Blood And Iron Part 2

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 12, Post Number 297

-Nebdoui, early afternoon-

Riding on the back of the Winged Lion, Leona touched down just outside of her home village of Nebdoui. Today she was here to help address the issue of the village's dwindling iron ore supplies, hopefully once and for all. Nebdoui had received a resupply of iron ore courtesy of a caravan from the Tri-City Caravan Company, but the resupply had strained the village's budget almost to the breaking point and what was delivered would only last for three weeks at most. The iron ore mine had to be retaken from The Golden Band now rather than later. Leona dispelled her summon ,and straightened her skirt, and readjusted her backpack of supplies, then started walking towards the village to meet with Chief Elijah, the one who had requested that she undertake this desperate mission.

Wearing her green, white and gold outfit with Adaptable Armor, Argent Gloves, and Silver Longsword on her left hip, Leona was loaded for bear. She would have to be fully equipped because her journey was likely going to be a solitary one. Nebdoui's allies were in no shape to assist them and Leonidas could not be spared to go with her this time since he would be needed to craft weapons for Berreb and defend the village should it fall under attack while Leona was absent. Leona heard the sound of hammer meeting metal and knew that Leonidas was hard at work crafting weapons for Berreb, so she left him alone and made a beeline for Chief Elijah's tent. There she hoped to find out if Regudo's scouts had learned anything new about The Golden Band since their last encounter weeks ago.

Leona moved the flap aside and entered Chief Elijah's tent, where the chief and her mother were waiting for her.

-Inside Chief Elijah's tent-

"Hello Leona. As I told you in the letter I sent to your guild hall, the iron ore situation is dire. In fact, it's reached a critical point. We received a resupply from a caravan company based out of the Tri-Council City, but we can't afford to buy another one. We need you to retake the iron mine NOW." Chief Elijah told Leona in no uncertain terms. The chief's facial expression indicated that he knew that he might be sending the Wizard Saint and hometown heroine to her death. Sophia was not happy either.

"Our allies can't send any men to help us. I hate to say this, but there's no choice. You'll have to undertake this mission alone." Chief Elijah confirmed what Leona had suspected. Sophia recoiled like she had just been hit by a hammer to the stomach. Leona simply took a deep breath.

"All right then." Leona answered laconically. Silence filled the tent as the three occupants reached for something to say. After twenty seconds Leona came up with a question.

"Before I go, I have a question. Have Regudo's scouts learned anything new about this Golden Band since last time?" Leona asked him. The chief nodded. Things looked bleak for Nebdoui. With no prospect of help, Leona would be going up against daunting odds with only what she had with her, which was her weapons, her armor, and her magic. At this point the Wizard Saint would take any good news that she could get.

"Yes. Just a couple of weeks ago they learned that another mage had done a lot of damage to their fortifications with explosive weaponry. Since then The Golden Band and the Crimson Sashes have clashed again on at least one occasion. The Golden Band withstood the attack, but without their fortifications they're vulnerable." He answered. Leona gave a small smile. The situation was not completely hopeless, just very difficult. It was time to prove to the world how Leona had earned the title of Wizard Saint of Courage.

"OK, Chief. I'm about to leave for the iron mine now." Leona told him and turned around to leave the tent.

"Good luck Leona." Chief Elijah wished her. Leona strode out of the tent and Sophia followed right behind her.

-Outside Chief Elijah's tent-

Leona strode out of the chief's tent, past most of the tents, and towards the village outskirts. She knew what she had to do. All that remained was to do it.

"Leona, wait!" Sophia called to her daughter just as she passed by Leonidas' tent. Leona could hear the clanging of hammer on metal stop and saw the tent flap open from within. A sweating Leonidas walked towards them clad in blacksmith attire and holding a blacksmith's hammer.

"I don't have long, but I can spare a minute or two. What is it?" Leona asked her mother.

"I know that there's no choice in the matter. I can't stop you from doing this because the village needs you now more than it ever has. I can't stop you because you're a Wizard Saint." Sophia started. She blinked rapidly to fight back tears.

"But do one thing for me, Leona. Just... be careful out there. Please." Sophia requested before turning away, unable to keep from crying any longer. Leonidas approached his younger sister and spoke to her.

"I can't go with you this time, so be careful." Leonidas said simply. He was not one for lengthy speeches, but when he did say something it had meaning behind it.

"OK. I'll be careful out there." Leona assured them before walking to the village outskirts and pausing just short of where she had landed earlier, then summoning the Winged Lion for transport across the desert. Flying on its back would be a lot faster than walking. She needed to save energy for the fight with The Golden Band that would take place once she reached the iron mine.

[Post Word Count: 1,026]
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-Desierto, one hour later-

Leona had been flying at 10 meters in altitude on the back of her Winged for the better part of an hour, heading towards the iron mine without pause. Leona had considered just flying directly there and thus arriving with plenty of energy for the fight and the element of surprise on her side, but she could not turn a blind eye towards bandit activity in the desert. Instead of ignoring what was going on and leaving innocent people to the mercy of outlaws, she would take time and energy to deal with any bandit activity she came across and save anyone she could. That was her responsibility as a native of Desierto and as a Wizard Saint.

Leona soared above the desert sand and was passing over some sand dunes when she noticed a band of riders over fifteen strong dressed in black with red sashes galloping towards a smaller group of people who had noticed the oncoming bandits but presumably did not have weapons because the latter did not try to defend themselves. This was a situation where her intervention was necessary. For once Leona would be in time to save lives instead of arriving to the scene of a massacre. Leona mentally called upon some backup in the form of her summons.

"SKY CHAMPION SUMMON!" Leona thought. A few moments later her faithful green-clad summon appeared at her side as she flew to the rescue.

"What would you ask of me?" Rafale asked.

"Go after those Crimson Sashes! Fly down the middle of their formation and break 'em up for me!" Leona instructed him. Rafale nodded and his violet energy blades flared to life as he effortlessly flew ahead of his mistress to do her bidding. Leona watched the green-clad summon fly in front of the fleeing people and pass by them, then bank right and zoom into the middle of the Crimson Sashes with energy blades extended. The startled outlaws broke formation to allow the summon to pass through, allowing Leona the opportunity to get into position for her own attack. Leona had the Winged Lion land behind the fleeing people and dismounted upon landing, barring the path of the Crimson Sashes.

