Helena dropped the rock on the snow as she covered her wound and crouched down. But the spell did not wear off of the rock. Then as if they were guided by an invisible person, they all charged towards Helena. Majority of the huntsmen headed for Helena, while fewer headed for Miriam. Helena patiently waited for them to get closer to get, as long ranged combat would disadvantage her when fighting so many people.

All of this seemed very odd to Miriam. The way the huntsmen waited, while Fred was so confused and erratic. And that they knew precisely their location and blind spots. She looked to the left and right, maybe she missed something, maybe someone. Then she realized.

Miriam didn’t hold back anymore her hand was gripping his chin as she turned around. She was at her wits’ end as to what she will do to him. Falling for such an obvious trap, this thought only angered her to such extent that her white eyes glimmered red then the color darkened until it was just black, void. “Oh you…” She grits her teeth “How do you communicate?”

Brynn grinned beneath Miriam’s small hand, then forcefully jerked it off. Leaving deep scratches on his cheeks and his jaw dislocated. He quickly took a few steps back, while some of his men were closing in towards Miriam. Brynn tried talking, he sounded more like a snotty brat that didn’t learn how to speak yet. “Bleu hafd nu ghange freum ze slarlt” Miriam didn’t understand a word he said, but neither did his men. As he realized this he just started laughing, after a while his men were laughing as well. This picked Miriam’s interest.

On the other side Helena without any further notice she pulled out the spear end out of her shoulder and stuck it into one of the men’s guts. She struggles to pull it back, but as soon as the man was no more than corpse, she put her feet on him and pulled out the spear end. Yet the men kept coming at her as endless raindrops. In desperation to dodge as much as she could, she threw the spear end at random towards them. Unexpectedly a weird sizzling sound came from the dead hunter. Helena turned to see, that the wound she has caused was now wider, the skin slowly melted as the blood within the body boiled. Soon after followed a few that touched the spear or that were unlucky and blood drops fell on them. It would start as a rash then the blood would boil up, melting any tissue until her blood would dry away. But not everyone was affected by it, she couldn’t figure out why her blood would react in such way when in contact with other beings. It was the first time it happened.

Helena had no luxury on her hands to understand why it’s happening, she just used it as an opportunity. She quickly headed for the rock she took out of the fire circle that the men avoided very carefully. By the look of the situation and after a quick glimpse at Miriam, Helena knew this is had to be done the right way to not leave any trace behind. Hence, she put both her hands through the fire circle and took a bunch of rocks and threw them at the huntsmen. Unliked the effect from her blood, the stones engulfed the person in blue flame while the gas accelerated the tissue’s disintegration. It was instant, there was no blood, no scream and no one was spared.

To Miriam fighting was no problem, and Bryn knew this first-hand. But after seeing his men randomly being set on fire and just melt away, leaving nothing behind. He saw the last few running towards Brynn’s group. As she saw his expression of victor dying along with his men, Miriam turned to see two last hunters running. To this she sporadically moved her hands, as icicles rose out of the snow. At first to pierce the two men, but afterwards it was everywhere. Except behind her, pristine calmness behind her.

Helena was unaware of the reason why Miriam was so sporadic. Helena was blocked off by the icicle which over the course of the haphazardly used spell formed a spiky wall. She threw as hard as she could aiming behind the wall. In the hope to hit someone, as the fire circle spell soon ran out. Then started running towards of the ends of wall.

After Miriam made sure not even one bit of Brynn’s men is left, she returned her attention to Brynn. Her expressionless face and dark eyes made some of the huntsmen shiver. But this did not move Brynn a bit and then not long after the men calmed down. One of the huntsmen pointed as he shouted “Fireballs!” all ran aimlessly dodging the fire rocks. Luckily no one got hit, but why would Miriam not create obstacles to see these headless chickens run around to their hearts content. She followed one of the men in close proximity to Brynn. While making small icicles that he’d step on, slowly wearing out his shoes. In the end he still managed to evade all the fireballs. But this did not satisfy Miriam. She gracefully rose her hand while an icicle pierced the man.

At this point Brynn took out his sword and started hitting the icicle to destroy it. Since they were halflings it was not enough to kill him. By this time Helena also arrived on the other side of the wall. She thought she’d have to jump into the middle of a heated fight, but it seemed more like it had to come a halt. Helena hurriedly walked over to Miriam and asked, “What is going on?” then saw her blackened eyes “Oh god, you’re so ugly. Don’t look at me.”

Miriam just nodded and answered, “Brynn is the actual leader of these men, but get this I think he can use telepathy, or a form of communication with his people.”

Helena was actually surprised for once a halfling could have such skill “Now I am amazed.”

“Really?” Miriam looked at her curiously.

Helena showed a somewhat displeased look “Please understand, that at the moment you look very…not nice.”

Miriam giggled “Should we kill them all? If so, it won’t be a walk in the park.”

Helena snapped “Maybe next time you shouldn’t play cat and mouse with them. Anyway, no, let’s keep Brynn alive, we need to find a new place to settle.” She rolled up her sleeves “Please keep Brynn busy, I’ll try to deal with the rest.”

