Chapter 9 Escape?

‘Sure sure, a talk with a burning knife in my knee…’ she thought as she felt the power around her and in the group before her. “I think not.” She mimicked his response from before. “You can’t be serious missy…” he motioned with his hand and one of the men charged her at incredible speed. ‘A week ago I would have barely seen him’ she thought as a faint red glow started to shine through her clothes, the tattoos on her hands and parts of her head were easily visible. She dodged the hand that tried to grab her and punched the man in his stomach.

‘You’ll do as an information source…’ she punched his face trying to knock him out but heard a massive crunch as his head close to exploded into a mist of blood and junks of bone and flesh. “Oh fuck” she said as she took a step back. She saw an arrow approach her in the edge of her vision and dodged it. ‘I can dodge arrows…nice.’ She ran up to the group, tendrils of red energy seemingly charging the air around her as she moved.

Two of the men charged her, one with two axes and one with a claymore. She quickly dodged in a way that would prevent the archer and mage to attack her from a distance. The last guy was moving slow with his two handed halberd, not a concern to her right now. The dodged the claymore as it passed over her head. Feeling the wind on her face she kicked towards the man’s knee and was satisfied with the new angle his leg showed. She barely registered the scream of the leader that tried to keep upright with a broken bone sticking out of his shin as she dodged an ax swing coming towards her.

Her adversary was more cautious after seeing her move and kept a defensive position as he tried to get the halberd wielder into the game while giving his ranged companions a change to strike at her from a distance. The arrows only annoyed her a little as the tried to close in on the ax wielder. She fainted and suddenly turned and ran at full speed towards the archer. He didn’t react fast enough and she jabbed his throat getting the mage behind him so he couldn’t interfere. The archer went down grabbing at his bleeding throat. Eleonora didn’t stop as she held an arrow in each hand. The two standing close combat adventurers were still out of position as she approached the leader who swung his claymore at her.

He was out of balance though because of his leg and she jabbed the arrows into his eyes after dodging the swing that went over her head. He died instantly. Elly faced the two remaining men as she felt a surge of power to her right. She crouched and jumped forward as fast as she could as a vertical gust of wind cut the dead leader in half. ‘Don’t fuck with the wind…’ she thought as she weaved through the attacks of the halberd wielder. He was incredibly big, using a massive full metal pole with a one edged tip. The weight of his weapon made him slow though and Elly was inside his guard after only a couple of his swings. She punched him in his stomach three times before moving behind him and facing the axman.

She felt a surge of magic again but it faded quickly as she was between the two men now. ‘Luckily the mage isn’t better at aiming.’ She thought as she heard the man behind her cough and collapse. The axman charged her in a frenzy, giving her little opportunity to attack. She nearly stumbled over the corpse of the man behind her. ‘I can’t get in on him…’ she dashed to the side as a small gust of wind grazed her arm. ‘I need range…’ she picked up the massive pole on the ground, thinking perhaps that her increased strength would allow her to use it, at least to an extent.

It was reinforced steel. Around 1m 80cm in length with an additional 30cm one edged blade on top. ‘One piece of steel…’ she noted. It must’ve cost quite a lot. ‘I can’t tell how heavy it is…’ she thought as she moved it around as easily as she would her wooden staff. It was a bit longer but she’d get used to it rather quickly. The axman was nearly upon her but with her new weapon he didn’t stand a chance. Their blades clashed into each other with massive force but he was quickly overwhelmed. A parry left him open and he looked at her in shock as the halberd pierced through his heart.

She felt magic build up behind her as she whirled around and jumped upwards. The gust of wind passed below her, the mage preferring horizontal attacks. She landed in a roll and threw the halberd coming out of it. She watched as the mage flew several meters with the halberd piercing through his chest.

Silence filled the forest, as the waves of the lake became the only noise heard. “Wow…” she breathed out as she unconsciously twirled the massive halberd in her hand. ‘Forgot to keep one of them alive…’ she planted the halberd in the ground and grabbed the claymore. ‘Let’s get to work then’ she assumed there would be nobody coming in a while. She cut the corpses apart with the claymore after undressing them all. She put the weapons and clothes in two separate piles. The cut up body parts she threw around, splattering as much blood as she could.

