Starving Souls [Alyssa/Eris]

[Deleted]

"Pretty pleeeeeeeeeease let us through?"

Mercenaries sure were weirdos sometimes. Not that Alyssa was one to talk, but these guys were a special case of maximum overweird. Not only were they trying to beg her for food that she didn't have, but they kept staring at her skin with their tongues out like a dog every time someone talked. Normally, people looked at a woman's chest that way, not the freaking flesh covering her bones. She resolved to believing the guys were strong practitioners of cannibalism, considering how she saw one of them randomly slicing the heck out of a tree stomp from a distance while the others kept trying to persuade her to let them through to the village several yards away.

"Ya know, if you guys weren't so suspicious, maybe I'd have stepped aside a long time ago and gone along my merry way, but," Alyssa's eyes dimmed. "Why won't you just wait here while I do a little grocery shopping for you?"

"B-but can't we go with yoooou?" One of them asked, clasping his hands together. "It's not like we're going to secretly murder you while your back's turned, steal your money, then slice the ever living crud out of all the villagers as we help ourselves to all their food and supplies. What are we, dumbass bandits or something? Who could be that cruel, ehhhh?"

"Oh! Okay then! Have a fun time then, guys~!" Alyssa said with a bright smile plastered on her face.

"R-really!?"

Even the idiot striking the tree stomp stopped after hearing that, all six of them assembling in a frantic and confused state. They had a rough time believing that the blonde troll was giving them free passage to enter the village they so desperately wanted to get into. They looked like scrambled and hungry wild animals getting ready to spring forth into action on their journey to the next meal. With haste, one of them sprinted forth like some kind of road runner, beside Alyssa.

...That was until her leg met with the center of his face in a swift, flexible kick.

"Hell no, not really!" Alyssa caught her breath — her hand reached for the quiver of arrows while the other clenched her bow with a determined grip. "Who do you think I am? Some stereotypical, air-headed blonde? Either wait for me to get you jerks some food or get on out of here before you hurt someone!"

The other five surrounded her — their eyes lit up like they finally found their prey. Staring too deeply into them with unwavering eye contact, Alyssa felt chills slithering down her spine like a poisonous snake ready to sink it's fangs. These guys obviously hadn't eaten for days; they probably hadn't eaten in weeks if they were on the verge to resorting to tearing her apart and cooking her flesh like some hunted animal. Intense hunger sometimes interfered with your judgment or ability to actually think, and it was sad to see it happening to people now.

"Guess this is why I should have taken the other way to Sacae..." She said, though regretted the thought instantly. If she did go the other way she thought of, the mercs would have no one to stop them in their rampage. She pitied them in a sense, having a hunch that work must have dried up big time for them, but it didn't excuse the desire to gain their necessities through wanton violence. Either way, six on one didn't seem very fun, and she'd likely only take one down before the other five would pounce on her.

[Eris Coulson]

Despite all that had happened between Bern and Ilia the past...what, like, half a decade? Despite it all Eris had no personal misgivings with Ilians. Pegasus Knights she disliked in general, but even she knew that disdain was rather shallow. Even if a Bernese woman was riding a pegasus she'd still dislike them just on principle. No, Eris was rather neutral on the cold, northern country.

In fact, after the hell she was forced to escape from she almost felt sorry for the nation. After all, really, Ilians were just people too. There were no tyrannical monsters like the rebellion's supporters would have claimed. Nor gold hungry mercenaries in that town that got sacked, none that she saw anyway. Hell she didn't even see one damned pegasus knight, but that was probably for the best. They were so damned haughty with their pegasi and...if the stories were to be believed, enviable assets.

No. There were just terrified civilians and remarkably brave town guards. People fearing for their lives, mourning their lost loved ones, and struggling to survive against an onslaught. They had managed to survive the attack, but the town had been devastated. Eris couldn't have done a damn thing to stop it. She knew that to be fact. Yet, when the attack first happened, that fact hadn't bothered her in the slightest. But the more she thought on it, the more she reflected, the louder the screams of the people were.

"You were a mistake!"

Eris shuddered, a chill shooting straight down her spine.

Nonetheless...her unfortunate visit to Ilia probably should have made for a really terrible first impression of the northern country, but then again Eris could barely understand why she had even gone up there in the first place.

Her mind...it was never this clouded before. It used to be clear. Her goal set in stone, defined in her mind and clear as the sky in a Sacaen summer. Become a Dragon General. Use your rank and legitimacy to elevate the Albrecht name to new heights. Perhaps end off as a Duchess, or at least make her father a Duke proper. Pah, then one small but fatal misstep, and suddenly she's nothing but a vagrant.

