The mercenary that Penelope had attacked now focused his sights on her as Crow got away from them. He raised his blade and swiped at the female knight. She quickly ducked and fell back to move besides William. The older knight slowed his horse slightly as they regrouped and he turned his horse to face the second mercenary that caught up to them from behind. William shot Penelope an annoyed look before moving to clash blades with the other mercenary. 

Penelope didn't focus on William's displeasure with the situation and instead continued to fight the mercenary that was trained in on her. He swiped at her throat and she ducked away from his blade then attempted to strike his side with her own. Their daggers clashed against each other as he easily blocked it. Penelope eyed the mercenary who sent a confident smirk at her. She wrinkled her nose and took another swipe again which the mercenary blocked yet again. 

[i]If I could just get him to lose his balance...[/i] It seemed like breaking past his defense wasn't something she'd be able to do successfully so she hoped that perhaps getting him to fall of his horse would do the trick. She maneuvered around the mercenary, beginning to plan out her attacks a little more while also dodging the ones he launched at her. First she aimed for his leg, causing the the mercenary to have to lean in order to properly dodge. She swiftly swiped her dagger up towards his face, making him in turn lean back to dodge her attack. 

The knight smirked to herself and used her over hand to suddenly shove the mercenary. It appeared he hadn't been expecting her to willingly let go of the reigns in order to fight and wasn't able to block her attack. He scrambled to try and regain his balance but failed to as he fell off his horse and to the ground. Penelope clenched the hilt of her dagger, intent on finishing the fight as the mercenary slowly got back up. As she raised her dagger to strike, she noticed two strange things. The first being Crow sprinting towards them with the staff in hand and the second being the cruel gleam of amusement in the mercenary's gaze. Something was off. 

Penelope caught movement out of the corner of her eye and spotted the third mercenary suddenly charge out from his hiding spot with his weapon drawn. The female knight barely had time to react as he swung his mace towards her side. Unable to completely dodge, the weapon made contact, though luckily not as accurately as the mercenary was probably hoping for. Still, the knight doubled over clutching her side in clear pain. Her eyes grew watery and she struggled to keep from falling off her horse. Trying to recover, she gave her horse a sharp kick and put a bit of distance between her and the third mercenary, who was quick to give chase to try and keep the female knight from recovering.