The battlefield was full of chaos, and since the support from Helen had gone down, the scales had filled in favor of the enemy side
Task force X on realizing the counter attack from the village was more fierce than they expected, you over twenty of the original city they sent already dead and more injured and rendered unfit for battle, the first team responsible for the barricade had to abandon their post and join in on the battle.
This resulted in more of the townspeople getting injured, some even dying, a few even doing suicide charges to take out a few more of the assailants with them
Maria stood inside a wide hall, alone, but before her were never of the town's fighting force that had been downed or injured
Maria was one of the few who was allowed to work at the temple under Daria, she ran the clinic portion and also had a small apothecary in town
No one would believe that the helpless woman who almost never spoke a word and would only ever be caught with a smile on her face was one of the appointed guardians of Gamora.
She was a merfolk who was born in the kingdom, and for some reason ended up as a part of the expedition, while a part of her crew lost their lives, the rest decided to quit even before the expedition was called off, living their lives wherever they were now
She was a spirit route practitioner, awakened in the water element, gaining access to ice upon her ascension. However as they were currently fighting on land, her racial advantage with the water element and its blessings couldn't be manifested at it's peak.
Perhaps if they were fighting within a certain region of Gamora's forest she would have single handedly wiped out the opponents forces, but right now she could only a t as a support, healing those who were injured and buffing the other fighters so they put on a good battle.
Her spirit, a water fairy, flew all over the battlefield, providing timely aid to her allies, in form of attacks, healing and buffs
If Helen was the main firepower, then Maria was the core of their defense.
Five men assisted her by running into the battlefield and rescuing those who were injured and unable to battle anymore but not dead yet, bringing them back to Maria for healing before being sent back into battle
While they might have lost a lot of their fighting power, reducing the total number of fighters left to only thirty individuals, they were able to maintain a stalemate, thanks to Maria's constant healing and her rescue squad.
One such member had just returned with an ally on his back, the ally had a wound that ran straight to him, he was impaled by a spear, a miracle that he was able to hold out till he got to where he needed to be treated.
Just as he entered the hall to drop his patient, a beam shot towards him from the outside only to be stopped by a magic circle.
"Oh shit, that was close, thanks Maria, I better get out here, wouldn't want to be a burden"
He dropped the injured before hightailing out of the hall, his speed no lower than that of an ascendant.
Small individual magic circles started appearing over the top of those lying in the hall, a huge one towering over the smaller ones
The bodies floated to another room, before the room was sealed once again with another magic circle
"Now that was very impressive"
A masked figure stepped out of the shadows, clapping his hands as he watched in wonder the mage perform such precise sorcery without failure.
"I might be a warrior, an enemy to boot, but even on my side, only a few are capable of utilizing such fine sorcery, would be ashame to kill you but orders are orders"
Maria watched the masked man as he walked towards her with three in tow, the man who was in the lead and made that remark was unlike the others, by his aura, she could tell they were equals in terms of power levels
Just like he said, the magic circles was as a result of her using sorcery, she was a sorcery, one that studied and walked the path of the ancient.
Sorcery wasn't a mainstream discipline as most sorcery tomes could only be found in ruins, and once one had run out of materials, he would have to rely on his or her understanding to create new spells to be used.
While magic and sorcery had the same route, their applications where different
The magic circle Helen had used in her bluff was something Maria had predesigned and given her, she only needed to run her aether through it to activate it
"Seeing as you have no thoughts of surrendering and making my job easier, let's just get this over with"
As he uttered those words, two of the men who came with him shot forward in a bid to capture Maria
Their actions however was halted as the froze when they got into range, a magic circle appearing over their bodies and another over their heads
No wonder Maria hadn't reacted even after she was surrounded, the area was already her territory
The masked man clicked his tongue as he watched the folly of his teammates, his body began trembling as he broke into a fit of laughter
"You know, when Chrono picked me to be a part of this disappointed as I thought nothing interesting could come out of it, but meeting you here now as made it all worth it"
"I shouldn't be saying this as it is against protocol but my price as a warrior won't allow me to just end it like this. I am Claw, warrior of X, it is my pleasure to face you"
Maria unfurled her aura and faced Claw, she stretched out her arms and magic circles started to form glowing all around her
"Maria Hildegard, siren of south"
Her voice had a charm to it, knocking out the last member of the group, this was why she never spoke, her voice would affect anyone lower than her, she truly was a siren.
"Now that all distractions are out of the way, let's and this one shot"
Claw said as he got into stance, his body catching fire, before he turned into flaming figure
"I couldn't agree more"
The circles behind maria spun, charging up before beams fired towards Claw.
Their number numerous and the angles tricky, Maria had put her all into this sticker and with the kind of mage she was and their current location, if Claw was able to evade and get to her it would be her loss
Claw made his way swiftly across the room, practically dancing through the beams, gliding through the ice and weaving his way through the barrage of attacks coming at him, it all looked like a dance, surely he was getting closer to Maria
Maria pushed her source to the limit to create a magic circle in front of her, where she expected Claw to step through to get to her, he might have tried to hide it but she had spotted a pattern in his movement, she wasn't a veteran for no reason.
As Claw got into position, stepping on the hidden magic circle, It activated, a vacuum sucked in everything within the circle and its outer edges before freezing it and crumbling to bits.
Maria took a deep breathe trying to steady and herself, she was barely able to stand, she felt a chill run down her spine before she fell into someone's embrace
"Oh siren ,that was a beautiful strike, it really pains me to let you go like this"
Claw was behind her, the left part of his body mostly frozen, he supported her with his body, his right hand piecing her clearst from behind poking out in front with her heart in his hands
"Sleep tight princess, and perhaps in our next live, we'd be lovers and not enemies"
He set his body ablaze one more time, destroying Maria's body before retrieving his hand from her body
He was able to escape at the last moment by elementalising and using his movement art to get behind her, it wasn't without consequence though. He was injured and couldn't be of help in battle anymore.
He walked over to one of the bodies of his allies lying on the floor to pull out an object, he pressed a button before tossing the object behind him then walked out of the building
Not long afterwards, as one of the townsfolk ran in with injured people on his back
*BOOM*
The building exploded
********
A small fairy flying in the air trembled before falling to the ground, Helen appeared at just the last moment, catching it before changing locations
"I see you've fallen my friend, rest while you can, for I can tell the battle has just begun"
The wind blew carrying her words with them, the hidden meaning behind them, no one knew
Five guardians, one from each race protected this town, but two had just died