In the safe zone Huskar wasted no time and headed directly out again. Maybe they were still in front of the enemy base and if so they would need his help. But just as he left the town the Phantom Assassin appeared on the road. She jumped in front of him and standing really close now, she did something completely confusing. She dropped her blade, clearly not caring what happened to the weapon as it fell to the ground, and then she hugged him. Hard.
Huskar was totally perplexed and it took him a few seconds to realize what she was doing and to react to it. Her body was pressed against his and he could feel every inch of her. She had slung her arms around his neck, which wasn't easy because of his shoulder armour and his helmet, and she had leaned her forehead against the leather on his shoulders. Huskar took a deep breath, the smell of leather and woman wafting around him, and that made him relax finally. He abandoned his battle stance, which made him taller and Mortred had to shift a little, but she still didn't release him. So Huskar dropped his spear as well and slung his now free arm around her hip, pressing her even closer.
It was awkward and rather uncomfortable, since her armour was as much in the way as his, especially her wide shoulder pauldron, but she seemed to need the hug and who was Huskar to deny her something like that? It wasn't as if he didn't enjoy the feel of her muscled body against his skin, the clothes on her body not hiding her form in the least.
She stepped away from him rather suddenly and a tiny blush was darkening her cheeks. "Sorry. That… that won't happen again. I kind of overreacted after seeing you die in the fight." She looked at his feet instead of his eyes and then hastily grabbed her weapon from the ground. When she wanted to run past him, Huskar grabbed her arm, reacting on pure instinct now. No way would he let her go like that. As if hugging someone was something to be sorry about.
"Wait." She still didn't look at him and he said the first things that sprang into his head. "I really hope you will do that again. It was rather nice to feel your beautiful breast against my chest. I wouldn't complain in the least to feel them again." The blush on her cheeks darkened but she didn't try to run any further and Huskar grinned. "Maybe next time you could take your helmet off and your shoulder armour, that would make it even more pleasurable. Of course I would take my helmet off as well." He leaned closer to her, tuning his voice down to a whisper. "I would love to bury my nose in your neck, to feel your skin against my mouth and your hair slide against my face. You could touch me, because, damn, I would like to feel those elegant hands of yours on every inch of my body."
Huskar wasn't sure if he was on the right track, if she would appreciate him talking to her like that. And before this absolutely uncharacteristic hug of hers he would've never dared to suggest such a thing to the most powerful and deadly of assassins. But something had shifted and he had the need to talk to her like that. To let her know how he felt. Maybe she would skin him later but maybe she wouldn't. And that second maybe seemed the more likely one, now.
Especially when she looked at him from under her lashes, the tiniest of smiles playing around her mouth. And just before she jumped at a wave of soldiers that had started their way out of town, leaving Huskar standing alone in the middle of the road, she answered with a whispered: "Next time."
He shuddered, because that had definitely sounded like a promise. He wanted to follow her, but when he looked in the direction of the enemy town he saw the Lord of Avernus, the Pugna and the Shadow Fiend coming his way. And it looked as if they were being chased.
That wasn't good. He couldn't see Mortred anymore but if all five enemy heroes were behind them, they needed her help. "Phantom Assassin!" He just hoped she would hear his call. Then he took his spear from the ground and positioned himself a little to the side in the shadows of some trees. And waited. Since he couldn't see the enemy heroes they wouldn't have seen him hide and he could surprise them. Then they appeared in his field of vision, the gargoyle and the golem first, right behind them the man on the flying device and the rhino. The nature man wasn't around, yet. Since he could teleport, his arrival was to be expected sooner rather than later.
The Shadow Fiend activated his invisibility and turned into the woods, away from the road. He wasn't injured that bad and he would surely not go far to be of use in case of a fight. The Lord of Avernus was nearer to the enemies, he probably wanted to bear the brunt of their attack, since he could take it in contrast to the Pugna. But even he wasn't invincible and he wouldn't survive against the four, or maybe five, of them.
Huskar took a tiny step back, to stay in the shadows and it was a good idea, since the rhino now jumped and landed between the Pugna and the Lord of Avernus, nearly in front of Huskar. They must have planned their attack strategy because the golem had already taken the gargoyle and thrown him at the skeleton. With that they had successfully stopped their escape.
The man on the flying device was now near enough to launch his stunning missile and the rhino cast the stun from his on the Lord of Avernus. It only hit the Lord because the Pugna was too far away, as was Huskar.
The Shadow Fiend appeared behind Huskar. "Phantom Assassin is making herself ready to jump. See? We go in."
Huskar saw the blurred form of Mortred appear on the entrance to the town. The Fiend was right, she would go in. So would he. Totally ignoring the gargoyle and the rhino, Huskar looked for the man on the flying device. He would definitely be his target again.
