Ten minutes had passed since the violet light of the mana core died.
The forest clearing still smelled of scorched ozone, hot blood, and the sour reek of the headless guardian's opened chest. Bodies of the small dinosaur-creatures lay in uneven heaps where the last of them had been cut down by everyone present. The magic circle that had birthed them was nothing more than faint, dead runes now, already half-covered by trampled leaves and dirt.
Rhuvia knelt fully beside the broken remains of the core, wiping dark blood from her hands unconsciously onto her dress that was already ruined. Her breathing had steadied by now, but the tremor in her fingers had not settled even till now. Vessa sat a short distance away, her longsword still drawn, the enchanted length of the blade catching what little moonlight filtered through the canopy. Maya leaned on a spear, weight carefully kept off the half-healed wound in her leg.
Drosha was just checking on her own weapon, jaw set, eyes still turned in the direction the first surge of monsters had taken, toward Buena.
Around them, the rest of the team had also started to gather in these ten minutes, after hearing the loud sound of the battle that had just happened earlier.
Though they were a little confused at first, seeing all of this mess and all, with Vessa's quick explanation, they came to understand the reality of things here.
Now water bags were being passed around among them, and bandages were being tightened. A few of the later arrivals still asked with confused faces, but those who learned relayed it to them, not bothering Vessa or Rhuvia, seeing how exhausted they were.
No one spoke louder than necessary. Every ear stayed half-turned toward the dark trees, listening for any sign that more of the creatures might still be forming somewhere out of sight. Though not a single one had been noticed till now, after they killed the last of them, coming out of the circle.
Finally, Rhuvia pushed herself to her feet.
"We have to move," she said, voice raw but clear enough to be understood by all present.
"Those fuckers already have a head start. If we delay any more here, waiting for others to gather with us, we won't be able to cut them off before they reach the outside of the forest. We can't let them reach the village walls. It will be the only thing left standing between them and everything inside. We can't risk it."
No one argued. As they shouldn't.
Just as she said it, boots shifted, weapons were lifted. The group began to form into a rough column, the strongest fighters taking the front and flanks out of habit more than any formal order.
Vessa also fell in beside Rhuvia without needing to be told. Maya and Drosha took positions farther forward, spears ready this time.
The forest ahead looked the same as it always had, black trunks, tangled undergrowth, the occasional pale flicker of moonlight on leaves, but the atmosphere carried a different weight this time. The monsters that had poured out of the circle had left a clear, torn path through the brush. At least following it would be easy. But catching those small, fast creatures might not be as easy as it seems. All of them knew it.
Getting themselves ready as fast as they could, they started moving.
But shocking them, before they managed to take more than a dozen steps, an arrow came at them.
SHH-hhh
It made almost no sound.
One moment the only noise was the soft crunch of boots on leaf litter and the distant, fading hiss of the wave still moving through the trees. The next, a thin, deadly whisper cut through the air from the deeper dark to their left.
Drosha was mid-stride, spear resting across her shoulders, when the shaft appeared. It came low and fast, aimed straight for the side of her neck just above the collar of her armor. In the dim light, it was little more than a black streak, the kind of shot that killed before the target even knew they had been chosen.
But before it reaches Drosha's neck, Rhuvia's hand moves first.
Thuast-ttttt
CracK-kkkk
A sharp, compressed bolt of pure mana erupted from her palm with a crack like a splitting stone. The blue-white projectile met the arrow in mid-flight, less than two arm-lengths from Drosha's throat. The shaft shattered in a burst of splinters and residual force. Fragments of wood and fletching scattered across the ground like broken teeth.
The sudden flash of her manabolt lit the clearing for a heartbeat.
Most of the strike team spun toward Rhuvia, weapons half-raised, faces locked in the same stunned expression. To their eyes, it looked as if the guild master had simply decided to fire a manabolt at one of their own without warning. Drosha herself staggered half a step sideways, spear coming down into a defensive grip, eyes wide with the animal shock of someone who had felt death pass close enough.
They were wondering if those earlier actions might've exhausted her enough to hallucinate or something.
Only two people did not look at Rhuvia. As if they knew exactly what just happened.
Vessa's head snapped toward the darkness the arrow had come from, her short knife almost instantly becoming a longsword, already angling upward. Maya's knuckles also whitened around her spear shaft as she shifted her weight, body turning to present a smaller target. Aside from Rhuvia, these two had also seen the trajectory. Both of them understood that the bolt had not been an attack on Drosha by Rhuvia. It had been an interception, to protect her.
