As Maria and Elizabeth walked towards the rendezvous point, they continued their conversation. And the Hunter could easily admit that she had started to take a liking to the young Blood Mage, who she had entrusted with a throwing knife. Something that was rather useless on its own against the various Beasts, let alone Hunters, outside of gaining the attention of them and probably isolate them away from a group for a relatively quiet kill, but it was better than nothing.
Something that surprised the Hunter was the fact that Elizabeth was actually six and not four or five as Maria guessed at first. The young girl just happened to be rather short for her age and quite skinny. Her elaborate vocabulary came from her relatives talking to each other behind her back when they thought she couldn't hear them.
When the two finally reached the rendezvous point, they were greeted by several people in various attire. Some were clearly wearing uniforms while others were wearing more personal clothing. Something that they all had in common though were the weapons. All of them were armed with a Trick Weapon of some kind and a firearm. A sight that Elizabeth would shamelessly admit years later made her very nervous, uncomfortable and more than a little scared.
While the young Blood Mage didn't really pay attention to what the adults were doing, outside of yelling at each other after a few minutes before one of them made their way towards her. An old man, who in her opinion had the look of a very cranky old grandfather who was complaining about pretty much everything whenever he opened his mouth, armed with a scythe, which was ready to be swung to separate Elizabeth's head from her neck. And something was separated from Elizabeth. Fortunately, it wasn't her head from her neck. Unfortunately it was something else, her left arm had been severed at the elbow-joint, separating the lower half of her arm from the rest of her. The only reason that the blade of the scythe only caused dismemberment instead of decapitation was because she ducked at the last second. Saving her life at the cost of the lower half of her left arm.
With a, maybe not deafening but definitely very loud, scream of absolute agony while clutching her newly acquired stub of a left arm, a mysterious force exploded from the young Blood Mage, sending everything nearby flying away from, the only exception being Maria, who stumbled slightly towards the injured girl before running over as the Hunters trying to restrain her lost their grip on the woman as they lost their footing. When the female Hunter reached Elizabeth, managing to put a hand on the young Blood Mage's shoulder, everyone got to witness something that was very unlikely to ever be seen again in their lifetime, except for Elizabeth herself as her eyes were closed due to the pain.
A small hole in reality opened up in between the two Blood Mages, sucking them in and instantaneously transporting them to a different location. Which not only left the others in the dust but also baffled. The jaws of some of the younger Hunters even stopped working, leaving them slack-jawed.
The two Blood Mages appeared in what appeared to be a forest in the middle of nowhere, with Elizabeth having fallen unconscious from the pain. Maria was slightly surprised by the sudden change in environment and slightly annoyed by the fact that Elizabeth had fallen unconscious on top of the Hunter. That and the fact that the young Blood Mage was still bleeding on Maria's outfit, not that it was a real problem since getting splattered with blood was expected as a Hunter, but still slightly annoying.
After getting back on her feet, which took some extra effort due to the unconscious girl lying on top of the Hunter, Maria picked up the young Blood Mage and put Elizabeth in her arms, before starting to walk in a random direction. Maybe not the safest decision, but it was better to at least try and find some form of shelter than stay in the same spot in the middle of nowhere.