasn’t going exactly as planned but he was flexible; now that he knew how to handle the creature that’s all he needed to focus on. When he killed the creature, whatever charm she had over Rilitar would break, and his men could assist him in subduing the space mage. And what luck, he just happened to know where a nice little stream was nearby that he could use as a source of water for his magic, and…

With an alarming crunching sound, he slammed into the hard packed dirt at the base of a tree. Pain flared from his left side, branching across his chest as he was sure he had broken several ribs. Fighting past the pain he sat up, not having time to catch his breath, he scrambled to his feet and started his slow trek to the nearby stream. He wasn’t running away, just… a tactical retreat to a more advantageous position. That’s it.  

As he finally found his way into the stream the world seemed to freeze around him, all the usual sounds of the forest fading away as he heard a… voice.

“Finally,” the distorted female voice, “You walk so slow I really thought about kicking you again just to speed this up. Is this going to be enough water for you, or should I just toss you to the ocean?”

Astari’s heart sank as he looked up to see her, the damned creature, sitting on the stream’s edge with her feet dangling into the stream as her tail flicked lazily around her swatting away bugs. 

How… How did she get here before him? Could she have passed him? No, it didn’t matter. He needed her here regardless and this was the best place for him to deal with her. 

Taking a painful breath he straightened his back, “This should be more than enough water for you.” clutching his half staff he began channeling mana and she… didn’t move. But that’s perfect for him, as he gathered more and more mana, being sure to keep an eye out for any signs of movement… that’s fine, just die quietly then. He set his jaw as he focused everything he could on the creature. 

It did leave him open for attack from the sister but, if he could just get rid of her it would be fine. Leveling his stuff at her he unleashed a jet of water that carved a deep rent in the ground where she had sat only for her to have moved at the last moment dodging the stream. 

“Oooo a water jet, nice.”  She cooed as dodged the spell, “Powerful too, but a bit sl…” Her voice trailed off as he brought his hand up and fired another jet of water.

A wicked grin grew on his face as he fired another jet of water, this time carving through a batch of trees as he chased her with the spell. This particular spell was difficult to cast, to suck the water up and channel it down into a paper-thin jet of water; but thankfully once it was cast keeping it channeled was rather simple as long as he had a ready source of water on hand. And standing here knee deep in a near endless water source he should be able to put this creature down easily.

He could have fueled it solely with mana, but it would be way too mana intensive to do and maintain, it would simply drain him way too quickly to be practical. And if she was going to be kind enough to follow him to a water source and wait for him to cast the spell so patiently, who was he to complain as he carved another trench in the ground that she dodged around with… alarming ease.

As if she knew where his attacks were going to come from, she always seemed to move at the last moment, dancing around his attack as he tried to track her with the streams. 

“You know,” She mocked as she slipped by another one of his streams. “I could have forgiven you for being handsy with Eryl.” She began advancing towards him, still sidestepping his attacks. “I mean, have you seen her, she’s amazing! But you just had to go and push your luck.” Her voice became a low rumble as it distorted into a strange echoing cacophony. 

With every word, every step towards him, he could feel a creeping feeling in his gut. A sinking that could only be… fear. Why, just why wouldn’t this monster die! Shifting his hands to aim at her feet he tried desperately to lock her down.

“You just couldn’t keep your hands to yourself, you had to keep touching my things.” She jumped to dodge a jet and he finally had her!

She can't dodge in the air! He thought as he brought his staff up, tracing her through the air and poured everything he had into a watery blade that would carve through tree tops for nearly half a mile. And to his horror she spun in the air, her tail lashing to the side causing her body to tumble with one of her legs extended out and just before she would have fallen into the stream a tiny black slab of stone appeared; just barely big enough for her foot to rest on yet, it stopped her completely in the air. 

Her body language completely relaxed as she hovered their for what felt like minutes, her hands folded behind her back as she stood on one bare foot on the floating stone slab that held her inches above his attack, the stone illuminating the water in a deep red glow as her tail lazily coiled around her she cocked her head to the side. 

That smile she always wore, that smile! Her face seemed to split horizontally revealing those dagger-like bones, parting slightly to show a second row of interlocking teeth before giving way to all consuming darkness. The very sight of it caused his mind to bend, pain lanced though his head as he recoiled. His entire world went white for a second as his head jerked back. 

“Well, that’s no way to react to a young woman.” Her voice slammed into his mind pulling him back to reality just in time to watch as, with slightest bend of her knee, black veins flared on her exposed leg, and with the sound of shattering glass she vanished; the black stone she was standing on exploding into a mist-like hail of shards that drove deep into the dirt before disappearing.

He barely caught a flash of white to his side, he didn’t even register what he was doing as he struck out with his elbow to defend himself; with her coming at him from such a low angle he all but fell into her putting his entire weight behind the blow in hopes to just crush her, or at the very least stun her. He felt his blow connect, for a split second he smiled until he heard a sickening crunching sound and the entire world vanished in a wave of blinding pain.

He screamed, until his voice was hoarse, but it did nothing to numb the pain. His entire body was washed away in pain, unsure if he had even remained standing, he tried to move only for the pain to drown everything out. Between the gut-wrenching crunching sounds he tried to channel his mana to do something, anything! But something was wrong… his mana wouldn’t circulate properly… another crunch and then finally darkness overtook him.

Sitting on the elven elder’s chest, Hecatolite nodded to herself as she chewed on his disembodied right arm, soul and all. She had planned on only eating his hands but well… “You saw that right, he shoved his elbow in my mouth on his own accord. Definitely his fault,” She said to no one in particular as she looked down at his other hand still firmly attached to the man’s body. “Eryl is going to be mad that I broke your soul… Fine, you can keep your other hand.” She hissed, slapping his forehead with his own detached hand. “But keep it to yourself!” She slapped him again before taking another bite.