The World of Strife

When my mind finally settled on a choice, namely pyroblast. I was jolted from my ravings by the sight of Camilla quickly closing back. Luckily, for both of us, I noticed her sudden stop just in time to slow my momentum instead of colliding with her back at full speed.

Still, I couldn't stop entirely and lightly knocked against her back, which earned an annoyed glare from the human lass. — "What? It was not me who stopped out of nowh-? Uhm!" — I was silenced by a palm tightly clasping around my mouth. I grumbled in protest right away.

I glared at Camilla before realizing that the girl was standing with her back to me. Then, as the gears turned in my mind, I felt my knees momentarily buckle under my weight from the sheer amount of fear that coursed through my body. Before I could start struggling, a familiar voice whispered into my right ear with a soothing tone.

"It's me, Alita, don't panic and stay silent. Understood?" — I felt a wave of relief and started nodding fervently. She uncovered my mouth and released me when she was certain that I wasn't going to scream. — "There are enemies ahead, goblins and dark elves fighting some of my soldiers, we got split when they jumped in from the side." — She explained and I noticed that there were several more dwarven men standing behind her.

"We are in their back now, we can take them by surprise." — Alita added with a devilish smile. — "We could also use the help of a mage, if you are fine with that?" — I looked at Camilla, whose gaze wandered over to the half collapsed earth tower not far beyond the enemies in question.

I turned back to Alita and nodded.

The dwarven girl's brown eyes glinted with such eagerness that it almost startled me out of my skin. One would think based on her expression that she just received a gift of sorts, like a flowery dress or a beautiful necklace. None the less, she smugly said. — "As fate have it, I shall savour the battle bond we make today!"

With that, she turned halfway to the men beside her and shouted. — "Charge!"

The sharp sound of Camilla's bow string lashed out a moment later, followed by the surprised yelp of a dark-clad figure in the distance. Several dwarven soldiers rushed past me among them Alita who quickly engaged the surprised enemies, who now found themselves in an uncanny pincer attack.

I bristled, then cursed at the realization. — "Why would you rush at them like that!" — I shouted after them immediately. My voice, however, got lost in the following chaos that swiftly engulfed the crater which cut through the middle of the trenches. It must have been the aftermath of one of those siege spells the enemy mages kept unleashing periodically. Still, I grumbled, following the idiots with Camilla shadowing me by my side. — "How am I supposed to cast a spell now, with those idiots in the way?!"

I hastily focused my mind on the unfolding events, not a moment too soon to notice a dark elf overlooked by the attacking dwarves just about to sneak around and jump on a man who couldn't possibly see him.

I instinctively raised my staff and sent three ice shards towards the elf with a hasty push of telekinesis. Two of the shards hit him in the back, eliciting a breathless scream from the man as he collapsed on his back, leaving the dwarf none the wiser of the impending doom he just escaped. I pumped the air with my left hand before noticing the third shard embedded into the side of a goblin's head on the other end of the tunnel. I also noticed that the lucky shard's trajectory was uncomfortably close to a fighting dwarf's back.

A shiver run over the length of my spine, but I couldn't stop, seeing how several enemies, this time, mostly goblins, pointed towards me and Camilla.

I gulped silently, learning from my previous mistake. This time I decided to concentrate my power to freeze the joints in the goblins legs. After all, I knew all too well how painful rigid joints can be. There were few pains that are more devastating, especially in the long run.

Pointing my staff at the incoming goblins and willing my magic to life, I saw as their armored feet quickly slowed and was covered in ice, essentially freezing them to the ground, completely immobilized. — "Nice one Selora!" — Camilla cheered, as she picked off the helpless goblins one by one via sending arrows into the weak spots of their armor, around their necks and joints.

She already killed one of them, but before I could say anything, the second one was about to be hit.

Seeing another of the flailing and cursing creatures being stuck through the neck with an arrow, I gulped and corrected my previous observation. She was hitting them mostly in their necks. I watched momentarily as the dying beast flopped backwards, clutching its neck, but unable to collapse entirely thanks to his feet being frozen to the ground.

The third one screeched in terror and vengeance, seeing the fate of his fellows' and in a spark of terror fueled intuition, thrown his pair of knives at Camilla, who was in the middle of drawing her bow. Camilla didn't notice the incoming knives, as she was occupied with her bow, and didn't expect the goblin to be a danger from such a disadvantageous position.

Unfortunately for the goblin, it was not the first time someone threw a weapon in my direction. The moment I noticed him preparing to throw his knives, I already spoke the word.

"Shield!"

