It worked. Not well, but it worked. Her brainless attempt at defense had at least saved Gwyn from being finished off. It had given her enough time for the masked healer to purge the undead menace, even if it was after she had lost a finger. But what mattered was living. She lived through a brazen onslaught of bone and steel long enough for most of her wounds to be healed. Broken ribs, shattered knuckles, and the assortment of cuts from catching the blade alongside the catching of flesh from the armoured strikes had all been mended by a purifying light. While still pained from the event, she could stand. That meant she could move. That meant she could live on.

Gwyn had reprimanded her for her risk taking. Catching the blade, surely a master could do it reliably. But Ash wasn't a master. No, she was less than a newbie. The fact that she caught the blade at only the cost of some blood and her now removed finger on the ice was a miracle. If she had been smart, more experienced, and knew how to fight on the ice, she could possibly have distracted the knight with a single strike and backed off. Then she could leap in to take another blow, just in case Gwyn was unable to prepare in time. That was hindsight, though. Useless hindsight.

She could have just ran, but allowing the healer to perish was pretty much putting Ash up the creek without a paddle. Would she even be able to return alone? She... didn't know. To Gwyn, who had presumably just wanted Ash to be safe, Ash nodded in response.

Surprisingly, it hurt much less than she thought it would. Sure, it was hard to hear things now. Not because her ears were damaged, no. Her mind was just unable to properly process things to their full extent. Her vision was also fallible. She could make out the locations of everyone and everything, but the small details were a struggle. The ice seemed to blend together into a incohesive mess of both black and constantly shifting colour.

But now wasn't the time to dwell on the small things.

Ettamri had reduced the numbers by one and so did Gwyn. There was only two left. The mage and the axe warrior that Muu had to deal with. In terms of priority, Muu just had to stay alive. That much was a given. The mage, however, was a long term threat. A mage could turn the tides of the battle, so getting rid of it was a priority. Ash, rather than grabbing her machete, took the skeleton's sword. If it could take the machete blow for blow, it was certainly better as a weapon. Ash's experience using the machete wasn't even the most useful. 

And she walked. Not away, but towards the mage. If the mage went to attack her with some sort of spell, she would just fall to the side and roll. It was hard to move on ice and she was woozy, but she could still get the basic motions down. Rolling was easy to do. She wasn't a hero. She wasn't going to brainlessly fight again. She would act as a guard for both Gwyn and herself this time around, fleeing as best as she could if things went wrong. Neither one would fall.

But she did miss that finger.