The faint but clear resounding sound of glass shattering filled the silent air. two elves who were left to clean up the battlegrounds poked around mocking the lack of decent armour on the aggressors who gave them such grief. Mia could hear their conversation in elvish from her position but she couldn't see where she was.

It was dark, it was hot, it reeked of sweat and iron. She tried to move, but the shooting pain of arrows piercing her flesh in several places burned at her nerves. as soon as she noticed it she could feel the splintered wood being driven through her all over again.

The battle had been over so swiftly she didn't even have a chance to retaliate. the elven snipers had easily been able to pinpoint their commander in the battle by the fact they were the only ones dressed in proper clothing. The arrow in her skull scraped against bone as she felt it pass through and out. Realising she should be dead, she stifled the scream that should have lept from her lips like a spoiled child bounding down the stairs on Christmas.

She didn't know why but her body was repairing itself, she grits her teeth and endured as every individual arrow forced itself out to make room for her recovery. through cracks of light she could make out that there was a pile of corpses on top of her. from the fragmented words of the elves echoing down from the gaps near her ears she could tell, they lept to protect her corpse from the attackers and the elves were looking for her Artifact.

Tightening her left hand she felt the familiar touch of the leather handle she had to put on her chainsword herself after the wood handle started to splinter from constant use. waiting for a moment in the conversation where the elves would crack another tasteless joke she tensed her body and got ready to throw the pile from herself.

She could almost hear the eyes of the elves close as they threw their heads back in mocking laughter as they searched for anything that could possibly be of value. in a roar of steel and a flash of flame she jumped out from the pile and threw herself at the two unsuspecting elves.

They hardly had the time to register what had transpired before their heads were sent flying. The expression of a smile breaking as a horrid realisation begins to set in was frozen eternally on their faces after they'd landed. The roar of the chain sword died down and Mia took a knee. She gasped fiercely and tried to calm her nerves. As flashes in her mind of arrows flying flooded her mind with every blink, she began patting herself on every part of her body she remembered an arrow hitting.

In a moment she realised that not a drop of blood that covered her was real. she tensed immediately at the sound of clapping and whirred her head around sword at the ready only to face...

"Master? D-does this mean?"

She almost broke into a smile.

"I'm afraid you're not asleep if that's what you were going to ask me, I simply wanted to congratulate you on being the first hero since me to be able to revive with your ego intact."

Her face began to fall again.

"B-but you..."

"I said I could only appear to you in dreams? That was because your seed of knowledge had yet to bear fruit. but if you can bear a resurrection surely you can bear my presence in the day without it consuming you too right?"

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"How am, I alive?"

He walked up to her and grasped her hand lifting it up and showing it to her. His hand felt as though it was there yet not there at the same time. like she was being guided by a force that was not altogether irresistible but she had no reason to resist. She obediently looked at the hand he'd drawn her attention to, and noticed one of the ten bones that made up the structure of her ring was broken.

"Have you ever wondered how in the legends of the heroes they seemed to have survived impossible injuries and come back to destroy those who incurred them? The fact of the matter is... they didn't and in truth neither did you. This is what I meant when I said your ring is your proof of being a hero. The elves are still celebrating their victory a little way down the road they won't be expecting you if you charge in now."

She stood staring at her ring as the image of her master standing before her faded into the background his explanation fading in one ear and out the other. Closing her eyes she could almost hear the calm forest noises without the sound of his voice but soon her trance was broken when his hand found their way up her... well...

"Aren't you listening? Take the elves' armour your clothes are in tatters unless you'd rather fight like this."

As he removed his hands she could feel what little fabric she was wearing slip from her back and leave her bare in the cold forest evening.

"Ah fine."

She immediately began stripping the elves and taking the parts of their armours which fit her better noting quickly that their muscles were not a perfect fit for every part on either and she had to take from both to cover herself comfortably.

"Infiltrating an enemy stronghold in their colours is usually considered a war crime, are you alright with that?"

"Now you ask?"

"Part of the job of a hero is to think for yourself, all my knowledge is now available to you at any time without me having to explain it, I suggest you get used to that."

As he spoke his ethereal apparition began to fade and she lost sight of him his last seven words echoing in her mind. she looked around for him but couldn't find him. She shook her head and continued marching forward.

She walked slowly and awkwardly in an attempt to silence her steps dampening the clanking of her plates with the strange gait she chose. soon enough she arrived at the elven encampment about a day's walk from the doors of the fort. She struggled to remember the events of the battle and its details as she walked as the time it took to do so was plentiful.

She remembered Lagina and Latif were busy and couldn't make it so Laurentius and Lahahana stood at the front with her, one for the thrill of the fight and the other for moral support in his confidence as a leader. as she was the first to be shot down she couldn't remember if they'd fought or fled but took that upon waking she did not see them as a sign of hope.

Her head had mostly cleared once she'd arrived and she overheard their conversations in their celebrations. rejoicing at how easily they'd quashed yet another human rebellion and managed to reattain some old slaves as well. She was not prepared to hear what happened to her friends however and even less prepared to see their heads mounted on the pikes at the front of the lead carriage.

something within Mia's head snapped. moving on instinct she took the stance her master had taken every time she'd watched him train himself after training her and ran towards the camp. her voice made no sound and no sound met her ears. her eyes saw that they were shouting but about what she could not tell. No arrow met her skin, no strike reached her armour.

When her body stopped moving, graceful arcs of blood were left dashed around the dirt road, a trail of smouldering corpses lay lifeless behind her, and her eyes were hot and irritated. With one cautious hand she reached up to clean the liquid from her face and after looking back she noticed it was not blood streaming down her face but tears.