Eris huffed, blowing upwards to knock a stray strand of hair from her eye. Ilia was behind her now, but there was something to be learned from it. It was a matter of "what" that was the...

Her eyes shot forward, and Eris tightened her grip on her lance. Right ahead of her were the backs of 5, no, 6 men. They were armed, albeit not well, and had almost animalistic stances and motions. Were they from the hill tribes that surrounded Sacae and Bern? Those damned bandits she had to fight off more than once back on base? Tch, Eris didn't think she'd have to deal with them in Lycia as well.

Wait...just past them was a woman, armed with a bow. She didn't look to be their ally, just the opposite in fact. A bunch of savage, sketchy looking men ganging up on a lone woman with a bow.

Welcome to Elibe, ladies and gentlemen.

Eris studied the group before her swiftly. How best to act. What did she WANT to do?

"Please! Please no, no! AAAH!"

No mages, from the looks of it. No wyverns either. Just swords and axes, poorly kept. Yeah...this time would be different.

"Hey!" Eris barked out, holding her lance towards the backs of the men. Her voice carried strong, and her stance was straight and tall. "Lower your weapons at once. Ganging up on a lone woman is cowardly and pathetic."

This time would be different.

[Deleted]

Alyssa prepared for the worst, until a strong shout from behind caught all of their attention. All the mercenaries stopped what they were doing, for the voice of the person making the command caused their shoulders to hunch up out of surprise. All their heads turned in a near-perfect synchronization, staring at the other woman in both a confused and anxious state. While it meant another person for them to devour, what remained of one of the merc's brain cells was that she, too, was armed. Wouldn't be a simple job.

They all continued to stare blankly as their stomachs growled like the king of beasts's roar. The only mercenary who seemed to have some thinking power left punched another of his buddies, who appeared to be their "leader" based off him having the more superior blade out of the bunch.

"Say something, stupid!" He said to his leader.

The leading merc held his free arm above his head, unsure what to do as he cowered. A bit of drool fell down his chin before he turned to the newcomer, gathering enough effort to finally address her.

"We're just... hungry," The leader began. "Really hungry. Instead of pointing that thing at us, can you point it at herrrrr? She won't let us through to devou--I mean, buy a meal..."

Alyssa only sighed, wanting to go over and slap one of them. Still, considering they outnumbered her and looked like they wanted to gnaw at her arm as quick as they could, she was not looking forward to being on a cannibal's dinner menu.

"Wow, you guys are dumb..."

"Shut up before I eat you!" One of them lashed out.

Alyssa had a clever smirk cross her features as she looked to the young newcomer's direction. "Weeeeeelp, I think that just about confirms their intentions, yeah?"

Maybe she should have taken the situation a bit more seriously, considering she was still in danger of getting mauled by a bunch of hungry guys. On the other hand, messing with them turned out to have it's own form of amusement. Still, their situation wasn't exactly funny, either. While their motives were wrong, her heart still went out for them. A cruel world that allowed it's own residents to starve and resort to the illogical to survive when the life of the coin failed them... Obviously, they sucked at hunting animals, too, if they relied on this silly plan.

Their hunger spoke for their brains, keeping an unbreakable determination to get the food they want while keeping their eyes on both Alyssa and the new person. The mercenary with the axe especially looked to be the one who completely lost whatever sanity he had left, nonchalantly skipping towards the young woman with the lance as he swung his axe wildly, both with poor form and... not really aiming at her exactly; just slicing the wind as he skipped like a happy little girl. Deep down, he wasn't happy, though; just a confused, hungry soul trapped within his own madness. The action alone caused his buddies to sigh out of both humility and frustration as their stomachs growled more and more.

[Eris Coulson]

There was a good bit of silence after Eris made her presence known, which gave her some time to think. She had to assume that the woman with the bow, even if an enemy of the bandits, would NOT come to her aid. Drilling that into her mind she assessed the group of them. None looked overly threatening, though one of them had a notably better kept blade than the others...though there was something almost definitely off with ALL of them as they muttered amongst themselves. They looked like they'd gone completely mad.

The one that appeared to be the leader stepped forward, attempting to explain the situation to Eris. They were just hungry? ...Okay, that HAD to be a load of wyvern shite. She'd seen hungry people before, wandering about the back alleys of larger towns and small villages since leaving Bern. None of them had ever gotten to the point where they were drooling like imbeciles and ready to eat a woman.

