Skirmish at the Ring of Fire
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Kedlai Everwinter roared as she brought her hammer down upon the prone Mursaat's head. Its screams were instantly silenced as the hammer crushed the creature's fragile skull. Red ichor splattered in all directions. Satisfied that it was dead, she surveyed the battlefield. Her side was losing; the Mursaat had them vastly outnumbered. Reinforcements would have to come fast if there was to be any hope of survival. Kedlai cursed... she had done the one thing she swore never to do - rush ahead without waiting for the main force to catch up. Those people who had been loyal and foolish enough to follow her were being slaughtered like animals even now. Grabbing a passing necromancer by the shoulder, she ordered the young boy to run towards Ember Light Camp and tell the main forces to hurry up. The boy, not needing to be told twice, nodded and ran off. Kedlai grinned... necromancers were always so eager to leave a battle they couldn't win...
Lost in thought, Kedlai failed to notice the Jade Armour approaching from her side. She became aware of its presence when she felt the bones in her left shoulder shattering from the Jade's blow. Yelping in pain, Kedlai staggered back and the hammer fell away from her now useless left hand. She dropped the hammer and drew her sword, in time to block the Jade's second blow. Spinning expertfully, Kedlai knocked the Jade's "head" off its body. The purple Armour collapsed to the ground, a pile of lifeless rocks. Panting, adrenaline coursing through her veins, Kedlai did not have time to examine her wound before she felt the sharp pain of an arrow penetrating her back. Roaring with a mixture of pain and rage, Kedlai spun around to face the new threat. In response, two more arrows thudded into her chest. Shocked, Kedlai staggered back but managed to keep her sword and stay on her feet. The Jade Bows who shot her turned their attentions elsewhere, allowing Kedlai a moment to come to the realisation that she would die on this rock.
I'll be damned if I die alone, she thought.
Roaring, she charged the nearest Mursaat. The surprised creature barely had time to turn before its neck was severed by Kedlai's slash. Blood oozing out of the wound in its neck, it crumpled to the floor in a messy heap, but by then Kedlai was already seeking a new target. Half a dozen more Mursaat fell before one finally struck Kedlai. She grunted as the wind was knocked out of her, and she dropped to the ground. The Mursaat grinned as it stood over her, pointing its staff at her face. Green arcane energies swirled around the staff's tip, and Kedlai coughed up blood.
"Get on with it already," she muttered.
Kedlai heard a whistling sound then a thump. The staff fell from the Mursaat's hand, the magical energies fading. A dumb look crossed the Mursaat's face, and he was surprised to feel the green fletched arrow protruding from his neck. As it fell to the ground, Kedlai smiled inwardly; only one person she knew used such styled arrows.
Her sister. Her saviour.
Rio, she whispered.
Kedlai turned her head towards the direction the arrow came from. She allowed herself a smile when she saw her sister running towards her. As her vision darkened, she heard her sister scream out.
"Ked! No!"
