Chapter 52: Alleria in danger

Clang! Whish!

Alleria used bows and arrows in close combat honing the skills her mother taught her. Her opponent parried her arrows and got close. He whirled his ax to give a horizontal blow. Alleria bent her waist while her feet slid across the ground. After the ax passed right above her nose, she rotated her body, using her hands and her heels to heave upward, and kicked hard at the troll. The force generated by her movement wasn't small from her gyration to full use of her entire body. Her kick landed on the troll's shoulder. She threw her opponent a couple of feet. But the troll's level was higher than hers and not something easy to overcome by mere technique. Alleria was also pushed back and had to roll over from the reaction force.

The distance created was just enough for Alleria to release arrow and she did. As true to her guess, the troll looked unflappable. He even raised an eyebrow and condescended Alleria's move. Alleria's ear twitched from anger, but she never let her sanity go astray. Before, she thought the troll was at the same level as her, and her hands itched from fighting will to test her strength in real combat. Yet from the previous exchange, she found out her opponent was stronger than her.

At the same time, her opponent was also serious about Alleria. He believed his sturdier body could defeat her quickly and she had proven him wrong, although her arrows were just like a joke to him. She was swifter than him. Even if he jumped and slashed at her continuously, all of which were dodged by Alleria by a hair length. It was very close, he only needed to be faster. So, his movement went more nimble and agile. Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed trolls vanished and filled by Windrunners who were releasing arrows in the distance. None of them even disturbed his duel. He was now alone but had no time to delve into his thought. He ignored them and continued his battle.

Alleria wasn't feeling well at the moment. She had no time to counter-attack, but to dodge. She couldn't block his crazy slashes, not to mention the force between the two wasn't equal. As mid-level being able to hold down the high-level opponent for so long was impressive enough and something to be bragged about. Alleria wasn't satisfied with the status quo as she was being suppressed throughout the exchanges. Despite blocking impossible, she still used her bow to redirect the force sometimes. She couldn't use arrows to avoid fratricide. Maybe because the troll became impatient, when Alleria evaded his attack, his body pressed forward charging at her and throwing her off-guard. She flew away and got up quickly, holding her stomach. It hurt so much. She even wanted to retch. She fetched double daggers behind her and held them in icepick grips.

She saw the troll pause a moment and twirl his ax, bringing it down. He marched toward her, his steps slow at his prey. Even if the only troll left was him, he had to kill her. Alleria knew she couldn't confront her dagger against the ax and must outsmart her foe. Her mother had told her for any creature, joints were the weakest parts. Her daggers were the most suitable for this job. She intended to cut through and leaped forward. One dagger parried the ax strike and slid over hitting the hands. The other slashed at the troll's waist and sliced through the meat even if he tried to shun away. Her left hand almost numbed from the ax, although she didn't directly block head-on.

Troll went back and looked at his belly, which was sprinkled with his blood and turned ugly. He nonchalantly patted away and gazed at Alleria. He underestimated her and initially thought mid-level wasn't proficient in close weapons fights like other elves he had fought in the past. This woman in front seemed to have learned close combat specifically. He never dared to imagine what other high-level women around him were like based on his analysis of Alleria. He didn't care she hurt him. Trolls never were fazed by their wounds because their regeneration always healed them back to the original. What made him daze was the difficulty of whether he could bring this woman down before he himself went down.

Sena was on the rock overwatching everything that was happening around her and also paid close attention to Alleria who was fighting leapfrogged. She watched her every move and close calls, while her weapon was always ready to kill the troll once Alleria was in danger. She didn't want to stop Alleria and Alleria wouldn't agree, affecting her future. Her confidence might wane as a consequence. She discovered Alleria getting more efficient, braver, and aware of what real combat was. This wasn't something she could obtain from sparring and training, even if Lireesa personally taught her. Some moments only the individuals themselves could conquer and no one else could provide help.

Sena once drew the bowstring when Alleria struggled to misstep by a tiny length. Seeing Alleria now able to fight off opponents stronger than her in a real battle ceased to bring amazement, Sena wondered whether every Windrunner surname was freak beyond mortal's understanding. She had observed them during their training and concluded as compared to their mother, they all had better talents to become ranger-general. Now it appeared she didn't overestimate them; she had really underestimated them in previous times. Looked at Alleria, who became bolder and more ruthless, from wish-wash blows to accurate ones. No waste of energy. This girl possessed the talent and was born a warrior.

