Chapter 3: Skirmish

Selene Mayfly looked up into the sky, shielding her eyes with her hand from the harsh rays of the sun as it beat down upon her body. She felt her body sweating profoundly, and her priestess uniform which wrapped around her body did not help matters. She sighed to herself and looked at the rest of her small troop.

They had found a nearby lake and decided to stop here for some rest. Most of them were resting under the nearby trees surrounding the forest they were in, enjoying the warm sun and the gentle breeze around the area. The acolytes were, as usual, talking excitedly to one another, as if this was some sort of picnic trip. Selene honestly couldn't blame them. Most of them were in their teens, and it was only natural for them to act slack, undisciplined and playful, as all teens should act, not to mention they were far from more severe, overbearing eyes of the elders of the church, and they knew Selene wouldn't really mind that much. Perhaps I'm being taken advantage off…she thought to herself, smiling

Selene was leading an excursion of young acolytes for them to gain some experience for their training. They had been traveling for some time now in the Canning forest, a large area of forest right north of Prontera. She had taken these kinds of trips multiple times with other acolytes as well. Today should be no different, just like every time.

It was now sometime in the afternoon, and they had walked by several villages before making a short stop here. Selene watched the small platoon of soldiers, who were dispatched to guard the young acolytes just in case anything happened, were filling up their canteens with the water from the lake, after half depleting them during the trip here. They also opened some of their food packs, and were sharing it among the acolytes.

She wondered how her friend Melanie would be faring as of now. If she wasn't mistaken, she should have a match between her division commander as of now in that fighting contest. Selene didn't find a fighting contest to be anything interesting, but her friend was serious about it, so she always kept her tongue and attended most of her matches. She felt guilty for not being able to attend, but she knew Melanie wouldn't be that fussy when she knew she had other things to take care of right now.

She looked at the small group of acolytes resting and playfully joking around. Another who was supposed to keep watch had actually joined her friends who had found a small, thorny lizard rather amusing. She did not mind having fun once in a while, but she needed to warn them that they were here for training, not some fun road trip.

" Agris, aren't you supposed to keep watch?" Selene exclaimed in a harsh yet mocking tone.

" But, 'Sister'…"

" Flattery will get you nowhere. Back to your post," Selene said, pointing her finger to where she was supposed to be. Pouting slightly, the young girl returned to her post to keep an eye on their surroundings. She hated to do this. It wasn't in her nature to boss young kids around in such a fashion, but then again, this was training for them, and despite the fact that made her sound like she was some kind of commander in the army, just like Melanie. The thought of her friend suddenly made her chuckle.

Selene was affectionately known as 'Sister' by whoever she deemed was close enough to her. Certainly, she was just a regular priest by profession, but her amicable and friendly nature made it possible for her to get along with almost everyone. Secondly, whoever who called her 'Sister' was always younger than her. At an age of 31, she was older than most people she knew.

" Come on, give them a break," a swordsman by the name of Cradial laughed.

" Look, this is a training mission. We are not here to have fun. And don't you there try to lecture me on loosening up cause I know how to," Selene replied sharply. Cradial and a few other swordsmen and mages, who where there mainly to protect the young acolytes just in case anything serious happened, started laughing at her. The lone archer who had tagged along was sitting on top of one of the branches of the trees, keeping quiet.

Selene was about to issue out orders to move out when all of them heard a loud scream coming from her right. Selene spun around to see Agris running back to them, her face weak and drained. There were three arrows sticking out of her chest, red spots starting to form on her uniform where she was hit.

" Agris, no!" Selene screamed.

Almost instantly, arrows started to rain in all directions. The swordsmen and mages got up instantly to engage with the threat, but since they were not heavily armoured and they only brought light weapons with them, there were no match for arrows. Selene clasped her hands together, saying a prayer. She set up a safety wall of Holy energy to shield everyone from the shots, but they were coming in all directions for her shield to be of any use.

A number of swordsmen and thieves popped up from all around the trees surrounding them and rushed for the group. Selene had heard that sinister groups actually kidnap acolytes and sell them off as slaves in the black markets of Morroc, but something else changed her mind about this group's action. Upon crossing two acolytes in their way, they pierced them instantly with their blades. They continued to move forward after they had soaked the forest floor with crimson blood.

They are not here for the acolytes, they are just here to kill us all, Selene thought.

" Everyone, get into defensive positions. Cradial, get your platoon and engage them to buy some time!" Selene ordered, another spell ready in her hands. Cradial nodded, and with a wave of his sword, charged forward with a small group of swordsmen and mages to fight off the on-coming swarm.