Granted that was preferable to the usual inclination of bandits...slightly?

"Seriously? You guys are turning to cannibalism? You really can't hunt or forage or anything at all?" There was a definite "flat" tone to her voice as she questioned them. It was, in a sense, the tone of both Eris' disbelief regarding the situation, as well as the tone of her resignation to that same situation. It was significantly more pathetic than she had determined...was it? Ugh, this was just a strange scenario.

Either way it looked to be that their hunger was genuinely the source of this skirmish. They were hungry and seemed to want to eat the woman, or at least move onto the town beyond her and eat the townspeople? Strange as it was, she wasn't about to just let that happen. With how terrible they were at lying, given that one of them snapped at the woman when she made a remark, there was no way they'd get away with sneaking into the town. They'd probably be dealt with rather harshly and swiftly by any guards that were in the area...if any WERE in the town at all.

"Seems so." Eris sighed, taking a few steps forward whilst spinning her lance between her hands, rolling her wrists to make the motions smooth. Once she was close enough she bent her knees and slid her right leg forward, keeping her spearhead forward but tilted slightly towards the ground. It was a slight alteration on the stance she'd practiced her whole life, but she found it offered her more opportunity. It was less predictable and left her far more ready to spring into action.

However...Eris still had minor reservations about the inevitable battle to come. Were these scumbags even worth killing? It could be considered as putting them out of their misery, but would they even resort to banditry if they weren't hungry? "I hope you can use that bow you've got there." Eris called out to the other lady, attempting to take charge as she usually did. "Maybe just...try to incapacitate them? If it's too much trouble then maybe we'll have to settle it the hard way."

Obviously Eris' immediate goal would be to reconvene with the archer woman. It was definitely better for them to be on the same side so Eris could defend her whilst she got some shots off. Unfortunately one of the bandits seemed to just give up on life as a whole, skipping towards Eris whilst swinging his axe like some sort of drugged up lumberjack. It was an assault that was hard to take seriously. So much so that Eris didn't even react to him for a second or two. Even his bandit friends looked shocked and ashamed.

Eris DID eventually react, though, and to the bandit's credit his swings were genuinely difficult to predict due to his apparent insanity. That said, they were WILDLY inaccurate, and he outright missed Eris' body almost completely once he actually came within range. Rather than impale him and be done with it Eris decided to follow through on the smidgen of pity she had for the brigand, bringing her right hand up over her shoulder and thus bringing the blunt end of her lance upwards beneath the bandit's chin, knocking his head back.

The ex-soldier planted her left boot down in front of her right one and followed up the motion with a sharp thrust of her spear's blunt end beneath the man's rib-cage, hoping to knock the wind out of him.

"Seriously?! Are you TRYING to get yourself killed?" Eris never thought the day would come where she was scolding her ENEMY. And yet here it was.

[Deleted]

"Yup! This bow's like my best friend. If it could talk, that'd be better, but oh well."

If only she knew some bows actually could talk.

She was all for the idea of keeping them alive and could pull it off if she avoided aiming for the head or other vital areas, but wasn't oblivious to the harsh reality that it was equally difficult to not kill them as well. Other than the bow and arrow specializing in hitting it's bulls-eye, Alyssa feared what remained of their aggressors' energy to fight was based off pure adrenaline going at full force. Their bellies rumbled, and so their bodies would be more sensitive and responsive to pain. Some of them really did look like they've been deprived of food for over an untold amount of weeks, Alyssa sort of impressed they're still standing.

Any injury she and the newcomer could inflict would be more effective than attacking the usual healthy person. But she could see the look of despair and desperation fixed upon their expressions — the ones with sanity still intact would hold a constant aggressive approach, which may benefit her newfound ally more, but would be bad for someone like her, who required to maintain a healthy distance at all times. Judging from that look in their opponents' eyes, Alyssa was more afraid of them trying to take a chomp out of her first before actually striking her with their weapons...

"Yeeeah, we'll see how that works out," Alyssa said to the soldier. "but hopefully it won't have to come to that — I don't want to hurt them, either. Still, being on a cannibal's dinner menu doesn't sound like the most... pleasant way to go. So yeah, I'll try, but if it gets too crazy, arrows to the knee won't cut it."

