It was funny, she barely knew the man, yet he addressed her as a "fine warrior." Maybe it was simply his personality, or maybe it was flattery. She couldn't tell which, and she didn't care to react on it. There were priorities. "If that's my job, then I'll do it," Vellia said, more to herself than anyone else, as she drew her sword. Her axe had taken enough of a beating today. She had already been scanning the skies, and everything seemed fine for a moment, but not for long. A group of pegasi soon came into view, headed their way. Three... four...

"Five pegasus knights, huh? This may be the most fun I've had all day," she grinned. She allowed a bit of distance to form between her and the man carrying the girl, and quickly thought of her strategy. Things would have to get messy.

She jumped up as they dropped low to attack, and she literally nearly tackled the front-most rider from her saddle. The pegasus was urged to its left, and the lowered lance of the nearby stunned companion drove into the winged horse's hide. Vellia turned the knight into a kabob, withdrew her blade, and jumped from the mess before both riders and pegasi ended in a large, mangled heap. Now, she clung to the leg of the next knight as her mount attempted to ascend. "No! Don't do that!" Vellia heard the girl shout to one of her companions. "Just let me do this!"

Vellia barely had a grip on the other woman's leg as the knight tried to find a way to use her spear to dislodge her unwelcome tag along. The blunt shaft of the weapon thumped against her back, but Vellia wasn't about to let go. She managed to swing her blade up and stabbed the chest of the pegasus before releasing her grip so she fell to the street. A nearby clatter made her realize that a poorly aimed javelin had just barely missed her. Glancing around, she knew she was on the other side of the two she was to protect, but if they were to fall into danger, Vellia was close enough to know.

The two flying knights circled back around, but before they reached her, one was felled by a series of wind gusts. The other was directly in front of her. She threw her blade into the air. Then, following its path, she leaped up, grabbed it in a two-handed reverse-grip, and descended on the pegasus rider with a shout. Her blade sliced into the flesh of the girl's lower neck, embedding itself in her collarbone. The strike would prove to be lethal quickly, though it was by no means a decapitation.

Then, in a moment, the world began to spin as a powerful gust of wind struck them. It was the doing of one of the mages, and the pegasus was not keeping its balance well with extra weight and unstable wind. Vellia heard, and [i]felt[/i], the pegasus crashing into the ground, felt herself tumbling and bouncing between air and rock, and she finally came to a stop after what felt like ages, but couldn't have been more than a few seconds. She was lying on her stomach, and each breath was searingly painful. She tried to push herself to her feet, which took far too long, which brought to her attention the fact that her right arm had been dislocated.

[i]Well,[/i] she thought. [i]A fractured rib or two, a dislocated arm, and a few bruises and scrapes. I guess that could have been a lot worse.[/i] A few agonizing stretches later, and her arm popped back into place. She limped over to the deceased body and its dying pegasus, drew out her sword and used it as a support as she returned to the not-so-far-away side of her new companions.