A WARRIOR FALLS
Arrows from afar pierced the flesh of the soldiers encircling her, the product of her distant allies lending what they could to her dire situation as she wrenched her staff free of the longsword embedded in it. The numbers were bad, but the lack of space to properly wield her lengthy weapon would be the death of her. She poked and clashed, blade on blade, with the first soldier to her front, testing his defense. His expression shifted momentarily, a subtle grin prematurely anticipating his success, even though Adi was nowhere near letting him land a strike.
And then a scream erupted as the bird of prey sunk its massive talons into her surprise attacker’s skull. The jig was up and she thrust backwards, sinking the butt of her staff into the stomach of the ambushing soldier to her rear. A pivot, a loft, and a hard swing down embedded the blade deep into his head just as the bird fled. It didn’t break free until she planted her boot into the corpse’s face, promptly launching her backwards and into the waiting arms of yet another hostile. She managed to bring her staff up to guard her face just in time but got it pinned against her throat by her assailant grabbing his own sword by the blade.
A second was there to finish her off, steel at the ready. In desperation she pulled both her legs off the ground and drove her boots into his chest. The soldier holding her in a choke caught an arrow in his knee just as he was struggling to hold onto her full weight, and fell onto his back with her atop him. Her lungs burned from breathless exertion. The edges of her vision were fading. She remembered her knife belt and prayed she wouldn’t lose her head if she let go. Her hand slipped, she grabbed a knife, and started relentlessly stabbing at her attacker’s ribs until he released her.
She practically threw her own weapon away as she rolled off of his writhing body, gasping heavily as everything became unbearably bright with her vision returning. Movement on her left, swinging from above her drew her focus and with it her weapon. She just barely stopped the axe coming for her skull, but its wielder was fresh. Her focus was already drained. He hooked her staff and ripped it clean from her tired grip. She staggered to all fours and lunged for it, only to catch the leather of a boot clean in her sternum.
Her chest felt like it was in a vice, her breath being stolen away again. Panic cemented its grip on her. She rolled back and desperately tried to parry with bare arms, forgetting she didn’t have her reinforced bracers to protect delicate flesh. And the axe came down.
A SORCERER RISES
The steel met smoke and dirt, a black whisp racing across the ground, dissolving the fallen staff, and then Adrianna reappeared out of thin air behind her killer and ran him through. Kassandra momentarily had her, giving the blade a hard twist and ripping it out, shredding what was left of his heart as he fell to the ground. Adi came to in a daze, not sure how she had ended up here or even fully remembering the last few seconds.‘The hell was that?’ Where even adrenaline was failing her a moment ago, her energy and wits were back about her, and she took two steps back to figure out what came next.
‘Me saving your life.’
“Well your timing...” she grunted aloud, parrying another sword and twisting it off into a spinning kick, “SUCKS!”
It managed to throw her latest opponent back several feet. The separation bought precious seconds to strategize, and bicker with the voice in her head. ‘You’re a sorcerer now. Start fighting like one!’
“I got not juice left from la-”
‘No. Stop with that bullshit. Now do it.’
She tightened her grip as the remaining three soldiers regrouped from being attacked with ... a tree? She glanced right and saw Gwynne fighting for her life against better odds, and with backup. Kassandra had finally worked up the strength to help out it seemed. The same fire in her veins she remembered from the previous night had returned, giving her strength. Three soldiers, two swords and double axes. She didn’t have her gloves to grab them by the blade and disarm. ‘Go for it. I will protect you.’
She remembered what made this energy tick. ‘Aggression is power.’ She dropped her staff. She felt the crackle at her fingertips, and stepped forward to face the first challenger. His cohorts scrambled to flank her right as he swung decisively at her neck. She reached up and grabbed the sword with a bare hand. All three hostiles froze, and in their hesitation she struck. Adi pulled the blade over her head, spinning with it and struck with her free hand at its wielder’s grip, liberating the weapon. She turned back but instead of swinging for him, she thrust an open palm first, launching him backward in a blast of energy and into the waiting arms of the stocky northman Dorian nearby. She pivoted to face the other two, fearfully flat footed of the monster they had awakened.