Part 6
Cyeen took a deep breath. The thought of fighting for real was both scary and exciting at the same time. She would win this battle easily of course. Someone of my caliber should be more than enough for two commoners, she thought.
Her grip on the knives tightened as she waited for one of the bandits to attack. She could feel her essence reserve draining bit by bit just from maintaining the knives. Summoning her main weapon, her scythe would be ideal as to maintain some essence while attacking. One of the reasons she decided not to use it was because no one had taught her how to use it effectively.
The bandits finally decided on attacking. The green haired woman charged at Cyeen with her sword. She got in position, ready to counter the incoming woman. But the impact didn't come from where she expected it. Instead, there was a blade, a blade that penetrated all the way from her back to her chest. Upon looking down, she saw the edge of a blade that had barely missed her lungs, allowing it to come out on the other side. The eyes of the noble darted around as her brain refused processing it.
Her head turned back in disbelief, realising the male bandit had teleported behind her at the very start of this battle. She cursed herself for forgetting, humans could use teleportation.
As the noble was too busy looking back, the sword of the second bandit connected with her neck. Cyeen teleported away as far as she could to collect her thoughts.
She swiftly checked her neck and chest with her hand. But to her surprise—despite what transpired, she wasn't bleeding much. In fact, after a short while the bleeding had stopped. Her throat wasn't cut and the wound in her chest had disappeared. The pain was still there for sure but the wounds, they were nowhere to be seen. A smirk appeared on the face of the young lady.
"How fun."
The noble was not getting punished for her recklessness despite taking some hits. This was exciting. Truly exciting. Cyeen quickly dashed at the short man, parrying his sword with her left knife while the other one stabbed him in the arm. She felt her skin tense up, causing her to roll to her left quickly. A couple of green knives hit the ground where she stood a second ago.
"I see." she mumbled.
Cyeen let go of her left knife before summoning a tennis ball sized blaster in her hand and lifting it towards the woman. Fire! she thought as the blaster obeyed her. The woman was able to get away from the beam of essence. "Tch, waste of essence" she muttered while throwing the blaster away.
The woman didn't seem to be good at close range fights seeing as how she only supported from the distance. Cyeen took advantage of this by rushing at her with knives in both hand. The woman parried the knives three times in a row but upon making a mistake on the fourth strike Cyeen was able to stab the woman's hand making the green haired woman drop her sword. As Cyeen went to grab the woman's throat she felt a sharp cold pain behind her. The man also had access to blasters. That wasn't shocking though, it was not a rare weapon to have in one's arsenal. Cyeen pushed the woman by her neck instead of grabbing and turned towards the other bandit.
The noble tied a violet string at the hilt of the knife and flung it towards the man. Though startled, he parried it easily. Her eyes lit up as her body pumped her full of adrenaline. She was going to win her first real battle. Cyeen knew she was inexperienced with real life combat but thought herself to be the master of the basics.
The man was the one rushing towards her this time. Cyeen didn't fully focus on one person this time though. She had seen this move before. With a bit of anticipation, she jumped to her left, making the gold filled sack on her jingle, and threw a knife behind where she used to be. It was a hit! They really had tried the same ambush twice.
After their failure, the two bandits looked at eachother and nodded once.
They suddenly started rushing towards Cyeen. She tried parrying their attacks but with each try, she was taking more hits than she could prevent. Her smirk vanished a little with each hit she took. It seemed just a second ago, the bandits were only testing whether she could fight or not. Along with that realization, Cyeen's will to fight diminished.
The noble lady was trying her hardest to get some damage in between each parry but it was not enough to stop them from rushing her. The constant sound of blasters going off and the knives whirling towards her were hurting her ears. Her essence reserve was also starting to take a huge hit.
Cyeen quickly summoned her scythe after letting go of her knives. She swung it three times, pushing the bandits back a little. This bought her enough time to think. And that small gap was enough for her to realize that she wasn't under the effects of adrenaline anymore and the wounds of the bandits had vanished as well. She soon felt the excruciating pain of all the hits she received.
Before she could think of what to do, a cold laser from the man's blaster connected with her face. Her shield's hitpoints had nearly run out. She looked at her clothes. They had gotten even more ragged now. She spit out blood. Huh? Cyeen thought, not feeling the sword that nearly cut off her fingers. Her shield quickly stitched her fingers back into their places. Her eyes darted around once more, wild and searching — anything. A way out, a weapon, anything. There was nearly no time in between her breaths and her heart was pounding crazily. She wasn't having fun anymore.