Didn't take any longer than a few seconds afterward to watch the axeman blindly charge in without a thought before the girl bodied the guy faster than he could realize he was turned over in the dirt. He didn't get up for a while, likely not able to comprehend what the young soldier was telling him. He had it coming to him, but the more Alyssa watched, the more her mindset changed towards the situation: she couldn't joke about this anymore. It was entirely too sad to see someone's mind completely break from the rest of their body failing on them. She remained bewildered by the fact that he could still move an axe around somewhat, for he appeared to be the skinniest of the bunch. He must have been much bigger, but probably the one who went without food for the longest.

"Mafabre, did yo just hit mi?" The axeman came to a slow rise, swinging his weapon again. "Cuz dat hurt, ya no."

While the man confronted the other woman again, Alyssa sighed — it wasn't one out of frustration, but one out of pity and sadness. The more she stood there being a bystander, the more heartbreaking it was to watch anymore; so much heartbreak that her arms began to move on their own, readying an arrow with a clear opening on the back of his skull. Was it the desire to bestow an act of kindness via a merciful end? Alyssa feared that the axeman in particular was beyond hungry; he was ill, both mentally and physically. Could he be fixed by just chowing down on some food at this point? Somehow, she doubted it.

But she couldn't bring herself to release the bowstring for the kill. This wasn't like feathering bandits who had it coming to them that she's killed in the past. No, this was more serious, and they needed a chance first, even if some of them seemed beyond salvation. Instead, her readied arrow was designated with a new target: an incoming mercenary with his sword ready to gut her. Alyssa twisted her body around, releasing the arrow as it pierced the man's shoulder before the tip of his blade could touch her. The other four began to close in on the two women afterward, allowing their rumbling stomachs to speak for them instead of words.

[Eris Coulson]

This was...just pathetic.

Here Eris was, ready to start rebuilding. Or at least to attempt to. To get back to being her old self, no, better, and start climbing towards a goal. But was this how it hard to start? Was this how she was to know she was ready? Taking down men so lost to their own hunger they acted like complete and utter fools? It was humiliating. At least in Bern she had been fighting soldiers. Sane men, willing to go to war. Stepping on their heads, their corpses, to reach her dream was one thing.

But these men?

"We do what's necessary then. If we can't afford to spare them, we kill them." Eris stated bluntly, watching as the axeman before her began to rise. He uttered some borderline nonsense, but Eris didn't bother taking the time to register it. Whatever conflicted emotions she had about this ordeal needed to be put aside, for their sake and hers. "This is the only warning you get, moron: stay down!"

Eris side-stepped the man's swing, the blade of his axe leaving a 'whoosh' in it's wake, and Eris readied her lance yet again. How much blood these men could afford to lose was likely lower than that of most men, but she could see just past him that the others were beginning to close in on not just her, but on the archer as well. Remembering her plan: to get to the archer and defend her, Eris decided she needed to do whatever it took to execute that plan.

The man raised his axe again, lacking the usual intent to kill or maim most would have in combat, swinging it less like a warrior and more like how a branch sways in the wind. Oh if it connected it would still do damage, possibly dent her armor and certainly cut through her padded tunic, but Eris wasn't about to let that happen. Instead she ducked and swung around the man's body, facing his left side before raising her lance, thrusting it into the side of his left knee. Bladed-end, this time.

(OOC: Forgot to ask how much control over the bandits I could take, so I'll just leave it at this for now xD)

[Deleted]

"Now would be an amazing time to wake up now..." Alyssa said under her breath, feeling the disbelief of her situation so strongly that the waving of hungry steel helped remind her of the reality. She wanted to believe it was a dream, but even her worst nightmares didn't have flesh-seeking mercenaries. Well, now it's a lovely addition to her current nightmares. The man she shot remained keeled over in the dirt while the other four rushed forth with a fiery lust for survival in their eyes.

Aaaand the other guy fighting her new little friend got dropped — again. One glance to the corner of her eye made her realize that he wouldn't get back up from such a brutal fall; and double so for the fact that he got struck... in the knee! She totally called it, except it wasn't an arrow. Eh. Taking a lance to the knee seemed just as effective.

"What is pain." The mumbling of the downed merc traveled softly in pain, but enough to be heard. Alyssa didn't even hear the guy scream, but no doubt every sensation of agony traveled within him. Was he so hungry and ill that he couldn't express simple emotions like pain? He wasn't getting back up again, regardless. All he could do was swing his weapon while stuck on his back, having the meat cleaver of an axe striking the dirt repeatedly — each strike slowing down as his mouth opened slow like a door, but his voice didn't exit properly. It was like all of his pains from the hunger, his wound and apparent illness impacted him all at once, but the shock and pain was too great to have any reactionary scream.

