She avoided the attacks with ease, phasing away from the attacks by manipulating the shadows of the forgemasters carved on the floor by the bright sun. Her sword remained unused behind her. She was superfast, moving under the cover of one shadow after another, at an unbelievable speed, just as balls and other varieties of fire-shaped objects came at her. She didn't attempt to attack, she defended with such flair that rendered the enemy's attacks useless. She raised her palm in the air, and tapped some energy from the sun, a rich golden glow filling her palm. She directed the mass of solar energy at a large glass-like window from one of the surrounding houses. It refracted, temporarily blinding the four forgemasters with an extraordinarily bright solar flare. From that flare emerged two refracted images of her, which eventually became infused with life, and began fighting the men. Still manipulating the shadows of the busy forgemasters, she phased to his side.
"Get up, and follow me" she said authoritatively.
"And who are you" Xander asked, irritated by her tone.
"I don't know why I have this nagging feeling inside me to save you, but if you don't want to be saved, then it makes things all the better for me" she said crisply, a look of annoyance building on her face.
Xander struggled to his feet. "Okay, let's go" he replied, not wanting to argue. He had to be away from here, before more of the sect warriors came by. By now, one of the large men had been wise enough to direct his attacks at the window refracting the lady's clones. The glass shattered and so did her refracted clones. The men made a quick charge for her immediately, but she raised her hand quickly in the air, in a motion of lifting something heavy from the ground, and the shadows of the large men and those of the crowd rose up into life-sized figures against them. Xander was still staring with shock at the extent of her powers when she grabbed his hands, and began phasing both of them from the shadow of one building to another at great speed. Reaching the city's gate, she phased them both out of the city using the shadow of the massive steel bundle that was the gate. Then, using the tall thin length of the pine trees' shadows, she led him deeper into the forest.
At one point, she swung him forward, and pushed him onto a tree, her arm pressed hard on his chest to trap him to the tree. She was strong, but she paled in comparison to his own strength, the strength that came with the body he now possessed. He could have easily pushed her away, and countered her, but he remained in that position, giving her the idea she had him cornered. It could prove useful later.
"Who are you? Why are you dressed in General Luffin Tank's robes, and why do you have his face and body? He died centuries ago, you couldn't possibly be him." She said, nearly with a snarl.
"I am Xander Drayke, from Nevarra. I died, and suddenly, I woke up in a tomb, and in this General Luffin Tank's body and robe, just as you and those hulks say"
Her brows shot up in surprise, her eyes shifting, calculating and contemplating. "You mean you were reincarnated into Celestaris and in the royal body of General Luffin Tank's. You sure are one lucky man. Nobody has ever reincarnated into the royal body of General Luffin Tank before. Your energy nodes must be blocked or damaged after General Luffin Tank's last heroic act to defeat Lord Nicolas Buro, his arch-rival. That must be why you can't fight like General Luffin Tank now and have none of his powers."
Xander just listened to her, knowing nothing to say to her as a reply. She relaxed her grip on his chest and withdrew from him. Her eyes checked him out, curiously and speculatively. "If I hadn't seen you, I wouldn't have believed reincarnating as General Luffin Tank was possible. Anyway. Those guys from earlier are called Forgemasters, and they are one of the lowest ranks in the Celestial Forge sect. You wouldn't last a second against an Elder of Temperance, the next high rank, especially not in your current state. So I wouldn't advise you to return there or let them catch you out here. The Celestial Forge sect wouldn't kill you, they greatly revere General Luffin Tank, but they wouldn't let you leave their walls, and would train you into their weapon, with which to annihilate the other sects. Don't let the other sects catch you also. Most of them don't care for General Luffin Tank, especially the Void Phantom Sect. They will kill you immediately they realize you are General Luffin Tank's reincarnation. They revere his arch-rival, Lord Nicolas Buro. They would seek to obliterate any threat to Lord Nicolas Buro's legacy."
"So what should I do? Who do I align with here?", Xander inquired, desperately curious.
She stared at him, her expression skeptical. "Your only option is to be a wanderer like me, or you can search for your wives. General Luffin Tank was emotionally linked and fated to some extremely skilled female warriors who later became the progenitors of the different sects. They were always reborn in every generation in the hope that General Luffin Tank would eventually reincarnate. Although now, the idea is totally extinct. But they should have been reborn somehow and somewhere. You just have to find them."
"If what you are saying is right, then you are one of my brides. A voice in my head told me so, and led my eyes to find you in that large crowd", Xander told her.
She squeaked and moved away from him. Her eyes jumped in fright in her head. She looked extremely terrified, realization slowly sinking into her. "No!" She screamed. "I can never be a bride, especially not to a fake, reincarnated version of General Luffin Tank. It is impossible."
Xander was annoyed she regarded him as a fake reincarnated version of General Luffin Tank, but he overlooked it, understanding she was grieving her forced fate.
"I will never be a bride" she yelled vehemently. Then there was a twist of her hands, and before Xander had an idea what was happening, the shadows of the trees around had wrapped around his arms and legs, tying him to a spot. He tried to wriggle free, but it was impossible. The shadows were dangerously strong.
"Release me, lady" Xander snarled at her. He tried to get her with his head, but she evaded his desperate efforts.
"I am sorry" she said. "But I can't be anyone's bride". She snatched her sword from her back, readying the weapon in her hands.
"At least tell me your name first before you do whatever you want to do, so I can find you and have my revenge later" Xander snarled at her again, uncertain as to what she was planning to do.
"I am Isolde, though I doubt you will ever find me" she grinned sadly at him. She raised her sword high, then swung it low for his head at deadly speed.