This was just not her day. Nothing seemed to be going right. All Erica wanted to accomplish on this trip was make her quarterly appearance before the Sorceress Council, give her report, and then return home as quickly as possible. Such a task should have been relatively simple, one would think, especially for a woman of her power.

Anybody who thought this way had obviously never been in her position before and deserved to be smacked. If there was one thing she had learned in her several hundred years of life, it was that humans were a power hungry group of individuals. Those who had power often flaunted it, and those who didn't have power became jealous of those who did. Jealousy soon became greed, one of the ugliest human emotions, and that greed would drive people to commit even the most heinous acts if it meant acquiring the power they so desired.

Erica could only assume that was the reason for her current predicament. Why else would a bunch of foolish people attack her like this?

Dealing with greedy fools normally wouldn't be a problem for someone with her power and abilities, but the people she was battling against had clearly come prepared to fight a Sorceress. It didn't help that her Knight was bedridden, meaning she didn't have anyone who could protect her while she chanted an aria, which consequently meant the arias she could chant were limited to two, maybe three verses at most. Too weak to be useful.

You'd think that man would be more considerate of my needs.

Several nearby explosions forced Erica to think of things other than her own lamentations. She moved backwards swiftly, avoiding the blasts of fire that rose from the ground like geysers. Giant pillars erupted, ascending into the sky in a fiery conflagration. All the while her mind cursed her situation.

Things had been going well at the start of this disaster, or as well could be expected, at any rate, especially since she knew next to nothing about her assailants. Of the sixteen people who attacked the train she'd been on, only two had gone after her.

She assumed the rest wanted to secure the passengers in order to use them as hostages or something. A foolish notion, to be sure. She was far more valuable than all the people on that train and then some, but at least it meant she only had to deal with a small group as opposed to a large squadron.

She'd dealt with the two easily enough, and then made her way outside to deal with the person she believed was in charge of this operation.

She glared at the one who, even now, stood several meters away, their stance nonchalant, as if they weren't the least bit bothered by her presence, or the possibility that she might kill them. Behind her, the train remained still, bunched together and derailed, its cars held down by several dozen chains that appeared to have sprouted from the ground like beanstalks.

Several more explosions forced her to move unless she wanted to become barbequed. Erica cursed some more. This should have been an easy confrontation. With powers like hers, there shouldn't be anyone other than another Sorceress capable of matching her. This was supposed to quick and simple.

Erica wondered if she'd somehow jinxed herself. This battle had proven to be anything but simple.

With a scowl marring her face, the gorgeous Sorceress was forced to make several long leaps backwards. Each leap taken allowed her to avoid fiery death as multiple explosions tried turning her into subatomic particles. Fortunately for her, before each explosion went off, a glowing red pentagram would appear on the ground, alerting her to the attack seconds beforehand. This gave her a small window in which she could escape death.

It also opened a small window for her to chant an aria in order to summon a spirit.

"I summon thee, Kami-no-Kaze, bless the wind beneath my feet and aid me in my flight!"

Erica's feet became submerged in a visible current of wind, swirling eddies that kicked up dust and bent light. As the powerful winds rotated beneath her small heeled shoes, the beautiful femme flew backwards with speeds that exceeded even the swiftest thoroughbred. She quickly covered nearly five meters in half as many seconds. This allowed her to dodge six more explosions from the people trying to take her out, though only one of the three standing before her was attacking at the moment.

What were those other two waiting for anyway? An invitation? Well, so long as they weren't attacking her, she could use that to her advantage. She would show these people how foolish they were to think that one person would be enough to defeat her, regardless of the powers they wielded.

Continuing to practice her skills in evasion, Erica tried to think up a plan to deal with these three. There were a number of Spirits she could summon that were more than up to the task of wiping these fools from the face of Terraria. The problem was that all of these Spirits required a very long aria to summon. Each one was at least ten verses, and would take at least fifteen seconds to chant. In battle, fifteen seconds could mean the difference between life and death.

Once again, Erica cursed the fact that her Derek was bedridden. Couldn't he have picked a better time to get ill? Seriously, of all the times he decided to require bed rest, it just had to be the one time she went out for an assignment and got attacked by assassins.

I am so having words with that man when I return home.

While she was trying to determine which spirit to summon quickly to aid her in this fight, the other two cloaked figures finally decided to get in on the action. They rushed forward like MagiTech missiles, using the dust kicked up by the recent string of explosions as cover to close the distance. Erica didn't even realize they were coming until they were already attacking.

The one in front of her literally tried barreling straight through her, their weapon already thrust forward to impale her like livestock. Erica moved out of the way in time, but ended up running straight into the other one. A glint of steel flashed out from within a tanned cloak, cutting into Erica's clothes and giving her a light cut across her flat stomach, creating a line of blood that dripped down her porcelain skin.

"You cut my beautiful skin!" Erica shrieked. How dare these foolish, barbaric, imbecilic, miscreants cut her! Her! Beauty like hers didn't come often! And you're not supposed to mar it with cuts and bruises when it did finally show up! Didn't they know that?

Obviously not, because they continued attacking her, working in tandem to keep Erica from having enough time to chant even a single verse for an aria. These people were really beginning to get on her nerves. She was going to scorch them into oblivion at the first opportunity she received!

Too bad they had no intentions of letting her do such.

What followed after receiving the light wound to her stomach was Erica being forced completely on the defensive. She didn't try to counter—she didn't have time, busy as she was trying stay alive while these two did their best to desecrate her beautiful body with their disgusting weapons. All Erica could do was react with instincts bred from adrenaline and the fear one experienced when their life was hanging in the balance.

However, even adrenaline fueled reflexes would eventually slow down, especially for those who didn't have much physical stamina. Erica, like most Sorceresses, relied purely on her Spirits to get the job done, and her Knight to protect her while she chanted to summon a Spirit. Physical aspects like endurance and stamina were not something she had ever focused on.

That was not entirely true, she amended. While running around was certainly not her forte, she did have a good amount of stamina for one activity, but that wouldn't help her here.

With her stamina waning, Erica was left wide open for an attack. One of her assailants appeared before her like a ghost, and she barely managed to twist her body away from the incoming attack, fast enough to avoid dying, but not quick enough to dodge it entirely. A large cut appeared along her clothes, a tear that left the underside of her breasts exposed. Despite her anger at this miscreant ruining her outfit, Erica knew she was lucky to have only suffered this minor humiliation. It could have been much worse.

"I call upon ye who bears the name—!"

Erica tried chanting a quick aria that would allow her to gain some distance from these two, but the appearance of a pentagram beneath her feet forced her to stop talking. She leapt backwards just in time to avoid death by immolation, but soon found herself caught within a pincer maneuver. She ducked underneath a swipe that would have sliced off the top half of her skull, but could not dodge the powerful kick to her face.

Erica would have screamed as she felt her nose breaking, but her voice left her, along with her breath, as she hit the ground. Her back squealed in protest as a rock jutting from the earth slammed into her spine. It hurt. By the Spirits it hurt. The pain overrode her senses, causing her vision to turn white. When she came to, it was to see one of the three fiends looming over her, their face cast in darkness, their weapon raised.

Breathing heavily, sweat dripping from her face, the beautiful Sorceress was left completely vulnerable to the evil intent of her enemies.