Narration
Mahlia's head lifts, her eyes widening. Venus stirs beside her, now completely healed but still slightly disoriented. They both scan the area, noticing that the battle has now died down. The goblins are, for the most part, still alive, although heavily distracted by their injuries. Mahlia spots her remaining two accomplices with whom she arrived, though neither of them seem to sense the same dreadful energy that Mahlia and her familiar feel, instead focusing on sending away the goblins with their magic. Soon they will travel back to their homes, taking their lost companion to be buried and leaving Mahlia and Venus with the Prince. Normally this would not have bothered the witch, though this time she wonders whether she may require their help, the level of fear she senses in the atmosphere increasing by the second.
With Venus now seeming more aware, Mahlia stands, deciding to follow the direction of the energy that dominates her senses. The pair pass between the goblins who now begin to back away, terrified of the witches power. Though it might not have wounded them in the same way as a sword might, the weakness that they feel is immense, and their limbs feel as if they are burning from the inside out, having being struck by the lightning-like magic that she sent towards them. Of course, Mahlia knew that this would soon wear off, however as long as the goblins were distracted she was contented. Her accomplices would send them away before the spell wears off anyway.
As they walk, Venus squawks, flying off to the right and landing not far away. Mahlia runs to follow, her heart thudding in her chest as she begins to feel slightly nauseous, wondering what her familiar could have found. She watches as the phoenix pecks at something on the ground, repeatedly squawking as her body tenses. The witch speeds up, fearing what she might find laying there and hoping more than anything that no more losses have been made during the fight.
As she finally gets close enough to see who lays at the bird's feet, her heart almost stops.
The Prince Eros lays on the ground, struggling as he leans on his elbow, coughing up blood. It is clear to Mahlia that the fear she had sensed had been coming from the Prince. Her heart leaps into her throat as she kneels down beside him. Thankfully, whatever injury he had is now healing up, though he is clearly too weak to stand on his own. Mahlia lifts his arm from his stomach, seeing the deep gash covering the skin. The wound looks bad enough as it is, clearly having bled a considerable amount as he lays on red-stained grass, but since the Fey heal much faster than most other beings, she tries not to imagine too much about how bad it was upon being inflicted. If not for the fact that he healed extremely quickly, Eros would most likely be dead.
Mahlia holds her palm to the wound, her arm heating up as the healing magic passes down and into the Prince. However, this is quickly cut off, Eros's weak hand grabbing hers and pulling it away. She scowls, wanting to heal him. She had practically raised him when his parents did not make the time to, and he is like a son to her - it pains her to see that he is hurt. Normally, she would have ignored him and put her hand back to heal the wound, if not for the pleading look in his eyes.
She draws her hand away slightly, her gaze questioning. Eros coughs slightly, before shifting his weight and trying to sit up. He struggles, but with her help he manages, putting most of his weight onto one of his hands to stabilise himself. Lifting his other hand, he points towards a gap between the trees in the distance.
"Ria's in trouble," he croaks, sounding helpless. "Roma followed her."
Conflicted, Mahlia sighs, unsure of whether to heal Eros first anyway. She knows that he would be upset with her, and that Adriana could be in serious danger, but seeing someone she cares deeply about in pain causes her to feel incredible guilt. She should have been there for him. She could have protected him.
However, she can see that he is distressed. And no matter how much guilt she feels, she knows that he will heal quickly enough to be ok, despite how pale and weak he looks now. Adriana will not.
"Stay with him," the witch commands Venus before heading off in the direction Eros had given. She doesn't yet feel another presence though, so the girl must have gotten quite far. Hopefully Roma hadn't already gotten to her, though she couldn't sense him either; they both must have travelled a longer distance than Mahlia had anticipated. Roma's presence was usually a strong one, and she would likely sense him before she did Adriana.
As she runs, frustration settles in, Mahlia feeling like she is not progressing through the forest fast enough to save Adriana. She could use her magic to get further through the forest, but with the amount of trees cloaking her line of vision in each direction she didn't want to risk missing anything, especially since she couldn't yet sense anything. Just the thought of potentially looking straight past the girl gives her a sickening anxiety, knowing that she would have failed Eros. He would not forgive himself if something were to happen to one of his team on his watch. And though the witch hasn't stopped wondering why he would want a human around, she isn't going to stop searching. The Prince probably already feels guilty enough.
