A Saint's Retreat

Demidicus’s voice was a shock directly in her ear. He had appeared from nowhere, a blade forged of solidified shadow already pressed against her throat.

“Basic mistakes in fight,” he taunted, “Let me teach you a lesson or two.”

Anna's instincts for survival cried out. In a desperate twist, she flung herself sideways, but it was not good enough. The side of her neck was sliced by the cold sting of the shadow blade.

"Ouch..." a line of pain that was completely unfamiliar to her hits her.

Her own dark blood trickled down her skin.

Then, as if he had never been there, Demidicus disappeared, vanishing once more into the chaos.

But she cannot be calm just yet.

The steam finally cleared. Marutur was rising to his feet, his magma-core blazing with fury again, his scorched, steaming skin glowing even hotter than before.

Anna was well and truly cornered.

She touched her fingers to her neck, staring at the crimson blood that coated them. “Damn it... That’s the second time I almost died...” Her plan had failed. “= Maybe I underestimated them too much.”

She couldn’t track them both. She couldn’t fight them both at once. Her two Maren duplicates were now forced into a tight position, one barely holding back the re-ignited, fully berserk Marutur, the other circling Anna defensively, trying in vain to pinpoint the location of the teleporting vampire.

They’re coordinating. The brute forces a reaction, the strategist exploits it. My lack of experience is a fatal liability.

“Mnnaaa! Anna! I think we should just run...”

“Run...?” For the first time since coming to this world, Anna felt the icy grip of true, undeniable fear. She was outmatched.

You’re right... Direct confrontation is a failure state, she thought, Let’s find a way to leave.

Her objective shifted in a microsecond from ‘win’ to ‘survive and reposition.’

“Maren!” she screamed telepathically, pouring every ounce of her will into the command. “Both of you! Target Marutur! Blind him! Unleash the Art of the Sea in a full-spectrum flash flood! NOW!”

The two silver-blue swords seemed to vibrate, their holy energy overloading. 

They blasted their power in the direction of the rekindling general, exploding as a blast of unadulterated, formless energy. A burst of super-pressurized water vapor followed by a blinding, sun-bright flash of holy light.

The steam and light burned Marutur's eyes, and he roared in pain. Demidicus, caught in the blast, hissed and recoiled, his vampiric senses momentarily overloaded.

It was the only opening she would get.

Anna spun and ran. Her Enhanced Running skill kicked in, rocketing away from the chaotic clearing and plunging deep into the dark, tangled woods. The two Marens, their job done, disengaged and shot after her, one flanking her left, the other her right. Rivers... or anything... we need water...

Back in the clearing, the light faded. The steam dissipated. Their prey was gone.

For Demidicus, it was a moment of grudging admiration. Changing the battlefield, he thought with a smirk. Clever girl. He melted into the shadows of the trees, a silent, patient hunter in no particular hurry.

For Marutur, it was the ultimate insult. His prey, the cheating Saint who had hurt him, was running away.

“RAAAAGH!”

He charged after her, a blazing, flaming hot meteor of pure destruction. He went through every trees. Oak and ironwood exploded into splinters and fire on impact. Boulders were pulverized into dust. He left a wide, burning scar in the corrupted ancient forest, a trail of raw devastation for anyone to follow.

Deep in the woods, Anna ran. She could hear him. The whole forest could hear him. The sound of his roars and the continuous crash of falling timber was a terrifying wave rolling right behind her. She knew, with absolute certainty, that Marutur was following.

But as she vaulted over a fallen log, her new senses screamed at her. She felt the vibrations of Marutur's rampage through the soles of her feet. She could feel the heat of his rage on the back of her neck.

But she also felt something else. A cold spot in the woods that moved with her. A predatory stillness that had no sound, no heat, no vibration.

Demidicus. “Don’t think only you who has that skill, Saint.” He said.

She had just led two of the world's most powerful predators into her own private hunting ground, and she was still the prey.

“Anna! I sense waters!!”

Behind her, the thundering crashes became more intense. As the forest started to thin, Anna noticed a silver ribbon slicing through the dark woods and a broad river illuminated by the moon.

“You only lived once, Maren!”  It was a stupid plan, but she had no choice.

Using all of her strength, she launched herself into the air with Enhanced Running, leaping across the whole width of the river in one go.

“KYAAAAAA!!!” Maren screamed as she saw her master jumped. Fortunately, though, she stumbled and fell in the tall, dense branches of an old oak on the other side.

She didn't have to wait long.

Marutur, a blazing engine of pure rage, burst through the last line of trees. He didn't see the water. He didn't see the trap. Across the chasm, all he could see was the masked figure of his prey and the dim, sacred aura of Maren. He took one last step—and dove into the river—with a last, triumphant roar.

The night sky was filled with a massive eruption of water and steam. The river flash-boiled around him, and a shout, half wrath, half the shriek of superheated metal being quenched, broke from his mouth in a raw, tortured scream of pure misery.

Anna was overcome with astonished astonishment upon realizing that it had, in fact, succeeded.

That desperate, foolish plan did work.

Her relief, however, was brief. A low, guttural growl replaced the screaming as the steam started to part. Marutur was still alive. He wasn't even sinking. His magma-body was steaming violently as he floated in the middle of the boiling, turbulent water.

He was now hotter than before, steam escaping from his skin's fissures like a failing boiler. He roared again, this time with only unwavering hatred. His crimson eyes focused on where she was in the trees.

“Oh you’ve got to be joking...”

With a sound like a cannon shot, he bent his knees and launched himself from the river's surface, clearing the entire span and crashing into the forest on her side of the bank with the force of a meteor.

He began to swing his axe full of pure, mindless demolition. He swung it wildly, indiscriminately, cleaving through ancient trees as if they were saplings.

She moved back and back, luring him into a final, desperate charge. As his massive great axe tore through the space where she’d been a moment before, she gave the silent command.

“Now!”

The two Maren duplicates, which had been flanking her, became twin streaks of silver-blue light. They shot past Marutur from opposite sides. There was a single, clean shing as their paths converged on his thick, molten neck.

The Horned General froze mid-roar. His massive body stood motionless for a bit, and then his head toppled from his shoulders, crashing to the ground.

“One down, I suppose.” She opened her mouth, ready to claim her prize, to absorb the massive well of power from the fallen general—

“Devour.”

The voice was not hers. It was Demidicus’s. Anna watched in stunned fury as Marutur’s massive body dissolved into a torrent of dark, rich energy that flowed, not to her, but to the vampire noble who stood with a hand outstretched.

Demidicus’s power flared, his aura darkening and strengthening. He turned to Anna, a charming, utterly insincere smile on his face. “Thank you for dealing with that brutish nuisance for me,” he said smoothly. “You have done the Wardens a great service. You truly are a Saint. We will meet again at another time.”

After making one last mocking bow, he vanished into the darkness.

The fear, the focus, and the adrenaline all came crashing down at once. 

Anna lost her balance and collapsed to her hands and knees.

“I almost died…” she whispered to the ground, her voice shaking. “That was… that was a close call… Never again…”

Suddenly, she felt a small, soft pat on her head.

“Mnnaaa, you did a good job!”

Startled, she looked up. A young girl with bright blue hair in a twin tail and wide, worried blue eyes stood over her. She was barefoot and dressed simply in a flowing white dress.

Great, Anna thought.

 Now who is this lost little girl?