Leona drew her Silver Longsword and stood her ground as three of the riders broke away from their fellows to deal with the blonde mage who dared interfere with them. She simply raised her left hand and fired a Wind Blast that sent their horses rearing up and dumping the unprepared riders out of their saddles. While she watched the dismounted outlaws she mentally summoned Tempest Avian to help her deal with the rest before they could reorganize. They were busy trying to fend off Rafale, but even he could not hold off twelve determined enemies indefinitely.

"TEMPEST AVIAN!" Leona telepathically summoned the portly but powerful metallic owl to battle. It appeared in the center of a tornado and descended to the ground on its metallic wings, landing beside Leona.

"What do you need?" Tempest Avian asked her.

"Fly above the Crimson Sashes, then use Steel Flechettes!" Leona commanded. The metallic owl did as instructed and Leona saw that Rafale was still bedeviling the raiders. He should get clear of the area before Tempest Avian used Steel Flechettes to coat the area in sharp metal projectiles. Leona looked up and saw the owl hovering in position.

"Rafale, get clear!" Leona ordered him. The swift summon immediately vacated the immediate area just as Tempest Avian sprayed the area in Steel Flechettes. Five of the raiders were killed by steel projectiles to the top of the head and three more were wounded, but all of their horses were thrown into confusion. The Crimson Sashes struggled to maintain control of their horses; a hapless few were thrown off, causing the group to lose cohesion as their horses ran away and the riderless men vainly chased them down.

With a third of their force dead and almost half of them without horses, the Crimson Sashes decided to withdraw for the time being. Those who were still on horseback picked up their colleagues and went towards the direction from whence they came, riding hard until they were just specks on the horizon. Leona's summons stood around her in a defensive formation while their mistress looked for the people she had rescued. She looked towards the direction they were riding in and did not see any sign of them. Presumably they had kept riding in the direction they thought would take them to safety and she could not really blame them.

If she had any sense she would not have gone flying in to fight the Crimson Sashes with just two summons.

It was a good thing that her summons were powerful enough to compensate for their small numbers. It was also good that Tempest Avian had a powerful crowd control ability that let him fight groups of enemies. Seeing that the people she had rescued had kept going, Leona wordlessly approached the Winged Lion and he knelt to let her board. Leona climbed on his back and was aloft only moments later. She would soon be back on the trail to the iron mine.

[Post Word Count: 911]
[Total Word Count: 1,937/12,500]

-Desierto, forty minutes later-

With Sky Champion Rafale and Tempest Avian flying on each side of her as escorts, Leona had made up for lost time and was back on the trail to the iron mine she needed to liberate for Nebdoui. She hoped that the people she had rescued from the Crimson Sashes had managed to make it to somewhere safe. She did not know and she did not have the time to go back and check on their well-being. The Wizard Saint would just have to hope for the best and keep going.

As she soared above the desert Leona kept an eye on the ground in case more people needed her help. So far neither she nor her summons had seen anyone in trouble, so they kept going towards their destination. Flying to the iron mine was one of the smarter ideas Leona had had in awhile because she saved a lot of time and energy that would have otherwise been consumed by walking. However, there was one downside to flying above the desert floor.

She was directly exposed to the punishing rays of the sun above.

Though the wind in her face helped cool her off somewhat and her Adaptable Armor was breathable, she was still getting hot. Maybe she needed to land and cool off for awhile before continuing her journey. Spotting a suitable clearing just off the side of a well-worn "path" in the sand, Leona telepathically ordered the Winged Lion to land. He started to descend and turn right to lose speed, then landed on the sand. His wings flared majestically skyward and Leona dismounted her faithful transport.

With Rafale flying overhead and Tempest Avian standing beside her Leona took off her backpack and fished out her beat-up metal canteen of water to drink from. The metal of the canteen was rapidly heating up from exposure to the sun, so Leona drank from it quickly, recapped it, and put it in her backpack so that it might cool down a little before she drank from it again. While the Wizard Saint waited for her canteen to cool down she was approached by a quartet of burgundy-clad riders with swords drawn. They were not from the Crimson Sashes because they did not wear all black plus the necessary sash to mark them, so they must have been run-of-the-mill bandits.

"Give us all of your Jewels! NOW!" Their leader, a tall, lanky man with burgundy face coverings, ordered the blonde. Leona blinked and tried to find something to say to them that would dissuade them from doing something so stupid as to try and rob a Wizard Saint. She got the impression that they did not know who they were dealing with. The four men dismounted their horses and moved in to try and surround her, but Tempest Avian stepped between them and her.

"Do you know who it is you're dealing with?" Tempest Avian asked them incredulously. The four men paused in place and looked at each other because they did not expect the rotund humanoid owl to talk to them. His speaking to them gave them second thoughts, second thoughts that were reinforced by the Winged Lion walking to Leona's left and approaching the men with bared fangs.

"You're dealing with Leona Jarnefeldt, the Wizard Saint of Courage!" Tempest Avian informed them. That bit of information made them take a step back, then two steps. They took another step back when the blonde approached them and Rafale landed to the left of the Winged Lion.

"You're... you're Leona Jarnefeldt? The Wizard Saint of Courage? You're the one who's been killing off the Crimson Sashes and the slavers?" The leader of the would-be robbers asked her. She could tell that the burgundy bandits were beginning to realize that they were way out of their league.

"Yeah." Leona answered tersely, making eye contact with him and holding it. The bandits took another step back and tension built as the Wizard Saint waited to see whether they would attack or retreat. They appeared to consider trying their luck, but then they backed away in three rapid steps and turned, breaking into a full run.

"IT'S NOT WORTH IT! LET'S GET OUTTA HERE!" The leader commanded. His men were way ahead of him; they had already mounted their horses and spurred them away just as the lanky man climbed into the saddle. Seeing that the quartet were in retreat, Leona declined to pursue them and turned back to her summons, who watched the burgundy bandits ride out of sight. She fished out her canteen again and took another drink of lukewarm water. She did not care for the taste of it, but out in the desert having lukewarm water beat having no water at all.

Leona took another drink of it before putting it away and stretching her legs. She had a few more hours of flight time ahead of her before she would arrive at the iron mine, so it was best that she get going now. The Winged Lion read her mind and allowed her to board. Leona climbed on and the king of the sky took off with Rafale and Tempest Avian following just behind. With that oddly amusing distraction behind her the Wizard Saint was airborne and en route to her destination.