She was done after a couple hours and thought about what to do with the weapons. After thinking about it she started to glow in a faint red and threw each weapon into the lake. Her strength surprised her again as she threw them as she threw small stones only a week before. The weapons wouldn’t be found for a long time, if ever. Not if someone went out of their way to find them. The sun was already setting at that point. She got what she could carry from their packs, taking one backpack and filling it with food and necessary items.

As the sun fully set she started the fire. The smoke wouldn’t easily be seen from a distance. The pit she dug with the clothes in it could easily be mistaken for a simple campfire. She took her new halberd and shouldered her backpack and satchel, then jumped up the tree she was on before. This time she climbed hire being careful about the weight she was carrying. She assumed the halberd was at least 60 kilograms but couldn’t be sure with her changed body.

As soon as she reached a high enough point she prepared for some sleep. The wind from the lake and smell of the herbs below helped her find sleep rather quickly. She didn’t mind the blood.

Her green eyes shot open in the middle of the night as she heard growling and fighting below. She smirked, her plan a complete success. She soon fell asleep again hearing the crunching of bones between powerful jaws below.

Eleonora woke up as the sun was rising. She winced as she moved ‘Sleeping on trees is definitely not recommended…’ she thought but after jumping down and moving around a little she was quickly back to her old self. Well her new old self that is. Looking around she couldn’t find a single piece of flesh or bone anymore. Only blood was remaining but that could be explained in different ways. The pit had some scraps left which she carefully removed and stored in her satchel to be disposed of at a later time. ‘I’ll just bury it a couple miles from here.’ She thought as she whistled, moving around her 60 kg halberd with ease.

She walked straight north. ‘First I’ll get away from here…’ she thought while walking and eating a fruit from one of the adventurers. She kept different things from them. Four gold, twelve silver and twenty coppers. ‘Around 5.5 gold nearly, not sure when I’ll be able to use it though…’ some general necessities like flint, sharpening tools for weapons, oil, different cooking utensils, a sleeping bag and warm clothes. She kept the six golden dog tags from the guild, planning to melt them down at some point. They were personalized and could be activated to glow a little when the assigned user would flow his power into it so they were no use to her other than the base material.

She walked undisturbed for a couple hours, not using the road. Some wolves approached her but fled as soon as she activated her magic. She ran through the woods swinging her weapon around and dodging through the trees for training. She made camp near a small stream before the sun started to set. She found a good place to put her sleeping bag on the tree, not confident enough to sleep on the ground alone. One unlucky strike before she woke up would be enough to kill her or leave her injured enough for other beasts to finish.

She cleaned herself in the stream after undressing and starting a fire. Then she cooked some water and ate some dried meat. The fire was quite a distance from her tree, just to be sure. She was sitting in the tree, covered by her sleeping bag and warm clothes as the sun was setting. ‘Maybe now I can think undisturbed…’ she organized her thoughts, frankly still overwhelmed by her awakening. ‘I’m so strong now…six gold adventurers…six guards. There’s a bounty on my head now though. Maybe there will be an additional search because of the vanished adventurers and stronger ones will be looking…’ she closed her eyes ‘I need to get stronger….the southern kingdoms would be the safest option, considering what Jon said about Karith. Like this there is nearly no chance of me crossing the whole empire undiscovered though.’ She opened her eyes again and looked at the halberd next to her.

‘Rather unconventional, no ax part but it’s not a spear either...’ she thought as she looked at the long pole with the single expanding blade on top ‘like a one edged short sword...on a pole….I like it though.’ She had cleaned and sharpened it before and it glinted a little in the sunlight. The blade on top had some interesting designs carved into it. She had seen the language before but wasn’t sure where. ‘Magical writing…’ she thought ‘Likely not personalized so I won’t have to worry about someone knowing it’s not mine…we’ll see about that though.’ She covered the blade with an additional blanket she was carrying so she would be more difficult to discover. ‘So south and east isn’t an option right now..’ she shuddered when thinking of the west and the vast ocean that lay there. Even though she had never seen it in person all she read and heard about it terrified her. ‘The unseen that lay below…’ she looked out towards the north. ‘It’s decided then…at least until I am stronger.’ She smiled and felt finally free. Finally able to go on the adventure she dreamed about for years already, unable because of her limiting strength. ‘I might even survive now if I’m careful.’ She knew she shouldn’t get overconfident and knew that there were uncountable things out there that could rip her apart in the blink of an eye but she couldn’t help but feel invincible. The sun set and Eleonora was ready for her unknown yet free future.