[h2][center]Esther von Degraff[/center][/h2]
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Esther shivered when the cold wind blew pass their encampment. She held herself together, having no cloak or anything warm that she could snuggle into. At least she had the warm stew in front of her, she thought. It wasn't very delicious, but as a soldier, it was already quite the luxury to be able to eat something like this. She had to thank the unfortunate deer for giving them their nourishment for tonight. She drank the stew and ate the meat in it delicately, like the way she was taught too back at home. It was certainly not really the way a soldier supposed to eat, but it seemed they weren't that rushed to finish their meal tonight, so she decided she would really enjoy and savor the taste of this meal.

That line of thought was soon proven wrong by the arrival of a man shouting that there were unknown armed forces spotted to the northeast of their position, before he fell to the ground by a pair of gunshots piercing his back.

At first, Esther froze in her place, not knowing what to do. She was still not that experienced in combat so she still hadn't really had that mind of a soldier, able to stay alert at all times. Thankfully, it only took two seconds before she snapped out of it. She quickly threw away the stew she was holding in her hands and went for cover, just like how she had been taught by the Academy.

Fear quickly gripped her heart once she noticed that they were surrounded from all sides. They were numbered one and a half dozen, equipped as light infantry units. One third of them was composed of riflemen, while the others carried light shields and battle axes. They travelled in three, one riflemen and two shocktroopers. She noticed that there was only one way of escape, through a nearly impossible to traverse rocky hillside.

"Calm down, Esther, remember your training and think about this logically..." she said to herself as she felt her heart beating like mad. She took a deep breath and put a hand on her chest; her usual way of calming herself. First of all, she should be able to traverse that escape path thanks to the mobility of her vessel, the pair of red slippers she was wearing right now. From there, she would switch them to boots mode and attack the enemy from afar. Yep, that sounded like the best possible course of action she could take right now.

She then saw one of the riflemen going down, thanks to her comrade Neno's ability. Quickly, she darted out from her hiding spot, using the temporary chaos to head to the rocky hillside. The terrain didn't hinder her at all, since she could just leap over whatever rocks were on her path. When she got to a decent position, she switched her vessel to combat mode, turning it into a pair of red over-the-knee boots. Quickly, she stomped her feet and sent a wind blade towards the nearest enemy group. Unfortunately, she only managed to get the rifleman as the other two had shields that blocked her attack.