The moment "One..." slipped out of my lips, two sonorous songs echoed from our bows as the first arrows were let loose, their quiet whistles coming just a tad too late for their targets to even react before they suddenly found themselves pierced.
My target dropped immediately after sprouting a new horn, while Aethisia's clutched at her chest and gurgle as her spine and lung were pierced at the same time from the side; before anyone could even comprehend that two people were dead, another set of whistling filled the cave.
This next set of arrows sailed through the air almost a second after the first ones, and as I had told her to Aethisia spun around and began to retreat back into the shadows, moving quickly and silently back the way we came.
I stuck around for a moment to just take it all in, watching as the next two mercenaries fell to the ground with a satisfying thud; my eyes swept over the stun locked cave and I made the decision to be greedy, stringing a third and letting it loose before rushing off after my daughter.
I didn't get to see if that one struck true, but considering the clamor afterwards and the thud that accompanied it I think I got it; what I also knew that I got was a hell of a shot of adrenaline as I tried to ensure that my greed didn't cost us anything.
Our boots were almost silent against the ground, so I was able to hear the shouts and almost thunderous footsteps of the mercenaries spreading around to find their attackers, and because of that I knew there was one who had lucked out and was heading our way.
Slipping into the narrow passage we had come from, I turned and sealed it up before resuming my escape, picking a few different routes to seal up as well to throw them off while also covering our tracks.
As such I was a bit more than a step away from Aethisia, but I made sure that I was never letting her out of my sight even as I did all of this, so eventually we emerged into the forest once more and immediately began to melt away into the trees.
The evening light was allowing the shadows to begin pooling together down below, while the canopy above was flooded with harsh light and shrouded with leaves; rushing deep into the forest without leaving that much of a trail, we looped around towards the walls of the town and scaled the trees, watching from above and preparing for our next move.
"So... feeling fine, or do we need a moment?"
Balancing on the branch and studying the hectic activity inside of the town, I listened for Aethisia's whisper while counting the number of mercenaries again, a thrill running through me when it barely spilled over the dozen mark.
"I... Yeah, I think I'm good..."
"I don't need you to think it, Aethisia, I need you to know it. Can we continue or should we stop for a moment?"
Being hard on her here was a bit painful for me, but it needed to be done; we didn't have the luxury of wasting time and playing around with half measures, and the last thing I wanted was to have her mental state being only somewhat certain.
That would lead to mistakes, and against that leather clad babe and the muscular Leopardkin, mistakes could result in some rather dire consequences... so I was damned if I was going to take a risk with them.
I already took one with that extra shot, so this was definitely something I was adamant about not being stupid on...
"I'm good. What's the plan? Pick off as many as we can and go in after, or are we hitting a few and running away?"
"We've already alerted the entire group, so leaving now will do us little good... They'll hunker in the caves and start turning that place into a fortress. So yes, we're picking them off one by one up here until we have to go down. Focus on the right side, shoot at will. On one again."
Making sure I was still balanced, had the arrows in my hand and that the bow was good, I began to mentally mark who I was going to aim at and started preparing myself for this; it was going to be far more difficult than before, but I've hunted for a long time now...
Moving targets were hard but not impossible, and the trick was finding those moments where they gave you a moment of pause to work off of, or at the very least a tendency that they repeated regularly.
"Remember, lead the shot and try to go for the kill. If you can't, at least hit 'em in the legs to immobilize them. Most of them don't have potions or healing spells ready, so an arrow to the knee takes them out of the fight for a little bit."
Glancing over at her, I caught her nod and pushed away the aching in my chest as I saw her ruby eyes filled with conflicted emotions again, making me regret bringing her along... only for that regret to fade and be replaced with pride as I saw her string that arrow and get ready to shoot.
It needed to be done, and the steadiness in her hand let me know she was more than ready now... so whatever she had gone through mentally, she had already figured out a way to deal with it or at the very least push it away for later.
What we needed to worry about now was getting these numbers down even lower, and without any fear of being attacked back; nocking the arrow and taking aim, I steadied my breathing and began to count us down again, just like back in the cave.
This time though, our targets were moving, fearful and also hopped up on adrenaline, so the shots were harder... but they were more than manageable for us both, which was proven the moment I muttered "One." and I saw two bodies hit the ground.