He was incredible and Liv already knew that, had known it since the fight against the crawler, but that was different and now she saw him better. At the beginning of the run Liv came right behind him, and following Dagny, trying to keep up while dodging thorns, roots and thick branches that sprouted from every side, she and almost everyone needed to duck, jump or dodge all the time. He, meanwhile, simply pushed forward, his momentum only seeming to be interrupted for brief instants, always to deliver some more elaborate brutality against the forest before running again, losing almost none of the rhythm.
With time everyone began to tire, even so there was a path thanks to him. Until the great blow came, a branch as thick as a young trunk struck Hrafn from the side, hurling him away with a dry crash of wood and iron. At that instant she was certain the voroir would die there, no one could take an impact like that and simply keep going.
But voroirs tended to ignore common sense and reason with frequency.
He rolled across the ground after falling, dodged more attacks, getting to his feet in the process and, just when it seemed he would be hit again, his body bent in an impressive way. A thick branch passed and was broken, in the same movement Hrafn pointed the mace at a tree ahead together with a shout, revealing the enemy.
From then on, the attack changed, it was no longer merely about surviving the forest's blows, now there was a target and the warriors began to advance in that direction with more fury, at times being forced to retreat half a step, but always managing to gain a little more soon after.
Most of the roots also no longer seemed interested in them, dozens of them now turned toward the voroir, who had ended up falling a little behind, with his mace spinning without rest. She saw Hrafn lower himself to let one branch pass, rise twisting his body to avoid another, break a third with the mace, step on a root trying to trap his leg, use the momentum to throw himself to the side, and then bring the weapon down again. All in a single breath, each gesture seeming to be born from the previous one with such efficiency, that it became difficult to understand where one ended and the other began.
"Girl!"
Dagny's shout tore Liv from her own thoughts just in time. She turned her head by instinct and a thin branch passed whistling, missing her eyes by little, the blow still caught her ear and tore a piece away. Liv felt the sting of the wound before breaking the branch with her hand and continuing to advance, she knew she should not get distracted in the middle of a fight. But even so she could not stop herself from casting brief glances at the voroir, and it was while looking that she saw it. One of the branches he had broken was different from the others.
The branch seemed thinner and younger, that made Liv lift her eyes in the direction from which it had come. Back there, a few meters beyond Hrafn, there was a small creature half hidden. With more and more branches coming out of its little body, as well as from the ground around it, piling up behind like a tide of living wood, waiting for the hour to fall upon someone.
Liv slowed for an instant, assessing the situation. Dagny would probably reach the creature in front, they were gaining ground with each moment however little it was, but they were. The other one, however, was a problem, if things went on that way the voroir would be surrounded, being distracted with attacks from every side, and when he was trapped in the rhythm of defense, the second mandrake would drown him in that sea of branches it had been gathering.
If he died, perhaps Dagny would not reach the other one in time either, thinking that, Liv drew a deep breath and started running back. She heard Dagny shout behind her a few times, but the leader was occupied, without breath for more than a short protest. Liv ignored her, running with everything she had in the direction of the little thing, gripping the spear so hard that her fingers hurt.
To her luck, now that she was retreating, she suffered less with the branches of the first creature, most of them being occupied with the group, or perhaps the mandrake simply thought Liv was not worth the attention. The small mandrake only noticed when she was already close, a good thirty meters, perhaps less. Perhaps creating so many branches consumed something of it and stole its attention.
The creature then turned a few branches in her direction, but seemed reluctant to fire them, most still remained pointed at Hrafn, as if the thing could not decide whether it was worth losing time on another prey. But Liv did not share the same doubts, she knew exactly what she needed to do, and went on forward even faster.
The small creature finally seemed alarmed, for it attacked her with dozens of branches. Liv watched them coming and understood that she would not reach it in time, at least not by running. So she took the momentum of her own run and turned it into something else, leaning her body back, she pulled the arm that held the spear along with it, and snapped it forward like a whip.
When the spear left her hand, flying straight and fast, cutting through the space between the branches, they were already almost upon Liv, from above and from the sides. Some so close that she could hear the crack of wood tearing the air, even so, she smiled, satisfied because the spear had gone through. With luck, with strength and perhaps with some blessing of the Star, the weapon drove itself into the ground behind the creature. In the middle of the shaft, impaled and pinned like a piece of meat on a spit, the small mandrake screamed in the same tone with which a human child would cry.
At another point in the woods, the attacks against Hrafn ceased almost at the same time. Dagny must have managed it, of course she managed it. She was the strongest woman Liv knew and would not lose to a few roots. The satisfaction warmed her for a short and precious instant, she might even have rejoiced more, if she had not felt at that moment a taste of iron rise into her mouth.
The air came in hard and strange, making Liv look down, where various branches were piercing her body.