It had been a few hours since the two had left the village. After an hour, Nix noticed some tracks left by the forward unit and used her HUD to follow them back towards the other enemy camp. The whole time, Vela asked her a slew of questions.
"What's that thing you're carrying?"
"A rifle, think crossbow but uses Mana as ammo."
"What's your armor made of?"
"Mana infused steel, makes it lighter and tougher, as well as absorb Mana around me to both help strengthen it and quicken my Mana recovery."
"What's your name?"
"Nix Moonfell."
"Did you have a lover in your-"
"I understand you have plenty of questions, but it's not fair for you to know everything about me when the others are left to guess." Nix ended the questions about her quickly as she looked at Vela with a quick pause in her movements.
Vela then finally sighed and raised her hands. "Fine, fine. Since you're from another world, I'll explain what you wanna know until you meet your death I suppose."
Nix nodded before continuing forward and ducking under a low-hanging branch. Vela was about to break it with her sword, but remembered the harsh reprimanding Nix gave her at the beginning of their journey and grimaced a bit before ducking under as well.
After a long while, Nix finally sighed and turned to Vela, who kept staring her down in anticipation of her questions. "Instead of the Chief telling me when we get back, I'll have you explain everything with him later."
"Why are you so confident we will make it back? I understand you have your rifle and armor, but against a fully armored battalion of soldiers-"
"Don't trust my words, just watch my actions and wait for me to give you the signal." Nix cut her off before turning back to the trail.
The silence lasted for another hour and a half before Nix raised her hand and made a fist, crouching down and looking ahead. Vela followed in suit and looked over the smaller woman's shoulder curiously. "What's up ahead?"
"The enemy is marching half a mile away. Seems that Captain planned to meet up with them in the middle of cleaning you guys up." Nix responded before looking up to the leafy branches. Seeing a thick branch a few stories up, she gestured to it and looked at Vela. "Get up there and watch. If things look bad and I can't signal you, you'll have to make the decision yourself to either stay and watch the finale, or run and warn the others to ready themselves."
Before Vela could even retort, Nix clutched her rifle and ran off into the dense forest. She veered right towards a large thicket and quickly laid down inside it. Judging by how the army was moving, they would walk at least 50 feet from her moving to her left where the trees were the thinnest.
Vela could only look in astonishment at the disappearing figure before sighing and looking up. "You could've at least asked if I knew how to climb. What an ass." She muttered to herself before climbing up the designated tree and standing on the branch. As she leaned against the tree, she peaked from behind to look around the forest. Not only could she not find Nix, but she couldn't even see the army she'd mentioned.
Half an hour passed before Vela's ever-growing doubts of Nix were shattered by the faint thudding of armored feet. After another few minutes, she saw the front-line of the army trudging through the thickets 200 feet away from her tree. Unlike the forward unit that wore full leather armor with a little plating, this army held units of various sizes covered head to toe in steel armor, some leather armored units, and some that looked like squires in cloth and leather. They all had the same Dark Blue colors the forward unit wore, a white dragon painted on their chest plates or shields. A variety of halberds, swords, staves, spears and other various weapons were already drawn and gleaming in the faint light of the sunset that bled through the small holes left by the trees that shaded them.
Much to her surprise, the number she could count was much higher than Nix's estimation. The army itself was close to 300 soldiers and various others, dragging supply carts along either by hand or by Skivver. All the supplies were covered by cloth, presumably enchanted to keep Dark Beasts and vermin away. In the center of the march was a tall Kur'vaal, sitting atop a Lasuk with bright orange crystal antlers. This brought chills down Vela's spine. This wasn't just a scout army, it was a real forward unit compared to the mere scouts that attacked her village.
She wanted to run and warn everyone, but before she could even begin to move herself down the tree, a familiar sound brought more fear on her than the army did at that moment.
VST, VST VST VST.
From out of nowhere, a few orange bolts and a purple one flew out at the army. The purple one hit the Lasuk, while the rest hit the Kur'vaal. Both fell with a large thud to the dirt, steam rising only from the Kur'vaal. The army immediately reacted by shouting orders and separating into designated groups. A large amount surrounded the corpses while the rest defended the supplies. Those that were shouting the orders were immediately met by more orange bolts, this time coming from a different direction. Each bolt bore smoldering holes in their heads, causing them to drop silently among the troops they were surrounded by.
Chaos soon erupted as the troops pointed in the direction of the bolts, causing arrows and bolts to be shot into the forest, followed by balls of flame and small spears of ice. The forest was immediately set ablaze, yet the orange bolts from Nix's rifle kept coming. Now that the main commanders seemed to have perished, Nix instead fired upon anyone weilding a ranged weapon or holding a staff.
Vela could only watch as soldiers were brought down one by one with no chance to fight back. Bolt after bolt, body after body. This wasn't a fight, or even a war, this was a slaughter brought by one person.
"Demon..." Vela whispered as a sudden explosion sent various body parts and weapons flying from the center of the Main formation. The soldiers then abandoned the formation and tried running away from the shadows that held the slaughtered. They were quickly met by more bolts from their flank, and more explosions that cut off their route of escape.
"By the Gods..."