It turned out, charging forward while howling might boost morale, but as far as stealth attacks go... it's counterintuitive, to say the least.
Ryan's blood-curdling yells reached Pepe, distracting her from the downed man in black. She turned to see who had the nerve to make such a racket during broad daylight.
The expression on Ryan's face was indescribable—a cocktail of fear for the unknown and death, dread of the Duke and the leader, concern for his family, and perhaps a sprinkle of hope for survival.
It was the most memorable face a girl just shy of nine had ever seen. Pepe remembered some off-world jokes Murphy used to tell in her downtime and, brandishing the gem-tipped end of her wand, said with feigned seriousness, "You do know, this wand here is poisoned!"
Then she stuck out her tongue, blocking his view as she pretended to lick the gemstone, all while sporting a grin of utmost confidence.
The next second, she let herself fall backward.
Ryan, mid-charge and just steps away from victory, hadn't expected his quarry to drop first. Panic flooded his thoughts, and everything felt off-kilter.
Eyeballing the toppled Pepe, Ryan hesitated, then muttered to himself, "Maybe I should... check on Cody's corpse..."
Convincing himself this was the best course of action, he made a beeline for "Cody's body," pivoting just a few steps away from Pepe.
"Cody, Cody! Can you hear me?" Ryan shouted as he ran up to his fallen comrade, ready to shake his shoulders violently.
That's when his assassin's instinct hinted at a presence behind him.
He turned, dread filling his eyes, to see the little girl who'd been lying on the ground now standing right behind him.
"Did you find my joke funny just now?" Pepe asked with deadpan directness.
"What joke?" Ryan was beyond the point of rational thought. "Hilarious, absolutely hilarious."
"Correct answer gets a prize," Pepe said with a satisfied smile, then aimed the gem of her wand at Ryan's forehead. "Soul Shock!"
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A pale beam of light burst from the gemstone, and Ryan's head felt like it was bashed with a rock, then darkness claimed him.
Soul Shock, a basic spell for mental disruption, effectively stuns the target without being lethal—akin to being clobbered with a club, yet leaving no visible mark. It's a favorite in the interrogation field.
The spell—based on the Vessel Theory—asserts that the soul is like water, whereas the body is the container holding it. Death by physical harm means the container is breached, draining all within.
This also extends to an explanation about ghosts: their souls are thought to be frozen, and they avoid light for fear of melting under the sun's rays. However, this hasn't swayed the Vessel Theory's skeptics.
Pepe, satisfied with Ryan's fall, withdrew her wand. She wasn't wedded to any magic school of thought, much like Murphy; she was a card-carrying pragmatist, especially considering Murphy's advice to avoid taking lives when possible.
This was her first time using Soul Shock on someone alive, lacking some finesse but satisfied with the result. Pepe's strength lay in half of her summoning ability, so in a battle with an audience, she had to ban herself.
With two assailants down, Pepe's gaze shifted across the road to the battle still raging, and she made a beeline towards it.
In less than five minutes, the maid who’d been back-to-back with the blonde girl was now bleeding heavily from her thigh. The blonde girl was propping her up against a roadside tree, the remaining trio of killers slowly closing in on them in a fan formation.
Inhaling sharply, the maid brandished her wand, flinging out wind blades, but at close quarters, they missed their mark. The leading man easily dodged, leaving deep gashes on the road and trees behind him.
"If I were you, I'd focus on my underlings first," the man said coolly, to which his minions seemed well accustomed.
The maid knew it too, but dispatching the lower ranks wouldn’t guarantee victory over their leader, especially now, with her vision blurring—she could faint any second...
Just then, a tingling sensation came from the arm Eschell was holding. A wave of coolness infused the maid's body, calming her mind—it was nothing like the chill of blood loss.
Sidelong, she saw Eschell's wand retreating from her arm; the effects of Spectator's Heart were still at work, honing Eschell's acute powers of observation.
"Anne," Eschell's cool voice broke through, "with help, we can win."
Those few words injected Anne with a fresh burst of energy. She shrugged off Eschell's support. "Miss, stall the one on the left. I'll take care of this side and then help you," she said softly.
Anne smiled and gestured at Pepe, who was fast approaching, signaling that she could hold off the attacking assassin on the right.
The final battle was underway.
Eschell and Anne had fought long and hard; their buffs for physical enhancement were waning. Eschell, in a state of hyper-calm, kept dodging the black-clad attackers’ thrusts and cuts, and when evasion failed, she deflected blows onto her staff.
Pepe tangled with the right-side assassin, relying on her shadow stepping and Decay Ray. For the foreseeable future, these would be her go-to moves in melee combat.
Anne was locked once more in battle with the lead assassin. Power waning, she pushed her wand’s magic to the sharp edge as they exchanged blade for blade.