Building up speed as she runs through the trees, she begins to notice that some goblins had ventured further away from most of the fighting, some distracted by injuries and the rest looking quite lost. They recognised Mahlia almost immediately, watching her intently but making no attempt to stop her. With the amount of injured goblins, the witch knew that Adriana must have gotten quite far even despite the goblins' attacks, and Mahlia can't help but wonder whether the girl had prior knowledge of how to fight. If she was honest with herself, she had not expected upon seeing Adriana for the first time, getting the impression that the girl was fairly clueless with regards to the potential danger she could have put herself in by travelling with Eros. However, for a human to get this far, Eros probably just made sure she had a good enough weapon. Even if she did know how to fight, she'd need a good, sharp weapon to be able to get away from the goblins. They might not be the smartest of creatures but their thick skin and healing abilities made them extremely difficult to kill, even with her magic.
As Mahlia gets further away from Eros and Venus, she senses one other presence in the distance. As expected, it is incredibly strong, most likely belonging to the wolf. Not yet sensing Adriana at all, not even feeling a weak sliver energy, she assumed that Roma has not yet caught up to the girl.
Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for her to realise that she was sorely mistaken. In the distance, the figure of a wolf becomes clear, seemingly dragging a body along the ground.
Acting fast, Mahlia sends a bolt of lightning magic towards the wolf as she approaches. Roma howls upon being hit, releasing the figure from his mouth and twisting around to glare at the witch. His stance becomes defensive - Roma has always known that Mahlia is powerful. However, he shows no willingness to back down, despite the fact that he knows his opponent will be difficult to defeat.
As the wolf stalks towards Mahlia, she places a sort of energetic shield around Adriana, who currently lays unconscious on the ground. In his periphery, Roma sees this and tilts his head slightly, looking behind him at the girl and growling at the golden dome encasing her. His lips curl up in frustration, realising that even if he can defeat the witch, he likely won't be able to get Adriana out of the dome any time soon. Although, despite the fact that Mahlia could not sense the girl, she took the wolf's reaction to mean that she was still alive, at least for now.
Mahlia hesitates for a second, wondering what on earth Roma could want with the girl, and a human at that. She would be too weak to aid him and probably would refuse to either way; from the way that she has seen Adriana act when with Eros, it is clear that the girl has a strong will, even if she doesn't recognise it. Of course, the sister of Emily might be of some use to him, but the witch doubted that Roma would remain patient enough to follow through completely if that was indeed part of his plan. The girl would probably end up dead before her younger sister found her way into the wolf's possession again. But Roma has always been a tad reckless - he probably hasn't even considered the fact that there would be flaws in his plan.
Roma growls murderously, baring his teeth. Now focusing on him completely, Mahlia glares at him, preparing to use her magic and feeling the energy running throughout her body. The wolf continues to stalk towards her, but she does not back up, instead remaining where she stands.
In a matter of seconds, the witch's arm moves up in front of her head, another shield pulsing out from the back of her hand, deflecting Roma as he pounces. He falls back, and in this moment of weakness Mahlia takes down the shield and sends a bolt of energy his way. He quickly regains his footing despite the burning feeling coursing through his entire body, and again pounces, gnashing his teeth, only to be deflected again by a second shield. He is struck once again with a bolt, this time weakening more.
The wolf takes a second to look behind him, his piercing white eyes glaring at Adriana once more as if to blame her for his lapse in judgement, before he turns and attempts a third attack, this time barrelling towards the witch with as much speed his weakened state can muster. He manages to get to Mahlia before she has chance to guard herself, knocking her down to the ground and bringing his deadly jaws up towards her neck.
Newfound panic floods into Mahlia's stomach as she brings her hands up to Roma's neck, trying to push his head away. The electrifying energy flows out of her hands and shocks the wolf but he still persists, bringing one of his paws up to press on her windpipe. As she struggles to breathe she calls on as much power as she can manage, feeling Roma's skin burning at the heat now emanating from her hands. He yelps, temporarily distracted by the amount of pain, his front paw lifting just enough for Mahlia to lean up slightly and push him away. He tries to attack again but is too slow, instead getting struck once again and howling as he almost collapses.
He knows he can never win now, his body feeling like it is practically on fire. Without second thought he turns, determined to get away. Once again Mahlia hesitates; had he been someone else she more than likely would have shocked him again, not allowing him to get away. It would likely result in him dying, as he was already extremely weakened from her attacks. But as she is about to send her energy his way one last time, she remembers a time when he was not the enemy. Her heart clenches.
By the time that she has convinced herself that she cannot let him get away, he is already gone from sight.