Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: The Sorceress of Ashtown

Magical Medley

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!"