Selene looked around to see that she was seriously out-numbered. They were already outnumbered 3 to 1, and there was a second group of attackers coming from the rear. The acolytes were not battle worthy, and leaving them around will be suicide. Saving the acolytes would have to be top priority. The only ones among them who was capable of fighting was Alreen and Caris, who were part of the army. Both of them had already engaged the enemy, circling around their more defenseless peers, their clubs and morning stars out respectively.

" Meillienne," Selene said, finding one of her acolyte students. The young girl looked up to her mentor, frightened but not really showing it. Her time in Morroc had probably hardened her resolve and nerves, and she was quite calm despite the carnage that was going on all around her

" Open up warp portals," Selene ordered.

" What?"

" Meillienne, you are the only acolyte here who can open up warp portals among the rest of them, and only you can open enough to get them all out of here," Selene said. An arrow whizzed past her head, nearly hitting her. " I know this is scary, but you have to help me here."

Before Meillienne could even agree with her, Selene left her and headed towards the attackers, not even bothering to cast a support or defensive spell for some protection. A thief moved forward to engage her. To his utmost surprise, she grabbed his blade by the hilt perfectly with her bare hands, halting it from reaching her chest.

With a surge of anger, she channeled an amount of Holy power to her hand and slammed it upon her enemy's chest. The force exploded, blowing the man away. He flew backwards and landed upon the ground, dead.

The attackers were rather surprise to see this aggressive priest, and Selene would have agreed to that. Most priests would usually hold back and only support their comrades in battle, but not Selene. She was more attracted to smashing into enemy formations headfirst, regardless of the situation. Besides, in such a precarious situation with acolytes to protect, there was no time to hold back.

A swordsman came at her, swinging his sword that was slightly too heavy for him clumsily towards her direction. She did a sidestep, then cuffed him hard on the back. A thief tried to catch her from behind when she was occupied, but she beat him to the draw as she fired a burst of Holy Light in his direction.

Their enemies seem to pop up like mushrooms from all over the place. Cradial and his platoon were being overwhelmed, and unfortunately Selene was unable to find him in the heat of the fight.

Meillienne was doing her best to open up as many warp portals as she could muster. A spot of bright light started flaring up from the ground, lighting up a pillar of bright, white light. Along with another acolyte, she tried to get the rest of her friends into the warp portal, as they were too stunned by the attack to react. A few of them tried to hold their ground against their enemies, but they were quickly cut down where they stood with no suitable weapons or fighting techniques.

" Come on, you bastards," Selene screamed, lunging forwards to attack, knocking a thief aside from slashing a young female acolyte.

" That's very unsightly for a priestess, I must say," a cold, menacing voice said.

Selene spun around to see who had spoken to her. The man who walked up to her was a wizard, and a commanding one at that. He stood almost a foot above her, his dark brown eyes looked like it was sunken into their sockets. There was this unkempt look about him, like he had not taken a shower in months.

" Treiken Varosious," Selene gasped.

Treiken Varosious was a well known criminal, especially among the wizardry community. He was exiled after trying to lead a coup to assassinate the Elders of Geffen and take over the city by force. He is a wanted criminal and was said to be hiding in Morroc. Selene felt her mind go blank as she saw him. What is in the world is he doing here, leading a band of cut-throats to slaughter a number of acolytes?

Selene did not get to think about it long. Treiken raised his arms in an attacking stance, his palms cracking with lightning energy. Before she could react, she felt bolt after bolt of lighting hit her. There was the sudden rush of pain that shot through her body, followed quickly by a numbing sensation. She was unable to defend herself in time against his attack and felt the full blow of it hit her painfully.

A swordsman had moved in and slammed his short sword upon her shoulder, piercing her flesh. Screaming in pain, she slammed her fist hard in his face causing him to reel backwards with his weapon. She placed her hand on her wound, healing her injury before she lost too much blood. The wound closed up as she flowed her magic through her, but her vision was getting hazy nonetheless. Holy powers were able to heal wounds, but to recover from blood loss must be by recouperating for some time. Unable to fight, she staggered backwards towards what was left of the group.

The attackers had ceased their attacks now, surrounding what was left of the group in a circle. Selene looked around to calculate the damage that they had inflicted. Cradial and his entire platoon had been cut down, lying dead on the ground. Meillienne had managed to get about 8 of the acolytes to safety by teleporting them away. The other 6 lay dead in the sand. The only ones still alive from the group was her, Meillienne and another acolyte by the name of Caris Fang.

