Noble Ventures, Part Eleven

{Sara}

It may have been odd to feel this way, given why Rin had invited her here, but the bloodshed Sara witnessed that night was... surprising.

It wasn't the fighting in general that surprised her, no. She'd expected a fight. But, perhaps what surprised her was the grimy nature of the battle that took place.

Moving from one enemy to another, Sara had to run over guts and limbs to make it to the next opponent. And, of course, she was contributing to the flesh and blood littering the floor, as she decapitated people left and right.

Innocent bystanders screamed with every swing of her sword. Sara, on the other hand, felt nothing. Killing a monster, killing a raider, it felt the same.

She was just doing her job.

An attacker to the right ran up to her. Sara dodged out of the way of a thrusting knife and retaliated by driving the tip of her sword through the boy's stomach. It came out the other side, the blood-coated blade gleaming under the moonlight, and Sara ripped it out. Casually, she ran toward the next person before the boy had even hit the ground.

All while trying to keep an eye on Rin, Elisa, and that other girl Sara had only seen once or twice in the past.

Her eyes lingered on her, a little. She swore their eyes met a couple of times, with the short, thin girl giving her a concerned a few concerned looks before turning her attention elsewhere.

It was annoying.

One by one, the raiders came and fell. It was all just a little too easy.

And just as she was thinking that something howled in the distance.

Most of the people defending the camp froze. Sara was one of them. Her eyes widened as she tried to locate the source of the sound.

[What was that?]

Something felt wrong.

More howling soon followed, coming from multiple directions, as though to let everyone know that their ears were still working properly, they hadn't heard wrong.

Quickly, Sara ran all the way back to where Rin and her friends stood, all equally as confused as Sara was.

"R-, Triss," the girl who looked like a shorter version of Rin said, "I can feel things drawing closer!"

Sye, the Mages Guild member, walked forward.

"Cut a path to the train," she instructed. "Whatever's coming, we'll be better off with something solid behind us."

Sara didn't need to be told twice.

With renewed fervor, she ran from one skirmish to another, zig-zagging between them. On the way, the strange sounds grew louder. The people defending the train looked more and more confused. The people attacking it showed no reaction at all.

Just as Sara was moving past a tent and a lit campfire, she saw something happen up ahead that made her legs stop working.

A werewolf jumped on top of the train they were headed to.

Some of the fighters turned toward it. An archer who was a little faster than the rest put an arrow in the monster's chest and the werewolf fell off. Two more quickly took its place.

"Dammit," Sye muttered as she stood next to Sara. She yelled at the guards there, "form a circle around them!" She pointed at the noblewomen and the guards did as she asked. Sara, however, remained where she stood, unable to move.

The next part of the fight started up ahead.

These werewolves joined the attackers, aiding them in their battles. They were either intelligent or mind-controlled, as they specifically avoided harming the raiders.

One female guard had a werewolf bite down on her throat and rip it out. A construction worker began to run away, only to be pinned down and devoured by two of the new enemies.

In Sara's eyes though, all she could see was her home.

Her village, burned down by monsters in what had been a coordinated attack. This was just too similar.

Realization bloomed in her heart. Her hands wrapped around the hilt of her blade so hard it hurt.

They were here. The people who had taken everything from her were now right in front of the adventurer, using monsters once again to wreak havoc.

She couldn't let it happen.

"Huh? Sara!" Rin yelled after her as the woman ran off.

Sara pushed Essence through her body, trying to make it to her new opponents as quickly as possible. All thoughts of her duty or the friends she'd come here to protect vanished from her mind.

All she could see was red, and a big crosshair over the nearest werewolf's head.

She reached it.

Cara hadn't mentioned these things in class yet, so Sara had no idea what Rank they were. So, first, before she could let loose, she needed to assess their strength.

The werewolf in front of her swung its long and thick claws in her direction. Sara dodged. Once, twice, three times. It looked like the werewolf was trying its hardest, but Sara could keep up.

Once she made sure of that, she ended its life with a slash across the chest that revealed its heart. The monster fell down, blood pouring out of its body. Already, Sara was looking for her next enemy.

She went through them one at a time. Her limbs burned, set on fire by the rage in her heart. Everywhere she went, blood rose, soaring through the air. Squeals and whines followed as the invading dogs were put down.

It took no small amount of effort to do this, though. Thanks to the Essence she was using, her exhaustion was rapidly growing.

She was breathing heavily before the first minute of this new fight had ended.

It didn't matter, though. All she cared about right now was that she killed as many of these things as she could.

One of the werewolves stood a short distance away from the action. It looked indecisive like it didn't know who to go after first.

Its eyes met Sara's. Sara ran straight to it.

The werewolf had the audacity to back off. Like it hadn't come here with the intention of causing the same sort of despair that Sara had gone through in the past. It made her want to kill the creature even more.

Pushing past a few fighting groups, Sara reached it. The werewolf turned to run away. Sara cut one of its legs off before it could take a single step.

It turned toward her, raising a hand.

"W-Wait!" The monstrous creature spoke. Sara could not care less.

She aimed her blade down and drove it straight through the creature's heart.

Just this once, for now, she treated this thing like it was solely responsible for everything she'd gone through, twisting the sword so that its death would hurt that much more.

Watching its life fade from its eyes was satisfying. A scream in the distance cut her satisfaction short.

The scream came from her group's direction.

Sara looked back toward the women she'd left and found werewolves surrounding them.

The fog of anger left her mind, then.

Clarity replaced it, along with a deep sense of dread as she watched half the people guarding them get killed in the blink of an eye.

She ran back, but her muscles did not feel nearly as capable anymore, now that she'd used so much Essence here. Still, she tried, running past one enemy after another until she was standing by their side.

Just in time to see one more werewolf join the fray.

One that looked so strong it put all of the others to shame.