That gave Alyssa the excuse she needed to put him out of his misery, but she had other hungry dudes to worry about. She managed to evade the attacks hurled at her, albeit barely. Though a gasp of surprise escaped her — one of the mercenaries managed to grab hold of her arm, pressing his other hand against her head before taking a big chomp on her forearm.

"Dear lo—WAAAAAAH! WHAT IN THE UNHOLY MOTHERF—"

He sure was trying to sink his teeth into her skin so desperately, Alyssa feeling her skin being penetrated already. Only one thing came to mind to release herself from the bloodthirsty human fangs: she gave the man a brisk, forceful kick between the assailant's legs as he gave her arm a swift release, all before rolling in the dirt in unspeakable pain.

A true low blow; it's something she never liked doing, but she didn't want to get eaten, so honor, fairness and all that jazz didn't apply to her at that specific moment. Alyssa tried to compose herself before rushing over to the young soldier's side.

"Uuuuuuugh...! Hope he didn't have rabies..." She said, arm twitching as the few teeth holes leaked a bit of blood.

[Eris Coulson]

There was still a mild twinge of guilt in Eris, for all the frustration these starving buffoons were causing her. With a grunt she hefted her lance from the downed merc's knee, and turned her gaze up and winced. Her impromptu ally for this ludicrous battle had been ah...bitten, by one of the idiots, but she managed to free herself just fine all the same.

The man crumpled from the fierce kick, though the motion was weirdly slow. Did he even actually feel the pain? Either way Eris...jogged...over in to her bow-wielding “friend” and gave the mercenary a hard kick to the side of the head, a delayed “oof” escaping his throat as he fell onto his side.

“All right. Just ah...stick behind me, yeah? I don't really want to kill any more of them if we can help it, but if they manage to slip by me and try to take another nibble then do what you have to do.”

Everything Eris had just said sounded ridiculous coming from her mouth, but she had to treat it seriously. These were still human lives at stake here, and she didn't know what these men were like when they were sane. Could be better folks than she ever was for all she knew. But that didn't mean she was about to take a serious wound for them, or let someone else for that matter.

One had been unfortunately felled now, and another was on the ground and probably not getting up any time soon. That left three men standing and armed. Two of them staggered there way over to Eris, weapons raised lazily as they began to salivate. Her brow twitched, revolted at the idea of being viewed as...“meat”.

“Heeeeeey, d'you wanna help us grab the one behind you?”

“Yeeeeeeah. She looks more...filling...”

...Wait, was that a-

Oh hell no.

“Don't kill. Don't kill. Don't kill...” Eris chanted between gritted teeth, her fingers tightening on the shaft of her lance. She didn't know which made her more furious: their comments or the fact that she was so BOTHERED by them. These weren't even SANE men.

"She's so pluuuuump~"

"Juuuuuicyyyyyy~"

Eris swung her lance wide, extending the spearhead past the ears of the man on her right, before slamming the shaft of her weapon into the side of his head. The result was almost comical, as the man's entire body tilted to the left, his head connecting with the chin of the man on his right.

“Keep talking like that and the only thing you're going to be filled with is my lance!” Eris spat, cheeks flushed with anger. The two men toppled to the ground, sprawled out atop each other, and let out grunts and groans of confusion and pain. The third had managed to slip around Eris, though, no doubt due to her own insecure outburst.

[Deleted]

You know, Alyssa wasn't exactly sure what she was looking at anymore. Either she was still participating in one of life's unfortunate struggles for survival, or she didn't realize she was thrown into a freakish comedy show with the sickest sense of humor. Well, at least the crap was distracting her enough from her bite wounds. The deep holes from her attacker's teeth pierced her smooth skin like knives, not even surprised herself that the bleeding wouldn't stop anytime soon. Taking advantage of the... situation, she bandaged her arm with spare wraps in her tiny purse-like bag, grateful she still had the thing tied to her waste. No real time to apply a vulnerary, more concerned for keeping the damned wound from being exposed to take proper care of it later.

Still, she'd be more inclined to feel bad for the two saps that got thwapped silly by her ally's lance, if they didn't deserve every stream of pain traveling through their bodies — you know, if they actually felt it. Sure, they looked to be in pain, but she had the distinct feeling that the agony of their rumbling stomachs overpowered their physical injuries. That, and the younger ally of hers seemed... angry? Well, she had every right to be, but blonde typhoon had a hunch that there was much more to it — the idiotic statements from the men struck some kind of nerve.

