Chapter 255: Noble Ventures, Part Fifteen

Elisa was the first to run forward.

Rin followed her, watching as the noblewoman swung her sword passionately. The strength in each attack she performed was easy to see.

The wolf evidently, however, also found the strikes easy to avoid. It backed away from a few strikes and then ran up to Elisa, looking to attack her from the side with its claws.

Elisa was not alone, though, and so this attack was repelled as Rin deflected it, pushing its arm down as it passed in front of her.

Following that up with a kick to the wolf's midsection, Rin gave Elisa some space to breathe.

"Thanks for that."

"Don't mention it," Rin replied.

A quick look around them suggested to Rin that, for now, this was a 2-on-1 fight, as the wolf's allies were distracted. Sara, Sye, Xhez, and many of the other guards there were putting on a decent enough performance to allow them to have this fight on their own.

Which, to Rin, also meant:

"We should try to end this fast. Before anyone else comes to us."

"Agreed," Elisa responded.

On that note, the two of them rushed forward with renewed vigor.

The wolf met them eagerly, charging at them in a frenzy.

It began to flail wildly, in the way one would expect a beast to do. Its wild swings were hard to react to, but Rin tried her hardest, if only so that she did not disappoint the woman next to her.

Elisa leaped over one of the wolf's strikes, landing in a crouched position behind it. She slashed at its legs and the wolf reacted by moving far more quickly than a creature of its size should have been able to. Rin was there to follow up with a strike now that it had its back turned to her, and she dealt a piercing kick to its spine that sent it moving right back to where Elisa could slash again, without having the monster avoid her swing this time.

"Aeergh!" The wolf cried out as a streak of red, black in the night, flew through the air.

Elisa stepped away from the wolf, joining Rin once again, only this time blood dripped to the grass from her blade.

"Good stuff!" Elisa said.

"Yeah, you..."

Rin stopped as she noticed the woman breathing heavily.

[Huh... Is she really that tired?] Rin wondered. Even back when they'd been students in the same academy, she hadn't been used to seeing this out of her. [I guess she really is out of practice.]

One by one, the wolves supporting their main enemy began to fall back, sensing that the battle was being lost.

The largest of the wolves remained where we was, though, his eyes fixed on Elisa.

"Errrghh..." He snarled. "Even if I must fall today, I will take down at least one of you with me..."

Rin almost shook her head. If the context behind that statement was something other than him trying to murder a bunch of innocent people, maybe such a brave sentence would be somewhat admirable.

Elisa didn't seem like she cared to hear much more.

She went back in, this time with a desperation that certainly hadn't been there before. The noblewoman swung her sword at the opponent while Rin circled him, looking for an opening. Rin's idea was simple. Elisa would strike, the wolf would have to avoid the swings, since Elisa was still quite powerful, and he would inadvertently end up backing into Rin's waiting fists.

Instead, the wolf caught Elisa's arm.

Rin wasn't quite ready for what she saw next.

Elisa let go of her weapon with her off-hand, but her sword hand was still gripping its hilt.

Rin lunged forward, trying to stop whatever was about to follow.

But, she just wasn't quick enough.

The wolf grabbed Elisa's arm in one hand, and grabbed Elisa's torso with the other. Then, it yanked in opposite directions.

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And, Elisa's right arm came right off, pulled right out from its socket.

"NO!"

Rin pushed what little Essence she still had into her right hand. Running toward the wolf as fast as she could, she reached it and landed an {Empowered Dragon Punch} directly to the center of its back.

There was a loud crack. The wolf fell forward, falling on top of Elisa.

Rin went and pushed the creature off her.

"XHEZ! SYE!" Rin cried out as she saw blood pouring out from Elisa's open wound.

"I-I messed up," Elisa said, with a quivering voice and an unsteady, forced smile.

Sye ended up being the one to run toward Elisa, quickly kneeling by her side and casting a healing spell.

The open wound closed. Blood stopped dripping from what was left of her right shoulder. Rin placed a hand on Elisa's cheek.

"... The others have all pretty much run away at this point," Sye said, as she watched Sara clean up the remaining skirmishes happening around them. "If we'd been able to finish up just a second or two sooner... Damn."

"Ah, don't say that," Elisa said, giggling. The look on her face almost made it seem like she hadn't fully internalized her circumstances. "I fucked up. That's all that happened."

"I-Is there anything..." Rin began to plead. 

"If magic exists that can reattach limbs, I sure as hell haven't heard of it," Sye responded before Rin could even finish asking. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine, it's fine," Elisa said. "I..." Her eyes went down to her arm. "Shit," she cursed quietly. 

As Sye had just mentioned, the other werewolves had all but left, just as all of this happened. 

The battle ended. Not with some epic, climactic clashing of powers, but with the invading werewolf forces retreating into the darkness.

The wild, panicked eyes the guards and fighters held remained there long after the wolves were gone. 

Rin remained by Elisa's side all the while. Even as her disguise ran out and her hair turned back to its usual black.

She didn't care if people knew about her alter ego right now.

She couldn't say the same for Xhez's identity, though.

Realizing that Xhez's illusion was probably about to run out, Rin said:

"Elisa, I'll be-"

"Go ahead," Elisa said. "I'll be fine."

Reluctantly, Rin did as she asked.

Xhez was standing on her own, in the middle of the grassy field.

The others there looked cautious. Worried. After the display she'd put on, Rin supposed it was understandable.

"Xhez," Rin said. "Are you okay?"

The sprite turned toward her, slowly walking up to the adventurer.

Without meeting her eyes, Xhez buried her face in Rin's chest.

"I'm tired," she, the sprite who'd been sleeping for the last month, stated.

"... Don't worry," Rin said, looking back at Elisa over her shoulder. The noblewoman's forced smile finally faded as she kept her eyes on the arm that had been separated from her body. "We're done here."

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