A glistening light burst to life several meters in front of us, deflecting the poorly thrown knives with ease. Leaving them clattering against the ground at different parts of the trench.

Both the goblin and Camilla looked at me, startled. While the latter glanced at me with an emotional look. The other started raging in its half frozen state. — "Raawgh! Fuck the witch, rip her, claw her, kill-kill-kill-… Augh!?" — Its monologue ended abruptly with another arrow that this time struck the creature through its open mouth. My eyes snapped back to Camilla, who simply shrugged, noticing my stare.

Wait… did her arrow just pass through my shield? Is it only a one-way shield? I thought in confusion, but before either one of us could say a word, the sounds of intense battle draw our attention back to the fight.

My eyes widened with shock as I noticed two of the five dwarves laid out on the floor laying in their own pool of blood.

"When did that happen?" — The words left my lips disbelievingly as I stared at the remaining three dwarves, including Alita, slowly retreating towards our positions. I looked at the opposing side and noticed five dark elves and four more goblins slowly circling towards us. All grinning in anticipation, eyeing us with a bloodthirsty gaze. Especially the three of us girls, and among them, me, particularly.

I sweat dropped when realizing this unjust circumstance. I mean, seriously, among the three of us I was the thinnest! They have more curvy bodies and all, just why are they so focused on me?

One of the dark elves laughed, speaking to his comrades in that vile tongue of theirs.

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"This is our lucky day, three breeding whores in one stack! One of them is an elven witch! That one will last long!" — Shouted the grinning dark elf, I could feel the way he was stripping me naked with those ominous pale orange eyes. I also noticed that in the wake of his words, all of their attention was now focused on me, just great.

Another dark elf, a woman to my surprise, clicked her tongue impatiently. — "Only, if we breed her carefully." — The woman emphasized with a dangerous tone. Ever the practical one, I mocked internally, while struggling to keep the reins on my flaring instincts, which were demanding to turn away and bolt into the opposite direction. — "If we succeed, one day we will dine with the masters. Let me train her, I promise she will eat from your hand in a week, or two…" — The pale-skinned woman with sharp red eyes purred, licking her lips in anticipation as she stared into my eyes. — "After all, it takes a woman to know another."

I winced, and she seemed to grow even more excited by my reaction. — "Oh, what was that?" — The woman purred again, leaning her head to the side curiously. I hastily avoided her maniacal glare as it made me feel uncomfortable, to say the least.

"Fine! She will have the privilege of enriching our blood with power. Who knows? If she turns out to be a good pet, I might take her as a wife? Hah! The last one is wearing out, and I was starting to contemplate cutting her from navel to neck, more often than not." — There was a wave of laughter following the man's statement.

After the laughter ended, one of the other man said in a growl, while licking a fresh cut on his right arm. — "Good, but I want a taste of the dwarf's meat, the bitch cut my arm. Nobody cuts my arm without me cutting off their head."

The woman clicked her tongue in frustration at hearing that, finally breaking her focus on me. — "It would be a waste of a breeding who-…" — The previous man cut her off in a flare of anger.

"If you are so worried about the number of breeding whores, you can take her place on my cock, vixen." — The men barked out laughing, while the woman hissed sinisterly.

At the end of their cruel laughter, the man with the funny bone added. — "Who wants to lay with a dwarf anyway, we are not barbarians, we have standards, isn't that right, boys?" — There was another series of laughter, before one of the goblins spoke up and stated. — "We want the dwarf, good for steak."

This resulted in another series of laughter, as the elves laughed at the fact that even the goblins only wanted to eat dwarves now.

My disgusted expression must have been a sight to see, seeing how I was once again closely scrutinized by the lone, dark elf woman. I couldn't hide my shiver from being stared at so intensely by those blood-red eyes. There was a subtle smile spreading over her face, as if she was already contemplating the best way to peel my skin back. Somehow, it made me more terrified than the gaze of the men who stripped me with their eyes. It felt like the woman wouldn't stop at the clothes…

In the meantime, Alita noted in a whispered complaint: — "Why do I feel like they are talking about me?"

"You are likely imagining it." — Said one of the dwarven men who was growing antsy by the apparent lack of action.

I sighed internally. Oh, girl, you have no idea.

Seeing the slowly closing enemy, I decided that this much time was probably enough to serve as a brief break for the dwarves and subtly channeled some mana into my staff. Effectively freezing the closest elf feet to the ground.