Sena knew the troll's attitude had changed from confidence to dubiousness, all of which could be seen from his moves by the bystanders. He became doubtful of his ability. What made Sena worried was the abruptness of going berserk from losing every bit of hope. She had no desire to cause a tiny mistake. She saw Alleria go very close even to the point the two bodies were touching and the daggers displayed their magnificence. The ax was useless and the troll understood, attempting to create some space. Alleria was nimble, moving around and slashing whatever skins were close to. Although the troll's physique was invincible, the pain still traumatized him and his movement slackened.

"Captain, do you not want to help her?" asked one of the rangers, who was at the back of Sena.

Sena didn't give a glance and replied calmly, "No need. We'll be disturbing her if we interrupt their fights." She paused and looked at the surroundings which had quieted down after their assault, slaughtering many trolls and forcing some to flee. She was also helpless about this.

With a mere 100 guards, repelling a thousand men assault was glorifying but to catch them all in a net or annihilate every troll was impossible to achieve. They already attained remarkable results but none of them went arrogant because they knew the level difference between their foes and theirs was too wide. The chasm wasn't something numbers could abridge. If the same situation with a larger size of trolls happened again, the outcome was predicted with negligible discrepancies. Provided the enemies possessed larger numbers of stronger powerhouses, Windrunners would have to become serious. They weren't able to repel like earlier. Too bad, there was only one high-level among the trolls, who at the moment fought with Alleria.

"Finish those who are incapacitated and scout around the area. Remain vigilant and don't let confidence shroud your judgment. Afterward, prepare a debrief." After giving commands, Sena tilted and turned her head slightly back so that the corner of her eyes could see her subordinates.

"Yes, Captain. Do we pursue those fleeing?"

"No." A simple yet concise command.

The ranger saluted and went away to spread the message. In the previous battle, although they were able to cleanly shoot these trolls to death, it only accounted for a portion, since most of these trolls went limp and became immovable until their physiques recovered their vitality. Sena's order was to clean the battlefield so that no troll existed alive around the vicinity.

After perceiving her subordinate's response, she turned her vision back to the duel, which became more ferocious as time passed by. Her ears still heard imperceptible groans emitted by these severely injured trolls on the battlefield. They were all under the death's doorsteps. It's a matter of time. Although Quel'Thalas sometimes took trolls as prisoners of war, they were definitely not treated well since the feud between them wasn't, a simple war could solve. Sena could've taken these dying trolls who could quickly recover, as prisoners, but she chose not to. First, they weren't officially at war at this moment. Second, they became burdens to their agile movements. Third, she believed it was a mercy to kill them all here than to capture them, who would be later treated worse by the public.

Suddenly, the movement of the troll fighting with Alleria captured her attention. The troll roared and threw his ax away; his eyes turned scarlet and ignoring his injuries, he wrestled Alleria and threw her down hard on the ground. Although Alleria was roaming all over his body like a loach avoiding his grasp and slashing hard at every moment, his sudden snarl and surge in strength had caught her unprepared. She crashed on the soil hard and her breath congested, coughing to release the tension inside. Her hands loosened the daggers and she was unarmed now. But her instinct was to escape from restraint and she made an effort. The troll tackled her relentlessly and squeezed her body to death. No matter how much she hit the wounds and vulnerable spot many times, it was as if there was no such thing as pain in his head. His clutch only strengthened.

Perhaps annoyed at her resistance, he tried to bite her face. Alleria was disgusted and held his head from moving but she was also in agony from his sinister squash. The rangers around were alarmed and pointed the arrows but none of them dared to release, as the two struggled and slid around. In case they shot wrong, they would kill their own Miss. If they hit accurately at the troll, no one knew if their arrows would over-penetrate and hurt Alleria. They regretted not taking action early and possibly endangered her.

Sena was the only exception who didn't panic because she believed Alleria could solve the predicament. However, she was also not taking any chances. She drew the arrow and twisted the bowstring slightly, aiming the direction of the arrow away from her target so that the bottom of the arrow was slightly off-angled to the bow and not perpendicular. As soon as the chance appeared, she released it. The arrow curved and whizzed around in its direction, striking bullseye at the troll's skull from the temple even penetrating to the other side and hitting the ground. Simultaneously, Alleria managed to hold the troll's chin with one hand and the other reached for a dagger nearby. She cut off his neck when she grasped the weapon and discovered the arrow vibrating a few meters away.

Everyone relaxed and blamed themselves; they could've also taken out the dagger and grappled with the troll as they were flustered as soon as their own heiress of Windrunner was in danger. It seemed to be long but all of this starting from Alleria being surprised and tackled to the ground to Sena's shot occurred within more or less 5 seconds.