"That would be my pleasure," Alana retorted. She slapped the ground with her bare fists, driving mana from her body deep into the soil, and the compact earth heeded her call as it changed structure, inclining itself into multiple jutting structures that came hurriedly towards Tuarine.

The Jun Jun martial artist was not confident in her protective field, and she chose to evade the rocke rather than tanking them with her energy shield. The sharp rocks burst from the ground so fast, obstinate in their singular purpose of impaling Tuarine. They caused tremors that rippled through the earth, and now, even those who had been deep in sleep awoke to the chaos. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"What is happening?" one of the knights managed to utter. A pointed piece of rock obstructed his view, and he could not see the women who fought, but as soon as the question left his lips, the ground opened beneath him, and a rock went right through his body, gagging him and driving him to death in the next few seconds.

The remaining knights now grasped the gravity of the commotion. The villagers whose huts stood near the jutting structures fled for safety; some, however, died terribly before they could escape, caught by the erupting earth or crushed beneath falling debris.

The knights readied themselves. They were employed by the nation to heed the commands of the king and his nobles. They had been placed here to protect the weak and to inform the authorities of any encroachment by Combec soldiers into Maldrin. Alana by no means looked like a Combecian, but she was trouble regardless, and they needed to nullify her.

They took formation a distance away from the site of action. They arranged themselves in three columns, and in front of the three columns stood a man who was larger than the others—not by a lot—but regardless, he was the leader of this legion, and he would carry their collective might with him.

The knights conjured every ounce of mana they possessed and streamed it into their leader. It was temporary, and frankly it was wasteful—a good amount of the energy would dissipate before it could be used—but it was much better than charging into the fight as a scattered group. This foe was beyond them, and they knew that if they were not careful, they would get easily skewered one by one.

The captain lunged forward with the borrowed power of his knights, muscles tense and bulging, mind greatly fortified by the surge of foreign mana. He broke through the jutting rocks that blocked his path, his body a battering ram of desperate resolve, and he arrived at the center of the chaos just as he spotted Tuarine and the foe. He was headed right for the magicker.

Alana was so occupied with Tuarine that she almost did not see the half-naked man coming from her side with a fist held high. He landed what should have been a devastating punch, but he felt no skin, no bone—only a force that suspended his arm inches from her face, as though the very air had solidified against him.

The magicker wore an ugly frown, glancing at the captain, and he remained suspended in that moment, his fist pushing uselessly against a dense mana field that would not yield.

This gave Tuarine an opportunity. While Alana was preoccupied with keeping the terrible punch at bay, Tuarine sprang forward, her fists balled tight, concentrating every ounce of mana she could muster into her knuckles.

BOOOOM!

The strike let out a powerful gust of wind that sent dust and debris scattering in all directions. Alana winced, and her energy field trembled visibly from the blows. A little more push, and they would shatter it. The two fighters picked up on this immediately, and they added even more rigor to their assault, fists raining down with relentless fury.

Alana responded by throwing her arms up, enlarging the mana field in a desperate bid to hold them off. Her mind searched frantically for a counterattack, but her energy shield would shrink should she redirect her focus, and that was a risk she could not yet afford.

"Ahh!" The two fighters screamed in unison, pouring everything they had into their strikes. The shield shrank under the power of their combined force, and at last, the blows broke through the energy field. They struck Alana’s face squarely, a wicked punch to the left and another to the right side of her face, and she was sent flying backward, crashing right through the very rock structures she had erected herself, her body forming a large cloud of dust upon impact.

"Did we get her?" the knight captain asked Tuarine, his chest heaving, his knuckles raw and bleeding.

Tuarine was so close to answering when a rock stake shot up from the ground and went straight through the knight’s lower body, exiting through his chest. Blood poured from his mouth, his eyes reddened instantly, and his limbs dangled lifelessly. Before a minute was up, he had left Enesh for a supposedly better place.

"No, you did not get me," the magicker spoke, emerging from the crumbled rocks, walking forward with blood trailing down her forehead. She wore a wide, maniacal smile that sent a chill racing down Tuarine’s spine. "That really hurt, you know. And I was hoping we could be friends, but that is too late now. Take me to him, and I will make your death quick."

"Again, you would have to pass through me," Tuarine answered, her voice steady despite the fear coiling in her gut.

The jutting structures sank back into the soil as though they had never jutted up in the first place, the earth smoothing over.

The remaining knights, taking this as their cue, sprang forward, surrounding the hostile invader that was Alana. Pulling the structures down had made her visible to all who were around her. The villagers saw now who it was that assailed them, this painted woman who had brought death to their quiet morning.

Tuarine’s instincts picked up on an incoming attack before her eyes could register it. She screamed, "Stay back!" at the approaching men while she jumped backward with a field of mana springing up about her, but it was too late for the knights. They did not hear her warning, and even if they had, they were much too close to escape what it was that Alana had planned.

She swerved her hips as though she were dancing, spinning her arms about herself in a fluid, almost beautiful motion. She slapped her forearms together, and a ring of fire erupted from her body in all directions, setting the knights aflame where they stood. Their screams lasted only moments. Tuarine’s energy shield had just barely managed to protect her from the brunt of the flames, the heat licking at the edges of her barrier like a hungry beast.

"Fire is by far my favorite element," Alana proclaimed as she walked past the burning men, her voice carrying a note of genuine affection for the destruction she had wrought. "It possesses an incredible potential."

She stopped in the clearing she had made, held her arms apart, and a green glow of energy radiated from her body. Where there had been an open wound on her forehead, the skin knitted itself closed, and her blood dried up and flaked away. The visible bruises and scratches that had marked her painted face all faded, leaving her as pristine as she had been when she first entered the village.

"Now," she said, turning her attention fully back to Tuarine, her smile never wavering, "where did we stop?"