“It’s not him, but it is definitely a prowler. Nev, maybe we should… I don’t know. Maybe it isn’t too late to run. We could lose them in the woods maybe,” Wyatt suggested, his voice quiet and full of worry.
“No,” Nev said firmly, as she turned to face Wyatt. “I can do this.”
Wyatt sighed and agreed softly, “Yes. I know you can. Still, just be careful.” As the sounds grew closer, his anxiety built. Wyatt decided to see if he could dissuade Nev one final time. “Last chance. You sure we can’t just go find a cozy cave somewhere?” Wyatt offered, looking hopeful.
Nev smiled at Wyatt and shook her head against his suggestion. Then she moved to stand a few feet in front of their group of now four. She could sense Addi with her crossbow and Nellis with his pike standing on either side of her. Wyatt was positioned behind all of them, his familiar presence helping to calm Nev’s nerves. She felt her hands becoming encircled by warmth and then gently compressed. I love you, she thought just before the prowler lunged out of the woods at her.
Nev was more than ready for him. She met his blows and kept his attention where she wanted it. On her.
Addi and Nellis were in awe. They had honestly expected Nev to be cut down in an instant. Instead, she was holding her ground against the prowler. She seemed to glide and dance around him with deadly precision. Their astonishment was suddenly interrupted as four enforcers stormed out of the woods. Addi dropped one with a well-placed bolt before he’d ever seen her. Her bolt still protruding from his eye and blood oozing out around it.
The enforcers, it seemed, were just as stunned to witness someone successfully countering a prowler’s attacks as Addi and Nellis had been. Nellis took advantage of their distraction. He shoved his pike deep into the closest enforcer’s neck. Red blood spewing from where his neck was pierced before he collapsed.
Wyatt kept his attention focused on Nev. She seemed to be matching the prowler’s attacks for now, but she’d done that the last she faced one. At first.
When Wyatt heard Addi let out a yelp, he let Nev drop from his sight for a moment. He focused on the armor of the attacker looming over Addi. Wyatt watched her trying desperately to not be smashed by the massive enforcer. Wyatt concentrated his energy and thoughts to a single focus. Burn!
Addi blocked a blow of the enforcer’s war hammer with her crossbow. Its thick, metal-reinforced wood bearing the brunt of the impact successfully. She saw him bring his weapon up for another strike and tried to scooch out of his reach. Swinging the hammer back towards her for another attempt, he suddenly stopped. His armor had begun to glow bright red, and he screamed in agony as he dropped his weapon and fell to his knees. “Wyatt?!” Addi yelled in astonishment.
“You can owe me!” Wyatt quickly responded before returning his focus to Nev.
Addi scrambled to regain her footing as she reeled from watching her brother immolate the enforcer. Pulling a bolt from her quiver, she quickly loaded, cocked, and aimed her crossbow. Finding her target, she fired one bolt into the enforcer’s head. Feeling her fury grow, Addi stared down at the enforcer’s limp body. She reloaded, cocked, and aimed it directly at his head. Standing directly over him, she fired once more. A satisfying crunch was heard as the bolt drove through his skull and entered the ground beneath him. Blood spurting from around the shaft of Addi’s bolt.
Nev was focused on evading the prowler’s flurry of swipes with his short sword. He was fast and aggressive. Her father had taught her ways to anticipate an attacker’s movements, but the prowler was so fluid. He was almost impossible to predict. As a result, Nev found herself almost constantly reacting to his attacks. She needed that to change.
Nellis had been successfully parrying the sword swings of the last enforcer, but he was growing weary. The enforcer swung his broadsword over his head and slammed it against Nellis’ pike. The vibrating clang of metal reverberating through the air and Nellis’ body. “Umm…a little help here, please?” he yelled after seeing the assailant attacking Addi glow red hot and then fall.
Addi, with her crossbow ready once again, fired a bolt at the enforcer. This time her target pivoted at the last moment. Allowing the bolt to skim over the surface of his armor.
Struggling, Nellis tried to find an opening to deliver a killing blow, but it continued to elude him.
Hearing his sister and Nellis’ difficulty defeating their shared target, Wyatt dared a glance at Addi. The fear and exhaustion were apparent on her face. Sensing Nev was alright for now, he worked to center his thoughts on the enforcer. He needed to stop him, just like he had his compatriot. Abruptly, he felt an intense pain in his shoulder, and his focus was thrown. His mind shuddered as he came to the horrid realization that he hadn’t been the one struck. “Nev!” he yelled.
Wyatt heard Nev scream and then howl in pain. He tried to sense how badly she had been hurt while refocusing his mind and pressing through his building headache.
“Aww…. That hurts, doesn’t it?” the prowler said, grinning as he twisted his dagger into Nev’s shoulder.
The chainmail prevented the prowler’s attack from piercing through Nev’s shoulder, but it didn’t stop the pain. Nev shrieked in agony, and her eyes flashed with fear and anger. She dug her sword deep into the prowler’s stomach, but he continued to twist the dagger deeper. He seemed blind to everything save Nev, even ignoring his own severe wound to his abdomen.
Nev started to become convinced that the force of his attack might slice right through her armor and into her flesh. Collapsing under his assault and with her left arm now burning in pain, she dropped her sword from her hand.
