[h2]Tyaethe[/h2]

The one creeping up behind her probably thought they were [i]so[/i] stealthy, trying to go in for some sort of move amidst the din of battle. Maybe, with how much the helmet restricted her peripheral vision, they actually were being subtle. It wasn't like she would know; she'd never had any practical experience of fighting in armour back in her childhood, nor did Tyaethe particularly care for the secretive approach herself. All she knew was that the pounding of her would-be assailant's heart was the most obvious sound of all to her.

But with her sword still temporarily entrapped in the foe ahead of her, and the onrushing axe, there was very little that she could easily do to fight back and stop it. No matter how easy it might be to break out of some attempt at a grapple afterwards, it would only lead to being dogpiled... so it was best to avoid it and the axe in a single go. 

Between one heartbeat and the next, the paladin's armour melted away into nothing, a slender girl instead neatly skipping out from between the two veteran soldiers, letting the last-ditch attempt to decapitate her crush into the sneaky one and pilfering a knife from the axe-wielder. 

She had to give the one with the spear some credit; he hadn't been shocked by the sudden change in size, thinking to stab out at her all the same. But he had been the one Tyaethe was looking for, and the strike found only a few loose strands of hair as its target was suddenly  [i]beside[/i] the spear, shooting him a toothy grin and resting one hand casually on the shaft. "Too slow~"

The vampire gave a tug, yanking the bandit forwards as he chose to hold onto his weapon, and giving all the opening she needed to dance forward and stab the knife into his side. Not fatally, she reckoned, neither the spearman's armour nor the knife doing exactly what they were meant to, but the injury made a welcome distraction to back off and wrench her sword free, the small girl once again being dwarfed by the blessed blade.

And there were still more coming? Tyaethe let out a dissonantly innocent-sounding laugh. Ah, this was fun after all; maybe more than playing with the griffin would have been.

[@Rune_Alchemist]