The moment the last of the strike team vanished into the trees, the clearing belonged to only Rhuvia and the force of Ines that still surrounded her.
Ines's remaining soldiers recovered faster than most would have after the blinding burst of manalight. Discipline among them held; ranks reformed in a matter of seconds, as if nothing happened. Twenty, then thirty of them closed in a tightening circle, blades and spears ready, no longer underestimating the lone woman who had chosen to stay behind.
Rhuvia's breathing was steady, but the well of mana inside her felt shallow. The long day of fighting, the gruesome fight with that earlier guardian of the magic circle, the continuous stream of monsters after that, and now the light burst itself, all of it had scraped her reserves down to the bone. She could still cast. She simply could not afford waste; she knew it.
And she definitely did not plan on wasting any mana, either.
Just as soldiers after soldiers circled her and leaped on her all at once, small, precise air slices left her staff in rapid succession: thin, almost invisible blades of compressed wind that found the gaps between armor plates, the soft joints at the elbows and knees, and targeted specifically at the unprotected throats.
Men dropped like birds without dramatic screams. A spear thrust came from her left; she stepped inside it, let the shaft slide past her ribs, and answered with a short horizontal cut that opened the soldier's femoral artery. Another tried to flank, seeing the chance, but he was also met with a focused gust that knocked his feet out from under him, and the follow-up slice took him across the eyes.
In under a minute, twenty of them fell one by one. Then twenty-five. Then something close to thirty.
Rhuvia was taking all of them at once without sweating much. This much was nothing to her, if there was no comrade to worry about or protect around her. She really had let herself loose here.
The ground around her grew littered with bodies and the wet shine of blood under the thin moonlight. Rhuvia's expression never changed. She simply kept moving, kept cutting, kept the circle from closing completely.
After cutting down more than thirty, the soldiers now started to fear her. They were now refusing to step up, only to be cut down mercilessly like that. Almost everyone present hesitated.
Taking a small breath, Rhuvia finally spoke, her voice carrying easily across the clearing.
"What? That's it? You'll have to do better than that, Viscountess. I can keep this up all night if I have to."
Ines's jaw tightened. The calm amusement she had worn earlier was fraying at the edges. She had expected the guild master to fold under numbers once the rest of the team fled. Instead, the woman was carving through her men with the efficient boredom of someone performing a chore.
Ines's voice cracked like a whip.
"EZEKEIL. Come forward."
Hearing her loud summons, a figure at the rear of the remaining formation stepped forward.
He was massive, broad enough that the night-work armor on him looked almost stretched across his frame, a heavy longsword resting against one shoulder as if it weighed nothing. Yet when he moved, the bulk vanished.
He covered the distance in a blur that should have been impossible for a man his size, boots barely seeming to touch the ground.
Seeing the huge things come at rushing speed, Rhuvia's eyes widened a fraction.
She barely got both hands on her staff in time.
The longsword of that big guy came down in a vertical arc that carried enough force to split a man from crown to groin. Rhuvia caught it on the reinforced shaft of her staff. The impact drove her legs backward through the leaf litter, carving twin furrows in the dirt. Her arms shook. The staff groaned under the huge pressure of the beast in front of her.
Ezekiel pressed harder, face unreadable beneath the helm, strength relentless.
Rhuvia twisted, let the blade slide off at an angle, and used the residual force to create space. She skidded another two meters away from him before planting her feet again. Dust and torn leaves settled around her.
When the air cleared, Ines's eyes narrowed.
The staff in Rhuvia's hands was no longer the same.
The upper end had lengthened and hardened into a spear-like point, sharp enough to catch the moonlight in a thin, wicked line. The mana stone that normally sat at the head of it was also gone, either absorbed or transformed. The entire weapon now looked like something forged for close combat as much as for channeling mana.
And Rhuvia's stance had also changed with it. The careful distance of a rear-line mage had vanished. She held the staff like a polearm, weight balanced, ready to thrust, sweep, or cast in the same motion.
This was no longer a mage fighting with restrictions.
This was an all-rounder who had finally stopped holding back.
Ines's voice rose, sharp with frustration.
"You fool! What are you waiting for? Finish her!"
Ezekiel answered with a low growl and came again, faster this time. The longsword blurred. Rhuvia met him head-on. Sparks of clashing mana and steel lit the space between them. She no longer tried to keep distance, stepping inside his reach; she used the spear-point to deflect, then reversed the staff and drove the butt into his midsection hard enough to fold him slightly. When he swung in retaliation, she was already moving with the momentum, guiding his weight past her rather than opposing it directly.
They turned in a tight, brutal circle. Ezekiel's superior strength kept pressing on the small girl, but Rhuvia's precision and the transformed staff kept answering each blow with careful dodging. Then she saw the opening.
She dropped low, swept the spear-point across the back of his lead knee, and felt the tendon part with a wet, decisive give.
Ezekiel's leg buckled.
And she used his falling weight against him, driving a shoulder into his chest and forcing him down onto his back. The longsword hit the dirt beside him.
Rhuvia planted a boot on his sword arm, raised the spear-point, and aimed for the gap just above the breastplate.
Though it might've looked like Rhuvia had him, Ezekiel still had fight left. Even pinned, he wrenched his free arm up and flung the longsword in a desperate, awkward throw. Rhuvia caught the blade on the shaft of her staff with a sharp clang and knocked it aside.
She shifted her weight, ready to drive the pointy part of her staff into the chest of the big guy….
But before she could, a scream of raw, corrupted mana tore through the air.
The manabolt came from behind her, massive and dark-edged, nothing like the clean elemental casts she was used to facing.
Rhuvia spun on pure instinct, staff rising. A hasty wind barrier flared into existence just in time. The impact still lifted her off her feet and hurled her several meters back. She hit the ground hard, rolled, and came up on one knee, lungs burning, the barrier shattered into fading motes.
After catching her breath, the residual energy crawling across her skin felt wrong to her, thick, and clinging.
She looked up to see the origin of this attack.
To her shock, it was Ines, who now stood with one arm still extended, black-tinged mana coiling around her fingers like living smoke. The Viscountess's expression had lost every trace of playful superiority. What remained now was cold focus and something older, uglier.
Rhuvia's voice came out hoarse with disbelief.
"What…? Cursed magic. Viscountess….You-you're a witch?"
Ines did not answer.
She simply raised her hand again. A second manabolt, larger and darker than the first, gathered at her palm with frightening speed.
Rhuvia tried to bring the staff up to block it, knowing a direct hit not only could potentially harm her, but it also had the power to curse her too at the same time. That was the nature of the magic Ines was using against her right now.
The bolt formed of cursed magic hit her staff before the defense fully formed.
The force tore the weapon from her grip and sent it spinning across the clearing, the spear-point embedding itself in the dirt several meters away.
Rhuvia staggered, one knee dropping to the ground, the residual curse energy burning along her arms like acid under the skin.
Ines's silhouette stood framed against the dark trees, mana still swirling around her hand, the ranks of remaining soldiers beginning to close around her once more.
The clearing had gone very quiet.
Rhuvia lifted her head, breathing hard, empty hands braced against the blood-soaked earth.
The real nature of the woman across from her had finally stepped into the light, and it was far more gruesome than she ever realised.