Treiken walked up in front of Selene and gave her a satisfied, wicked smile, probably contemplating his kill. Selene was too beat up to even bother fighting back. She still felt that she had some energy left in her, but she would be unable to concentrate well enough to cast a spell correctly in her weakened state.

Before Treiken could say anything, Selene felt one of her acolytes walk up behind her boldly. " Are you going to kill us now?" Meillienne asked bravely.

Treiken turned his head and looked at her amusingly. " What for, my dear, when you are what we are trying to obtain," he replied. Selene could feel her student go rigid in fear after hearing his reply. She had heard enough. She decided if they were here just to 'collect' Meillienne, they would not obtain her.

However, before she could react, an arrow whizzed past her head all of a sudden, and it struck one of the thieves squarely in the head. All of them watched in slight surprise as the man fell over, dead with an arrow sticking out of his forehead. Another arrow whizzed past her, but this time Treiken fired a lightning bolt to intercept it mid-way, blasting the silver-tipped arrow to bits with his blast.

The acolytes started to scream all of a sudden, and Selene spun around, only to see a very large Iris slithering right up behind her. The large Isis barged through the crowd, tossing a helpless guy away using both her hands, sending him crashing into a tree. The large monster slid up towards the two acolytes, but apparently decided to ignore them and headed up to Selene. With one swift movement, she had Selene up in her hands and slung over her massive shoulders.

" Right, we need to …YEOW!" the Isis yelled all of a sudden.

Caris had suddenly swung her mace upon the creature, slamming it on her tail painfully, the heavy end pounding hard upon her body upon seeing the creature picking up her teacher. She swung her mace once more, but the Isis was too quick for her, and grabbed her hand and lifted her off the ground. Caris expected the creature to kill her there and then. After all, an Iris had enormous strength, and standing, if it could be called standing since Irises don't have any feet, almost 8 feet tall, the creature was more of a giant to her.

However, that wasn't apparently the case.

" Hey, girl, if you didn't realise by now, I'm she good guy…or girl for that matter, but let's not discuss my sexuality right here when we have dangerous people around," the Isis spoke to them, with a weird hissing noise in almost every word. Caris and Meillienne watched the creature in amazement wondering what was up.

The Isis then slithered away, carrying Caris and Selene along. The men started to give chase, but where stalled when several more arrows flew in their direction, hitting their targets painfully. The Isis crashed through several bushes, making for the thicker parts of the surrounding forest, moving with great agility as she slithered across the grassy floor, with Meillienne keeping as close as she possibly could to their very unlikely savior.

There was a shrill howl that could only come from an animal, and several more noises behind them, but they didn't bother about it. The Isis continued to slither along, still carrying Caris by her hand, hanging her in a funny way.

" Who are you?" Selene asked weakly.

" Iris…" the Iris replied.

" That wasn't what I meant," Selene answered.

" Geez, that was what I meant…Iris is my name…" the Iris replied.

" Iris?"

" Yes…very apt, no?"

" Why are you helping us? Who is your master?" Selene asked.

" Hush, priestess, we are not out of danger…my master is helping you for her sake as well," Iris replied. " We share same goal…". Selene wasn't too sure what to say about that, and kept quiet.

Iris moved along and reach a nearby clearing. She then slowed to a halt and slowly dropped the two of them on the ground. Meillienne ran up to check on Selene, who was severely injured. Iris looked right and left, sticking out her forked tongue once in a while, tasting the air.

" This is bad…my master is in trouble. I need to helps her," Iris groaned, then her eyes widened all of a sudden. " Quick, they are here! Get out! Warp now!"

Before they could do anything, something flew over them and landed nearby. Iris gave a shrill scream as a large net landed right over her, tied to weights by the side. Iris tried to push the net off her, but the weights were surprisingly heavy, and she was betting tangled up in the process of struggling.

The rest of them had reached them already, with Treiken in the lead, charging forward. Iris reached out, toppling one person with her clawed arm. Another came up and attempted to subdue her, but she lashed out viciously and bit the swordswoman on the head, sinking her fangs into her skull. It did not matter whether her fangs were poisonous or not. Puncturing the brain would have killed her anyway.

Treiken leaped into the fray, jumping over Iris as she attempted to catch him as he leaped over her. Bravely, Caris stood up, backing Meillienne up towards her wounded teacher and brandishing her mace in her hands. She swung it violently towards the head of one of the approaching swordsmen, missing as he ducked, but spinning the weapon around once more she didn't miss as her attack sped up, aided with her holy spell, smashing upon the man's skull.

