"So, I'm facing eight all at once." Kleist says, his tone flat as he looks down at them from the top of the city wall.
"I haven't had this much fun since the golden age." Kleist flickers to Parr, and throws a punch that gets blocked by her sword.
"Ducians rely on their swords, but what if I pick up one of your swords? Although none of these on the ground are fit for me. I only need one hand to defeat you."
Kleist puts a hand behind his back, and strikes with his right hand striking at Parr's left. She blocks it with her sword as another onion strikes Kleist with their sword. He blocks with his arm, then Parr strikes at his waist.
Kleist flicks to the left and stomps on the ground, putting Parr and two others on top of a stone platform.
"If there are reinforcements here, you'd all be dead."
The Elven fighting style is semi-confrontational, and is more in positions than in hard hits. Kleist isolated Parr and 2 others from the initial group of Ieri and Meisa before turning around and running towards the group.
"Watch out!" Ieri shoots at the incoming Kleist, who flickers towards Meisa and kicks her sword.
Meisa is pushed back a few metres, and lands on her butt.
With a clap, Meisa felt something poke her butt making her flicker away.
"Getting sodomised by a rock is not in my list!"
"Is this the level of Ducian Elves?" Kleist once again slaps his palm, spikes emerging from the ground in a radius of a kilometre, the elf finally starts to sweat as he makes the spikes twice as large.
Meisa, Ieri and Alana's group were able to flick away, but the three lackeys with Meisa weren't so lucky, and the three of them were impaled on the spot.
Bright purple blood spews high towards the sky before trickling down akin to a shower towards the earth, soaking it with the familiar elven blood that's been nourishing the soil for 700 years.
Meisa takes a sharp breath as she stares at Kleist, who doesn't even have a single scratch on him.
They've lost 5 of their warriors for what?
"We need to retreat. He is too close to Goryo, and enemy reinforcements might come." Meisa gasps as she leans on the hilt of her sword.
"Bloody hell." Alana takes her subordinates and flees.
Ieri follows suit, grabbing Meisa by her collar and escaping towards Mikana Shrine.
This wasn't a fight, this was a massacre. One Kleist pushed them into the pit, and judging from his uniform, he even outlived the country he was born in.
…
Meisa and Ieri who were hiding in Mikana Shrine were woken up from their sleep when footsteps rang on the wooden flooring of the Shrine.
It's the Korcer Elves, and they number about seven, and including them, Meisa's merry band is numbering 9. The Goryo Elves are going to attack them here soon, and this Shrine is an immovable pill box, and will be swallowed up by the monsters they call elves soon.
The only hope for the Ducian forces now is to find an elven village they can exploit, but that is a fool's dream.
There are no elven villages that aren't armed to the teeth.
Maybe the only hope is for Meisa to travel to the North, where the climate is obviously colder. The Pomeroy Elves might still be around, hopefully.
It's the middle of the night, but Meisa and Ieri traveled to Elmer to see Commander Parr.
"Parr, we hope to travel North in search of allies." Ieri opens.
Alana just shrugs her shoulders. Who told Meisa to be part of a prominent family?
A ship was easily commissioned for them, and 4 overly eager humans volunteered to commandeer it.
As they board the ship the quartet chatter incessantly about rewards and experience, but Meisa readily ignores the murmurs of her food supply and sets sail.
…
"There's nothing here." Meisa walks around the… Metal ground, making clunking and crunching sounds as her soles crush the snow and ice as well as tapping into the metal underneath.
"Where's the Pomeroy Elves? Aren't they supposed to be here!?"
"I guess not. Last time Pomeroy was heard of in Ducia was during my Father's generation." Ieri throws rocks on an ice pond, watching it skip along the floating ice cubes.
"A century ago." Meisa groans in frustration.
"We spent a month here!" She stomps on the ground, making a loud clunk.
Meisa slumps to the ground.
"Hey, wanna make a kid?" Meisa turns around and looks at Ieri, making him shiver.
"Why are you looking at me like that??
Tsk, is it too hard to ask for kids these days? What century is it?"
"You still have Jowon. Let's get to shelter." Ieri sighs, grabbing Meisa by the collar.
The exploration to the North is uneventful, and the Pomeroy Elves were probably already buried in history. They did discover that one prominent clan in Pomeroy is the Student Clan. As to their whereabouts, it might be coincidental.
"Yamada Hieronymus, how does that sound?" Meisa opens her flaps as she's being dragged through the snow.
With a bang the pair arrive in a small log cabin next to the cold sea, and the 4 humans are there as well, with a seemingly never ending supply of food.
Unbeknownst to them, if it wasn't for that, they'd be the food.
"How deep are your pockets?" Meisa directly confronted one of the humans with them.
Like a snake her hands slithered around their waists, fondling their laps and searching their pockets.
"Cut it out Meisa, they don't speak our language."
…
"You beast! Animal!" Meisa retches as the ship rocks and scuttles.
Ieri looks away as Meisa supports her belly with one hand and leans on one of the beams with the other.
"You asked for it."
"You're taking care of this!"
"Sure." Ieri sighs, putting his arm over his eye as he rests on a violently swaying hammock.