Eranae broke into the adjacent building, jumping in through the partially opened window. She had reacted with her reflexes enhanced by lifesong but it wasn't enough to dodge the volley from the archers on the rooftops. An arrow jutted out of her right thigh, barely missing the bone, while another had pierced her abdomen. The wounds weren't grave enough to immobilize her though the arrows had penetrated deep into her flesh and would be quite irritating to remove.
Eranae gritted her teeth, pulling out the arrow from her thigh first and then removing the one in her abdomen. Lifesong flowed over the inflicted parts and sealed the wound, however internal healing would take a bit longer.
The fact that the archers managed to inflict such deep wounds made it presumable that some of them were lifesingers, either of the second or the third Cadence. This would make things annoying for Eranae. She glanced outside the window. The shadows of the archers had receded from the roofs' edges, but arrow marks on the ground remained. Ten more arrows were shot at her, but she had evaded those. Judging by the pacing of the distance between arrow marks and counting the arrows that actually hit her, Eranae deduced that there were four groups of archers with each group containing three of them. Three groups were atop the line of houses in which she was and while one another group was on the roofs of buildings on the other side of the lane.
A child's sharp cry pierced Eranae's concentration as she turned to see a woman holding an infant on the other side of the room. Her face was covered in terror and confusion. It seemed that Eranae had woken the baby from its sleep.
"Pardon my intrusion." Eranae apologised in crude Renaari, and dashed up the stairway on the side of the room. Like every house in the street, this one had two floors with a wooden staircase connecting them. On the second floor, Era almost ran into a man, probably the child's father, who was moving downstairs to see what the commotion was about. Eranae slid past him before he could react and rushed for the ladder leading to the trapdoor.
On opening the trapdoor, her instincts drove her to hang sideways with the support of one arm. This instinctive action saved her from the arrow that whistled down from above and jutted into the floor below. With strength enhanced by lifesong, Eranae propelled herself out of the trapdoor, jumping out to the rooftop. Three archers surrounded the trapdoor, their faces a blend of fear and astonishment.
Eranae went for the makana on her back and realised only then that she had left it with Pearl. For a fraction of that second, she felt crippled but that feeling faded away as the muscle memory from years of training and practice kicked in, overriding the sensation of vulnerability.
The archer that had shot into the trapdoor had discarded his bow and was reaching for the knife at his belt. While two other archers still had arrows notched on their bowstrings and were now raising them towards Eranae's head, but in their astonishment they had forgotten that she was within their arm's reach and so were they of her's.
She loosely flailed her arm, hitting the bow just before the archer loosed the arrow and changing its trajectory so that it shot into the throat of the other archer with his bow drawn. The archer with the knife lunged at her. Eranae turned, blocking the knife and disarming the man, then kicking him in shin hard enough to crack the bone. With the knife now in her hand, she slit the throat of the remaining archer who stood dazed in shock of killing her comrade.
Picking the archer before she fell to the ground, Eranae used the body as a shield and dashed towards the other group who stood on the next rooftop, shooting poorly aimed shots. Only some of them hit the archer's body before she reached close enough to the group to dispatch them off with the knife. This group as well was too shocked to put up a proper fight and using the element of surprise, Eranae was able to overwhelm and finish them relatively quickly.
Within a matter of moments, she had killed or immobilized six enemies with nothing but a knife. The third group was two rooftops away and hadn't begun shooting arrows frantically like the previous group, while the group on the other side of the lane had gone inactive, taking cover behind a brick wall. Eranae inhaled deeply, refocusing the lifesong in her muscles, and picked up another body to use as a shield. She didn't charge ahead this time, at least not immediately. She assumed that the third group was formulating a strategy and before she could figure out what it was, an arrow flew by her foot. It was shot with enough strength to scrape off the floor.
Eranae charged. Standing still in a fight for too long usually means certain death. She noticed that two members of the group had bows aimed at her while in one in the back stood with a knife drawn. Crossing another rooftop, Eranae slowed down a bit and twisted, gaining momentum and tossing the body she used as shield towards the archer who stood near the roof's edge. As she had anticipated, this took the archer by surprise and fell off the edge.
The one with the knife charged at Eranae in retaliation, going in straight for her throat. Eranae dodged to the side, barely evading the strike. She then moved ahead to slash the attacker but her instincts drove her back, as an arrow passed in front of her face, missing it with merely a hair's breadth. The attacker jumped at her with the knife, and at the same time, Eranae heard the bowstring being pulled.
At that moment, an incredible but unorthodox idea struck her mind. She channeled the lifesong at her free palm and attuned Skysong, creating a narrow but well-defined stream of air. This air-stream flowed towards the arrow, slightly changing its line of flight, redirecting it so that it hit the neck of the attacker. It happened in less than a heartbeat, and Eranae caught the knife from the attacker's falling dead body. Pouring lifesong in the joints of her arm, she flung the knife at the archer, who was in the middle of drawing an arrow from his quiver, and shattered his skull. Thus killing him instantly.
Before she could take a breath, the sound of clinking metal and a lever being clutched caught her attention. She turned to the rooftop on the other side of the lane and saw it. A large yet compact device made of metal and wood and strings. A device strong enough to pierce a thick sheet of bronze plate. The group on the other side had been assembling a manuballista. The archer holding the device had aimed it at Eranae's head and pulled a lever on the side of the device. Her body had frozen with anxiety but somehow she managed to raise her arm before her face, in a vain attempt to block the projectile. Pain sprang across her palm and face, and Eranae blacked out.