[Post Word Count: 926]
[Total Word Count: 2,863/12,500]

-One hour and thirty-five minutes later-

Leona thought back to her encounter with the burgundy bandits and hoped that she would not regret letting them live. Part of her told her that she should have eliminated them, but the other half was glad that she had gotten out of one encounter without having to kill anyone. She would more than make up the difference once she got to the iron mine and fought the force occupying it, but in the meantime she took solace in the fact that she had not yet become the remorseless and insatiable killer the spirits in Hargeon Town had made her out to be. There was still hope for the Wizard Saint. She would need hope if she was to keep the worst of the negative thoughts at bay.

She would also need hope to complete this vital mission for her village.

The odds facing her were daunting. Leona was the only one who could liberate the iron ore needed to keep Nebdoui alive just a little while longer. Standing in her path were an unknown number of enemies who had fought the Crimson Sashes to a stand still. All of those enemies were not going to let Leona just waltz in and take the mine back. They would fight to the death to maintain control over the valuable iron ore. They would also fight for the chance to make a name for themselves by killing the Wizard Saint who had plagued them for the better part of a year.

Leona felt the wind blow through her hair as she sped to her destination. It had been over an hour since the encounter with the burgundy bandits and she was making good time. If her luck held and she did not encounter any more distractions she could make it to the outlaw camp just before nightfall. With even more luck she could find a safe and smart way to fight them despite the enormous numerical disadvantage she would be at once battle started. She could have four summons out at once; while the summons were rather strong, the enemy could bring many times that number to the fight and overwhelm them with sheer numbers.

The Wizard Saint desperately tried to think of a way to level the playing field against the horde of enemies that she was sure to face. Her Wind Strike Magic was powerful, but it was best suited to one-on-one fights and she would be facing multiple opponents. Her only crowd control abilities were Wind Blast and Tempest Avian's Steel Flechettes. She needed something else that could take out multiple enemies, but what else did she have?

Aside from Tempest Avian, none of Leona's summons had any abilities that could hit multiple targets. That meant that the metallic owl would be in the battle by default, but Tempest Avian and Leona could not carry the fight by themselves. The Wizard Saint needed to think of a good team of summons to complement the owl. Two of the main criteria would be speed and power because Leona needed to win and win fast before she was overwhelmed by numbers.

Sky Champion Rafale had speed and power on his side. So did the Winged Lion, but one factor against using him was that he was also Leona's main means of transportation. If the odds became too great even for Leona to beat and she needed a quick escape, the Winged Lion would need to be in good shape. Who else could she use?

There was always her old standby the Harpy Sisters. They moved decently fast and hit hard. There were also three of them, which allowed them to break up formations and harass large numbers of enemies, thus allowing Leona to fight enemies in smaller, more manageable groups. However, she could not have the Harpy Sisters, Tempest Avian, and Sky Champion Rafale active at the same time. With Tempest Avian the only guaranteed choice, Leona needed to choose between the sisters or a combination of Rafale, the Winged Lion, and the Griffon.

Leona's efforts to put together the right team for the fight were interrupted by the need to take another break from flying. She telepathically ordered the Winged Lion to set down in a sandy clearing and he began to slow down before banking right. Twenty-five seconds later and Leona was safely on the ground with Tempest Avian and Rafale standing protectively on each side of their mistress.

The Adaptable Armor needed to come off NOW. It had gotten so hot that it was uncomfortable to wear for any longer, so Leona began struggling to take it off. The blonde succeeded in removing it after about a minute of struggling and stood with it in her hands as the mildly cooler desert wind blew across her body. The minor difference in temperature began to slightly cool the Wizard Saint down and she felt a sense of relief. Leona had just closed her eyes for a moment when an arrow landed to her left, causing her to shriek in surprise. The arrival of twenty Crimson Sashes longing for her blood proved that taking off armor in Central Desierto was a bad idea.

"Damn!" Leona cursed while her summons took flight to defend her. There was no time to put the armor back on, so she would just have to fight without it. Leona dropped the armor onto the sand and drew her Silver Longsword. It was time to fight her oldest and most dangerous enemies for the second time today.

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[Total Word Count: 3,807/12,500]

While the Winged Lion went after the horsemen and Tempest Avian went after the horse archers, Leona stood her ground as the first of the riders approached with swords drawn and another volley of arrows descended on her. She dodged the arrows and fired a Wind Blast to knock a tightly packed quartet of Crimson Sashes off of their horses and force them into hand-to-hand combat. Leona started to rush the men before they could get up when a hail of arrows landed between her and the dismounted men; she paused to avoid getting hit and the delay cost her just enough time for the men to get to their feet and stand ready to meet her. Leona pressed on and engaged the first of the men in a sword fight.

The two locked blades and Leona freed up her left hand long enough to hit him in the face with a Mach Jab, which broke the lock and allowed her to decapitate him with a one-handed horizontal slash before the other three attacked as a team. Leona hit with with a Mach Straight and knocked him back but had to dodge for her life as arrows rained down around her and the other two men pressed their advantage. The Crimson Sashes had gotten their act together between now and the last time they had met, which was back when she had helped Theo explore the desert temple in search of something important to him. Then Leona looked at her opponents and noticed that the three men opposing her wore a pin of crossed swords on their sashes. That meant that they were among the best soldiers the Crimson Sashes could field.

Sky Champion Rafale dove down to attack, but the two quickly ducked under the energy blade and attacked Leona as he banked left and started to come around for another pass. Leona blocked both their swords and was forced to give ground when another volley of arrows whistled her way. The pair quickly closed the distance and gave her a taste of her own medicine when one of them hit her in the mouth with a fist and sent her staggering. Sky Champion Rafale dove in and slammed into one with his body, giving her an opening to stab the other man through the chest as he raised his sword arm to attack. The Wizard Saint took it and killed him before the blade could come down on her right shoulder.

Leona quickly pulled the blade out and was knocked to the ground by a tackle from the man she had hit with the Mach Straight. While Rafale clashed with the second man the third Crimson Sash drew a knife from his boot and tried to ram it through the blonde's forehead before she could recover from the tackle. Her hands caught his wrists and caught the knife a few inches short of her forehead, then diverted its point to the sand and perilously close to her left ear. The man dropped the knife, broke free from her grip, and straddled her waist before he rained punches on her; he got in four solid hits to the face before a violet energy blade punched through his back and came out of his chest. He groaned before falling over to the right, freeing the Wizard Saint to get to her feet and take the fight to the rest of the Crimson Sashes.

