Chapter 25: Past memories (6) - Respite

She still hadn't relaxed after the engagement was over. Until her friends rushed toward her and found her, Lireesa quickly sat on the spot to recover her energy especially her mana essentials for many high-level ranger skills. As a top powerhouse among her group, she must be ready to lead the battles anytime. Sena and Ella were speechless when they reached Lireesa, who immediately sat down, not bothering to speak with them. They could understand the toll taken mentally and physical when one fought against the group single-handedly. They didn't complain and continue to guard her friend until she had regained her power. There was no immediate threat around for the time being. It's best option to relax.

Glancing at the way the three assassins died, their mouths twitched. Both looked into each other eyes, communicating silently. As being friends with each other for a long time, they had already developed the ability to send messages across eye contact. The two really sympathized with the way of death experienced by these trolls. Not one of them was given a decent death. In a small amount of time, their friend could simply kill three of them, which was really unfathomable for them. They were also feeling anxious, their friends would leave them behind in terms of level and couldn't help Lireesa anymore.

They discovered one of them had arrows embedded on his body. It was terrible to have a sight of kneeling figure with so many wounds. They wanted to complain whether Lireesa did everything on purpose, torturing this guy before finishing him completely. They knew the arrows inside the eye was what killed him. Another was lying on the ground, his chest completely a cavity. The last one which they couldn't discover, was believed by them to have escaped. That was most logical choice, because it was crazy for him to face Lireesa by himself alone. One moment later, they smelled barbecue and instantly felt hungry. All these continuous battles prompted them for more energy and their hunger thirst more.

When they tried to find where the barbecue was which miraculously appeared within this area, they discovered pieces of burnt meat scattered away from the two corpses. The two investigated and felt their stomach churning. They turned away from the scenes vomiting what's remaining in their stomach. Sena really vomited out foods she had taken in, while Ella merely retched. They never expected the one who was thought by them to have escaped had turn into piles of pieces, even some white chilly bone fragments were displayed. It was horrific sight even to those who had experienced war. They knew what killed the poor soul was the direct explosion of arcane burst shot effect.

Meanwhile, Lireesa recovered some of her energy through meditation and had unambiguous sight of her embarrassed friends. She looked toward the place and immediately understood the reasons. She didn't taunt or joked about it, because war was cruel and although uncomfortable one must adapt quickly. She also wasn't comfortable exploding her enemy. But she had to do it in order to rapidly end the battle.

"Are you guys okay," Lireesa consoled her friends by patting their back. It soothed some congestion they felt when they vomited. "It's okay. You're all leaders, get used to it."

Sena and Ella glared at Lireesa in anger, who spread her hands to show her helplessness. Indeed, it wasn't Lireesa's fault, but they just wanted to blame it on her. Such embarrassment was shown, Lireesa must compensate. So, Lireesa could only apologize her friends and only then did they show satisfaction. Their face brightened as if the other sides of embarrassment weren't even them. The three returned back to their rally points. While their officers were away, most of the elven rangers cleaned up the battlefields, collecting used arrows which were still effective and used the enemies' axes to chop up woods from the trees. They sharpened the woods to be usable as arrows, although the qualities were far from manufactured in Que'Thalas.

Elves love nature and they were against damages toward the forest. But the situation demanded them to act otherwise. Besides cutting of branches didn't kill the trees. They could grow back to their peak given the amount of time. This was the scene shown to them, when they arrived. Lireesa was satisfied with her subordinates taking initiative. Ella and Sena also were relieved to leave their subordinates on their own.

"Perhaps, this war has made us grown," Sena voiced in her words. "These girls will become the backbone of our Windrunner family and Quel'Thalas."

Lireesa nodded her head. She could even sense some of their auras were fluctuating, showing signs of breakthrough. Perhaps as soon as they trained after this war ended, they'd probably become high-level rangers. Lireesa even felt her entry to the quasi-legend rank would be smooth, when she had breakthrough when she had sufficient time. In this small-scale battle, she had already fought against various high-level including peaks. Now that she reviewed back her actions, luck despite only for a small portion had greatly tilted the direction of the battles.

Especially, Ella, was the one who noticed the most. Because her group was mainly chased by these high-level peak assassins. If not for their underestimation and their playful mindset, Ella wasn't sure if she would live through this day. Lireesa also felt fortunate, her Ella's luck was very cooperative. Without Lireesa's and Sena's early arrival, Ella's group would probably be ruined by hordes of trolls even if high-level didn't participate. About Sena, her two friends just complained. She didn't even face challenges except for some harassment caused by the trolls. But complaint was just complaint, Sena's group contributed a lot for the whole army survival.

Lireesa currently had some worries for her two fellow officers. Even if they were not familiar enough, they were also part of Windrunner's family. They were actually officers serving in the Quel'Thalas legion before. But their requirements including salaries and family treatment wasn't enough when they stayed in the Quel'Thalas ranger legions. Therefore, they decided to join a noble family, although freedom was limited, treatment would definitely be slightly better. Otherwise, people would never flock to serve the nobles. Luckily for the rangers especially women, Windrunner family's banner was every female ranger aspiration. They regarded part of Windrunner's as honor and recognition of their strength.

"About the two other officers," Lireesa hesitated her speech and her two friends understood. After all, even Ella nearly entered the underworld. "I hope they were fine. It's better for them to arrive here before dark. Otherwise, we had to leave them."

Even if all their groups rallied together, the number was around 100 rangers. These were all parts of Windrunners'. She was tasked by her mother to scout the area ahead and something definitely went wrong with frontline. So, she was the commander of the scout element, capable and trusted by her mother, to take on this dangerous task. Based on the previous battle, despite some injured rangers, she led well.

"They'll surely arrive on time. They know what it's at stake here." Ella comforted their worries. Any officers were intelligent enough to guess what the higher command wanted to do and what occurred in the back line. If one lacked this kind of ability, during the war, he or she was likely to perish. All of them knew, they were suddenly surrounded by the trolls in all direction that they had to escape; something must have occurred. They lost contact with the messengers and now had to assume the worst-case scenario to prepare themselves. They hadn't delved their thoughts to their subordinates because they didn't want confusion plus every ranger here could be regarded as elite now, who probably comprehend the whole general situation without even being told.

They all signed together to release their bad breath and felt better. Although the situation seemed pessimistic, they weren't incapable of resisting this situation. Now all they could do was to make more arrows and find some herbs to treat the wounded. It's best for them to finish these by today, because they would never have such time again. Luckily, their elven bows were very strong including the bowstrings. There was no need to find for replacement.

The whole camp appeared in orders, each functioning their own, without a single prompt from their leaders. Those who needed rest were resting; those wanting to guard acted as watchers; those feeling very free and needed to take responsibilities looked for required materials. Lireesa sat together with Sena and Ella, side by side and rested for a while given every opportunity. The scenery here was very magnificent and wonders of nature incomprehensible to mortals pacified every ranger war stress and found enjoyment during times of chaos.

Nonetheless, although they were eligible to take a respite, they felt very uncomfortable while watching others doing their own specific chores and they were just doing nothing. They rose up from the ground and together tried to find errands. Everyone was busy and hope for the best tomorrow.