I would have gone further and do that to the rest of them, but the idea came too late as one of the dark elf men spoke up. — "What are we waiting for? Let's slaughter them, but leave the human and the elf. I have a thing for red ones, they squeal the loudest! Heh…"

With that said, all of them started to move towards us, except the one man whose feet was frozen to the ground. He grunted in place, his eyes widening with a startled realization. — "The bitch froze my leg! She knows battle magic, watch her han-" — The sharp echo of a released bowstring cut through his words, sending an arrow through the immobilized elf throat, turning the rest of his words into a elongated gurgle of blood.

In other circumstances I would have patted Camilla on her shoulder, she was getting really good with finishing frozen enemies. Unfortunately, the rest of the enemy was already rushing at us with full speed.

To make things worse, my heart skipped a beat when I saw at the edge of my sight that one of the elves pulled out a one handed crossbow.

I immediately willed my power into a translucent shield. Yet to my surprise, the elf, seeing the magic coming to life, only snarled at me, but didn't release the arrow.

In the meantime, two of the goblins and one of the elven man slammed against my shield with their entire body weight in a clearly intentional synchronicity. I immediately started to feel a growing pressure on my mind. The second time they repeated this action, I instinctively released my hold on the spell, staggering backwards a few hesitant steps. It was a lucky accident, because a fraction of a second later, I saw a black arrow cut through the air where I stood before.

The arrow scar on my leg where I was struck last time flared up with vengeance, seeing how close I came to be hit by an arrow again. I glared at the elf holding that cursed crossbow and willed my power to move. Pointing my staff towards the bastard, I sent out a series of ice shards.

For the first time, my projectiles missed their target. My eyes widened in surprise, seeing how the elf successfully rolled out of the way of my strikes, snarling at me provocatively. — "Flail as much as you want, you will end up on my cock soon enough, witch!"

"Damn it!" — I cursed, my cheeks flaring in anger, already channeling my mana for the next attack.

I should have frozen his legs to begin with. I scolded myself internally and prepared to do just that. The elf seemed to notice my intentions. His weapon already reloaded, he sent another arrow in my direction, forcing me to interrupt my spell and instead create another shield. Which the other bastards once again started to attack, as if knowing that it drained my mana to…

As the pressure on my mind grow into a sharp pain combined with the whiplash from the dismissed spell and the attacks hitting my shield, my eyes widened with fresh realization. Fucking hell, of course they knew it drained my mana!

"Selora!" — My thoughts scattered in the wake of a frustrated grunt coming from Alita, and I whipped my face towards the direction of her voice.

"What?!" — I shouted back, my own voice filled with frustration, only to see the girl being encircled by two goblins and the dark elf man who seemed to prefer dwarven meat.

Said bastard was grinning from ear to ear with a sadistic smirk. — "I will feast on your flesh tonight." — He said, the goblins nodding at his side.

"I could use some help!" — The dwarven girl shrieked like a banshee while parrying another one of the elf's strikes with her sword, but being unable to block the attacks of the goblins, which were battering on her plate covered ribs and thighs. While the armor undoubtedly protected her from the worst of the hits, it still made her flinch in obvious pain.

Alita pushed against the elf, staggering the leering man backwards with an unexpected burst of energy. Her desperate attack incidentally lined up the goblins and said elf' from my perspective. Recognizing the opportunity, I didn't have time to think about how the others were doing, and decided to reach deep into my mana storage to bring forth a wild storm of frozen energy.

I aimed the tip of my staff towards the trio and poured my will into the spell, desiring to leave no room for error, I gave the spell the extra oomph it needed.

A violent tremor went through my body, numbing my arms in the process as waves after waves of cutting bursts of icy wind exploded from my staff.

I was forced to narrow my eyes, while grasping my staff with both hands to direct the violent storm coming forth in a conelike expanding shape. While I have never been a firefighter before, I would imagine that the feeling of trying to keep the tip of my staff on point was similar to holding an open hose in place.

I struggled with all my might, putting my miniscule body weight to use, but it still felt like the power is about to displace my shoulder. I gripped onto the staff with growing desperation. I could feel every single muscle in my arms scream in protest.

Fortunately, the mana I used for the spell started to shimmer out, and I finally got my control back on the staff with a shaky sigh of relief.

I looked up, seeing one fourth of the crater frozen solid. My skin run cold when I noticed the three frozen figures standing in the centrum of my attack.

I looked to the side, noticing Alita, her back pressed tightly against the side wall, she was hyperventilating. I squinted, guilt marring my inside noting how tiny icicles started to form on the dwarf's eyelashes and the front piece of her armor.

I did not have the luxury to overthink, as a sharp cry of pain garnered my attention.