"Thanks for the save, Rafale." Leona thanked Rafale while wiping the blood from her bottom lip. Those elite soldiers were a lot more challenging than the rank-and-file Crimson Sashes because of their skill and teamwork. They worked as a cohesive team and could hit hard once they closed the range with her.

"It is no problem, Mistress. Our colleagues need our help to deal with the rest of our opponents." Rafale accepted the gratitude before reminding her that there was more fighting to be done. Leona retrieved her sword and hurried to the aid of the Winged Lion, who had taken down two of the horsemen but was surrounded by another four with no way out. Tempest Avian had killed three of the horse archers with his Steel Flechettes but could not hit the remaining men, who dodged his attacks with ease and fired arrows at him.

Leona sprinted to the rescue of the Winged Lion, stopping and firing a Wind Bullet that knocked one of his tormentors from the saddle. The Winged Lion pounced on the hapless man and silenced him with a heavy paw across the face, causing the other three to back away in fear. Rafale flew in and decapitated one of them with a sword swipe as he flew by, dropping the number of active enemies to two. The survivors took notice of their evaporating advantage and swiftly fled before Leona and her two summons could kill them all.

"The horse archers are disengaging!" Tempest Avian reported. The surviving archers fired one last volley of arrows and turned to join their fellows in retreat. Leona was still a bit dazed from the punches to the face, so she was unable to pursue them. Besides, their retreat was most likely them using the classic tactic of a feigned retreat. They were hoping to lure her into chasing them only to have her rush headlong an ambush from a reserve force of Crimson Sashes.

Leona wanted to eliminate as many of them as she could, but she was not dumb enough to chase them into an obvious ambush. She would let them go for now and resume her journey to the iron mine. She was a bit tired from the fighting and needed to recover before attempting to retake the iron mine from its outlaw occupiers. Leona put away her sword, recovered her Adaptable Armor and put it on, then climbed onto the Winged Lion to resume her mission. Nebdoui was counting on her to pull through for them in a desperate time.

[Post Word Count: 1,012]
[Total Word Count: 4,819/12,500]

-Central Desierto, three hours later-

Leona was nearing the end of her lengthy journey, but she still had another hour of travel to go before she reached her destination and the difficult battle that would be waiting for her there. The odds would be stacked against her because the slavers were numerous and battle-hardened and she would be fighting them on their home turf. She also did not know if they had allies among the other outlaws who they could call upon for help if Leona somehow got the upper hand over them. The prospect of more outlaws arriving after dealing with the slavers was not one she wanted to face, but the prospect of reinforcements being called in was a possibility. Leona would just have to deal with whatever came her way.

Leona thought about what was going to happen once she got to the mine because the challenge did not end once she endured the desert and landed outside their compound.

First, Leona would have to get past the fortifications and fight its occupants alone. Second, if she managed to defeat them and any reinforcements they called in, she would then have to get word of her success back to Nebdoui. Third, she would have to defend the mine from all attackers until help got there... if it ever did. The allied villages were occupied with their own troubles and could not spare any men, so where would help come from? The Sultan's army?

Leona was not sure if she had enough favors built up to call in a favor of that magnitude and was afraid that calling in the favor would be a Faustian bargain.

The Sultan might want servitude for life in exchange for pulling her fat out of the fire... or he could demand much more than that. He could demand the iron mine for his own property and leave Nebdoui out in the cold and no better off than it was before Leona undertook the mission. The Wizard Saint did not know what to do past getting to the mine and liberating it from the slavers who exploited its resources. She was not much of a long-term planner but instead lived in the moment and flew by the seat of her pants. She would need to learn how to plan for the long term if she survived this battle.

Leona needed to take one last break before they reached their destination, but it was more a break for her mind than for her body. Her legs were tired and she needed to stretch them, but she was beleaguered by worries that the success of this mission would not be enough to save her hometown from fading away and becoming one of the innumerable casualties of the unforgiving desert. Even if the mine were retaken the village still had to address the issues of its dwindling population and how to protect it from future raider onslaughts. The Winged Lion landed in an empty clearing beside a path and Leona hopped off while Sky Champion Rafale and Tempest Avian landed beside her.

The Wizard Saint took off her backpack and fished out the water canteen because she really needed a drink. It was still lukewarm water, but at this point she did not care what temperature it was unless the water were boiling hot. She drank it while her three summons watched for trouble from Crimson Sashes, a slaver scouting party, or anyone else who wanted the Wizard Saint of Courage dead, which was likely a pretty long list by this point. Leona felt the desert wind pick up and gently blow her hair about as she recapped the canteen and put it away, then stretched her legs. This was the calm before the storm.

Once she entered combat with the slavers there would be no turning back. Neither side would ask for quarter and quarter would not be given. It was no exaggeration to say that Leona needed to win this battle or she would die. She was used to that level of danger, but for some reason the stakes felt much higher because her home village was counting on her. The blonde was worried about whether she really had what it took to win over the odds that were facing her.

Was her courage today real or was it courage born of desperation?

Was she choosing to face the slavers of her own volition or was it because of her title and her name?

Leona did not know whether her courage was genuine or false. All she knew was that she needed to complete this mission no matter the cost. Too many people were relying on her for failure to be an option. Leona took a deep breath and felt the wind blow through her hair a second time. Soon it would be time to go into battle with the fate of her home village at stake, but for a few more moments she enjoyed the peace of the desert.

It was the calm before the storm.

[Post Word Count: 852]
[Total Word Count: 5,671/12,500]

-Central Desierto, one hour later-

After a lengthy trip full of introspection and pondering just the right setup for her team of summons, Leona landed a short distance away from the same mine she and her brother Leonidas had ventured to months ago in their first attempt to take it back. The pair had only made it within 200 meters of the place before being forced to retreat by a small slaver army that was easily over four dozen strong. Unlike that day, Leona did not have the option to retreat. She had to fight and she had to win or Nebdoui would completely die in three weeks' time.

Leona would be fighting in dim light because the sun had just set and the moon was coming out, but this could work in her favor. Her natural night vision gave her the critical advantage of being able to see perfectly in dim light, which would go a ways towards negating the advantage in numbers the slavers would have. Her summons would also help level the playing field, but she still had to be careful. She was just one mage against a small army of people who wanted her dead.

Leona walked to 150 meters of the front gate and did not see a welcoming committee storming out to meet her. She found that lack of a response to be worrying. What if they were laying low and wanted her to think the camp was deserted? What if they were waiting for her to enter before shutting the gates and trapping her inside with dozens of angry slavers? Leona mentally ordered Tempest Avian to fly above the camp situated in front of the mine to scout for the defenders while she, the Winged Lion, and Sky Champion Rafale continued to approach the gates.