Miriam did as instruct. One by one, she erected icicles forcing Brynn to distance himself from the others. They quickly caught up with the two little monsters’ plan, hence the men broke into two groups. One to help Brynn fight the icicles and the other to face Helena.

Helena rushed towards the ones that were heading for her. She jumped to reach a punch oh the temple of the head, but instead she reached for the neck, punching Adam’s apple. It was a hit, but not a knockout. Also, she had no more essence, to use magic. She could use her blood on her fists and maybe knees, but when to get the time to do it. She needed a weapon. Helena quickly eyed what looked like a knife in one of the men’s lower pockets, she swiftly rushed for it. Happy with her newly acquired weapon, which turned out to be a butter knife. All this changed the flow of her fight, she lowered her stance and aimed for their Achilles heel. They might be halflings, but they were once humans. Their body tells it all. She managed to cut the Achilles heel of two as they charged at the same time for her, and luckily dodged one of the spears while the other pierced her upper thigh. After rendering the two immobile. She ran away, as the other three chased after her.

During this time Miriam kept isolating Brynn from his comrades. But as her patience ran dry and seeing how Helena doesn’t have a certain win yet, she moved up the peace of her fighting style. She kneeled and touched a chunk of ice and while she stood, and her hand took off from the ice a sword formed. She moved her feet to have enough speed to use it as strength in case she cannot pull it through. To compensate for the height difference, she used the icicles to gain altitude. With this strategy she managed to cut one of the huntsmen’s head, then she quick headed to carve out the heart you of the body. She quickly picked up the peace again, quickly climbing up the icicles, but this time she jumped down, rather than sliding alongside, and with her weight she planted her sword on the last man’s upper shoulder. While gravity was doing its work, she managed to cut downwards towards the heart. But the man had good reaction speed and pierced Miriam stomach.

Helena’s run now headed towards Miriam and was happy to see, two of the hunters were down and she also had a weapon. With this in mind, she jumped on Miriam and pulled the spear out of her, then quickly pivoted with the spear pointed towards her enemies. Piercing one’s heart and scratching the other’s face. Miriam quickly followed up with decapitating the man whose heart was nothing but past.

The other two without even looking back for their brothers in arms, they ran directly towards Brynn. As if it was safer than elsewhere. Both girls quickly got on their feed to catch up to them, but it was a rather impossible task. Brynn was caged under ice, the two started smashing the ice with spear while they were yelling at Brynn for help. ‘Why would they ask a caged person for help’ Helena wandered as they caught up with the huntsmen, or rather what remained of the huntsmen. Despite all the struggle Brynn did not move an inch. ‘Did he give up?’

Helena stopped Miriam for walking any further “We should be careful, it’s a bit odd what they’re doing.”

Miriam nodded in agreement “You are right” then moved her sword towards her left palm and cut herself “Here, open your mouth. I saw you ran out of essence.”

“Yes, Thank you.” Helena took Miriam’s hand and started to drink some of the blood, to replenish her essence, while not even taking her eyes off the sole survivors of the huntsmen.

Miriam clenched her fist lightly to give Helena the last drop of blood “Be more careful next time with managing your essence.”

“Oh please, let’s not start this. It’s not like I haven’t been running around with a hole in my shoulder” Helena’s voice cracked as she spoke in such intonations, made it hard for her age to pronounce.

“Fine, I will go to the two that you left there dying” Miriam headed in the direction where Helena ran from to part these men’s heads from their bodies and gouging out their hearts.

As soon as finished to replenish her essence Helena created two small fire circles with the tip of her finger and took five rocks. Threw one towards the two men that were trying to break the ice. They immediately ran in different directions, while one headed towards Miriam the other one was heading in the woods. Helena started running as she wanted to close the gap between them to not miss her target. After a minute of running, she couldn’t keep up, so she threw one of the rocks. It hit the huntsman but it only obliterated half of it’s body whole leaving the rest to melt. The other one instantly met it’s end as he came face to face with Miriam.

Despite the cold and the harsh environment, the two girls gathered all the bodies that were not disintegrated and any other remains that would lead to them. It took them half a day. The fight lasted throughout the night while during the day they cleaned. They lit everything up with one of the rocks Helena had left and the other one was put on the side for Brynn.

Miriam sighed as she brushed off the dust off her hands form all the dirty work. “Do you think they’ll find any clues?”

“Honestly, if they want to, they might find something. But if they don’t want to find about it, it is as if the fallen tree never made a sound” Helena spoke as if this mess would one might come back “But Brynn, if that’s his name, is just…I don’t know.” She paused thinking of a fitting word.

“Unusual? He gave up too fast?” Miriam laughed at Helena’s seriousness towards the whole parade that went on “What bothers me the most is that we don’t know exactly what he’s capable of, this is a bigger problem.”

“And that we need to get to their capital, I think he’ll be a great guide” Helena put her hand on her hips, ready for a new goal to achieve.

“Easier said than done” Miriam spoke in a sarcastic tone as both headed for Brynn.