Crossbows on the Run

The barn we were hiding in was really worn down, to the point that the whole ceiling looked like it would collapse at any moment, especially with all the snow piling down.

From here, it wasn’t hard to see the wall, but it was difficult to tell if the crossbows could see us.

Uncle stuck his hand out as a test.

TINK!

An arrow wooshed by, just missing him as he retracted his arm.

“Were pinned down.” Uncle said.

“And there’s still another wall we’ll have to go through before we enter the town.” Emily said, discovering a smaller, but still formidable wall of stone a little ways behind the barn. “This town really is a fortress.”

TINK TINK TINK!

TINK TINK TINK!

Arrows were striking the walls, the barn rumbled and bits of old wood began to crumble down on us. They were trying to bring it down on top of our heads!

“They want to flesh us out.” Uncle said. “We have to take their attention away quickly.”

Given our available options, it would make sense to have Uncle and I fly over to the top of the walls and take out whoever was shooting at us. We could survive a little arrow fire.

“Are you ready, Young Mistress?”

“Yeah, Uncle.” I nodded, brandishing my spear. “Let’s take em’ down!”

Both of us ran out into the open, flaring out our wings, preparing to leap into the air.

All eyes turned to us, letting the barn be a safe haven once more.

My combat mode was showing me the trajectory of the incoming volley of arrows, so I was able to get out of their way.

Now we took to the snowy sky. Arrows shot up toward us, but we were quick to evade.

One was heading right for me. In my confidence, I raised up my spear to strike it away…

PING!

“OUCH!”

It hit me!

Because my skin was impenetrable, the arrow just bounced off, but that hurt a lot!

This sucks. Uncle was knocking arrows out of the air with his broadsword. Why couldn’t I do that?

“Yalda, shake it off and keep flying!” Uncle called back to me.

“Got it!” I nodded, darting down toward the wall battlement.

Once we were close, the arrows stopped and the foes scattered. My map and IFF was having a really hard time picking up on the number of enemies or their info through this fog, so I decided to convert the system into a basic motion tracker with about 12 meters of range. That had a much easier time getting through.

“Yalda, three enemies at 12 oclock and nine at 6 oclock!”

12 oclock for me was…right ahead! And six oclock was behind me. That’s how that worked, right?

Alright! Into battle I go! Uncle took the 9 behind us, I took the 3 in front.

As I ran forward, I stuck my spear out and charged in, easily catching up to the fleeing enemy.

“HAAAAA!!”

The fog of war cleared, and before me were some very big looking crossbow turrets with human legs and a red laser light coming out of a heat vision scope. What on earth was I even looking at?

-Cross Bowalker demon tagged; Foe-

-Enemy count = 3-

A demon?! Stardust would hurt it for sure!

“YAHH!”

I spun around in a cool way and swung my spear at the Bowalkers. They all open fired point blank!

TINK TINK TINK!

PING PING PING!

GAHH! This arrow barrage was like a thousand giant mosquitoes pelting me all at once!

I ran behind one of the pillars in the battlement. My small size concealed me.

Note to self: Don’t charge at projectile enemies with melee weapons.

They were all ready to fire on me the moment I left my cover. My motion tracker was picking up their movement, showing that they were cautiously approaching my position.

One of them started to step forward ahead of the others, trying to get a better angle on me. In a few seconds I’d be fleshed out.

I couldn’t just run in there again and attack like a barbarian. I had to think of a way to take them out without taking too many hits.

My spear was designed for range, but they clearly had the advantage in that department. The only advantage I had was being able to hide in the gaps in the wall battlement.

They spotted me!

A swift glide took me off the side of the wall, then I flew up and dodged a few arrows once I was out in the open.

I flattened my hand and shot tiny rays of stardust energy at the Bowalkers, causing enough chaos to swoop in for a strike.

I poked my spear, jabbing one of them in the process!

The other Bowalkers started running around like a chickens, bumping into themselves. The confusion gave me a chance to strike.

I flew in and stabbed the spear into one of the other crossbow demons, then used the momentum from pulling out the spear to swipe at the last one, but missed him. The two I’d hit started glowing with stardust energy, eventually exploding into a cloud of ash and brimstone.

Two down, one to go!

I was ready to attack the last one, but wait! In the midst of the explosions of dust, two people fell down in fetal positions, like they had been stuffed inside of that turret.

While I was distracted, the final Bowalker sent out a few shots at me. I had to take cover.

An arrow, steaming with shadow, loaded up to fire, but the Bowalker took aim at one of the people on the ground.

FWOOP!

The arrow phased right into the head of the person, and they were enveloped in darkness. The darkness forced light out of their mouths. Moments later, the person transformed back into a Bowalker demon.

“What the…?”

Not that I didn’t know that people could turn into demons, but this made things a lot more complicated if they could change back on the fly. I’d have to take the demons out all at once.

All three Bowalkers were restored, and open fired. I noticed that the ammo of the rejuvenated ones looked more like wooden bolts than arrows. Each time their shots hit the stone, they’d shatter into brittle chunks.

I assumed that meant they were weaker, which wasn’t much less of a stress considering I still had to defeat them. And getting hit by a bolt still hurts!

PEW PEW!

Little blasts of stardust shot from my hands, hitting them. They were stunned long enough for me to fly in and slash them all!

Three people were returned to their former status as human, and I ran to reinforce Uncle.

He was doing well on his own, but a lot more of those Bowalkers had shown up and peppered him with shots. I flew around and flanked them, cutting the suppressive fire down by half.

Uncle used my distraction to finish off the rest of the demon turrets, then quickly checking on the people laying across the stone wall.

“They’re alive, but they’ll die in this cold,” he said. “Gather them all for me. We’ll need to get back to Indena to warm them up.”

~☆☆☆~

Uncle carried all the people back to the barn, Marek and Emily were scavenging anything they could to wrap around these cold souls.

“I’ll warm them up.” Indena nodded with a serious gaze, knowing her role well.

“Be careful.” Uncle was laying them all down in a bedding of hay. “If we heat them up too fast, their bodies will go into shock.” He put a hand over a woman's forehead. “Hypothermia is setting in. We have to act quickly.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve been training my whole life for this.”

Since there was only one fire mage, Indena had to nurse the people two at a time. 20 people were here in total.

“Slowly raise their body heat up, I’ll tell you when to stop.”

“Alright.” She laid her hands flat on their chests. A pulse of orange heat energy gently left her hand and entered the people. “Nobody’s freezing on my watch.”

With Uncle’s precise instructions, and Indena’s caring power, they both were able to keep the survivors from perishing from the cold.

“I hate snow.” Indena gave the outdoors a mean look as she finished saving the last person.

White fluff had blanketed over everything, making the ground look like a fluffy canvas. It was also coming down from the hole in the ceiling, but Indena’s heat was melting it quickly.

“Are you going to be okay?” I asked her.

“I told you before, don’t worry about me. I’ll conquer this fear on my own.”

She could be so stubborn. pigheadedness isn't a good way to overcome her fear of the snow. Its a quick way to insure you push people away who want to help. But her heat wouldn't melt me away that easily.