While she was ready to make some out-of-place joke, Alyssa kept her trap zipped when she saw the third retard dashing at her like a coyote chasing a road runner... Okay, something seemed off about that one, but digressing from that train of thought felt more preferable, lest she wanted to be a successful meal for her assailant.

"Nope to the highest caliber." Alyssa said, drawing her arrow before the man could get close.

She unleashed an arrow aimed for his shoulder, but unfortunately for the archer, she just HAD to get the one guy who seemed decently skilled than the others seeking out her flesh; how he effortlessly deflected her arrow with the precision of some master swordsman with his diagonal swipe showed that either she just sucked really bad, or this guy was an actual professional mercenary before his mind warped into the twisted desire to feast on the flesh of unsuspecting women.

Welp, if she couldn't get him while he was on guard, she had to feather him when he dropped it. Letting him get CLOSER wasn't a good idea, but he was at least twice as fast as she was, not making much of a difference on any kind of escape tactics in mind. Instead, it was time to put some of that martial arts training she totally allowed to go unused to proper use. She was at least good at dodging and using her somewhat strong legs to her advantage, managing to evade the bloodthirsty blade in the instances he swung it at her. But damn, why did he have to be so good? She dodged, but couldn't expose any openings he had.

Welp, Plan B!

"Wah! That is like the nastiest roach I've ever seen!" Alyssa directed her head and eyes downward, causing the man to briefly look downward himself before Alyssa smirked, delivering a swift, flexible kick to the side of his neck. "Psyyyyyyche~!"

Not the most honorable, but screw honor. She threw that in the trash can the moment the idiot bit her earlier, not wanting to experience that again. She readied another arrow as the man staggered, releasing it with a successful bulls-eye to the previously targeted shoulder, hoping to immobilize him and gain more distance. Though the woman's jaw nearly dropped when the man grunted, merely grabbing the arrow and forcing it out his shoulder as a deranged grin remained plastered on his face.

"H-Heeeelp~!" Alyssa shrieked with an uncomfortable smile, half crept the hell out and the other half just wondering what kind of retarded ride she's on.

[Eris Coulson]

Really, Eris probably should have figured out that she was about to lose a war of attrition. The men had been far more confused than pained, given the rumbling roars of their stomachs. No doubt the uncomfortable sensation of their intestines and stomach constricting against themselves was far more painful than a few whacks of her lance, and yet Eris seemed determined to waste her valuable energy nonetheless.

“Perverts! Filth! Bastards!” She kept on shouting out insults and expletives as she brought the shaft of her lance down upon the men time and time again. At first they reacted to the battering as sane people would, but then they seemed to remember that they were, in fact, not sane people. Steadily they began to force themselves onto their feet, and Eris' good eye twitched in rage.

Was she seriously going to have to kill them? If they kept on being so damned inconvenient then it was honestly the only way to go. Eris didn't have all day to waste time and energy on men who walked the thin line of death as it was.

Before she had the luxury of truly making that decision, though, she heard her archer friend let out a shriek. In fact, she hadn't been shooting at the men Eris had been beating down on whatsoever...had she grown lazy or skittish? Unwilling to finish the job in earnest? Really they...wait, weren't there three others?

Crap.

Eris whirled around and saw another one of the demented approaching her impromptu ally. Eris supposed in the midst of her righteous fury one of them had stumbled past her. Some guard she was, but then again it wasn't like Alyssa was paying her. Uh, either way, she probably needed to help the poor archer.

So Eris stepped after the lumbering moron and drove her lance into the back of his knee. He barely let out a grunt, despite her infliction of a genuinely crippling injury, to the point where the blade of her freaking lance had jutted through the soft tissue just below the man's kneecap, and staggered before slowly forced to the ground. This was what they had to do. Inflict injuries that didn't rely on pain to immobilize. If they weren't going to kill them then they had to cripple them.

“Cover my back! If the other two come up behind me then shoot 'em! In the knees or legs if you can.” Eris managed to blurt out whilst she stepped down on her target's calf. Her eye shot open wide as he let his back curl, bending over so that he could face her, upside down, with a look of confusion and hunger. Everything about his position and expression was so...abnormal, it sent a chill through the redhead's spine.

“Do I get to eat now?”

“You can eat crap for all I care!” Eris formed a fist and drove it into the side of the man's head as hard as she could. God this went from idiotic to straight up creepy.