My breath was visible before me as I lay prone over a dune of snow, overlooking a recently trodden road. Alisson was right. The Andestine rearguard would be close behind their main force, and they’d be using the same road.

As much as my fingers bubbled with magic, I needed to wait until they were closer.

The road was in a slight ravine, flanked by tall dunes of snow on each side of it, each ranging from a meter to a dozen meters tall, combined to the pitch-black night, it was the perfect place to hide.

The moon was low, in a few hours it would set below the horizon, to be replaced by the sun. I awaited anxiously for the Andestine supply column to near, they were none the wiser. There was probably about fifty of them, including non-combatants and guards. Only about twenty of them were knights. They stood dispersed along the multiple horse-drawn wagons in the column. I could hear them clearly, every word they spoke, every step they took. It was thanks to the two cat ears atop my head, that twitched in the cold of the night. With them exposed, it felt as though my body was twice as strong as it was before, and my tails seemed to instinctively aid in my balance.

A slight flurry of snow was kicked up by a sudden gust of wind, making the men at the front of the column raise their hands to shield their eyes. I took it as my sign to commence my attack. I pointed my hands forward, still laying over the tall pile of snow, and unleashed all of my mana in one massive barrage. Yellow bolts and lances flew from my overarching position, to come crashing down onto the front of the Andestine column. I made sure to aim for firstly the knights, and then the wagons, the rest of the group’s members could be dealt with after the real threats were gone.

As soon as I’d exhausted my spells, I sprung up, and slid down the dune that I’d been atop of, down toward the road. With smoke and dust kicked up in the convoy’s face from my barrage, there was no way they saw me cross the road right before them. I scrambled up the snow and soon, I was gone from their vision. Smoke rose from the front of the convoy, it seemed that a few of the wagons were perhaps carrying oil that had been ignited, and that now burned away at the frontal wagons. Men from farther back in the column shouted in surprise, and prepared for battle, expecting a sudden attacking unit to come from the front.

As much as I wanted to wheel and attack the center of the convoy right now, I knew that it would be far more devastating to continue with the plan Alisson had laid out. I dashed into the snowscape, far from the road. Spotting a dried out campfire implanted into a particular pile of snow, I slid to a halt at its base, and pushed aside some recently fallen snow. Underneath which was a black cannister. I laid my hand on it for a moment.

After only a moment, I stood, and dashed back toward the road. My target was not the convoy’s center, but rather, its rear. I reached the road after only a minute, seeing for myself the Andestine reaction, the guards were forming up at the front of the burning wagons, looking around for supposed aggressors, while non-combatants tried to fight the fires. The horses were neighing loudly, spooked by the flames, some burned where they stood.

I crept through the dunes to the rear of the convoy, each of my fingers boasting a large sphere of yellow at their tips. Once more, I aimed my hands at the wagons and knights, and unleashed another cocktail of bolts and lances at the rear of the convoy. I didn’t use all of my mana however, keeping some just in case. Dust and smoke now swirling through the air at the rear of the supply column, I again used the chance to reposition. This time, I slid down to the road, and didn’t bother crossing over to the other side. I remained in the road, drawing my weapons.

The Andestinians hollered and shouted, and some men wailed with injuries. The once sleepy late-night voyage had erupted into total chaos. Two large magic strikes, one at the front of the convoy, and the other, at the rear, and from the other side of the road. As of now, the enemy was in total disarray. The wagons being struck at the front had forced the formation to a halt, and the wagons at the rear now being destroyed meant that the center wagons couldn’t reverse. They were stuck where they were.

I flourished my stilettos, and charged into the fray. I burst through the smokem, a man stumbling back as he caught sight of me. I easily impaled his throat and weaved past him, my focus being the armed knights. A few more men moseyed into my path, and they were quickly dealt with, all of them didn’t even have the time to call out and report my position. I spotted a knight’s shimmering armor through the underside of a wagon on the other side of me. I sprinted toward the wagon, and slid under it through the muddy ground, appearing right at my enemy’s feet. He didn’t even have the time to say anything before I slammed into his legs, and made him fall to the ground, where I descended onto body. He tried to lift his hands up to his neck to protect himself, but it was fruitless.

I slammed down at the back of his helmet with both my stilettos, ignoring his neck. My Opensen-enhanced power easily penetrated the thin armor of the rear of his helmet, and he went limp immediately.

I rose from the corpse, to see another three Platinum Knights before me. They seemed stunned. Not one of them though, who rushed toward me with his shield and sword. I easily evaded his first swing, but my riposte was blocked by his shield. I heard footfalls behind me and knew that another knight was coming in for a swing. I leapt backwards under the knight’s still swinging arm, and, deciding I was in no position to strike back at him, shifted my focus onto the third knight by turning toward him. I rushed him down, and he could only stumble back and bring his shield to bear to block one of my stilettos before I deftly slipped behind him. With a jump up and then a slam downwards, I impaled both my blades into the knight’s collarbone.