A loud sound of a blaster firing filled her ears along with the sound her shield shattered into pieces. She could be wounded for real now. This wasn't fun nor exciting. She was hungry. Tired. Scared. Alone...
Your gold.
Cyeen threw the sack of gold over the bandits, raining precious gold on them. While the duo was distracted Cyeen used her teleport consecutively towards where the green haired woman pointed at when they first met. After roughly six blinks she was exhausted. I thought teleporting took no essence..? "The teleports consume exponentially increasing amounts of essence if used outside of its cooldown." was the sentece she recalled from her teacher. She checked and in fact, there was nothing left in the tank.
She had lost. Not just the fight, but her gold too. The young lady was about to break down right there and then. She wanted to go back home. This was horrible.
"Quick, come here!"
The voice came from inside the forest. Cyeen slowly started going towards the sound. She had stopped thinking rationally by now. The branches were scraping her her although the small scratches she was getting didn't hurt as much as her pride shattering. She soon saw a light. Oh how bright it was...
"Are you okay?"
There was a woman standing in front of her now. Her slightly pink hair was shining under the sun. She looked thirty? No, she couldn't be over twenty seven. The woman didn't have the stress of age on her. Cyeen snapped out of her thoughts,
"Huh, ah... Yeah, I think I am. "
She flinched as the woman started looking her up and down. Does she want my money as well? The hopeful shine in the woman's eye vanished as she extended her hand towards Cyeen. She accepted her fate and closed her eyes.
"Hello, I'm Súko. I didn't mean to scare you child, sorry."
Cyeen opened her eyes hesitantly. Huh she is not attacking? Does she intend only to mug me? She couldn't decide whether or not to trust this woman's words but she had no choice. Her only way back home looked to be Súko. And for that, she would need food and money. An idea crossed the mind of the noble. Maybe this woman would be dumb enough to be exploited by her. She shook the hand that was extended towards her.
The woman looked at Cyeen's clothes. Though they were really ragged she could easily tell it was one only a noble could afford. What didn't make sense was a noble roaming around a forest by themselves. So why was this girl...? Suko shook her head. She could think about it later.
"Nice to meet you. Do you want me to look at your injuries?"
Cyeen tried to utter some words but they refused to come out. Her throat had dried up. She gestured for water. Súko nodded and helped the noble walk in case she fell down. The two began walking soon afterwards.
***
Súko looked at Cyeen in awe.Whatever was put in front of the girl was vanishing within seconds. How hungry could she be? thought the woman.
Cyeen looked at Súko in gratitude for a second before getting back to eating. She had to keep a kind act in front of this woman. She was a commoner, it was guaranteed she wanted to take advantage of Cyeen. Yeah, for sure.
A framed painting on top of the kitchen counter caught her attention. It was a horrible drawing which looked like it was made by a child. A set of parents were holding the hand of a child that had been painted over with red. Cyeen, hated it. A whisper locked deep inside her told her to hate it.
Cyeen sneaked a look at the woman. She looked mournful. Cyeen stopped eating. She put the knife and fork down as she turned to Súko.
"I feel like I have to thank you, though, I don't have anything valuable on me." said Cyeen.
Súko looked a bit suprised, trying to understand why the noble mentioned something valuable.
"Ah... You don't have to pay me back dear. I didn't do much."
The noble smirked like her intuitions were correct. The woman had stepped back after learning she had no money on her.
In that moment, Cyeen felt the breeze that sneaked through the windows directly on her skin. She looked down to see her white dress in an even more horrible condition than before. After a bit of a pause, the noble spoke in an ashamed tone,
"Are there any spare clothes you have that I can borrow?" she asked.
Súko nodded before guiding Cyeen through her house, taking the noble upstairs. The two entered a room with a double bed in the middle and a wardrobe next to it. This was probably the commoner's bedroom. Along the way to this room she had noticed a few things being: The house looked to be unattended to and there was dust everywhere.
Súko opened the wardrobe, revealing some clothes for Cyeen to choose. She looked over at the noble who was already picking out an outfit for herself.
Some child sized clothes carefully stacked on the bottom shelf took her attention. But what she really was focused on were not the clothes. The thing she focused on was the layers of dust stacked on top of them.