Joan readied herself, taking a slow, deep breath. A part of her almost wanted to believe she was wrong, that those things chasing the pair weren’t shades.
But every time the light hit them just right they disappeared, fading away until once more they were in the shadows. The sinking sun on the horizon more than happy to give them plenty of shadows to work with. Ifrit was coming closer and judging by the look of fear on her face, she was all too aware of what danger was chasing her.
At least Joan knew how to deal with these. As elementals went, they were fairly minor. She glanced back and saw some of the men bringing torches down. Good, at least they were listening to her. Though, frankly, she wasn’t sure how much use they’d be other than that. Most of the ‘guards’ in the keep were really just people from the village who helped maintain the grounds. There wasn’t much expectation of any assault on the keep, nor any tactical reason to do so. If these were just a few bandits they’d likely be fine. But against creatures like this she doubted they’d be able to do much more than distract them. Still, against shades the light and distractions they offered could be plenty.
“Light as many torches as possible,” Joan said. “No shadows, they can only move through those.”
“What are those things?” one of the guards asked.
Joan just gave a sigh. What did she just say? “Shades. They’re shades. Shadow walkers. Torches! Light them! NOW!” she ordered.
Another point to their credit, they did. Despite herself she couldn’t help being thankful that even if they likely weren’t prepared for whatever threat was on its way, they at least seemed willing to listen to her. Within a few moments the courtyard was filled with lit torches. “Good. Stay here, keep everything lit. So long as there’s too much light here, they won’t come through the gate.” She walked towards the gate and stared at the approaching girl. Three shades. She could handle that. Probably. She stroked a finger along Guardian Nova’s hilt.
“My lady! You can’t mean to fight them, they--”
“They’re summoned creatures,” Joan said. “I’ll send them back where they came from. Relax, I’ve got plenty of advantages over them.” Though she honestly wished she’d had a few more. Her armor and throwing knives were back up in her room. She’d gotten sloppy. Let herself relax. If her armor was here, she could have ended this in a second. The light elemental in the belt would have been amazing as well.
The pounding of hooves told her that, sadly, there was no time for that. “P-please--” Ifrit called out.
“Get inside!” Joan yelled at her, motioning back behind herself.
Maybe she just really had her bossy voice down today, because Ifrit just did as she was told. The three creatures in pursuit skidded to a stop, however. They could see all the light behind her. At first glance they looked like horse and rider. Except the closer one looked the more it became apparent that they weren’t each two creatures, instead a single, shadowy creature. Having taken on the form of their prey, adapting to the shape of a rider. Now they were shifting, shrinking down to match her.
Joan couldn’t help but give a little giggle. Last time she’d had a fight like this it had been a lot more intimidating, an elemental of fire. Even if they had her outnumbered, she knew exactly how to handle this. Besides, it would only be two in a moment. “Are you three done?” she asked before running at them.
She thrust her sword and stabbed the first one in the stomach. It merely swung its sword back at her, not reacting much to the stab. After all, a normal blade couldn’t hurt a shade. She knew it and the shade knew it.
She put her left palm against the flat of the blade and a moment later it erupted with dazzling light. The shade had only a moment to grasp its mistake before it disappeared in the sudden radiance. The light dimmed a moment later, but that was one down. More importantly, her sword was now glowing. Not bright enough to banish one of the creatures on its own, but at least enough they were moving back away from her.
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Still, Joan really wished she had access to Searle’s magic now. If he’d done that spell he’d have likely dispelled all three of them in a single blow, without having to try stabbing one of them first. That trick likely wouldn’t catch them by surprise a second time. She pointed the tip of the blade towards the other two. “Come on, we both know how this is going to end. You’re going to fight. You’re going to lose. I’m going to get yelled at for taking risks. We’re all going to move on with our lives. Well?”
Still, the shades didn’t move towards her. Instead, they looked past her to the keep.
“I know, I know,” Joan said with a sigh. “Let me guess. You were given some kind of command like ‘Bring her back to me’ or ‘Don’t stop until he’s dead’ or ‘Don’t let her escape even if it costs you your lives’, right? But you can’t get in there, not while the torches are up. And they won’t go out unless you manage to take me down. So--”
That did it. One of them lifted their sword and rushed at her. She stepped to their left and deflected their strike with her own. She activated the enchantment on her boots, giving her a rapid burst of speed for a moment, which she used to kick the shade’s foot out from under it when she passed. She lifted her sword to strike back down at their prone form. However, out of the corner of her eye she saw movement and she barely leaped back in time to avoid a cut from the other shade.
Oh, that wasn’t good. Joan felt a moment of apprehension when she realized that the shades were now between her and the gate. She aimed the tip of her sword at the two of them, the first shade reforming to its feet. She hated how they did that. It couldn’t just get to its feet like a normal abomination, no, it had to shapeshift its entire body to a standing position.
They both charged her this time. She deflected the first blow, moving around to its right this time. However, the second one was there, swinging its blade from below. Joan leaped to their right, dropping into a roll and springing back to her feet and turning to face them.
Joan hoped it would buy her some space, but they were already on her. One coming from the left, one from the right. She supposed not having an actual physical form allowed them to be a lot faster than she’d hoped. She moved to her right this time, parrying a downward strike from the shade on her left, forcing that shade between her and the second. So long as she could--
The one she was using as a shield shifted and the other shade came THROUGH it. Their bodies molding together for a moment as the second struck at her through the body of the first, the first holding her sword back. Joan had only a moment to watch the blade coming at her and be ever so thankful that she still had the amulet from Korgron and Chase. She didn’t know where it was going to teleport her once she got stabbed, but she hoped she could get back to the--
Suddenly there was light. A torch flew through the air, blazing brightly, and causing the shades to pull back for a moment. A grin formed on Joan’s lips and she brought Guardian Nova up the moment the shade’s blade pulled away. She cleaved through the flames of the torch and a moment later her own sword was enveloped in red flames which quickly shifted to blue.
Her next swing cleaved through both of them, their movements slowed by their combined form, and blue flames enveloped them. Then there was nothing but ash. She flicked her blade and the flames died away.
Joan made a mental note to tell Vivian to give whoever had thrown that torch a nice bonus of some kind. They obviously… that thought died quickly in her mind when she looked towards the gate and saw who threw it. Ifrit. The girl looked exhausted, scared and was panting, but she had a second torch in her hands and looked ready to throw it at any moment. “You… you killed them,” Ifrit said.
“Dispelled them,” Joan said. “They won’t be bothering us again, they’re back where ever they came from.”
“W-what? They’re going to come BACK?” Ifrit asked.
“Those ones? I doubt it,” Joan said. “Whoever summoned them will likely get some other shades next time they summon them. Mind telling us what that was about?”
“I-I need to speak with the Chosen,” Ifrit said. “Francis needs help, he’s wounded.” She then turned and ran back towards her horse, towards Francis.
Joan would have said more, but even from here she could see that Francis wasn’t moving. Whatever answers she wanted would have to wait.
She still couldn’t believe she was saving Francis of all people. After all the times he’d tried to kill and defame her, it felt so incredibly weird. Then again, she supposed normal lives that made sense were for other people. A normal life would probably bore her anyway.