Return to Jorgaldur Volume II: the druid archer

Ambush (II)

Many looked back, as trying to find the unknown enemy. They were worried that they were surrounded. Among them, there was a mage armed with a staff that had been the property of a murdered adventurer long time ago. He didn't see the lynx's attack, whose jaws closed on his neck, and prevented him from reacting.

He died within seconds, and was unable to scream and warn the others. Had he done so, perhaps he could have saved the archer who was a few meters away. He was reluctantly attacking the shield, and waiting for one of the adventurers to come within range.

The archer dropped the bow and swung his dagger after the feline's fierce attack, but his arm was Shredded, so he was forced to let it go. He tried to Punch her with his other hand, but barely had any strength in it, and his enemy's body was too tough.

Another archer spotted the attacker, pointed at her, opened his mouth, and was looking at her with wide eyes. He was too slow to scream, to warn his companions. He had allowed an Accelerated Piercing Arrow to pierce his open mouth.

The bandit barely had time to get his hands on the arrow when three more projectiles pierced him, one straight to his heart. His armor prevented it from reaching its target, but a Rough Arrow soon arrived. It hit the arrow and pushed it inward, so it could pierce the vital organ.

It was then that a scream was heard a little further on.

"They are attacking us from the south!"

They had been discovered, so they no longer needed to be so stealthy. For this reason, the lynx was engulfed in flames when attacking a warrior, who fell to the ground, but managed to protect his neck. However, the hands with which he was trying to prevent those powerful jaws from closing on him were being burned.

Two mages joined forces to launch a great magic net with which they hoped to trap the feline, or at least immobilize her. In that way, they would leave her exposed to other spells or attacks. However, an arrow hit the shield that one had raised, and exploded because of Disruptive Touch. The surrounding mana became chaotic for an instant, thus interrupting the spell, and forcing them to start over.

Then, an Arrows Rain fell on the two mages, and other two bandits who were nearby. It weakened the mages' shield, and barely inflicted a few bruises on the other two. Maybe it didn't seem very effective, but it served the purpose of distracting them. In fact, those arrows were of lower level, as she didn't think she could do much damage with them.

Thus, her sister was able to finish off the warrior, who was unable to resist after being burned and Shredded. He had also lost his mace as soon as he had received the first attack, and fell to the ground.

Engulfed in fire, she seemed to the bandits a messenger of death who had come looking for them. She advanced on the mages, who were staring at her in terror. They wasted mana by throwing Fireballs or Ice Missiles at her, and were too focused on the approaching threat to protect the other two nearby bandits from ranged attacks.

Those bandits were too busy shielding themselves from the arrows falling from the sky, so they were unable to notice those that headed straight for them. Even so, those arrows couldn't kill them, as the skills they had launched to protect themselves had managed to stop some and deflect others. However, some of those deflected had injured them.

Their armor had parried much of the damage, but the attacks from above were still falling, and other new arrows were coming towards them. In addition, the adventurers of that area had decided to advance. Soon, it wasn't only Goldmi who was shooting arrows at them. Also, the lynx had reached the mages.

One of them wrapped himself in a Water Shell, while the other was stupid to do it in a fire one, which the lynx simply went through, unharmed. A fire of that level wasn't comparable to her flames.

There was a scream, and the corpse of a mage fell to the ground, while the lynx leapt towards the second. Flames and water collided, thus creating a thick fog around the two contenders.

The mage launched Ice Missiles, but the feline was no longer there. She attacked from behind, so melting again another part of the shield. Immediately after that, she leapt back and attacked from the front again.

The mage, who had turned around, wasn't used to fighting hand to hand, especially against such an agile and experienced being. In what had been the game for Goldmi, for the lynx it had been absolutely real. She had often moved much faster than the players could perceive, and experienced hundreds of battles.

Sometimes, they were surprised at her efficiency, that she had done more than they expected of her. More than once, they had attributed it to a bug in the game. It was impossible for them to know that it was due to their expertise, not errors or hidden attributes.

When the second corpse of a mage fell, the feline emerged from the fog. She soon realized that her help was not longer needed in the vicinity. About the other two bandits, one was dead, and the other could no longer hold his weapons, so he had surrendered.

Goldmi glanced at the nearest adventurer, who had stopped attacking, so she did the same. She let the bandit be captured, and used Camouflage to melt into the shadows of the night. She then advanced, in case her help was needed in other places, as the adventurer looked around her in confusion. Someone had attacked the bandits in addition to the lynx, but she didn't know who or from where.

Soon, Visual Link informed her that her help wasn't needed anymore, so she backed towards the hole of the caravan's shield. Once there, she made sure there were no enemies near her, changed her clothes, and returned to the civilians.

"You're fine! You scared me!" Darigla greeted her, relieved.

"I have heard a fight, and I have hidden. My sister has gone to help," concealed the elf, whose words weren't entirely false. In fact, she had hidden.