“As odd as it may sound, more often than not, when someone makes use of every bit of skill and effort they could to end your life, it is done as a show of respect and acknowledgement to you and your own skills. An insult, on the other hand, would be for them to hold back while ending you because they could afford to do so.

If you’re killed by someone who didn’t even deign to use their full strength to fight you, it is likely because you are not worth the effort.” - Adeline Eschevalle, veteran mercenary.

“Where are you now, you son of a drunk dreamweed addict… where are you?” muttered Salicia as she glanced over the enemy army in the distance after shooting down the latest arrow to come towards Nestor. The Imperial army’s frontline happened to be on a slightly elevated part of the prairie, which meant that if the archer she was hunting was elevated, like say, seated on a mount, they would have a clear line of sight towards Nestor’s position.

Of course, the distance would be too far for a direct shot to reach, hence the need for an arcing, parabolic shot like the ones she had been dealing with thus far. Salicia already had a general area from where the arrows likely originated. She was just out of position to actually pinpoint the archer until now, perched as she was, standing on top of a thick branch halfway up the tree.

Once she made a shot from her position, her opponent would easily be aware of her position, since she would not be able to afford to move much, but that was fine. It was better for the enemy archer to be focused on her than on the army’s high command. It was, after all, the job she was being paid to do, to either take down the enemy archer or at least occupy their attention and prevent them from harming the army’s command chain.

Her patience was finally rewarded when she finally spotted her quarry – a person wearing the typical “officer” armor of the Imperial army seated atop a horse – loosing another pair of arrows simultaneously, this time aimed at targets further distant so that she could not shoot both down with one arrow of hers. Salicia smiled at the challenge and drew three arrows from her quiver, her trained body performed the motions deeply ingrained into her muscle memory, as she herself loosed three arrow in quick succession one after another.

The first arrow struck one of her foe’s arrow head-on roughly halfway between their positions, annihilating both projectiles in the process.

The second arrow did the same to her foe’s second arrow, roughly a hundred and fifty paces further than the first impact, the short delay having allowed the arrow to travel the distance.

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The third arrow flew unopposed and cut through the air, headed straight towards her quarry instead.

She smirked with some satisfaction when her opponent was forced to change their target from Nestor’s group to her incoming shot. Her opponent had skill, that was obvious from the way he managed to divert her heavier arrow with one of his lighter ones, and she guessed he had some sort of affinity, likely Wind, that further bolstered the speed and lethality of his arrows.

Salicia herself had her own advantages, however, namely her enchanted longbow that hurled heavier projectiles with absurd force to make up for her lackings on the field of magic.

“There you are,” she whispered as she grasped another set of arrows from her quiver.

******************************

Hua-Jeong had to shoot an arrow in reaction to another’s for the first time in a long while that day, which was something he had not expected at all. Fortunately decades of training had not gone away and his skills did not betray him as he successfully deflected the incoming arrow with one of his own, striking it at the side and diverting it to fall harmlessly elsewhere.

He also noticed how much heavier his opponent’s arrow was compared to the ones he used, easily twice the size. It was similar to the arrows he saw used by other archers in the Empire who were most confident of their strength and wielded bows with far greater draw weight than most, but even larger, which would have placed the bow it was launched from beyond what a human should be able to draw.

Unfortunately he was not given the luxury of time to ponder the implications of such an opponent as he noticed another pair of arrows flying towards him in quick succession. The old general countered with his own arrows, deflecting his opponent’s arrows skillfully before they could reach him, though he had to place his shots with care.

The foe he faced had enough power behind their shots to simply blow through one of his arrows if he placed his shots poorly, as he found out when his second shot only glanced his opponent’s arrow, enough to send it slightly off-course, but close enough that he got to witness the result of said shot first hand.

It was with surprise and no small amount of horror that the old general witnessed how the arrow he barely deflected slammed straight through the head of a rider three horses away from him, apparently only stopped by the back of the man’s helm. That the arrow possessed so much power even after traveling the distance showed just what sort of force he had to reckon with.

And such a foe was clearly having him in their sight.

Hua-Jeong risked a brief look through the spyglass, at the general area he guessed the arrows originated from, and his sight quickly noticed the lone figure standing atop a thick branch on a lone tree atop the hill across the battlefield. The same figure who was shooting another arrow at him even as he noticed her presence.

In response, the old general made his horse move several steps forward, but he frowned as he noticed how even though the move would have made the first arrow the woman shot at him miss, the second arrow she fired behind the first still headed unerringly towards him. He had no recourse but to shoot down said arrow with one of his own once again.

Unconsciously, a smile graced the old general’s wrinkled features and he drew upon his skill and experience, loosing arrow after arrow at his opponent across the battlefield. It was the first time in his long life that he experienced such a thrill, such an excitement. The first time he faced an opponent in the field where he had long stood alone at the top.

It was true what the others often said to him. To face a worth adversary in life was indeed an experience to die for.