Cetyz is gaining ground on me. Much as she insisted she wouldn't leave me behind, she is no warrior and has been through a lot so it isn't surprising that her fear won over. She isn't entirely to blame as I've been gradually slowing down out of exhaustion.
The mercenaries are doing what they can to catch us but those we leave behind aren't quick enough to catch up without their horses and those in front haven't seen us coming in time to organize.
The rips in the ground are growing wider and more frequent but it isn't an issue yet, it will be one when we reach the fortified hill ahead as the damage to it is extensive, it looks like a giant beast clawed the ground.
Three mercenaries with spears and small bucklers fail to reach Cetyz so they move to intercept me. I assemble a pair of lion's steps, kicking the ground to my right and then to my left, abusing my legs to avoid them.
Something impacts my air-shield and, because it is anchored to me instead, I stumble forward. I forcefully bring my right heel down, stomping the ground and correcting my course.
Yet, just that was enough for my pursuers to catch up and pound at my shield, making it even harder to get back to my full speed. I deactivate the outer bubble containing the charged air which is free to expand outward as a result.
I then pour flow into the lightning construct. Bolts strike out, likely prioritizing the conductive metal of their weapons. I deactivate my lightning constructs as soon as the attacks stop.
It takes all my focus to keep going while resetting my shield-constructs yet, when I search for the Princess, I find that I've gained ground on her. She is slowing down instead of accelerating as she approaches the center of the clearing.
I frown as there are already squads of mercenaries moving to surround her. They're being careful, showing no sign that they plan to attack, but that won't last. Cetyz seems to think the same thing as she comes to a stop. I try to use my sense to see through the opaque construct layers around her to see what she's doing, to no avail.
Water suddenly gushes out of the rips in the ground in a large radius around Cetyz, flooding the area and slowly turning the soil to mud. It's the last straw for the mercenaries who decide to evacuate the area before getting bogged down.
They go so far as to use lion's steps to avoid setting foot in water as much as possible. They likely realize the danger as Cetyz could either freeze the mud around their feet or use a lightning construct.
Yet, while the move bought us some space, she would need to spend a lot more to clear the way ahead. Considering the volume of water she's affecting, I don't think even she has the reserves necessary to control all of this for long.
As expected, the water starts receding back into the fissures just as I catch up and the two of us forge ahead, leaving the devastated clearing behind us. A lot fewer mercenaries died than I would have expected, they mostly seemed to prioritize their lives and that of their comrades over using their flow to attack us.
“Ahead.” Cetyz warns me.
I enhance my eyesight to peer through the diffuse cloud of dust still caught in the wind. There are more mercenaries in front of us just outside the forest, they haven't formed ranks, still recovering from the effects of the Quake, but they're on their feet and almost all of them have bows, arrows already knocked.
They don't know exactly where we are as they're aiming their arrows in a wide arc but we're going to take a much heavier beating going through them than we have going through the mercenary cavalry.
“Cetyz, we need to push through as fast as we can.” I shout. “We can't stop and give them time to disperse because they'll rain arrows down on us!”
“Ys!” She replies.
Contrary to what I've told her, I prepare to slow down and run interference. I assemble a dozen air-blades with three portions each, ensuring that I can cut through large swathes of archers if necessary. I make them orbit my shield constructs to provide an additional layer of defense.
The first arrows start flying at us before we even get clear of the wood. They shatter on our shields, which is odd. I turn my head to block a volley flying straight at me, paying close attention to the amount of energy it takes to block.
The drop is sharp despite only blocking a dozen arrows. The fact that these arrows shatter means that there's likely some flow shenanigans going on which means that they're not blindly firing at us.
I make my resolve and decide to make myself the bigger threat, take advantage of the duality between the mercenaries' desire to live and their greed to facilitate Cetyz' escape.
I accelerate the rate at which the dozen air-blades rotate around my shield and take half the energy in my double-bladed staff to inject it into my defenses, ensuring that the constructs won't run out of energy which frees me to focus on controlling the air-blades, and that takes quite a bit of concentration.
I then pull from my reserves, boosting the nourishing, healing, and strengthening constructs to sustain my body. Cetyz leaps over the first group of archers despite the fact that they're moving out of her way, taking my advice seriously.
My symbiont starts injecting its cool substance, intuiting that we're about to get into a hard fight but I hold it back, fearing that Cetyz would smell the change and turn around.
A grin takes over my lips as the largest group of archers starts breaking up, realizing that I'm going to pass way closer to them than they're comfortable with. Far too late. I kick the ground and shift course to crash into them.
I impact three archers almost head-on and buckle to a stop as they're thrown back but not far enough to avoid two air-blades that cut them in half. I hear cries and blood gargles to my left and right, signifying that the rest of the air-blades are doing work.
Still, I don't finish the job as I spot a different group close by aiming at Cetyz. I head straight for them, picking up speed. They hear me and break up, freeing my path forward. I take the opening, knowing that my rotating air-blades will catch at least three of them.