Getting within 100 meters of the camp, Leona got a good look at the fortifications for the first time and saw that someone had deliberately inflicted a lot of damage on them.

The walls and gates had several three-meter wide holes in them like someone had made liberal use of explosive munitions; Leona could tell that explosives were used because of the scorch marks on the edges of the holes. The hinges of the gates were so badly damaged that they could not be closed and the center of the gates had multiple holes blasted in them near the bottom to form a ten-meter hole large enough for people to walk through. The gates themselves lay open as if inviting visitors in, but the Wizard Saint would not be fooled. There was more to this situation than met the eye.

"Tempest Avian, are you seeing anything or anyone?" Leona telepathically asked her summon.

"Not yet, Leona. It looks empty, deserted even." He replied in the negative. The Wizard Saint was now within 50 meters of the front gate and she had still not encountered any opposition from the slavers. Had the walls been so badly damaged that the slavers deemed holding the mine not worth the risk? Leona did not think that the slavers would give up a valuable prize like the iron mine so easily, especially when it handed them an opportunity to kill or capture a Wizard Saint. They had also fought two inconclusive but costly battles with the Crimson Sashes to hold onto the mine, so it would not make sense for them to just walk away from it after everything they had put into gaining the mine.

Leona walked right up to the gate and paused, expecting a hidden army to pop out of the sand in ambush or for the defenders to pour out of the mine en masse. She drew her Silver Longsword and raised her left hand to cast a Wind Blast spell to beat back the expected rush of defenders. Nothing happened.

"I'm still not seeing anything." Tempest Avian reported. Leona was not liking this at all. There had to be some unpleasant surprise waiting for her inside what used to be fortified walls. Taking a deep breath before taking the plunge, Leona walked inside the mining camp with the Winged Lion and Rafale at her side.

-Inside the mining camp-

Leona walked inside the camp and was greeted with the sight of desolation. To her left was the mine entrance, which was intact. To her right was a small tent city of what used to be fifteen tents that had been burned by someone, possibly captives who made an escape attempt. Judging from the impact of the explosives, most of them had been fired from inside the camp, so the escaping captives likely had help from whoever had wrecked the walls and gates.

Leona heard the wind pick up and saw light clouds of sand being kicked around the empty area as she explored the camp with the help of her faithful summons, who watched their surroundings for trouble as their mistress tried to make sense of why no enemies had rushed to defend their territory from the Wizard Saint. She made a slow, leisurely lap around the inside perimeter and could not make any sense of the situation. Other than the burned tents, there had been no signs of violence inside the camp.

There were no bloodstains, no discarded weapons, not even drag marks left over from bodies being moved. This had went beyond mysterious and was getting creepy. Matters were not helped when Leona felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up and got the feeling that she was being watched.

"Leona, I see something in the mine entrance!" Rafale reported to her. Leona spun left and saw something within the mine flash before vanishing. She dreaded what was about to happen next.

The Wizard Saint would have to go into the mine and investigate it to learn what that "something" Rafale had spotted was. Leona did not like that idea because her Silver Longsword would be hard to use in tight quarters and she would have to use her knife, which could not harm the supernatural like her silver sword. Leona took a deep breath and waited a few minutes to psyche herself up for a bit of mine exploration.

[Post Word Count: 1,062]
[Total Word Count: 6,733/12,500]

-Five minutes later, outside the mine entrance-

Having taken a break to get herself ready to delve into the mine, Leona put away her Silver Longsword and drew her knife, which was much better-suited for close quarters combat. Now that the issue of armament was settled she needed to send word about the situation back to Nebdoui so that they would have at least some idea of what was going on. Even though the intel she sent would be hours old by the time it got there, they would at least have some idea of what was going on. Leona was not sure if she had brought any paper or a pen with her, but she checked her backpack out of force of habit. Leona sighed... she had not brought anything to write with, let alone any paper.

She would just have to send a summon to relay the information by word of mouth.

Leona took a look at the mine entrance and knew that the Winged Lion would have a rough time because the entrance was wide enough for a group to go in if they traveled single-file. Sky Champion Rafale could fit because he had a humanoid shape. The rotund Tempest Avian could fit if he kept his wings tucked away. The Winged Lion could fit as well, but he would have a tough time maneuvering in the confines of the mine due to his wings.

"I do not think it wise for me to go inside such tight spaces. Were I to get stuck, I would hold up your progress and that of the others." The lion suggested to his mistress. Leona agreed.

"I agree. Instead, I'd like you to take a message back to Nebdoui for me." Leona assigned her faithful summon another task. His size would not be a handicap for the new task she gave to him. His size and stature would make him a good messenger because no one could ignore a winged lion walking into the village. He was also closely identified with her, so no one in Nebdoui would attack him without hearing him out.

"I'd like you to tell the chief that right now the camp's deserted and I'm going into the mine to check for slavers." Leona requested of the Winged Lion. He nodded.

"It will be done. I will return as soon as I can." He replied before turning to face the open gate, getting a running start, and taking off, then soaring to an altitude where he was all but immune to enemy attack. Unless the bandits had rifles or could send up their own flying summons, the Winged Lion would safely reach Nebdoui. Now that the delivery of the message was taken care of, the Wizard Saint turned to making the best team of summons she could field. But first there was one other issue to take care of.

"Tempest Avian, I'm going into the mine. I need you to fly out here and keep an eye on things. Let me know if anyone enters the camp." Leona telepathically requested of the metallic owl.

"I will keep watch and let you know should anyone arrive." Tempest Avian reported back.

Now that that matter had been settled, Leona summoned the Jackal so that she could use his sensitive nose to sniff out trouble.

"JACKAL SUMMON!" Leona thought. Moments later the Jackal appeared at her feet and looked up at her. With the Winged Lion on the way to deliver a message and Tempest Avian soaring overhead, Leona's team consisted of Sky Champion Rafale and the Jackal. That was a good team composition since both could fit in narrow spaces and still be able to fight if they had to.

Leona telepathically ordered the Jackal to take the lead with Rafale following behind. Leona followed them into the darkness in search of enemies who had taken shelter in the mine.

