“You see it often in theaters and heard of it in fairy tales, stories of heroic battles where the hero would emerge victorious after a long, desperate struggle that left them on their last legs, only for them to either gain an opportunity or use the last of their strength to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the end.

What such stories often neglected to mention was how the hero would likely be dead within the hour from all their injuries if they were left unaided, doubly so for those stories which featured a lonesome hero without companions.” - Caravela el Boedewijg, contracted healer for the Bernd’s Bloody Bloodletters mercenary company.

Ayrie was one of the five novices that Elfriede’s small detachment had with them. The mercenaries basically made their newer members - those who had went through training but had yet to prove themselves - “apprentice” themselves to more experienced ones for a campaign or two, and only later assigned them to a more permanent position after they had the requisite experience.

Very few of those novices had chosen to apprentice under Elfriede, though, for she was well known as a harsh mistress, if one whose skills were also without doubt. What made most novices turn away was the fact that her detachment was almost always going to undertake some of the most dangerous missions, which meant their lives would be heavily at risk as well, since they would be following them to battle.

Ayrie had chosen to apprentice under her not out of a dare or something, but because she would, in a way, blaze the trail for the younger members of the mercenary company, who were slowly coming of age and would join the elder on the battlefield as time went on. As one of the oldest of the current generation of youngsters, she felt that she had the responsibility to do her very best as an example to the younger kids.

She chose to apprentice herself to Elfriede as a show of determination, in many ways, knowing that it would also give her more leeway in the future. The kids of their generation had all pretty much followed Erycea’s lead, Ayrie herself included, and given that Ery’s parents ran the company, chances were high she would eventually work her way up to her own detachment to lead in the future, which the children of her generation all wished to join.

As such, Ayrie was doing her best to aid the seniors with the task Elfriede had given them. In the short while after she had left for the command tower, the ten berserking guards were down to eight, and those remaining eight were being ganged on by the twenty-four members of the detachment, which tossed them on the backfoot despite their clearly drugged-up state.

Ayrie had found herself a bit powerless to help much in the battle, as the guard all wore armor that her knives simply couldn’t do a thing against, so she resorted to distraction instead, as she flung those very same knives accurately towards their eyes instead. While she did not hit her target, it forced the guard to dodge or block the knives, and took their attention from the others for a moment, which they never failed to exploit.

Another three of the guards were hurt and on the verge of dying, only kept on their feet by the drugs they ingested, when a rumbling sound came from the tower and distracted everyone for a moment. They all witnessed as the top of the tower collapsed and Elfriede leapt out from the height, only for a man in armor to run down the wall of the tower as he chased her down, leapt, and struck at her in mid-air.

Ayrie had some of the sharpest eyesight amongst those of the Company, partly from her elvish heritage, and she spotted the blood that trailed Elfriede’s descent as she fell from the height, propelled a bit further towards the still-ongoing battle by the strike she took. The young girl noticed right away that something must have gone awry at the top of the tower, and she was not the only one either.

All the guards that remained attempted to escape from their fights to the aid of the armored man who struck at Elfriede, but were stopped by the members of her detachment. On the contrary, some of the senior members skillfully extricated themselves from the fight to come to her aid instead.

The armored man had landed first, and seemed to have absorbed the fall by merely flexing his legs before he stood back up as if he had not just fallen from a place five times a human’s height. Despite her injuries - and from the way the blood splashed as she landed Ayrie was certain it was not a light wound - Elfriede also made her landing safely.

She landed first on the tip of her toes, and allowed herself to smoothly collapse to the ground in a natural way that turned into a backwards roll as her weight went from her toes to her heel, then to her flexed and bent legs as she let the momentum took over and rolled on her back over the grassy soil. By the end of her roll she had stopped on her knees, as she raised her head towards her opponent, an expression of wariness on her features.

On the other hand, Ayrie’s attention was drawn to the bloody rent on Elfriede’s chest. The woman’s fine gambeson, which was made with layers of blade-resistant fabric, was torn open, with the cut running diagonal from near the base of her neck all the way down to her abdomen, deep enough that Ayrie could see bone from the wound. It also bled profusely, and Elfriede clearly winced as she stood up on somewhat shaky legs.

Then the armored man lashed out on the nearest target to him, which to Ayrie’s misfortune, happened to be her. In some panic, the girl flung out a couple of knives at the eyeslit of the man’s helm, only for him to swat them out of the air with an armored arm. As the man descended on the surprised girl, she used her meager magical skills as a last resort and flung a glob of mud right into his face.

That moment of blindness gave Ayrie just enough time to get herself out of harm’s way, though not unschathed, as the man’s blind swing had struck her outstretched arm and left a deep cut down her left forearm. Ayrie couldn’t help but to hiss with pain as she clutched her injured arm and drew back, and around then three more figures struck at the armored man in unison.

Bernd was one of the most senior members of Elfriede’s unit, a middle-aged mercenary who had always been amongst the best warriors in the Company. He struck from the armored man’s left side with his axe, and reacted with some surprise when the man struck the axe aside nonchalantly.

Olyvee was Ayrie’s own aunt, her father’s younger sister, who unlike the more peaceful-minded armorer had been part of the mercenary company’s fighting force for decades. Her long-knives flashed but missed the armored man’s throat as he leapt backwards with surprising agility.

Ylisera was one of the company’s contracted prostitutes, though over the past five years she had joined the in the fighting and proved so good at it she remained there, and her saber flashed from the side as she struck at the armored man from the side.

Then the armored man retaliated. Ylisera’s sharp instincts and elvish agility was the only thing that stood between her and certain death as she managed to halt her advance and turn her strike into a parry at the last moment. Even so, her finely made saber broke in half as the man’s saber struck it, and his blade went on to leave a deep cut on Ylisera’s cheek, slicing across the bridge of her nose even as she dodged back desperately.

The man’s return slash almost threw Olyvee back in a bodily manner, as the half-elven woman was forced to retreat after she blocked the slash. Her long-knives, thick, hefty ones with forward-curved blades designed for heavy chopping, both had a sizable chip on them, from where she blocked the saber strike.

Bernd took the opening the man gave when he struck at the women and chopped down with his axe, but the armored man caught his axe in one gauntleted hand, then yanked him closer before he could react or release his weapon.

Then a slash from the deceptively slender saber the man held bisected Bernd in half. His legs and lower torso tottered for a moment longer, before they fell down beside his severed upper body, a shocked look still etched on his face as he died.