Silence stretched, thin and brittle, among the team, nobody wanting to say the first word.
Then slowly, a deliberate clapping sound began somewhere in the black trees ahead of them and to the left.
A figure stepped into the edge of the weak moonlight, still clapping with a lazy, almost theatrical rhythm. As the person was revealing herself, the sound carried easily in the sudden quiet.
The voice that could be heard after the clapping was smooth, amused, and unmistakably from a female. "Well, well, well. I'll be damned. Who would've guessed those capital fools would actually send a top-level mage all the way out to this backskirts village branch."
"And here I thought they only shipped the mediocre ones these days."
Drosha recovered first. The shock on her face burned away into something harder and far less polite. She planted her feet, spear point rising to track the newcomer.
"Who the fuck are you?" she barked. "And stay the hell out of our way. We don't have time for any games. If you've come here at this hour, didn't you see those monsters earlier? They are already heading for the village. So, why are…." She stopped speaking suddenly, as the figure in the shadows only smiled, the expression just visible enough now to catch the light. She took another unhurried step forward, hands still loosely clasped as if the entire situation amused her more than it concerned her. Seeing her in the moonlight raised a chill on Drosha's body. So she stopped talking almost instinctively.
Then the darkness behind the figure also began to move with her, advancing forward, little by little.
Shapes emerged from the undergrowth and the deeper black between the trees, dozens at first, then more. Before long it started to look like their numbers were at least a hundred. Soldiers. Rank after rank of them, armor suited for night work, weapons already in hand. They mostly looked like knights, and not even average ones.
They did not charge. They simply filled the spaces between the trunks until the path the strike team needed was no longer just empty forest. It was now a wall of steel and disciplined bodies, silent and waiting, blocking the strike team's way.
And at the center of that wall, the woman who had spoken finally stepped fully into everyone's view.
It was Ines. Madam Ines. The Viscountess of this land. The only woman who saw profit to be made, even in this crisis of a village, which resides in her own land of governance.
She wore dark, practical clothing cut for movement rather than court display, a light cloak thrown back over one shoulder. Her expression carried the same cool, measuring interest she is always used to showing. The smile on her lips never quite reached her eyes as she began speaking to Drosha in a mocking tone.
"Ouu, Don't be in such a hurry, sweetheart," she said, her voice carrying easily across the clearing. "Before you go rushing off to play hero, why don't you stay and play with us for a little while here instead?"
Her words landed like a second arrow, which nobody managed to stop.
For a moment, no one on the strike team spoke. The reality of the situation settled over them. They knew the monsters were already racing toward Buena. The only clear path back was now blocked by a force large enough to turn any attempt at breakthrough into a slaughter. And the woman standing at the head of that force looked entirely too calm about the fact. In a way, she looked too happy about it.
Rhuvia's fingers twitched once at her side, residual mana still flickering faintly around her knuckles. Maya's breathing stayed slow and controlled, but the line of her shoulders had gone rigid.
Vessa and Drosha simply stared at the ranks of soldiers with a flat, assessing look, as if already counting how many they could kill before the rest of the knights closed in around them.
Ines tilted her head slightly, as if studying their reactions.
"You're free to try forcing your way through, of course," she continued, almost conversational. "I won't even stop you all from making that choice. But I should warn you, my people have been waiting in these trees for a long time. They're well rested. And from the looks of it, you're not. And every minute you spend bleeding here is another minute those little monsters of yours get closer to your precious village's walls."
She spread her hands in a small, almost elegant gesture.
"So. Shall we talk about the terms of your passage… or would you prefer to start the evening with something louder? Whichever works for you guys, I welcome all."
The forest seemed to lean in around them, waiting for the answer.
Behind Ines, the ranks of soldiers remained perfectly still; the only movement coming from them was the occasional soft shift of weight or the faint gleam of a blade catching stray moonlight. The path to Buena, the path the escaped wave had already taken, lay somewhere beyond their living barrier.
And the strike team knew they couldn't waste their time in this woman's scheme, whatever it was.
So, knowing they had no more time to waste around here, Vessa stepped up first.
Author's note: This chapter might've been a little too dragging, right? Sorry for that. I'll definitely reflect on myself so that this type of thing doesn't happen from now on.