Ebony stood in front of the elf Lucian, who was leaning against a tree, dazed and bleeding from the ears, placing herself between him and the banshee and the necrophage that wanted to feast on their group of three.
"Damn bitch… I don't know how you managed to recover from my magic… but you're only delaying the inevitable," the banshee said as she leapt with her bare feet and hid herself among the treetops.
The necrophage shook its head, recovering from Ebony's blow. At that moment, the blonde took advantage of the confusion and handed the elf a small glass bottle with a red liquid inside.
"Drink it quick, pointy-ears, it's a healing potion. It might not help with the stun effect, but it'll bring your hearing back," Ebony said with a smile on her face, but her companion's expression was pure confusion.
"Huh? Did you say something?" Lucian couldn't hear anything.
Ebony, with an angry expression, made a gesture with her hand and thumb, trying to explain that he had to drink the bottle.
At that moment, the necrophage lunged at Ebony; she barely managed to react in time to block with her shield.
Lucian wasted no more time and finally drank the potion. Instantly, a greenish glow emanated from his body, healing his ears.
However, just as he pulled out the knives between the fingers of both hands again, another sound echoed from behind the trees.
{{Dark Magic}}
{{Phantom Music: Song of Bones}}
At that moment, eight living skeletons began to emerge from among the trees. They held rusted swords in their bony hands, and in every socket where an eye once was, a small purple flame now burned.
The skeletons charged at Lucian without fear of the campfire's glow, which weakened with every passing second, but the elf reacted faster and hurled four knives into the ground where the skeletons stood.
{{Forest Magic: Man-Eating Roots}}
From each point where a knife had landed, a magic circle began to glow, and in an instant roots burst from the ground, trapping one skeleton per circle.
The ground started to crack, and the roots dragged the skeletons downward, squeezing their bodies so hard that their bones shattered, but four skeletons still remained and rushed toward Lucian.
He prepared himself in a combat stance, gripping the wooden staff he carried at his belt, getting ready to use his summoning technique.
But at that very moment, the banshee let out a deafening scream that shattered his concentration.
{{Dark Magic: Cry of Pain}}
The skeletons took advantage of the moment and tried to stab the elf, but with clumsy agility he moved his body, trying to dodge each attack.
"Damn it! AHHH!" the elf shouted from the pain in his ears; unlike the flute's music, this sound was horrific, especially for someone of his species with incredibly sharp hearing.
Ebony watched as her companion endured the assaults of his enemies. She could withstand the necrophage's attacks without any problem, but only withstand them.
The fleshy body of her opponent didn't allow her to move even an inch to help her companion.
The banshee stopped screaming from the treetops; she needed to rest her throat.
"(Good, the damn thing already burned her skill, it has a cooldown of at least five minutes, and her flute spell will take at least twenty, we have to finish her fast)," Ebony thought as she endured each dull blow from the necrophage.
"Ha ha ha, keep holding on, I wanna see how long you trash stay alive!" the banshee shouted with that thick, masculine, raspy voice.
At that moment, the skeletons had cornered Lucian against a tree. He only had the tree branch he used to summon his sword, but without enough concentration it was useless against iron swords, even rusted ones.
But then Lucian, despite the pain still lingering in his ears from the banshee's scream, leapt up into the treetops.
"Up here it's just you and me, pale lady, I hope you're ready," the elf said, trying to focus his vision as he caught a glimpse of the dead woman's white dress, but she began to laugh and move with incredible speed.
Lucian tried to follow her movements, but it was impossible in such darkness, so he decided to do something different.
"I don't have to see you to catch you, witch!" Lucian shouted before jumping even higher than the tree he was on. From that height, almost floating above the forest, he began to chant a spell in the elven tongue.
{{Spiritual Magic: Field of Flowers}}
At that moment, the trees in the forest that he had previously marked with his blood began to glow with magic circles that started connecting, forming a circumference.
Each mark had been carefully placed to form a massive circle surrounding the place where they would spend the night. Suddenly, flowers began to bloom all over the ground and even among the leaves of the trees.
The flowers were white and released a magical pollen that allowed the spell's user to locate any living or dead being within its domain.
"Let's see how you get out of this, damn bitch!" Lucian shouted as he began hurling all the knives he had left at the pale woman.
From the heights, a rain of fifteen knives descended, quickly striking the woman's body and knocking her down, ending with her pinned to the ground as each knife, glowing with magic, summoned roots that bound the banshee.
"Damn half-elf! You're nothing but the scraps of your ancestors and a pariah to your own kind! I'll kill you!" the banshee screamed in fury as she struggled against the roots.
Only a few minutes remained before she could recover her scream, and Ebony knew it, but far from worrying, she broke into a smile.
"(Good job, pointy-ears!)," the blonde thought before dodging the necrophage's furious blow, delivered without a shred of awareness.
Her opponent charged clumsily, smashing the trunk of a tree that ended up collapsing onto its own body. It wouldn't kill it, but it gave the girl a few seconds of advantage.
Ebony had only an instant to think. She had to attack either the necrophage or the banshee, but after a quick consideration, she moved toward the defenseless body of the dead woman.
"Look, I don't blame you, it must be hard being dead and eternally hungry… Your kind is complicated… But believe it or not, I understand you at least a little," the blonde said as she raised her massive shield above her head.
"Go fuck yourself, you damn whore! You're just a slut who's gonna die in a few sec—" The banshee was interrupted by a root that covered her mouth, courtesy of Lucian, who had landed on the branch of a nearby tree.
"Say hi to the cat for me if he's on the other side," Ebony said before closing her eyes, sensing the unnatural presence of the skeletons lunging to kill her, and when they were a step away from ending her life, she opened her eyes, now glowing with magic.
{{Armament Magic}}
{{Thunder Shield: Grand Rumbling}}
She brought the shield down in a rush, slamming it into the banshee's head, and on impact a magic circle flared across the ground as lightning burst from the collision, tearing apart the surrounding earth.