Chapter Text
“Fucking assassins,” she muttered under her breath as her dagger finished off a masked man taking his last gasp of air. “Someone please tell me that’s the last of them.”
After a quick survey of the battleground, Adira set about retrieving what arrows she could to refill her empty quiver. Uncharitably, she buried her boot in the side of a motionless attacker. “Couldn’t let us have even a single quiet day, could you?”
Sagani whistled sharply and pointed off to the east. “Hate to ruin your day even more, Watcher, but it looks like we’re about to have more company. They’ll be on us in a few minutes.”
“Reinforcements?” Edér followed her sightline and groaned. “The brute squad. Big fuckers, too. No way we can take ‘em on here, not after that last fight.”
Exhausted, Adira nodded her agreement. “Make for the trees,” she ordered, motioning towards the woods they’d come through immediately before being set upon by the now-dead assassins. “Get high if you can manage, or find cover and stay low. Let’s see if we can’t find an advantage.” There was no time to gather the remainder of her arrows. She’d just have to make do with the three she’d collected. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll just pass on by.”
“If they’re as dumb as they look, that might just work.” Despite their disadvantage, Edér couldn’t help being a little disappointed. “Would be a fun fight, though, if we were all fresh.”
“Don’t do anything reckless,” she said in a low voice for his ears only, reaching over to squeeze his hand. “Wait for my signal,” she told the rest and headed into the trees with Elith at her heels.
Time wasn’t on their side so they fled quickly, leaving a more noticeable trail than she liked, but there was no helping it. Once deeper inside, she scaled a sturdy looking tree and settled, obscured, within its branches. The lion disappeared into the brush not far away. From her perch, she watched the rest of the group try to make themselves scarce, with varying degrees of success. Soon as this was over, she was going to give both Kana and Aloth advanced lessons in camouflage.
It didn’t take long for the pursuers to make their way into the woods. Edér hadn’t been wrong in his description. The biggest of them was half again as tall as the farmer and three times as wide. The others didn’t quite measure up but weren’t far off. Luckily numbered only four, so it wouldn’t be as lopsided a fight as she’d feared, despite their size.
There was some hope it wouldn’t come to that. While massive, they didn’t appear to be overly intelligent or particularly observant. They lumbered past most of the group without issue, although one of them did come a hair’s breadth away from stabbing Kana with the sword he’d thrust into the brushy thicket where the chanter was hiding. They argued with each other as they searched, their words unintelligible. From their gestures, she inferred that one of them wanted to keep searching while the other three were ready to call it a day. Normally she would’ve been insulted at the apathy and the outright laziness they showed in their desire to quit so early, but she was hardly in a position to judge a decision that worked in her favour.
And it did appear to be working in her favour. Outvoted, the lone hold-out finally nodded his head, and the group of behemoths turned to make their way back out of the woods. They had very nearly reached the treeline when a cacophony of vicious barks filled the air, and a fifth member joined their party. The new addition was even more massive, and by the way the others deferred to him, the leader apparently, who wasn’t about to let them lay down on the job.
Fantastic.
Two dogs, beasts as large and hulking as the men they belonged to, bounded into the woods, drooling and growling. While they weren’t scent dogs by any means, they were quick to ferret out the locations of both Elith and Itumaak and force the animals into the fray. An arrow sizzled through the air and embedded itself deep into the neck of the dog bearing down on Itumaak. It was enough to halt the attack and a second arrow brought the beast to its end.
The need for a signal was moot at this point. Still, Adira whistled sharply and knocked back an arrow of her own, aiming at the second dog facing off against Elith. As large as the dog was, he was no match for the size and agility of the lion. The big cat leapt with a thunderous roar, his large paw connecting, claws outstretched, with the canine’s face. The animals crashed together, the momentum causing them to roll and obscure the view of her shot. Elith was the first to his feet, knocking his opponent prone and aggressively lunging forward to sink his teeth into the dog’s neck. Yelps of pained protest filled the air, quickly silenced as the lion shook his strong jaws.
Adira aimed and fired at the man approaching the downed dog with his sword drawn. The arrow bounced harmlessly off his thick armour and fell to the ground. It was enough to capture his attention, and he turned, eyes searching upwards for the source of the arrow. She loosed a second arrow with the same result as the first, but the third found its mark in the centre of his forehead.
She was out of arrows. The fight surged on below her, and she was out of arrows.
One man and both dogs were down, but that still left four hulking brutes out for blood. From her viewpoint, Adira could see one of them nearing Aloth’s location. The wizard was in the middle of preparing a spell for a different target, unaware of the approach. If she called out to warn him, she was putting him in danger from both directions. She could do nothing from where she was, so she decided to drop back to the ground.
Reaching down, she pulled the dagger from her boot, readying it to throw. In what was starting to be an aggravatingly recurring theme so far, her aim was off. The dagger’s edge caught his cheek, slicing him open and diverting his attention. The distraction gave Aloth enough time to release his spell and refocus his wand on the approaching target, so it wasn’t a complete loss.
Weaponless, Adira looked around for something, anything she could use offensively. Spotting her dagger, she raced forward to grab it, bringing it down into the leather boot of Aloth’s engaged target. After pulling it out again, she paused to land a kick behind the giant’s knee, knocking him off balance and leaving him open to a follow-up kick that brought him to his knees.
Confident that her friend could take care of his opponent without further assistance, she clenched the handle of her dagger between her teeth and scaled the trunk of another tree. There was little she could do without her arrows, but maybe the higher vantage point would point out something.
She found herself disappointed when she reached the apex of the tree. Visually, the wooded battlefield was a mess, showing nothing she could use to her advantage. Logically she knew she was better off staying where she was. Her dagger was largely ineffectual against these opponents. There was little she could do to aid the fight below. She was no good to anyone dead.
Logically that made perfect sense.
The ground shook beneath her. One of the brutes ran with heavy, clobbering feet past her perch towards where Edér grappled with another. Her heart leapt into her throat at the sight. Panicked thoughts drowned her normally level-headed brain, convincing her that her farmer would most certainly meet his end if she didn’t act quickly.
Despite knowing better, she threw caution to the wind, launching herself as the brute passed by, landing squarely on his broad back and wrapping an arm around his thick neck. With her free hand, she attempted to remove his helmet, knowing the dagger would never make it through the dense metal.
Her ride stopped in his tracks when he realized he now had a passenger. He swung his vast hands at his back and turned in circles in an attempt to dislodge her. She clung fiercely to his shoulders, determined not to lose her grip while still trying to remove the helmet. Overcome with dizziness, he stopped, swaying on his feet for a few moments before trying another tact to rid himself of her presence.
With a roar he lunged backwards, slamming his back against a nearby tree. The collision painfully forced the air from Adira’s lungs and froze the muscles in her chest. A second slam loosened her grip and caused her to slide down the length of his body. She dropped to the ground where she lay gasping for breath. Enraged, he turned and wrapped one enormous hand around her neck, lifting her to his eye level before smashing her back into that same tree. Desperately, her hands scratched against his tightening grip although her efforts proved ineffectual.
Breathless and unable to move, blackness soon overtook the Watcher.