Fight Back

KATE- 10 Days Earlier

Pain spread from her shoulder and ached all the way down her arm, but she managed to stand. Luckily it had hit her off arm and she could still wield her sword to fight on. A quick glance at the Hathli showed that she was readying another skill, standing still in concentration.

Kate rushed forward, hoping to reach the creature before she could complete the skill activation, but only crossed half the distance before the wind picked up again.

A tornado formed just in front of Kate as she stopped her dead sprint, with razor leaves flying around and around, sharp enough to slice through leather armor. It stood 15 feet tall, stretching over her house, and was quickly obscuring her vision of her opponent. Luckily she had managed to avoid being trapped inside the tornado, preventing a painful ****.

The Hathli had missed however, and Kate now provided a perfect opportunity to counter strike. Dashing to the side, Kate took cover behind a thicket of bushes, creeping to the left side of the Hathli. She positioned herself so her opponent was between her and her house, who was now swiveling her head back and forth trying to locate Kate.

Shifting forward, Kate sprung out of her cover, timing it just as the Hathli looked away. Flying through the air, Kate brought down her sword, stabbing directly into her forehead.

With only the strength of one arm, the stake still driven into her left shoulder, her blade only impaled shallowly. The Hathli roared in pain, bucking her head backwards and raised up on its hind feet, forcing Kate to let go of her sword, still lodged into the creature’s head.

Landing on her feet quickly, before the Hathli managed to regain its balance, Kate lunged forward. Drawing a knife from her hip, she pushed with all her might into the soft green flesh of its exposed neck.

A final roar escape the Hathli’s lips before she collapsed to the group, lifeless. The green gem on the collar around her neck faded until a clear, colorless gem was left in its place. The connection between her and her master, the man in the black trim cloak, snapped.

Pausing his battle with the injured Thomas, he looked over to check his bond, fear clearly etched on his face.

Kate had not yet noticed that the man was now staring her down, trying to recover her breath after such an intense fight. She reached up and probed her shoulder and down her arm to assess the damage. Luckily, the stake didn't seem to hit anything major and she still had some use of her arm for now even without any healing done. She began to stand to make sure her dad was doing alright when a scream pierced the air over the sound on metal clanging.

“KATE! Look out!”

A searing pain sprouted across her back and the world went black.

THOMAS

That son of a bitch just ran off. And with his fucking leg being half torn off, he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. He could only watch in horror as he slashed down at Kate’s back and she collapsed. ‘If only I still had my pokeGirls, these shits would be dead already.’

With a roar he charged forward, or more so hobbled, at the man who was already at deaths door and easily cut him down after crossing swords a few times now that he did not have his comrade to even the playing field.

That left just the man standing over Kate’s **** body, who spit down on her and snarled “That’s what you deserve bitch.” He leaned down and cupped the face of the now green haired woman who lay lifeless next to Kate on the ground, having reverted to her original form after perishing. He stood, gathering the woman in his arms before turning back to Thomas.

“Perhaps we are even now.” Was all he said, tears threatening to spill out of him as he turned and carried the woman off in the direction their leader had gone.

Thomas wasn’t in any condition to chase him down and he had more pressing matters to attend to. Rushing forward as fast as he could to his daughter he crouched down, checking her pulse and praying to any god that may listen that her heart still beat.

After an agonizing moment where he felt nothing, a weak flutter pulsed through her body. Activating the small silver icon located on his wrist in the shape of a small draw-string bag, Thomas conjured a Greater Healing Potion,the only one he had unfortunately, as well as a normal Healing Potion.

He poured the contents of the Greater Healing Potion down his daughter’s throat, making sure it all went down before drinking a Healing Potion of his own. Gazing down at her, he could see he breathing steady and the wounds on her back begin to stitch together. He reached over to the stake sticking out of her shoulder and carefully removed it, pressing down on the gaping wound as soon as it was out to stem blood that began flowing out. After a few moments, that wound too began to close as the potion took effect. She would live. His mind then turned to his wife, mulling over what his next steps should be.