There was no hope for running or hiding anymore. The werewolves' senses were already locked on them. The first wolf pounced straight towards Claire, but was intercepted by Ursa. The Ravian was too quick, catching the wolf by the throat. She threw it back towards the group approaching them in a crude taunt towards them.
The approaching group shouted at them as more women turned towards the forest. Several of them transformed into werewolves as they approached. Claire was left wondering how anyone was supposed to take on these women. Ursa's axe and Jasmine's poison were the only things she'd seen effectively kill them.
"No wonder nothing gets done around here," Hannah said aloud as she stared down the approaching women. "We don't have bitches like these to deal with in My Lady's lands."
Claire smiled under her helmet, yet she couldn't think of a witty retort to Hannah. She refocused on the approaching mob of women and began to strategize. They had the positional advantage given the woods, but they had the numbers. Their small group was clearly outnumbered as more than thirty women approached.
Then there were the wolves.
Claire counted seven. If they hadn't stumbled upon Ursa fighting a whole caravan of them before, Claire might have been concerned for Ursa. But she'd more than proven herself when fighting against large groups. And Claire suspected her axe had magic she wasn't allowed to tell them about that helped her.
Claire took a deep breath, figuring out a brief plan. "Elsie, Vivienne, slow their advance as much as you can. Vanessa, pick off the women you can. Clara, with Hannah and me. Ana, cover for us when we need it."
Before Claire even finished her words, one of Vanessa's arrows whizzed past her. Claire watched the arrow miss one of the bandits by mere inches, stopping her in her tracks. Claire glanced back to see Vanessa's determined expression. She cursed herself for missing as she knocked another arrow.
Elsies was quick to follow her lead. She began by casting one of her traps near the edge of the trees. Then, she launched her Icebeam towards the biggest clump of women. Unlike before, Elsie's magic barely stopped the women's approach. These bandits shrugged the ice magic off after being briefly stopped.
"Shit," Elsie cursed aloud.
She then went for her more powerful spells. Her Firebolt and Lightning Bolt spells were fired in quick succession. The unlucky bandit leading the charge was struck by both of them, thankfully downing her. Elsie watched the woman struggle to get back to her feet.
These weren't like the bandits they'd fought before. These women were different.
A cold feeling went down Claire's spine as she watched the woman get to her feet. She looked rough, but was still alive. She smiled maniacally, ready to say something. But just before that, an arrow struck her in the chest.
The bandit looked at the arrow for a moment before falling back. The women around her watched their companion take her last breath before yelling in unison. Vanessa, her killer, had very little time to think about what she'd just done. The women were now sprinting for their location. She readied more of her arrows and shot as fast as she could.
Claire stood right before the rune Elsie put down, giving them a clear target to fight. She steadied her breathing as she readied herself to fight again. Hannah stood beside her, their shoulders nearly touching. There were no words exchanged between the two, no witty banter from Hannah. She was stone-cold serious in that moment.
Clara stood behind the tree next to them. She couldn't face that many women directly, so she had to use the natural cover and their frontline. There was only a brief moment before the charging women reached the woods, only a brief amount of time for the veteran to think. She was skilled in hit-and-run style attacking, not just head-on. She could navigate between the trees and use them to kite around the strikes. She just hoped her fists were strong enough.
She took a deep breath and channeled her mana into her fists. They glowed a faint blue, powering up their durability. She channeled her Martial Artist Trance for the coming fight. Her senses channeled out the unnecessary sounds, focusing entirely on her own breathing. She could see the faint flow of mana through the women around her, revealing weak spots and old wounds in Claire and Hannah.
To Clara, the world was almost silent. Her mind was too focused to acknowledge the warcries being exchanged between the bandits and the two women. Time moved slower in this trance, letting her react quicker. She moved the moment Elsie's trap was set off. She weaved between the trees as she approached the unlucky bandit who set the trap off. She was faster than any of the women expected, landing a hardened fist directly in the face of the bandit right next to the first one. With another quick jab to the chest, she finished the burning bandit by breaking her ribs.
The two women were pushed back into the mob of women, letting Clara retreat. She hoped the first one was knocked out while the second died in agony. She heard about the crimes these women got up to. She had absolutely no sympathy.
Claire barely noticed Clara's movements. The fighter weaved through the trees faster than even Jasmine, making it hard to follow her. She was impressed with the show of speed and force, adding to her confidence that they could get through this. The confused bandits weren't dazed for very long. Some stayed with the two bandits, while the rest advanced. They made it past the treeline and into the forest with the group.
Claire used her Defensive Strike on the closest woman, acting before she could. Then quickly stabbed the off-balance woman. Hannah was quick to finish the bandit. She used her spear to strike the woman from a distance, then turned to block an attack.
Claire gripped the now lodged spear with her left hand and kicked the dying woman away. Her body stopped approaching bandits for the moment, letting Claire back up. She made it to Hannah's side before they could even push up. The moment they did, a wall of fire ignited them. It was parallel to the wall Claire and Hannah made with their bodies, giving the two another line of brief defense.
The women charged the two despite the flames with a crazed look on their faces. A flurry of arrows was fired to slow them down, but the crazed women kept charging. Two of the five died on their way, but three slammed into Claire and Hannah. Hannah dropped her spear, its range being limited at the moment. She nailed the leftmost bandit with her own Defensive Strike before grabbing her axe. This left Claire to deal with the other two.
She used her Parry skill on the faster one before hitting her with the hilt of her sword. The woman couldn't even recover before a final arrow hit her. The third and final one, Claire used her shield to parry the strike, then a front kick to send her back. The woman stumbled, found her composure, and then Claire stabbed her in the chest. She watched the life drain from the woman's crazed look as blood ran from her mouth.
Claire pushed her off her sword with a disgusted look.
"They're high!" Hannah shouted after finishing off the bandit. She could tell now, after getting a better look at them. "The crazed ones can't feel pain right now."
"That explains shrugging off my magic," Elsie said back. She stopped for a moment to direct Vivienne on when to intervene in the fight. "Wall between Claire and that fourth tree. 45 degrees from Claire's position."
A wall of solid dirt erupted from the ground, stopping two bandits sprinting towards them. The two slammed into the wall without even stopping, bouncing off, and quickly getting to their feet with manic laughter. Several of their limbs were bent in the wrong direction, but that didn't even stop them. Their manic expressions stayed as they hobbled towards Claire.
Claire imagined this is what the undead looked like, just with less expressive faces. Manic movements, ignoring all pain, and focused solely on one thing. It truly disgusted her. She quickly cut the two women down and focused back on the remaining crazies.
Ten more crazed women, and more than ten normal ones. Claire could tell now. She moved back to her position beside Hannah, bumping shoulders with the knight.
"Well, this got a whole lot more interesting," Hannah growled. She'd seen this type of high before. "They're high on Dream Drop."
"Tell me about it quickly," Claire exhaled slowly. She had little knowledge of medical drugs, let alone drugs like these.
"Used for anesthetic," Hannah kept going. "Was. Was used as an anesthetic, but it's highly addictive. Outlawed because, well, you can see why."
"Were they celebrating something?" Claire asked under her breath. They were already on it by the time they got here.
"Could be," Hannah grimaced. It'd been a long while since she'd seen women on this drug.
Claire shook her head and readied herself to take on more crazed women.