Nia and Swaine

The agile body of Nia had moved quickly as she avoided the stray arrows that had been aimed towards the group.

The large sword was raised in front of her as the flat side of it had been used as a shield to block the arrows that had been in the way of her.

She quickly got out of the way of the line of fire that had been aimed towards the group as she had split off from them all.

It had been discussed in advance that if they were in danger then the defence would be left to Mallory and anyone that would be able to go on the attack would be the ones to move on their own.

Mallory had been better at predicting where danger was when she used her compass and she could spot it much sooner than others so she could give instructions to others beforehand and make the needed preparations.

If she wanted to do so then she could have just led them down a less dangerous path and they would not have had to face such an ambush.

The moment that they had come under attack was when Nia had broke off from the group and Swaine had done the same.

The quick and agile movements of Nia had allowed her to step on the mountain terrain and climb up into a more advantageous position.

The status that she had allowed her to do so with the heavy and large sword that was being carried by her.

Her small figure quickly found some cover up in a more advantageous position then moved from one place of cover to the next.

The archer nearby had followed her movements and aimed towards her.

There was a lot of concentration that had been put into their shot which had flown over the moment she had stepped out.

The sword was raised in front of her and it blocked the arrows path so her advancement was not stopped.

The archer started to panic as Nia was approaching closer and reached out towards the quiver on their back to grab onto a new arrow.

Their gaze was locked onto her and their hand trembled a little during a moment of panic which caused the arrow to slip through their fingers. "Ah..damn.."

They reached towards it again but the distance had been closed by Nia who had the large sword trailing behind her as the tip of it was leaving a small trail of sparks behind it as it was being dragged along.

A victorious smile appeared on her face and the large sword was swung upward diagonally which cleaved through the body of the archer. "That is one-nya~."

Nia did not stop where she had stood but had kept moving towards the next place where she could gain a little protection.

Her experience had taught her not to celebrate a small victory and do remain out in the open when there were still potential enemies lying in wait for her to let her guard down or show weakness.

An arrow had flown past where she had been previously before piercing a little into the nearby terrain.

Most of the arrows had been aimed and fired towards the group that was with Mallory but there had still been some that had paid attention to Nia.

Nia focussed her senses further to pick up on the nearby presences and where there could others attacking before moving out from her safe position.

The large sword had been held to her side as she ran in a zig zag as she had been able to narrowly avoid the arrows that had flown directly towards her front.

The large sword had acted as a shield to block off any arrows that had come from the other side of the mountain pass.

She quickly closed the distance once again and passed by another archer after swinging out her large sword once again which claimed another life.

On the right side of the mountain pass was where she had moved from one location to the next and quickly dispatched each person she came across.

Up in a close range, they could not put up much of a resistance against Nia and her large sword.

Meanwhile in another location was where Swaine had run off to after retreating back down the path.

Upon reaching the end of the path where the entrance was, he had went down another path before climbing up higher and cutting across to go back to the left side of the mountain pass that he was previously on.

An archer was aiming towards the group that was protected by Mallory and was moving along the rocks to get a better aim towards the side of Mallory where her magic barrier was not protecting.

Swaine was busy climbing over to get to a more advantageous position when he had seen that archer so he quietly approached from behind while the archer had their attention elsewhere.

The sword was slowly and quietly removed from its sheath before the mouth of the archer was covered from behind and the body was pulled back from where they stood previously.

"Mph. Ugh.." The voice of the archer was very quiet and muffled as they let out a weak groan once the sword of Swaine had stabbed through their back.

The body was slowly lowered and Swaine looked towards the clothes of the archer that was dressed in rough clothing that was more suited to a mountain bandit.

He removed the shirt, hood, quiver and bow then put it on himself before moving deeper towards the enemy.