My mind went into overdrive as the blade was whistling towards me, activating bullet time, but there was little I could do to stop it. Even the vines of the Eisblumen-accessory wouldn’t be in time to help, let alone anything else. My magic was currently focused onto something else, even with bullet time, it would be no help. My blades were uselessly held in my dangling hands, my focus had been fully on my magic, ignoring my physical body. Maybe, I would learn what the respawn-mechanic was like.

Still, there was no way I would go down without a fight, so I focused my power into the Eisblumen, feeling the vines slowly sprout out. At the same time, I felt my control over the mist slip away - but if I died, the mental aspects would dissipate anyway.

Suddenly, a shadow blurred into my line of sight, before resolving into Rai’s back, as he stood in front of me, taking the blade into a crossed block of his own blades. It was a horrible idea, completely blocking a saber with his short swords, but I was not in a situation to be picky about the way I was saved. He blocked the next attack by the nymph as well, but this time, her strength simply slapped him aside, opening the way to me. Still, the time he had bought was enough for me - enough to extend the vines if I wanted to use them and to move into a stance with my blades. It also gave me a moment to take my enemy in; her gear looked a little strange, compared to the standard nymph-garb. Her entire gear was dark brown or black and looked a lot more like bark than anything I had seen them wear. In addition, her sabre looked almost metallic; a dark, foreboding blade, reminding me of the weapons used in the Barrow Den, steeped in death and decay.

The clash between the nymph and me was fast and furious, she was in a total, suicidal offense mode, leaving huge openings, but taking them would let her score a decisive hit in return, something I could not accept. She was as strong as me and almost as fast, but the combination of desperation and more-than-adequate skill gave her enough of an edge to push me back. For me, the objective was to get rid of her so I could get back to maintaining the mist, to keep our enemies at bay. She just wanted to get a good hit in, forcing me to stop my maintenance of the mist so her comrades could overwhelm us.

I was about to do something stupid - accepting a wound to gain an advantage - when Rai rejoined the fight, striking into her unprotected back. The sudden attack gave me the opening needed to end the fight with a seemingly glancing blow, but what seemed like a superficial wound for a moment was in fact a cut into the arteries supplying her brain causing a spray of amber liquid. That new wound, in combination with the wound struck by Rai forced her to her knees and allowed me to re-focus on the mist.

It took me a few moments of desperate scramble to reaffirm my control, but the damage was done. Two more fighters had managed to overcome the mist and appear in the clearing.

“I will take care of them.” Rai said with conviction, even when I knew that he would not be able to manage. Part of me wanted to help, but I knew that the mist had to be the priority or there would be more. In essence, it was a lose-lose proposition, either I dropped the mist and we would get overwhelmed, or I kept the mist going and Rai would get overwhelmed, forcing me to fight alone and drop the mist.

Luckily, we were part of a team and Ylva was no longer needed against the dryad, allowing her to join us. It took her precious seconds to cross the distance between the two fights, enough for Rai to take a small wound, as he was completely pushed back by his two enemies. But when Ylva joined him, the fight instantly turned, showing that neither of the nymphs was terribly strong. With her in the fight, I was confident that they could manage, and fully focused on the mist, forcing the nymphs to wander in circles some more.

It took some effort, but soon, the situation was back under control and I had more of a breather. Ylva and Rai had taken down their two enemies and were guarding in front of me and the fight between Adra, Sigmir and the dryad seemed to wind down as well. The crystal, previously a shining beacon of splendor, had lost its glow and luster, turning dim and flickering, while the tree it was linked to looked as if it was about to fall over, withered and dead. As I was watching, the dryad gave a last, desperate struggle against Sigmir but was rebuffed, when Adra suddenly changed her behaviour. She had been focused on drawing in the energy of the tree and the crystal, using the strange tree-phantom to devour it, but then she stepped up next to Sigmir, and countered the attack of the dryad with a single, precise stab, striking right into her heart. The dryads mouth opened in a silent scream as Adra held her pose, propping up the dryad with her spear and the phantom-tree enveloped the dryad. It seemed that Adra had said something to Sigmir, as she was turning her back to the dryad and moved towards us.

When I looked back to Rai and Ylva, I spotted a slight disturbance, thanks to the contrast between the swirling mist I was controlling and the still air on the clearing. There was a slight blur in the air, slow-moving but definitely there. My reaction was simple, a straight attack with my vines. They gave me a good coverage, allowing to aim at the rough location and hit if I got close enough.

Just as I struck, I realised my mistake. The disturbance was so faint, I had mistaken the distance - I had believed it was just leaving the mist, when, in fact, it was already halfway across the distance to me, and right next to Rai. The disturbance vanished, as if a cloak was pulled back, and resolved into another nymph, equipped just like the one that had almost killed me before, the same dark garb and the same black blade. Only she was attacking Rai the moment she appeared, not me.

He tried to block, but the surprise combined with her greater strength made that impossible, the only thing he managed was to redirect the weapon, causing it to cut deeply into his shoulder instead of his neck, but it saved his live. The next moment, my vines arrived, smashing into the nymph, causing her to get tossed away, tearing the blade out of Rai’s shoulder, ripping the wound open. Sigmir saw what was happening and used some sort of skill to instantly close the gap and take care of the nymph.

Behind me, a new presence was filling the clearing, gushing out of Adra with abandon. The dryad had perished and to the victor went the spoils. But that would have to wait until later, it would greatly suck if Rai died just as we had completed our quest. With that in mind, I hurried over to him, letting the barrier-part of the mist drop. It would no longer confuse and misdirect our enemies but it would linger for awhile, acting as concealment. I had a feeling that the nymphs were not incredibly convinced that another attack was in their best interest, they had to feel the aura Adra was pulsing out. That, in combination with the lack of battle-noise should tell them that their leader was slain and the only thing waiting for them here was death. Maybe they were fanatical enough to throw their lives away, maybe not. For now, healing Rai had priority. Luckily, I had used relatively little Astral Power; creating the mist had taken some, but maintaining it and using it as a medium for my mind-magic had been cheap.

Placing one hand onto him, I drew runes with the other hand. allowing me to take in the condition of his body. There were a few small cuts and bruises, the only serious wound was in his shoulder. But that one was serious enough, not only was it a deep and ragged cut, there was something else in it, a dark energy, as if the wound was actively worsening.

It felt magical, so calling it a curse would be fitting, probably bound in the sabre - it had given me the creeps before, and now I knew why. I felt Lenore’s mind join with mine, adding her perception to my own, giving me the impression that the curse was based in an energy similar to the energy that lured Netherspites; the malevolent by-product of Blood Magic, a misma of decay. It was spreading in his blood, forcing me to do something rather brutal to save him.

Changing the runes I had used, it was less of a healing spell and more of an attack-spell. It had to hurt like hell, as I used my magic, focused by the runes, to rip the contaminated blood from his body, I had to dig deep to get it all, pulling blood from large parts of his body, back to the wound, causing a fountain of blood to sprout from his wound. He gave of a pained, scream and went limp, probably a combination of pain and blood-loss. But the contamination was gone, allowing me to change the runes back to a healing spell and gently channel power into it to ease the burden on his body. I had no real idea how long the healing had taken, I had been in a state of absolute focus, communicating with Lenore over our bond, a state where time lost all meaning. It may have been minutes, it may have been days. Well, considering the situation around us, not days.

When I looked up, Adra, Sigmir and Ylva stood between us and the slowly dissolving mist. There were no extra corpses around us, so I assumed that the other enemies had seen retreat as the superior option.

We had won.