Stay and fight

Though Sledge and Gilvan would be busy, she doubted Sal'via would flinch before casting a spell on her, and she had no idea where Kira and her stood, never mind if there were more goblins in the woods. Figuring it was better to stay and fight, she moved forward to cover Sledge's flank, Gilvan moving to the other side.

At that moment, the battle was joined, as Sledge's greataxe simply cleaved a goblin in two, Gilvan's sword flashed as he fended off attack from three goblins, before impaling one on his sword, and Sal'via lit two more on fire with a spell. Venus ducked beneath a blade, sword thrusting even as she twisted away from another, and soon found herself with four goblins between herself and Sledge. Her blades glinting in the sun, Venus parried and riposted one goblin, skewering it, before spinning and slicing another's throat open. As she came back up, she heard another one cackle as it found its' way to Sledge's side, and she could tell without looking that he knew he wouldn't be able to get his axe around in time.

Without another thought, she flicked her dagger at the goblin, the blade catching it cleanly in the neck, and it dropped, as she spun back to the pair still harassing her. A goblin blade skipped off her breastplate as she spun, narrowly missing stabbing her unprotected side, and she took advantage of that to sever the goblin's arm. It shrieked, then fell silent as her return stroke took its' head cleanly off. The last goblin tried to fall back, seeing the fight going badly. She took another dagger from her belt and threw it with unerring accuracy, the blade lodging in the goblin's throat. As she turned back towards Sledge, she found the battle was already over. Several spots on the battlefield smoldered, and there were pieces of goblin scattered about where Sledge had met their charge.

As she collected her daggers, Sledge looked at her, a slightly different look on his face, as though he was reappraising her, before curtly telling the party to "get back on the damned road, we've a deadline to meet."

As they continued on, she was rather surprised when Kira was suddenly whispering in her ear, "That was impressive." The way she accentuated the last word threw Venus off for a moment, and by the time she recovered Kira was already gone. As she looked up, Gilvan threw her a knowing wink and smiled.

The rest of that day's travels passed in peace. As they set up camp for the night, Venus noted that Sledge seemed a bit less tense around her than he had the day before. Before she could wonder more, Sledge came over to her, looked at her and said, "That was a rather impressive display out there. You handled yourself well." Before she could thank him, he'd turned and gone.

A little later, as she was crawling into her tent, Kira approached her. "Hey, you got a moment? I've got something I want to talk to you about!" Venus was rather tired, but talking to Kira might yield something useful, plus it would help her fit in a bit more.