Before he jumped he looked back at the Phantom Assassin. She was still standing at the same spot and stared at him. The self-confidence and the self-assuredness she normally emitted up to the point where it appeared like arrogance had totally vanished. If he didn't know better, Huskar would say she was afraid. Whatever the reason for her hesitation was, it was the wrong time for it. The invisibility of the Shadow Fiend wouldn't last much longer and the Lord of Avernus was currently facing all five enemy heroes alone. But he couldn't do much about if from where he was standing. So he just smiled and tried to put his confidence and assuredness into that smile, kind of like sharing it with her. She seemed to relax a little bit under his smile and Huskar grinned. Maybe the Phantom Assassin never ever was afraid for herself but it just looked as if she could be afraid for others. In this case, for him. Damn, but it felt good to matter to her.
And, with that grin still on his face, he leaped at the flying man without further hesitation. He had to look like a maniac, grinning like that and flying through the air and the man clearly was surprised by his appearance. He needed a second to switch his focus, away from the Lord of Avernus and onto Huskar, who was now the more imminent threat to his life. Behind him he could hear the sounds of fighting without being able to perceive who was going to prevail.
He used his healing ability on himself and when the man on the flying device began to retreat he didn't follow but turned around, scanning the battle. The Lord of Avernus wasn't there but the Phantom Assassin was right in the middle. She was heavily injured but her magic immunity was still surrounding her. All four enemy heroes were around her and even without their magic they were able to do lots of damage. Without hesitation Huskar joined the fight, first using his burning spear to do more damage, condoning the loss of health it meant for him.
The burning spears hit the rhino, the gargoyle and the golem, making them burn for a while. The nature man was too far behind the Assassin for him to attack and the Shadow Fiend was going for him anyway. Then Huskar focused on one enemy hero, deciding to go for the rhino because he did too much damage for his liking. The beast ignored him completely. It seemed like they were desperately trying to kill the Phantom Assassin and if they couldn't kill them quickly they would definitely succeed.
Huskar growled low in his throat. Mortred's eyes flickered in his direction. And just as the magic immunity faded, she jumped, landing in front of him. Stepping next to him she hurled a dagger at the rhino to slow his approach, since the enemy heroes had reacted damn quickly to the re-positioning of the Phantom Assassin. But it gave them more time, and they used it. The Shadow Fiend did a lot of damage and the Pugna, though injured, came closer to the fight again. Only the Lord of Avernus was missing, but since the man on the flying device had retreated as well, the odds were even.
Three of the four enemy heroes went for the Phantom Assassin again, only the forest mage switched his focus, since he was farthest away from the woman and seemed not to be willing to risk following her with the Shadow Fiend at his back. Healing the Phantom Assassin, Huskar didn't have time to keep an eye on the Fiend. He kept attacking the rhino instead, in between his normal attacks throwing a few burning spears. The beast was almost down but he kept going for the Assassin, clearly wanting to take her with him. One of his waves hit her, though it only did minor damage to Huskar, due to his heightened magic resistance.
The three enemy heroes surrounded them but the Shadow Fiend and the Pugna joined the fight around them, too. Either they had killed the mage or he had been able to escape. It didn't look that good though, because now the avalanche from the golem hit Huskar and the Phantom Assassin, stunning them and nearly killing the woman. Huskar's healing hadn't been able to give her that much health back and now she couldn't even use the life steal from one of her items because she was unable to attack.
Nothing to do about that now, Huskar thought. And even if it was damn hard to stand by, unable to save her, the only thing he could do was keeping attacking the rhino and hoping by some miracle that she would survive.
Huskar's heart pounded heavy in his chest and his blood rushed through his body. He felt the desperate need to help Mortred, even preferring to give his life to save hers. He was afraid to look in her direction in fear of seeing her dead body lying on the ground. And though he could fight from a greater distance by throwing his spear, he stepped in front of the enemy heroes, between them and the Assassin, trying to serve as some kind of shield for her.
The rhino snorted and lowered his head, his enormous horn pointing directly at Huskar now. Then he ran forward, pushing Huskar with him, past the Phantom Assassin, who was still alive, barely, but could move again. In the following seconds she was just plain lucky: she threw her dagger at the rhino again, dealing massive damage with a lucky critical hit. Then she jumped at the beast and with one last strike with her blade she hit his major artery, killing him in a splash of blood.
Her face didn't show the least bit of emotion over such a bloody and definitely lucky kill or over the fact she now had gained some health back with her life steal. She just turned around and looked at the two remaining heroes, the gargoyle and the golem. They were both injured and were now facing the four of them alone which seemed not to be something they wanted. They turned to the woods and vanished between the trees in a second. Since they were all wounded they decided not to chase them, especially since the man on the flying device and, as the Pugna said, the mage as well, could still be around.
On their way to the safe zone the Lord of Avernus appeared. He had been able to get away and had been regenerating. He joined the Pugna and, talking with the skeleton, headed back into the safe zone with them.