I gave the corpse a kick forward, leaving my blades stuck into him after having given them some mana. The two knights rushed toward me, right past their former comrade. My blades shone effulgently blue for a moment, and then, they both detonated, engulfing the two knights in blue plume of electrifying smoke.

Drawing my baselards from both my wrist mounted sheath and my shoulder one, I was able to jam one of my blades into a dazed knight before the smoke cleared. I weaved around the last knight’s strike, his armor singed and fragments of metal having embedded themselves into his body from the explosion of his comrade’s body. I gutted the last knight, gouging my last blade into his stomach, which made him double over, it gave me a clear shot for the nape of his neck. He crumpled to the floor a moment thereafter, the three knights having all been dispatched in the matter of a few seconds.

Quickly gathering my blades, I set my sights on the front of the convoy, where undoubtably the last real resistance would lay.

…

Where’s the enemy!? Better yet, WHO’s the enemy!?

My eyes darted to and from the towering dunes of snow on either side of my platoon, but they were cloaked in the black of night, to only be illuminated by the fires burning through our wagons and the and gentle blue of the moon.

“Bandits? Beasts?”

One of my men called out.

“Remember what we’re here for: Sidonians! It has to be!” Another answered.

I tightened my hands over my estoc. “Just stay in formation!” I ordered, my feminine voice carrying far less authority than those around me, despite my rank.

Despite our panicked words and frantic movements, the enemy had yet to show themselves. The men gathered here at the front of our convoy was hardly every knight in the entire force, which made me peer my head back in doubt; only to see plumes of smoke and cries emanating from middle and rear of our column. My eyes shot wide as I realized why the enemy had apparently given up their assault of the front of the road – they were already attacking, and if the cries of men as they were killed were any indication – the attacking force was already making their way to us – straight through our comrades.

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I stumbled back, and rose a fist into the air, ordering, “About face!” – Confident to meet the threat head on,

Before a blue blur burst out of the fire and smoke of the frontmost wagon. It passed right over my head, and crashed into the infantrymen mere feet before me. Their small frame stuck to the man’s upper body for a moment, gouging out their eyes through the slits of his helmet. The blur quickly fell to his backside, in the same motion twisting the man’s neck unnaturally, leaving him falling limp to the ground.

It was so fast that it barely registered in my head, before the blur dashed a second man, diving to their feet, and slicing at the backs of their knees, making them fall forward before the blur rose and impaled the back of their neck.

In reaction, the nearest man to the attacker stepped forward, swinging their sword down, to which the aggressor evaded, and returned the favor in the form of stiletto jammed into their armpit.

I finally had a moment to process the situation as the attacker stepped back with two large steps, as if gliding backwards, and away from us, leaving their weapon impaled in their last victim. The man who’d been most recently stabbed stumbled back, clutching his side, before he suddenly exploded in a plume of black, thundering smoke, engulfing another two men nearest to him.

I stared through the slits of my helmet, finally with a good, unblurred view of this person. It was a single girl, she couldn’t be older than me, but was a little shorter, had had exposed, sleek armor. This armor however bore the scars of horrendous wounds and great punishment, the dirt and dried blood of more battles than any of the men in the convoy had ever experienced, combined. Her stare burned through me; perhaps catching a glint of the moon, her eyes seemed to glow with blue. The furred ears atop her head and the tails that swished behind her back denounced her allegiance clearly – This was no bandit, this was a Sidonian; and from the looks of it, she was the only attacker.

I broke out of my trance of shock, and rose my weapon forward. “Attack!”

I ordered to the dozen other men around me, who’d just moments before been in a shield wall facing the complete opposite direction that the Nekomata had come from. The Nekomata took two explosive steps forward, that looked more like leaps from the way that she glided forward side to side, it was so quick and inhuman that it didn’t make sense. Her movements put her directly in my face, keen to kill the supposed commander. I rose my estoc with both my hands, and thrust forward, dead center at her. With adrenaline coursing through me, and with a very real threat of death looming over me, it was probably the best thrust of my life.

But it wasn’t nearly fast enough. The girl bobbed below my blade, pushing it upwards with one of her own and riposting with her other. Thankfully, her counterattack glanced off one of my pauldrons, dislodging it and making it fly through the air. She weaved around me, and I tried to turn to keep her in my sight, but instead, what flew through the slits of my helmet, was a blade.

“Commander Al’Alavōunt!”

I only had a moment to recognize the tip of her blade before it gouged out my right eye. I swung my estoc wildly, catching air, as the Nekomata broke off to engage my comrades who were seconds away from aiding me.

I could only scream in pain for a moment, feeling acutely that there was nothing left of my right eye; hot blood poured down my face, and the slits of my helmet had been bent and dislodged in the shape of the blade. Before I could wallow in pain, I noticed the blade hum with an effulgent blue, all of the sudden glowing.