-Inside the mine-

Leona had taken fifteen steps inside when her night vision activated and cut through the gloom to give her an excellent view of the mine's interior. The mine ceiling was roughly ten feet high. Hanging from wooden support beams were glass lanterns stationed at roughly 50-yard intervals. They were full of oil and their wicks were intact; they looked to be relatively fresh, suggesting that they had been placed only weeks ago. With the Jackal and Rafale in the lead, Leona kept moving deeper into the mine.

"Do you smell anything?" Leona telepathically inquired of the Jackal.

"I smell a lot of metal in here. I also smell humans, but it's so mixed in with the metal that I can't get a fix on an exact location." The Jackal answered. Leona was on the right track, but due to the high concentration of iron ore her canine summon could not get an exact location. Still, having some clue was better than having no clue at all. The Wizard Saint and her summons kept moving in search of any slavers who had concealed themselves in the mine.

[Post Word Count: 892]
[Total Word Count: 7,625/12,500]

Alerted to the presence of humans by her Jackal summon, Leona was focused on her job of watching her back as the Jackal and Rafale watched for threats from the front. The width of the mine worked both for and against the Wizard Saint and her summons. While the blonde could not overwhelm the defenders with three-on-one or three-on-two attacks, neither could the defenders overwhelm Leona with their numbers because the passage was not wide enough for a group to move any way other than single-file. The narrow space also gave Leona a modest advantage because Wind Strike Magic had magically enhanced martial arts techniques that did not need a lot of space to effectively use. Still, the Wizard Saint had to be careful in close quarters because the slavers had nothing to lose in killing or capturing her and they would gladly clog the passage with bodies if it meant taking down a hated adversary.

While the slavers were powered by the urgency of dealing with a hated and feared enemy, Leona was powered by the urgency of her mission. If she failed Nebdoui would die within the span of three weeks because it could not produce enough weapons to defend itself or fulfill its obligations to Berreb. She was also driven to live up to her name of Leona and her title as Wizard Saint of Courage. Both of those were tough to live up to, but she would do her best because it was not like she could do much else other than fight.

It was not like the Magic Council was clamoring to make her the Wizard Saint of Intelligence.

With those all-too-familiar thoughts in mind Leona pressed on until the trio reached a Y-shaped fork in the mine. She paused and listened because she thought she had heard the sounds of running and the soft rustling of clothing somewhere behind her. The blonde spun around to face the threat and saw nothing behind her, nothing but the darkness she and her summons had just left behind. She lingered in place for almost a full minute before moving on to join her summons at the fork.

"Which way should we go?" Rafale asked his mistress after Leona had joined them at the fork. Leona took a minute to listen out for the sounds again, then looked to each path. She had no idea of where to go, but maybe the canine standing in front of her feet could help her make the right decision.

"Hey Jackal, which way do we go?" Leona asked the black-backed jackal at her feet. He began to sniff the air to pick up clues that neither Leona nor Rafale could detect. After twenty seconds of sniffing he turned to face his mistress.

"The scent of humans goes in both directions. I don't know what to tell you." The Jackal reported to Leona. The blonde had tried to think on her feet and had failed through either by accident or by design, so she would have to make a judgment call. All she could do was pick a direction and hope that she had made the right decision.

"We're going right." Leona telepathically informed her two summons. They nodded and began to walk ahead of her while ready for trouble. Leona heard the sounds again, so she paused in place and looked straight ahead. This time they sounded like they were coming from in front of the party, but none of them could see anything. They just chalked it up to the acoustics of the mine and kept going.

-Fifteen minutes later-

After choosing to go right, the trio traveled through the dark tunnel for almost fifteen minutes until they reached a large section of the mine that was shaped like a circle. Now that they had room to do so, the trio spread out in a rough triangular formation with Leona in front and the summons standing off to each side. All around them were buckets of iron ore sitting next to tools leaning against the walls or left on floors. The area looked like it had been left in an orderly fashion instead of abandoned in a hurry, but that was what the slavers may have wanted her to think. She looked down and to the left at the Jackal, who had begun sniffing the air for something of his own volition.

"I smell something! Humans!" The Jackal alerted Leona. She began to glance around and thought that she had spotted faint shimmers dancing against the walls but dismissed it as just her being paranoid. Just seconds after dismissing them the shimmers danced again and dissolved to reveal white-clad men with golden collars on their clothing and scimitars in their hands. At this point Leona finally realized what they had done.

They had used invisibility magic to stalk her through the mine before gathering here to spring an ambush once she was convinced that she was only being paranoid! They must have split their forces to have some hiding outside and some hiding inside, but how was it that she could not detect the invisible mages with her ability to sense magic? How could they hide from the Jackal's nose? She had no idea.

"We've got you now!" One of them told her. Leona spun around and saw that the way out had been blocked by at least ten men in white. In front of her were another ten men in white blocking the path ahead. Leona had let herself get surrounded and now she would have to fight her way out.

[Post Word Count: 976]
[Total Word Count: 8,601/12,500]

Surrounded by hostiles on all sides, Leona and her summons would just have to fight their way out of the situation. The slavers wasted no time in trying to close with Leona and she wasted no time in meeting them head-to-head. The slavers in front of her began closing the distance with her in a semicircular formation, but one of them rushed ahead of the rest and Leona punished this mistake by flipping her knife and catching it by the blade, then focusing magic into the blade before throwing it at the reckless enemy. Its blade buried itself in the man's chest and his legs shot out from under him; he fell to the floor and struggled to pull the knife out while the other nineteen enemies pressed their numerical advantage. Since space was no longer an issue, Leona drew her Silver Longsword and used her left hand to cast a Wind Blast to break up the formation in front of her.

Three of the closest opponents were knocked back, giving her just enough space to punish another reckless opponent who tried to win the fight by himself with a stab through the chest. Leona planted her right foot on his chest and pulled out the weapon just in time to block the downward swing of a sword with it. Two other swords came down towards her shoulders, so Leona was forced to break contact and dodge them to avoid getting hurt so early in the fight. Behind her Rafale and the Jackal were engaging the slavers to buy her time to take care of those in front of them; they were holding their own, but she needed to hurry before they were overwhelmed and she would be surrounded by over a dozen enemies.

Leona needed more help, but the Winged Lion was on his courier mission and Tempest Avian was keeping watch for trouble outside. Her first impulse was to dispel the metallic owl and bring him in here to help with the fighting, but she needed someone to watch the outside in case enemy reinforcements rode into the camp and started streaming towards the mine. She also could not afford to dispel the Winged Lion since he still had a ways to go to reach Nebdoui and bringing him back would only reset the clock. She and her current team would just have to hold their ground.

