Armed Enlightenment V2

Recce-in-force

The explosions in the forest had ceased for a while now, and the smoke had lost its intensity as the caravan continued to savor its well-deserved break.

If they were any indication of something, perhaps Adel Enders had finished what he came for and had done them another favor after escaping the damned forest and whatever lurked in it.

"Ellmur, do you see that?" one of her knights said.

"Aye. A scout perhaps?"

A wolf howled. Angelica got off her seat and traced the noise to the figure they spoke of on the rolling grassland. It couldn't be human. It was too tall, arms and legs too long for its dark, furry body.

Then it went on all fours. Several more emerged from the other side, following its lead.

"Lycans!" Angelica dropped the helmet visor and readied her sword. "Protect the pack animals!"

Their patriarch howled again, and the lycans disappeared into the tall grass. Black humps popped in and out of the land, but the children snuck past their sights and into the clearing. One mature pup pounced at her. Angelica sidestepped it and let her blade entertain it instead. The beast whimpered, its salivating mouth replaced with blood.

It should've been their breeding period. Now wasn't the time to try their luck on humans, especially before winter, but the pup's ribs showed. Lestaria wasn't the only victim of Thuidia's marauders.

It lunged, and Angelica went into a half-sword stance, letting the lycan taste a strike from her crossguard. It slammed the ground. Angelica stomped the side of its mouth and kept it still. And with a thrust to the neck, the lycan went limp.

A levied man roared a deterring, aggressive growl, but it was cut short. A lycan was in the middle of munching on his throat next to another levied man staggering back. Angelica clicked her tongue. Scaring half-starved wolves would only make them desperate, but it happened, and another adult lycan pounced on her.

She kicked herself forward under its arc and gnashed its thigh with her sword. She heaved air into the gaps of her helmet and shuffled toward the wounded lycan. Then her left arm jolted. Its partner pressed into Angelica's gauntlet.

Angelica twisted left in a downward motion, pinning the monster to the ground, and used her weight to jam the sword into the accursed beast's chest. It whimpered, and Angelica shifted to her roundel dagger, shoved it into its neck up to the head, stirred it until its mouth went limp, and pried its teeth off her gauntlet by the snout.

She gasped for air and got up. A lycan around her size growled with a vengeance. They lunged at her. She sidestepped the first, met the other's snout with her fist, and faced off the first with her dagger.

Its deep growl was personal. Angelica raised her palm.

"Stalactite."

Her medallion glowed blue. A blazing blue rune manifested over the lycan's head, and what she conjured showered down on it. Angelica turned to the second lycan, still reeling from a punch to the snout, and drove her dagger to its skull.

"Stalactite."

Another wave struck the first lycan, disorienting it. Angelica opened her visor and grabbed a full breath. She went to its mate and pulled her sword off its chest. Once the stalactite rain ended, Angelica stepped forward with an inverted half-sword. The lycan got its bearings, but the risen pommel of Angelica's sword descended and cracked its skull.

"Ice wall."

A block of ice sprouted from the earth, lifting a surprised lycan to its fall, and faced the levied spear. Another howl, and this time, it halted the lycans' offensive, rearing their heads to the source.