I accelerate after Cetyz, satisfied to hear more and more arrows shattering on my air-shield. The Princess is a good long way ahead of me now, at least fifty meters. I detect a drop in power from my lightning shell accompanied by a small push on the defense underneath, signifying that it broke an enemy construct.
The amount of flow I'm burning by sustaining all these constructs is staggering, a little above an entire portion every minute, but it's been worth it so far. I keep cruising from archer pocket to archer pocket, slaughtering a few each time and attracting fire from every direction.
After a few minutes, Cetyz reaches their camp at the bottom of the hill, noticeably slowing down as it is a mess of fallen tents and weapon racks. There are even draft horses trying to escape the chaos, dragging broken supply carts or trying to pull them out of a rift.
Cetyz isn't paying any attention to that, however, she turns to the left of the camp where dead Rykz warriors and scouts have been piled up inside what seems to be a pyre.
“Rhyyy!” She roars angrily.
The defenders atop a relatively intact part of the hill stop trying to repair the fortifications and turn to the Princess. I swear beneath my breath as the Princess start charging uphill at them. She could have went for a more disorganized part of the lines or swerved to head to a valley between two hills which would expose her a lot less.
I try to accelerate but the mercenaries aren't making it easy, those I've left behind are raining arrows down on me but those in front are closing ranks between us while focusing their fire on Cetyz in a coordinated manner.
Three squads with shields and varying weapons are converging towards the Princess while trying to block my way, they all have hard leather armors and chain-mails, showing that they aren't just run of the mill mercenaries. Cetyz is gaining ground on me and them, they're not even really a threat to her if they catch up.
I track them back to where they came from, finding a gathering of mercenary leaders on the other side of the camp, there are a half-dozen of Cenwalh's officers among them. I make a turn and head directly there as they're likely the reason why the mercenaries haven't been showing any sign that they're going to retreat.
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The chaos is such in and around the camp as they try to reorganize, help their injured, and stop us that many of the mercenaries suffer from friendly fire.
I go through a group of archers who scatter like a flock of headless chicken, opening the path to a line of two dozen of their comrades who have their backs turned to me to shoot at Cetyz.
I crash into them, using my air-blades to grind them into pieces. Limbs, guts, and organs flying in concert, blood splashing all over my shield and even on the front of my shirt. A gooey piece of one of the archers hits my mask, sliding down the wood. I shake my head to get rid of it, feeling sick.
I'm taking no pleasure in this battle. It's mere slaughter, it's a demonstration of what low-born fear when dealing with titled Nobles. Can I even justify killing all these people when my life isn't really under threat?
I tell my limb to fight for survival, allowing it to inject the cool substance to fight my rock-bottom morale and alleviate my fatigue. I head to another group of archers firing at Cetyz who see me coming and scatter. I let them go, heading to a different group as I make my way towards the officers.
I hear explosions up and to my left, on the hillside. I throw a quick glance, finding that Cetyz is already all the way uphill, using spiked constructs to destroy everything standing in her way, from the defenders to the fortifications.
She isn't having as much success there as she did before, not only are those proper soldiers but there are Nobles fighting back, bombarding her with constructs, from air-needles to blades made of rock. She is holding steady and taking them out one by one when she kills enough soldiers to make an opening but she is no longer advancing.
The thundering roar of charging cavalry fills the air, coming from the south and the east. That reminds me to throw a glance to the north, finding that the regiment of cavalry decided to pursue us on foot and are just now coming out of the forest.
I ignore them, they don't have ranged weapons so they're not a danger, for now. A group of archers have found shields and are forming a barricade in front of me, I make a sharp turn left towards another squad which is headed to the bottom of the hill.
They notice almost immediately and break formation, moving to encircle me instead of continuing towards Cetyz. Fuck, they're getting smarter. I throw two of my air-blades towards the archer's barricade to my right, their shields shatter instead of being cut through, likely a result of a defensive construct reaching breaking point, but it merely saves them from getting severed in half, not from being eviscerated.
With most of them down, I return on my original course, catching sight of the mercenary leaders who have called for reinforcements. Cenwalh's officers have pulled back but not entirely, they seem to be trying to make a disruption construct.
Not a chance. I launch into a sprint to close the distance with the leaders, no longer taking detours to handle groups of archers. The mercenaries immediately split into five groups according to the crests on their tabards.
They all make a run in different directions, trying to confuse me. I snort and angle my course to head for Cenwalh's officers who don't show the same capacity to think on their feet as they retreat but don't scatter, making them an easy target.
I take my time to target all the mercenary leader's groups, dedicating two air-blades for each. I try to predict their movements as I won't be able to control the constructs because they'll be too fast and it's hard to control flow when you don't have a clear vision.
It matters little how many of the leaders I get, likely two at best, the point is to create more chaos. I launch the air-blades, making sure that two pass to either side of Cenwalh's officers to get them to bundle up together.
The mercenaries that find themselves in the way of my constructs try to avoid them with varying degrees of success, many throwing themselves down to the ground as a last resort.
