Battle 2

She ducked under the flashing blade swinging straight at her eyes, almost before she realized it was there. Immediately drawing her sword and stabbing to her left, before swinging it towards her right side, while getting back up in a standing position. It struck nothing. Attaining a guard right away, she finally took control over the actions she was making, instead of acting on training and instincts.

Looking about, she found a rather large crowd of armed men, all of them with their weapons drawn, about five meters up the road. At about the distance a man could jump from the point where she was standing, there was another one. This was bad. They were already exposed? They'd just arrived! She took a step back, slowly, never taking her eyes of what was in front of her. A flash of something black went across her eyes, and the one who had been the closest to her crumpled together in a lump. A black-feathered arrow was sticking out of the side of his neck. Glancing up on the roofs of the houses to her left, she saw a flicker of something dark vanishing.

A half smile forced it's way to her lips, as she changed her guard to a more mobile, and offensive one. Moving steadily forward, with careful steps, she approached the men, while counting them. A few of them took a step backwards, while another few took one forward. The count stopped at fifteen. Good, she could handle fifteen. With help, she could probably handle a good fifteen more than those guys. Help that had already arrived. Upon reaching a distance of two meters to the large crowd, she decided to take the charge.

Changing from a steady advance, she leaped forward one step, and jumped the second half meter, in amongst their first line. At once, the realization that they were trained soldiers came. They did not hesitate, and made a standard maneuver for when enemies breached the line. The one to her right made a wide movement, getting ready to send a slash into her back, while the one to her left moved his left hand back, as if moving a shield out of the way, and stabbed at her. Taking one step forward, she ended up in the middle of the group, figuring that the soldier to her left – now one step behind her – could receive his own attack. Quickly sending a stab under her left arm, the normal quite sickening feeling of something going through a living being vibrated up her arm, making her suppress a shiver. Pulling out the sword, she turned it around in her hand, so she held it backwards, and stabbed at the soldier opposite of the one who had yet to hit the ground.

The sword went clean through that soldier, but instead of pulling it free and letting him fall, she put her shoulder to his chest, and pushed him into the soldier behind him. The half of the sword that was free out of the back of the front soldier struck. Quickly pulling the sword out, before the second soldier's legs buckled as well, both soldiers fell to the ground. She bent her knees as low as she could, and turned around and in a wide slash sent the blood from her sword flying. It was as if it had suddenly started raining red. About halfway through the slash, the sword struck a soldiers thigh, cutting it halfway off. Quickly, she pulled it free and sent it in a downwards arch landing on the crumpling soldiers head. Maintaining her speed, she stepped forward, under the falling soldier, without pulling her sword free from his head, and caught him over her back. Seconds later two large impacts on top of the soldier now lying on top of her, told her how smart that had been. Grabbing the soldiers sword with her left hand and once again stabbing behind her, without looking. It struck something. She let the handle of her temporary weapon – for it was all she had intended it to be - go as she threw the soldier off her back, but failed to retrieve her own sword from the corpse. Instead, she pulled out the falcata laying across the small of her back.

Re-entering her guard, she realized that the remaining soldiers had made a ring around her, giving her a few seconds of respite. Bad decision. Instead of letting them get ready for a second charge, she charged the little circle. Eleven men wide. Locating the one who had been stabbed before, she decided to finish him off before he figured out he could cope with the wound in his leg. A quick slash to his throat made him go down, right after creating another short shower of red rain. Taking up his place in the circle, once again there was a slash incoming from her right, and a stab to her left. She did the exact same maneuver she had last time, stepping one more step forward, before stabbing to her left under her arm. This time though, the short sword made sure she had to step in on the stab, so moving to kill another right away was out of the question. Instead, she used her newest kill as a shield, and pushed him over the soldier next to him, who, as most soldier would, grabbed him instead of letting him fall. She dragged the falcata free and stepped up behind the soldier, stabbing him through his spine. He fell with his friend on top of him.

Moving on, someone finally managed to block her sword, the cling of metal on metal filled the air. She ducked, while letting the swords slide against each other, until they slid across the length, and the enemy soldiers sword flew above her head. Leaving him open. It was an easy step in, and stab. Right through the abdomen. Without confirming he was truly dead – stabs to the abdomen were rarely instant kills - she stepped past him, pulled the sword free, started a slash, using the force of it to rotate the sword in her hand, turning it into a back-hand stab, which landed in the chest of the last soldier. Seconds later, there was an impact in the soldiers body, as he slid of her sword.

All the soldiers were down. Seven of them had an arrow stuck to a mortal point. As the last one fell down, landing on his stomach, she noticed an arrow stuck in his back. “That was my kill.” She spoke aloud. A chuckle told her that she had been heard. “Prove it.” Came the reply. “Make sure they're all dead, and get along. Our schedule just went to hell.” Sighing, the order was followed, reluctantly.