Chapter Thirty-Seven - Fated: Heroic Assault

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Garvhoz and Noromac rushed the Quillian from opposite directions. Garvhoz on the left and Noromac on the right. Garvhoz sped forward at a full sprint with his shield covering up his torso. Noromac sprinted towards the Quillian with his knife and dagger in either hand. The Quillian went from spinning the chain and blade in a vertical fashion at her side to spinning it above her head horizontally. Once they got within twenty yards The Quillian swung her weapon towards the Grey Prodigy. Noromac nearly ran right into the blade, but slid under the cutting edge just in time. He continued on his way seamlessly, but tracked the blade to watch how Garvhoz would deal with the blade. 

When the chain reached Garvhoz he was well beyond where the blade was. Garvhoz lifted his sword to catch the chain. Once the chain touched the sword the Quillian tugged back with all her might. As the chain began to wrap around the sword the chained blade cut through the air closer towards the back of Garvhoz's head. Garvhoz had realized what was happening a moment after the pull happened. The only thought that came to him was to turn around and block the blade with his shield.

"Garvhoz no!" Called Noromac. In that moment two things happened. The Quillian dashed towards Garvhoz and Noromac flung his dagger towards the Quillian.

"Valiant effort!" The Quillian stopped in her tracks spun around, caught the dagger and tried to stab Garvhoz. With the chain around her body she pulled on it to not only bring her faster to Garvhoz, but to make him stumble. Garvhoz had turned but was trapped in a mess of equipment and chains. Right before the dagger could make contact with Garvoz's flesh a wall of earth shot up just a bit taller than both combatants. The Quillian shot a look of disapproval as the hand with the dagger got hit, knocking the dagger out of her hand.

Noromac finally made his way to her. She heard his steps as he closed in and turned around to face him. He lunged for a stab towards her chest. She caught his stab by wrapping the last bit of chain around his wrist. Instinctively, Noromac pulled, but, forgetting that Garvhoz was chained up on the other side of the chain behind their new wall, couldn't get out of it in that instant. He looked surprised as his arm didn't escape the wrap immediately and paused for a moment. The Quillian took advantage of this by grabbing Noromac's other wrist, pulling it away from his center and she started punching him repeatedly in the face.

Normally, a regular person couldn't lay a finger on him due to how much stronger and faster he is compared to normal people, but this wasn't the case. If a normal person was able to land a punch on him he would normally be able to shrug it off, but the Quillian wasn't a normal person. The punches came out fast and he was powerless as he tried to wretch his arm free from the vice like grip it was in. Within the first few punches the world started to blur and his consciousness started to fail him as he involuntarily allowed this assault to happen. She really was as strong as Garvhoz, at the very least. He remembered getting hit a few times in the few sparring matches they had a few weeks ago and this felt very familiar.

The Quillian screamed, but Noromac couldn't even recognize that the assault had stopped. He only remembered being dropped and hitting the ground. He would later learn that Garvhoz saved him from near death by throwing the dagger that used to be in the Quillian's hand and embedding it into the back of one of her thighs. She pulled it out and threw it at the ground without hesitation. Core couldn't help Garvhoz with his fight as zhe layered protection over protection on Alegna, but zhe watched the fight happen and it was like nothing he could have expected from human people.

The Quillian, armed with only her fists, fought Garvhoz to a near stand-still who had some light armor, a shield, and a sword. Garvhoz, who back at the mountains was deemed impossible to defeat in an all out fight one-to-one, was being slightly beaten by what looked like a poor small town girl who only wanted to roam a day or two from home. She repeatedly caught his sword strikes between her hands, but had to let go as Garvhoz wouldn't allow her anytime to do anything else. She closed the gap that Garvhoz tried to maintain between them frequently and would land a hit or two before having to dip back out of the close range she was in before she suffered any damage from him. Before the fight could drag out for too long Core had finished creating his protections around Alegna and dug zis hands into the earth to better manipulate the area they were in and aid zhis magic.

Core willed the earth around Noromac to grow plants that hadn't been seen in the valley for many years. The oils they produced flowed around his wounds and other vegetation released his wrist from the chain it was wrapped in. He was healed in just under half a minute, but he would stay unconscious for a little while longer. As Core started to change his focus from Noromac to Garvhoz and the Quillian zhe found that Alegna was already helping in the fight.

Alegna, from the perch that stood just shy of seven feet that Core created, had started to shoot arrows that acted in a way that Core had never seen before. They curved their path in all directions. They moved up, down, left, right, and even twisted without warning. While the Quillian was fast enough to snatch them out of the air, or move behind Garvhoz for cover from the arrows, they nearly made their mark every time. As the arrows were caught and then thrown into the ground or used as temporary weapons against Garvhoz, Alegna started to manipulate the surrounding vegetation in a way similar to when they fought Garvhoz and Svetra back at the Hall of Vera. This time was only a little different. They would be trying to aid Garvhoz instead of hurt him.

After Core snapped out of zhis stupor zhe then started to help Garvhoz just like when zhe aided Seilan when they fought the Shade, but with even greater effect. Core was now more creative in zhis application of magic. The ground where the Quillian directly stood upon would move towards Garvhoz, when she wanted to escaped and away from him as she tried to close in. While this threw off both fighters, Garvhoz adapted to the situation faster and started to graze and knick the Quillian with his sword and shield. Wounds that would appear on Garvhoz healed gradually, and any attacks he was unable to block or parry were then blocked by various walls and stones shooting up from the ground only to return to disallow the Quillian free use of them. The ground underneath them would sink and rise as it benefitted Garvhoz. The fight was now in the favor of our heroes.

It seemed as though they were going to win at any moment.

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