A grateful hug

Throwing her arms around the barrel-chested man, she attempted to stabilise her breathing now that her frantic run reached a fortuitous, albeit gruesome end. Comforting the woman, he offered a few pats on her back while scanning the direction she came from for any more threats.

"Well, you seem alright... but s'not safe here either I'm afraid. Been fighting back the bastards for hours at this point. They keep trying t'come through the woods here, but I have every intention of stopping them."

Letting go of him, Annette looked up and said...

"Thank you so much... I.. saw the village. There's so many of them and they're everywhere now... I couldn't see any signs of resistance, just the women... they...-"

Tears started to well up in her eyes as the horrifying images of the undead violating the townswomen - something that surely would have happened to her, in her own house no less. For a brief moment she considered if the other women had a lapse of judgement like she did...

With a stoic expression he took a pause and decided...

"... If that's true... then there's no use holding out here any longer... We should quickly gather up supplies from my house and find a way out of the woods before those fuckers from the village get h-"

In a second that felt like minutes, Annette could only watch as pale fingers curled up around the lumberjack's shoulder.

"Fuckin- HGGKK!"

Interrupting his attempt at resistance, a dark, engraved blade erupted through his torso, before being pulled back through. Crimson flowed down through the man's clothes, pooling on the ground around his knees as he lost balance. Annette looked in speechless horror as the axeman groaned, lifting a weak hand to his chest wound with a pained expression fighting one of confusion, as the last fleeting seconds of life tried to make sense of what just happened. Any remaining strength buckled as he fell onto his side, eyes unmoving.

A slim figure was now revealed behind where the lumberjack stood, cleaning the ornate sword with a white cloth.

"Finally... I must thank you, Priestess. Turns out your unexpected distraction was exactly what I needed to put an end to the brute."

Annette fell to her knees and reached towards the man's wound, fingers faintly glowing with azure light as she attempted to use whatever energy lingered within her to try and save his life. The attacker's hand grabbed her wrist, wrenching her away.

"Ah, ah, ah! Let's have none of that now." he said, wearing a cruel smile.

Despair and a building rage coursed through her as she crawled to where the axe had fallen, before stumbling to her feet trying to raise the weapon against him. The killer snorted derisively, sheathing his sword and raising his hand up towards her as it emanated his own purple glowing magical energy.

"My my... I see that you actually shared a... intimate moment with one of my lecherous friends... that's so unbecoming of a Priestess, don't you think? I mean, what would Erena think of her disciple?"

A shouting Annette lunged at him, axe over her head and eyes brimming with hate.

"That's quite enough of that... Drop it."

Purple light engulfed her body as she quickly lost all agency. Against her will, her hands unclenched, sending the axe clattering against the stony ground behind her. Her expression became that of desperation as she was fully at the whims of the caster.