Fierce Battle

Katarina, who had quietly focused on weakening the enemy, fell into a strange frenzy when the Attacker appeared.

Annan doubted it was because she wanted to protect him.

"Your sword!"

The weight in his hand reminded Annan that he was still holding her longsword, and he called after her. Then he saw Katarina bite into her palm, pull a length of ulna from the flesh, and charge the Attacker leader through a mist of blood, growling. The man had emerged from the bushes in Plate Armor, gripping a greatsword—the Warrior.

Annan understood where Katarina's wounds had come from.

"Protect Lord Annan!" Francois shouted, making sure Annan would remember him.

Della seemed to blend into the shadows. Though she stood right beside him, Annan kept overlooking her.

Clang—

A ringing in his ears snapped Annan back to his senses. Klein had raised his Fine Steel Shield to block an Arrows aimed at him.

Katarina took Klein's place against the Attacker leader. With no protection, she was soon covered in wounds, yet she swung her bone spike with mounting fervor. Her blood spattered the leader, and he backed away in fear, as though he were the one at death's door.

Francois had rushed out of the clearing the moment the Attacker appeared, using the tangled trees to harry them. But with his attention fixed on the archers in the woods, he could not do much damage.

Della was the one killing them. She sprang from shadows no one had noticed and slit an Attacker's throat with an elegance no one saw coming. Then she vanished again, darting between bushes and even the Attackers' own shadows to reach her next target. She moved too fast for them to say, "Oh God, I've been killed."

"Knight, protect me!"

Michael suddenly called out, cast a