Valiantly

The market was crowded but people stayed away from the commotion, maybe too scared someone might get killed in the crossfire. There were five of the goons, swords and crossbows out and ready, deadly intent in their eyes. DEBUG_HERO thought he saw a woman with white hair staring at him from the crowd, but on a second look there was no one there.

DEBUG_HERO gave both Sara and Eleara a nod, summoning his sword and jumping between the armed gang and the helpless maiden.

Seeing outside aggression the gang leader panicked and released a crossbow bolt at DEBUG_HERO, which was easily deflected. Before the gang could react, the leader was already on his way to the ground, elven arrow stuck in his throat.

It was the goons turn, they scattered and tried to assess the situation. One of them charged right at DEBUG_HERO only to get counterattacked and lose his limb in the process. Another, seeing this, tried to flee and maybe call for reinforcements, a quick cut from Sara's blade stopped him in his stride, falling face first into a puddle. The other two released two crossbow bolts at DEBUG_HERO and the girl.

DEBUG_HERO managed to deflect the bolt heading for him, but was too far to be able to catch the one headed to the purple haired girl. He feared the worse, a crossbow bolt can wreak havoc in an unarmoured person, just hoped she could somehow jump away.

The bolt froze mid-air, as though it was never moving, the girl stopped it with a spell she was conjuring. DEBUG_HERO could see the focus, the intensity as the girl flipped the bolt, split it in to two and launched it two both remaining goons. Both plummeted to the ground, shocked expressions on their faces.

"Hey, thanks for the rescue" The girl said as the fight subsided. "I'm Anara, mage extraordinaire at your service"