However, an assassin flanked her at once, and she wasn't quick enough to react against him as he sunk his katar into her side. She have a sharp cry of pain as she felt her breath being caught in her lungs, before collapsing to the floor, delirious with pain and the loss of blood. Selene struggled to get up, not wanting to watch another acolyte die in such a fashion. The assassin raised his katar over Caris's body, ready for the final blow, but Treiken came over and stopped him, grabbing his arm.

" Don't…we might need a spare…" he said. The assassin reluctantly dropped his katars. Selene could not imagine what was up. First off they decided to kill off whatever acolytes they decided to lay their hands on, now they needed a 'spare'? She didn't have much time to spare to think about it when Treiken stepped forward, charging another bolt of fire into his hands.

Doing her best, she charged a surge of energy through to her hands. Treiken expected an attack and stepped back reflexively with his hands raised for a defensive spell, but he was wrong. Surprising even herself, Selene used the last of her strength to open up another warp portal, weak enough to teleport only one person.

" Meillienne, get in now!" Selene yelled. Meillienne hesitated, wondering if it was right to leave her companion and teacher with this band of cut-throats. Selene wanted to yell again, seeing Meillienne rooted to the spot to prompt her to move, but she had already hesitated a moment too long.

With a swift leap forward, Treiken planted his boot right on her chest and kicked her backwards. To her horror, she felt herself being engulfed in a pillar of light. Treiken had pushed Selene inside her warp portal to avoid the acolyte to escape. The warp portal was activated when she entered, and she felt the familiar floating sensation that she felt when she was teleported to another area.

She was just in time to catch a glimpse of Meillienne, who looked at her teacher worriedly, then smiled at her after a while.

Why is she smiling? Selene thought. She was not able to contemplate on the thought as she felt herself passing out.

-

Treiken merely looked casually at Meillienne, who had now ran up towards the injured Caris and knelt beside her, healing her injury immediately. When she was done, she grabbed her and hugged her close, as if her arms alone could protect them from the surrounding mob. She gave then as hard of a stare as she could possibly muster, although honestly, she just wasn't scary enough. Most of the men chuckled when they started to surround her.

" Come now, Meillienne, that expression doesn't suit you at all," Treiken replied, smirking. Meillienne didn't know what to say, especially after he addressed her by name. It puzzled her that he knew her name. Her eyes suddenly widened when she saw the men started to close around her, and she clutched a semi-conscious Caris much more tightly.

" What do you want with us?!" Meillienne demanded, trying to sound as loud and brave as possible.

" Relax, we aren't here to kill you," Treiken assured her.

" But you still would kill my friend," Meillienne said.

" Come now, you aren't in the position to discuss matters with us. Come quietly, and we will assure you that we won't harm you in any way," Treiken assured her. Meillienne wondered if they somehow wanted to sell them off as slaves in Morroc like all the stories she had heard from her brother, but they seemed to violent to be the type to sell her off.

" What about my friend here?" she asked.

" Just follow us," Treiken said more dangerously now.

" No!" she replied commandingly. " You stay back! I'm not going to follow you unless you promise me that you will not harm my friend!" Treiken didn't seem to bother, and with a wave of his hand, ordered the rest of them to get her.

" You want me alive, right?! Take one more step and I'll kill myself by biting my own tongue!" Meillienne exclaimed loudly. They didn't seem to listen to her, until she bit down hard on her lips, allowing blood to trickle down her chin. Only then did they stop.

" Alright, alright…don't do anything foolish…" Treiken replied, calming down, although obviously irritated.

" Here is what I propose: You want us both, right? Fine, we will follow you then. I'll take my friend along by myself, and none of you come more than 5 feet between us, and I'll just follow you wherever you want me to go. How's that?" Meillienne asked.

" …I see no problem with that…" Treiken said, nodding. He gave another wave, and the rest of them backed off.

" Sir, what do we do about this creature?" a hunter asked, pointing to Iris who was still stuck in the net.

" Leave her," Meillienne demanded.

" It's you who need to get out!" Iris replied, her jaw still surrounding the dead swordswoman she had bitten.

" Leave her here. Let's get out before that crazy hunter returns with her motley crew again," Treiken replied. He snapped his fingers, and a priest emerged from the crowd, opening up a warp portal. He then bowed in a mocking fashion towards Meillienne, and said " After you, then."