The Wizard Saint stepped back to avoid a triple stab at her torso and retaliated with a point-blank Wind Bullet to the man in the center. He was knocked off his feet and was slammed to the floor a good fifty feet away, a distance which was just short of the wall. She took advantage of the breathing room to strike down another enemy with a decapitating slice through the neck before she was set upon by five men at once. Leona was forced to back off and cede ground.

She took a quick glance behind her and saw that Rafale had been taking care of business. Three of the men lay dead and a fourth fell from a decapitating slice through the neck while Rafale himself looked a little battered but still able to fight. Rafale was there, but where was the Jackal?

"Damn dog!" A black-bearded man muttered while gripping his bleeding left arm. The skin had been broken in multiple places and the man was too busy trying to stop the bleeding to focus on the fight. The Jackal was nowhere to be seen, suggesting that he had been "killed" during the fighting. The man withdrew from the fight, retreating deeper into the mine while escorted by two of the burlier enemies... she wondered if he was a high-ranking slaver, but she did not have time to confirm that because there were still active threats around her.

Leona spun around and stabbed an enemy who tried to get the drop on her through the torso. He yelled and fell backwards, but before she could retrieve her weapon three men rushed her at once and knocked her onto her back. Leona punched one of them off of her with a Mach Straight and kicked a second enemy in between the legs, an act which bought her enough breathing room to get to her feet and fend off the third attacker with a Silver Blade to the torso. The wind blade cut deep and he staggered away while clutching his bleeding chest.

Leona picked up a discarded scimitar that had been left nearby and parried a thrust before immediately parrying a second thrust. She then blocked a downward slash and entered a bladelock with the enemy, holding her ground until she had a secure enough footing to use her right foot to kick him in between the legs. While he yelled in pain and doubled over Leona decapitated him before facing another pair of slavers, who attacked simultaneously.

One of them knocked aside Leona's sword while the other rushed in and grabbed for her throat. Leona stood her ground and headbutted him, taking him by surprise and knocking him back. The other enemy swiftly retreated before Leona could retaliate, leaving her facing six active enemies in front of her and six behind her. While the fight would still be tough going, it was looking more and more like one she could win.

[Post Word Count: 902]
[Total Word Count: 9,503/12,500]

After a harrowing six minutes of combat where she was surrounded and badly outnumbered, Leona was starting to feel like she could win this fight. Rafale was keeping the enemies behind her busy and she had killed four of the enemies in front of her. She had forced another three to retreat from the battle; two of them had went with a wounded man she suspected to be the leader and a fourth man was lying unconscious from a point-blank Wind Bullet to the stomach. The slaver she had cut across the torso with her Silver Blade spell had also retreated, but she still had multiple enemies to fight before she could claim a victory.

Leona parried a thrust from one slaver but was immediately hit from behind with a tackle to the legs that almost knocked her down. Staggering away from an attempt to grab her legs, the Wizard Saint punched an enemy who was trying to grab her and pin her arms to her sides with a Mach Straight to the face, then followed with a stab through the torso that killed him. Leona ducked under a horizontal decapitating swing aimed at her neck and was kicked in the face by another enemy who was nearby. Leona fell backwards and was almost immediately set upon by three men attempting to stab her before she could get to her feet. The blonde had to roll to safety to avoid getting a sword through the chest, throat, or head.

"LEONA!" Rafale called out. He punched the opponent he was dueling in the face, then brought down his energy blades in an X pattern across the chest, quadrisecting his opponent. Rafale then flew to Leona's rescue and cut another opponent in half at the waist in mid-air. That act gave her enough time to get up and reclaim her Silver Longsword before she was set upon by a triple team of enemies. Leona used a point-blank Wind Blast to scatter them, then jumped forward and stabbed the first through the chest before he could regain his footing.

The other two regained their footing and renewed their attack, rushing Leona with swords held above their heads for a power chop. The first made a diagonal slash that Leona blocked with her weapon and the second hurried behind her to try and attack from behind. When the Wizard Saint spun to meet the attack she was grabbed from behind and her arms pinned to her sides, the impact causing Leona to drop her weapon. The blade came down across her armor and gashed it down to the hip, but the Wizard Saint was otherwise unharmed.

"Hold her still! I'll get her this time!" The slaver ordered the one holding Leona in place. His colleague obliged and the blonde was held in place for another attack. Leona tried to break free by moving her arms but she was unable to get away. The man shifted his grip to a two-handed grip as the blonde tried to get free. He slowly drew the sword back behind his right shoulder and prepared to kill their nemesis once and for all with a powerful two-handed decapitation strike.

Leona could use her special adrenaline rush ability to gain enough strength to break free, but she needed to save it for the battle with the leader and his remaining men. Instead she began desperately stomping on the man's toes with her right heel. She stomped twice with no effect, but with the sword in front of her about to swing and end her life, Leona focused and put all of her strength into one last stomp on his toes. That did the trick.

Leona was freed just in time for her to duck and avoid losing her head. She felt the blade pass through her hair and heard a short scream as the man behind her had his throat cut by his colleague's sword. The horrified slaver realized what he had just done and hesitated, giving Leona time to snatch her weapon from the ground and drive it through his torso before he could react. Leona pulled the sword out of his chest and turned to face the five remaining slavers, who had backed away from Rafale and were unsure as to whether they should continue the fight or run for their lives.

Leona took two steps forward and the surviving five men bolted away from them without trying to fight, hurrying down the tunnel that led to the mine entrance and to safety. The Wizard Saint and her summon had been left in control of the circular room, but they had not won yet. She did not know how many more enemies were still in the mine and she did not know the layout, so she could be walking into another ambush that had been set by the survivors of the first encounter, who now knew some of Leona's tricks. Pausing to catch her breath and to retrieve her knife from the corpse of the slaver whose chest she had thrown it into, Leona sent a telepathic message to Tempest Avian.

"Tempest Avian, there will be five white-clad enemies running out of the mine entrance any time now. Could you handle them for me?" Leona asked the summon she had stationed outside.

"I'll deal with them when I see them, Mistress." He replied in the affirmative. With that matter settled, Leona then asked if he had seen any activity in or around the mining camp.

"I haven't seen any activity yet, Mistress. I'll let you know if I see anyone." He answered calmly.

"Thanks." Leona thanked her faithful summon for his diligence. With him watching the situation outside, Leona was free to focus solely on the enemies in the mine. She turned to Rafale, who had been watching the passages for any slavers sent to stop them before they could catch up to the leader.

