“A clever fox has more than one exit from their nest, just as a clever hunter has more than one hound to cover them.” - Old folk saying.

Fighting in a battlefield was sometimes a contradictory exercise, Erycea found.

On one hand, she needed to give it her all, as everyone involved were fighting for their survival and thus nothing less would suffice in order to secure her own survival. Negligence or overconfidence could easily result in career-ending injuries, if they were lucky. If they were unlucky, then they would be just another corpse for the combatants to step on.

Yet on the other hand, anyone who fought in a prolonged battle needed to save their strength, to ration their stamina, lest they run out of strength at a critical moment. It was that simultaneous need to both give it their all and to save their strength that she found contradictory, especially as her natural predatory instincts leaned hard towards giving her all in battle.

It was her mother who taught her how to temper that tendency, to use just the requisite amount of power when dealing with the average foe, and to save her strength unless it was an emergency that left her no choice but to use them. For that reason, she had also refrained from using her magic in this battle. She knew it would make an effective distraction, but she could not do it more than a couple of times, so it was best to keep it secret until a pivotal moment arrived.

That pivotal moment came sooner than she expected, as she noticed a group of riders trying to bypass the mercenary thrust from the corner of her eye. She took a closer look at the riders in the brief lull she had after she shoved her opponent backwards with her weapons, and noticed the fancy decorated masterpiece armor one of the riders wore.

When she correlated that with the fact that the Free Lances were pushing directly towards where the enemy leader, the Marquis, was situated, and that this middle aged man was clearly important enough to warrant a steed and his fancy, masterpiece armor, that meant he was likely either the Marquis himself or at least someone important from said man’s staff.

Either way the fact that he rode close to her front of the fighting meant that he was her responsibility now.

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In response, Erycea whistled sharply four times, a signal for her friends – who composed her personal unit – to gather around her. Within moments all ten of them gathered next to her, and Erycea gestured towards the rider who was by then almost directly across from them to indicate him as their target. Then she let loose with her magic.

The four glass orbs she usually juggled around emerged from her storage artifact, and immediately fractured into hundreds of tiny, razor-sharp shards of glass each, which she then sent out in the direction of her target at head’s height.

Many Podovnian soldiers screamed as the razor-sharp shards embedded themselves into their faces, mouth, and eyes, and while they took up around three-quarters of the shards Erycea sent out, the remaining quarter still reached its target, namely the rider and his escorts. She kept that group of shards somewhat higher, too low to hurt the riders much, but around head height for their steeds.

Needless to say, the horses ridden by the target and his escorts whinnied in pain as the shards of glass went into their eyes and nose. Many of them reared up and threw their rider to the ground, while others cavorted wildly in pain while their riders struggled to hang on for dear life.

While they were thus stuck in place and distracted, Erycea and her friends rushed towards them, easily cutting a path through the throng of soldiers who were busy trying to claw the glass shards out of their faces. Vladislav, Tasha, Vera, and Gustav led from the front as they formed a wedge by interlocking their shields and simply shoved everyone in front of them out of the way.

The others followed behind them, with Rhiannon and Llewelyn guarding their back against the few enemies that had already regained their willingness to fight. Valeria and Beth covered the sides, while Aurora and Ayrie sniped off targets as they passed by them. Erycea herself stayed in the middle as she made use of a few remaining glass shards that she sent out to help support any of her friends that needed some help.

Before the riders could regain control of their steeds, her group already pushed their way before them, and struck. Valeria and Beth swung from the sides and helped Llewelyn and Rhiannon to cover their backs, as did Aurora and Ayrie. Erycea and the other four rushed towards their targets with their weapons bared. They only needed the one likely important rider captured alive, and if the rest were to resist, then so be it.

Much like she expected, the riders that had not broken their limbs after a fall from their steeds faced them and drew their weapons while a couple tried to escort the important-looking man – who had apparently broken one of his legs from the fall – away. Erycea’s group smashed into them like a hurricane and bodies – or parts thereof – were sent flying within moments as the larger members of her group showed that their size was not just for show.

Gustav and Vlad split off to the sides to square off against most of the remaining escorts, keeping them away from those who were holding off the enemies behind them at the same time. It was not like the escorts could stand for long against them, as each of their blows simply blasted past the escorts’ shields, bent and crushed their armor, and did unspeakable things to their bodies, but they could have given the escaping target precious moments to get to safety if left unattended.

At the same time, Tasha and Vera peeled off to prevent other enemy soldiers who caught wind of the situation from interfering, which left Erycea herself free to pursue the slowly limping target.