Eight Intertwined

61 - Thorns

Vanessa's first strike of choice after the battle began was to rush at Alfyn, who threw up his axe as she slashed with the dagger she had concealed so gracefully up to that point. The blades clashed fiercely against one another before Alfyn was finally able to push her backwards, and Vanessa stumbled away before regaining her balance with a gentle slide. "Is all of this worth it to you?!" Alfyn shouted at her. "Is this really what you wanted?!"

"I had been hoping that you would stay in your lane and out of my business, but I suppose I should have known better. You're as pesky as a fly," Vanessa told him with a scowl blended with a smirk smashed across her features haphazardly. She started to reach for the ingredients of her pouch, but Alfyn didn't give her the chance to do anything, instead cutting with his axe at her once again.

Alfyn was able to get in a single hit on Vanessa, but she was quick to keep him from doing any further damage. She snapped her fingers, and one of the sellswords who had previously been engaged in battle with Tressa and Therion rushed to her aid. The man blocked Alfyn's next attack before kicking him backwards, and it took much more effort than Alfyn would have liked to keep his grip on his weapon intact. He let out a wheeze of a breath before managing to regain his composure, and he realized that there was nothing he was going to be able to do to stop her from finishing whatever it was that she was doing at the back of the group.

Well, two could play at that game.

"Phili, cover me!" Alfyn cried out as he retreated to the back of the group. He had heard about ingredients in the apothecary trade being used for dealing damage in the past, and if Vanessa knew how to do it, then he was going to have to at least try it in order to keep her from doing anything too severe. She had done more than enough damage as it was, and he couldn't let her get away with this again.

Ophilia was more than happy to follow his commands, and she came to stand in front of him as one of the mercenaries slashed at her. She ducked beneath the attack before sending out a blast of light magic that knocked him off course. It took him longer than he would have liked for him to correct himself, and Ophilia could already tell that she had hit the jackpot. As long as these fighters all used the same fundamental ideas in their combat, then she was going to be able to hit all of the mercenaries with light magic and likely catch them off guard.

The mercenary that Ophilia had hit was quickly struck a moment later with an arrow from H'aanit, and Linde and Hägen were swift in their convergence on one of the other men. Olberic concentrated his attention on the third of the men, and he was able to push the mercenary backwards with a slash from his sword. Cyrus followed up with a block of ice that froze the man in place, leaving him unable to move.

Alfyn was on the verge of figuring out what he was supposed to be doing when Vanessa finally showed her face once again from behind the mercenary that had been guarding her. Alfyn looked up at the last minute to catch what she was going to do just before the explosion rocked the cave. It was some type of fire magic mixed with explosive substances, if he had to guess, but this wasn't exactly the time for him to think too hard about it as all of his plans of concocting a countermeasure were blown to bits along with his concentration.

Tressa and Therion had been unlucky enough to be closest when the blast hit, and Tressa let out a cry of pain as she was sent flying backwards. Her spine slammed into the side of the cave as her head cracked against the crystals lining the area, and she was on the ground a moment later. Alfyn swore at the sight, but he wasn't exactly in much of a position to do anything about it. The explosion had hit all of them even if Tressa and Therion had been most impacted by it.

Vanessa scoffed as she shook her head before reaching for her dagger once again. She slashed at Primrose, though the dancer was more than able to dodge below the strike that threatened to open a rift in her abdomen. "I gave you the chance to leave, but you refused. If you had been smarter about this, then perhaps it wouldn't have ended this way for you," Vanessa said simply.