My only eye widened and I struggled to take my helmet off. In the process, the blade lodged in my skull carved a path through my skin as I ripped my helmet off my shoulders, and, falling backwards, threw it as hard as I could away from me.

Just a moment later did it detonate as I landed on my ass, grasping my eye and fighting desperately not to wail out in pain. All I could do was sit there, in shock, as all around me, my comrades were diced down by the Nekomata. They were all but rookies. They didn’t stand a chance.

Eventually, after only a minute, a small group of men were all that remained, they were gathered around me protectively, set on fighting to the end.

The Nekomata broke off her attack momentarily as she jumped back. She firmly planted her boot on my blackened helmet, caving in the now brittle metal, and wrenched from it the blade that had a mere minute ago been inside my head. The fires of the wagons cropped up behind her as she set her sights on the last group of fighters around me.

It was then that terror overtook me. There was something about her gaze that pierced me, and invoked a primal fear, like I was just prey being hunted.

I’m, I’m going to die!

My eyes tightened, and teared.

…

As I stared down the last five knights of the Andestine column, I found myself thinking that they weren’t at all like Andestine Platinum knights. They had thinner swords and thinner kite shields, and their armor was oddly shaped, and most of all, they were terrible fighters.

And it was then with the light of the fires illuminating the knights that I saw what insignias were on their pauldrons. They weren’t Andestinians – These were Irinians. Explains why the commander here isn’t some gruff war veteran but some third rate noble or something. She was the only knight who didn’t bear a shield, and instead held an estoc with two hands. Or, did. She stared at me with terror in her eyes.

I sighed to myself. Well, it was clear they’re aiding Andestine. They’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I took a deep breath, resolving to finish the job, when I suddenly froze. Behind the remaining Irinians, was a familiar tall figure. A Sequitur. I then noticed a whole legion of them, all around me, atop the dunes of snow, hiding in the darkness of the night, just barely made out thanks to the light of the fires, which were now dying down, and would be but embers radiating in the snow.

My body seemed to drop in temperature, and my irises appeared vertical, and my face turned blank. I forgot all about the knights before me.

…

This is it. The Nekomata took a step toward us, and my men tensed in expectation, knowing full well that they had no chance against her. They trembled.

When suddenly, she broke into an explosive sprint forward…and completely leapt over us, instead, she thrust at empty air. She twisted the blade into the air, until her gaze fell to the floor, as if watching an invisible man crumple in death. She turned toward us, seeming to look through us, as if she saw something far more interesting.

I careened my head around, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. However, the Nekomata certainly did. She fought phantoms all around us, blitzing from seemingly dozens of different aggressors, and with expert skills, cut at the air. It was baffling, and at one point, the thought popped into my head that she was just playing with us. But her expression was one that was very hard to fake – That countenance of blankness and focus, as if what she was doing needed to be done no matter what.

We were all awestruck for a moment, before I shakily rose, cringing in pain, and whispered. “…Let’s go.”

My remaining men glanced at me cautiously, and then to the blur of a Nekomata, unwilling to simply let her be after cutting down so many of our friends. But eventually, they nodded and slowly, we crept away, letting the Nekomata unleash her fury at the crisp night air, and not us.

…

I realize now what power it was that Eufrozina had given me – She had reinstated my ability to damage Sequiturs. Although their bodies seemed to disappear after they had suffered as much as a paper cut, I knew in my gut that I was killing them. And soon, there wasn’t a single one in the area.

I glanced around, but the surroundings were silent, other than the smoldering embers of the once Irine supply column.

I think that’s the last I’ll be see of my clingy clique of friends.

In the process of dealing with them though, I guess I kind of lost track of the remaining Irinians. Oh well…it’s not a big deal. They won’t be contributing to the Andestine attack tomorrow, and that’s all that matters. If they choose to run to Scratskoslovotskaya, I’ll probably catch them on their way there, and if not, they won’t make it in time before the battle tomorrow begins anyway.

Now, I need to gather up my blades – As well as the most important object in my and Alisson’s possession. I was surprised that he trusted me with it, and certainly leaving it out in the snow seems reckless, but what was going to happen to it? This phase of the plan has been completed. Now, time to lug that canister all the way back to the city. By the time I get there…Alisson should already be in contact with Andestine. If all goes smoothly…We’ll have the Andestinians on this side of the continent wiped out in a single afternoon. And then, finally, me and Alisson can go home.

As I replayed the events of the battle in my head, I realized just how high of a killcount I’ve accrued over these last few months. Am I bad person? The ears atop my head fluttered as I momentarily pondered the question, they then flattened across my hair.

Nah…I concluded.

With the heavy canister in tow, I walked off through the fields of snow, the moon’s light bathing the ground in a tint of blue as smoke plumes rose at my back. No beasts did contest my trek back to the city. It was like they knew me.

***