Fear was consuming Leona from inside out, never once she had to take lives as a way to save another, but she was determined to do so in order to keep the knight safe from the ever growing storm approaching from the north.
Her footsteps were light, betraying the sense of security inside the cave as she carefully took each step in order to not make the faintest of noises. The path to the entrance was thankfully being blocked by a semi-collapsed stone pillar that laid diagonally against the nearby wall, she made her way down the ramp whilst using said pillar as cover from the many drunken eyes that wandered around the room.
To the right of the foot of the ramp there was a big pile of stolen goods which varied from vanity furniture made of silver or gold, to vintage sheathed weapons stuck beneath the mountain of coins which the scabbard seemed more like a work of art than a weapon of war.
On the immediate left there was another pile of treasure, but lying near it there was a sleeping bandit wearing only his fur hat, already deep in his cups, the man didn’t seem to wake up anytime soon.
Leona decided to take the safer option and survey the area around her before making a move. Over the pillar she had her back against, there was a way behind and around the pile of gold which seemed to be out of sight of everyone else in the cave, while on the front, she’d have to go across the ramp to find cover on the other side of the pile of treasure the drunken bandit was sleeping against.
‘Hm…’
She took another quick peek over the collapsed pillar and noticed no one was looking in her direction before she decided to vault over the stone formation and dash behind the mountain of treasure, carefully making her way around the scattered coins to avoid making any noise.
With her longsword in hand she could feel the vibrations of her heartbeat pulsate through the metallic blade in her hand, cold sweat started to form on her brow as she tried her best to control the agitated breathing.
‘Alright… now if I can rotate around this pile and go to the right side of the cavern I’ll be able to have a clear shot with wind mag-’
As she was preparing to put her plan into action, hurried footsteps seemed to be approaching from the right side of the pile of treasure, prompting her to duck behind the mountain of gold whilst holding her breath.
The man stopped just a few steps away from her, standing beside the ditch of corpses just across her.
“Ah man… it’s another one of those days…” A hint of discomfort in his muttering made Leona relax a little knowing she wasn’t spotted, but the man wasn’t moving away from that spot meaning she couldn’t move without being seen. “This god damned pit, they should’ve thrown these to the wolves.”
She grasped the handle tighter, if she moved there was a high chance that he would notice her, on the other hand if she stayed there, the moment he turned around he would see her crouching behind him, it was a lose-lose situation with only one plausible solution.
‘I have to kill him.’
Leona thought. Though it was easier said than done, it had to be one singular strike that could take the man’s life in a split second so nobody else in that cavern would notice.
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She slowly stood up, approaching the man from behind while raising the longsword above her shoulder level and grasping the handle with both hands. Unsure where to strike, she began aiming at his neck, but her arms felt heavy, the longsword even heavier as she mustered all her courage to swing down the blade.
The moment she winded up her arm to strike, he began to turn around which made her hesitate. For that split second before he could notice her standing with the sword in hand an arrow pierced the side of his skull splattering her face with droplets of blood. It was at that moment she snapped out of it and managed to grab him by the fur coat with the left hand before the body collapsed on the ground.
Upon glancing back, she noticed Phoebe gesturing to keep moving. Leona slowly put the man down near the pit as the weight of the carcass made it slip down in the pit alongside the other decomposing corpses. She swallowed the urge to vomit as she began skulking around the outer side of the room, focusing only on getting near the prisoners.
‘Get it together me. I talked big to Phoebe but still needed her help in the end.”
She frowned her brow in discontent as she continued to move through the shadows with the weapon at the ready. There was a certain tension in the air as she slowly made her way from pile to pile, avoiding being in the line of sight of the people in the center of the room. Leona wasn’t particularly good at hiding, but moving without making a noise was something she extensively trained in her childhood when running from Krieg and maids in the mansion. It was second nature to her, but unlike in her household, getting caught here could mean her death or worse, joining the pile of bodies in the foul pit.
She stopped once she was across the iron cage, there was two bandits standing guard, one on each side, the closest to Leona held a crossbow while the other had what seemed to be a long barreled rifle, though from that distance she couldn’t tell exactly if it was a matchlock or the more recent type of breech loaded rifle.
In either case, she had a serious problem in her hands. She could only take one of them out and the moment the other noticed she would have to rely on them missing her in order to have enough time to cast another spell.
She clenched her teeth in frustration, even if she was fast enough to kill the furthest one with a ranged spell and rush down the crossbowman with her longsword, it would only expose her to the rest of the bandits, making her lose the only advantage she had. At the same time, stalling the reason why she went in was also dangerous as it would only raise the chances of her being noticed.
‘Wait…’
She glanced at the entrance and saw the high elf staring right at her as if waiting for something. Leona didn’t know whether or not it was going to work but nevertheless she needed to try. Phoebe was kneeling beside the entrance with an arrow loosely knocked against the bowstring while she carefully observed the Princess’ movements until she stopped behind a pile of treasure and glanced right back at her. Leona waved twice before arching her left hand over her own head towards the center of the room.
The high elf’s eyes glanced to the middle of the open space and noticed the two bandits standing guard on each side of the cage.
“Heh, not bad Princess.”
She picked four other arrows between each finger and held them in the right hand while dipping them quickly in a glass vial of green solution, before pulling back the one already in the string.
From Leona’s perspective, seeing the high elf ready the bow to fire seemed to mean she got the message across. Before the fight breaks out she needed to kill as many as she could in the shortest possible time, there would be no second chances.
The young lass glanced down at her own left palm, closing and opening before taking a deep breath.
“Should it come to this then…” Muttering under her breath she began to chant her unique spell. “By the blessings of my creator, I order it to halt, time and space, Diamond Frost.”
Slowly, the air around her left arm began to coalesce into fine particles of ice as it worked its way up from her elbow until it covered her entire hand in a chiseled thick gauntlet of ice.
She exhaled a fine mist of steam while aiming the open palm of her left hand towards the crossbowman while she prepared herself mentally.
“It’s now or nothing…!”