The officers don't tighten their formation as expected but they do hurriedly dismantle the disruption construct they've been assembling. One of them raises his sword and the air-blades shatter when they get within ten meters of it, having entered the range of a runic disruption construct.
I swear under my breath as the blow-back of released air pushes the officers back, toppling several. The rest of my air-blades find little success, only a single mercenary leader falls and it's because she tried, and failed, to use one of her archers as a shield, the man decided the pay wasn't worth it and ducked.
The rest make use of their flow to lion's step out of the way, two of them even cooperate to strike one of my air-blades down with their weapons, the golden glow signifies they've likely used armor-piercing constructs.
I assemble a lightning construct as I approach the officers, pulling more energy out of my double-bladed staff, which brings what I've stored inside down to a quarter but I still have most of my reserve.
The officers take defensive stances, getting ready to fight me. They seem to be counting on the runic disruption construct to fight me despite the small range which is perfect considering it won't block my lightning construct.
I charge the air up to the boundary of the disruption and activate the lightning construct. The bolt flashes out, forking towards the officers' weapons. They don't even blink on impact, their hard leather armors take a sharp golden glow from their gloves up to their elbows.
Fucking tricked me, he deactivated the disruption field. I don't dismantle my shielding constructs as I approach to force them to reactivate the runic construct. I instead re-purpose the flow I have left inside my weapon into a lightning-armor-piercing construct that I store inside my body.
My shielding constructs shatter so I simply recover the flow. A gigantic man and woman move forward, trying to prevent me from getting near the man holding the runic disruption construct, they both have large double-handed swords, which I think are called claymores.
They're at least two-meter tall if I compare them to my height, but a bit smaller than Cetyz so probably not that much. Feeling like this is more my kind of battle, I let myself loose a little, lion's stepping at them without slowing down.
They fall into strong defensive stances, the man holding his weapon high, the woman low, keeping a small distance between them to have space to swing their weapons. They obviously intend to strike me down with a crossed attack if I try to slip past them.
Taking it as a challenge, I decide to do just that. I kick the ground beneath me to launch myself a few centimeters in the air, counting on my forward momentum to keep me going.
The man brings his claymore down towards my torso, the woman slashes upward, aiming between my legs. Without my shield constructs, I have a clear idea of everything occurring around me and I make full use of it in this situation.
I bring my staff around and spin it to counter their lion strikes head on, blocking both at once. I'm, obviously, thrown back by the impact which means that they miss me despite the fact that their two-handed swords barely slowed down and their slashes are still on course.
Tough luck for them, the clash made my weapon spin in the opposite direction. I make a small course correction to the arc my bladed staff is making, guiding the blades to cut into my two opponents.
I use the upwards momentum that the woman's strike gave my weapon to cut through the hard leather covering her throat, severing the jugular, while the staff's other blade buries itself into the man's thigh, repurposed from his enthusiastic overhead blow.
Which is double bad luck for him because I'm not letting go of my weapon and I'm falling back, meaning that the back of the staff's blade has to tear through his flesh to get out.
My back hits the ground, interrupting my laughter for a short moment. I knew it, the idea was so foolish that it could only work. I really didn't need to jump for this. It looks cooler!
The two officers crumble to their knees, vainly attempting to quell the blood gushing out of their wounds. Not surprised about the woman but apparently I also got one of the man's arteries.
She might've been flirting, tough luck, Leomi is almost in reach so there's no way I could be tempted. I press my elbows against the ground and use two lion strikes to propel myself up to my feet, facing off with four stunned officers with well-groomed uniforms despite the messy battlefield.
“I'm Elizabeth Vil.” I declare.
“Y, you're surrounded, with the bounty on your head, these mercenaries will chase you all the way to the Lake!” The man with the runic disruption field on his sword stutters, he's standing a good few steps behind his companions.
“Oh? Do I get the coin if I surrender?” I ask, giggling.
I don't give them time to answer, I lion's step to the left and lion strike the woman's head off before she can react. The one all the way to the right starts running away, the one holding the disruption constructs follows soon after.
The last three retreat as a group, holding their shields up. I snort and lion's step past them to chase the other two down. I make sure to move erratically to avoid the arrows that start raining down again.
I use all my senses to dodge the projectiles I can, trusting my symbiont to deal with the rest. The fact I have to do that means that I fail to catch the rest of the officers, who are very quick on their feet, but I continue hunting them down as long as they keep heading towards the hill.
They end up going straight for the coast and then going straight north once they realize I stopped chasing them. I estimated that they're terrorized enough. I scour the battlefield to estimate the situation.
The small skirmish apparently bought Cetyz quite a bit of relief as very few mercenaries are still shooting at her, unfortunately it cost me so much time that those who we left in the forest have entered the camp and are now headed straight for the hill.
The largest issue is the fact that the Princess is still fighting with a few Nobles, likely because she also has to deal with the soldiers pressuring her. I would have expected the Rykz to be assaulting the fortifications by now but from what I can hear, they're still locked into a battle a few hundred meters away, cavalry as far as I can tell. Someone very stupid decided to be smart and sent mounted soldiers to hold the other side of the hill we're trying to breach.