"Ready to keep going?" Leona asked him.

"Of course, Mistress." He answered calmly.

[Post Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 10,503/12,500]

Before she and Rafale set out, Leona brought out the Jackal summon to sniff out the slavers who had fled the first battle. Since two of them had been bleeding when they left, the canine should be able to pick up the scent of blood with relative ease. The Jackal appeared in front of her and immediately began sniffing the ground without being ordered to.

"I smell them, Leona. I smell blood!" He reported, pointing his left front paw towards the passage the leader and his escorts had used to escape deeper into the mine.

"OK. Lead us towards them." Leona ordered as she switched from her Silver Longsword to her knife for the close-quarters combat that was sure to ensue in the passageway. While the slavers had learned a few things about her during the first encounter, she had also learned something about them, namely their ability to use invisibility magic to hide themselves until they were ready to attack. Their ability to conceal themselves at will was a powerful asset, but it was not total invisibility... she could detect them by looking for a shimmer in the surrounding environment. She would have to pay attention to her surroundings as she and her summons made their way towards the second battle for control of the mining camp and the iron ore contained within the mine.

The Jackal took the lead while Rafale went second and Leona brought up the rear. Once the trio was ready the canine led the way to the remaining slavers.

-Inside the passage-

The passage that led deeper into the mine was much like the first as far as the placement of glass lanterns that looked like they had just been placed, but this passage differed from the first in that it was just wide enough to accommodate two people walking side-by-side. It also differed in that Leona saw mining tools left leaning against the wall at irregular intervals. Furthermore, all the supports in the passage had not yet been set up because their placement was irregular. She saw the materials for them sitting against the wall and suddenly took notice of the rocky ceiling.

The passage's structural integrity was holding so far, but Leona did not bank on it holding forever without the proper supports being set up. Feeling a small shower of pebbles land on the top of her head only reinforced her belief that the roof could cave in if given the right push. The slavers had likely learned that fact for themselves and were going to try to bring the ceiling down on her head, burying their enemy alive if not killing her outright. The Wizard Saint subconsciously stepped it up to try and put some distance between her and the treacherous ceiling.

The trio moved down the passage until they spotted a body clad in white lying face-down on the ground positioned at another fork in the path. The Jackal took the lead while Leona followed close behind him in case the slaver was still alive. Leona reached the body first and used the toe of her right boot to roll it over onto its back. The gash on his chest and the pool of dried blood beneath the body confirmed that he was the same slaver that she had used her Silver Blade spell on earlier in the fight. He had succumbed to blood loss from the depth and severity of the wound.

Leona looked up and saw a shimmer down the right passage. It moved away from her, all but confirming that she had just spotted a scout who was going to inform the others that the Wizard Saint was on her way. Leona recalled her experience in the desert with the retreating Crimson Sashes and refrained from pursuing them until she was ready to fight. As far as she knew they would not be going anywhere. Instead she paused to communicate with Tempest Avian.

"Tempest Avian, have you seen those men yet?" Leona asked him.

"Not yet." Tempest Avian answered laconically. Leona then told him about the slavers' ability to hide themselves from view with magic.

"They can use invisibility magic, so look for shimmers against the sand." Leona advised him.

"Will do." He reported back. Leona faced forward and directed her summons to travel down the right fork in the path. She brought up the rear and watched for any invisible enemies who had managed to get behind them, such as the five who had retreated earlier.

-Eight minutes later, at the end of the right path-

Leona and her summons entered the large circular room that loomed ahead and walked into the center of it to find buckets of iron ore lining the walls and mining tools propped against it. In front of them was another passage leading elsewhere. Leona looked around and spotted the telltale shimmer of hidden slavers and frowned. Not this again. Rafale glanced behind the Wizard Saint and shouted a warning.

"BEHIND YOU!" Rafale shouted. Leona spun around in time to see a decloaked slaver preparing to bury a pickax in the back of her head. She shrieked and raised her arms to block it, catching the head of the pickax before it could travel too far on its downward trajectory. She then headbutted the offender and stabbed him in the chest five times before kicking him away. Ten more enemies appeared and barred the path that led deeper into the mine.

"You're too late, Wizard Saint! Our leader's already left to get reinforcements, so even if you beat us you won't live to see the sunrise!" One of them informed Leona as five more men suddenly blocked the way that led to the entrance. Leona frowned. She had hoped to wipe them all out before they could summon reinforcements, but that plan had been dashed. Now all she could do was defeat the men left behind to delay her and get ready to hold the mining camp by herself. She had not heard back from the Winged Lion yet, so she assumed that he was still on his courier mission to Nebdoui.

[Post Word Count: 1,022]
[Total Word Count: 11,525/12,500]

Leona faced down the small slaver army that had surrounded her and her summons and knew that this was the time to use her special adrenaline rush ability to its fullest. They had specifically been ordered to delay her at all costs. They were determined to trade their lives for time so that their leader could get reinforcements, so there was no chance that they would surrender. This would be a fight to the finish.

Leona clenched her teeth and activated the special adrenaline rush, boosting her strength to far beyond its normal limits. One of the slavers rushed at her with a scimitar held in both hands above his head. Leona flipped her knife around and threw it at him, nailing him in the forehead and dropping him to the ground. She picked up the pickax that the first slaver had tried to use against her and wielded it in a two-handed grip.

A trio of slavers charged her from the front, but she was ready for them. She buried the pickax in the chest of one slaver and grabbed the wrists of the second before he could bring his sword down. She wrenched them down and right and he was forced to drop his sword. She grabbed his right elbow and tossed him to the ground while the third enemy maneuvered behind her to try and run his sword through her back.

Rafale abruptly ended that attempt with a decapitating slash from his energy blade. With four slavers dead there were only twelve more to go. The man she had thrown to the ground got up and hurried to the wall, where he picked up a wooden bucket of iron ore to use as a last-ditch weapon. Leona closed with him and he flung the contents at her head, almost hitting her in the eyes at the worst possible time. Her left hand shielded her eyes enough to avoid injury from the flying chunks of ore, but she was hit in the right side of the face with the heavy bucket and staggered back four steps.

The slaver pressed his advantage and tried to hit her a second time, but Leona reached out and caught the bucket in mid-swing with both hands. She snatched it away and threw the bucket aside, then hit him in the face with a Swift Palm using her right hand followed by a Mach Jab with the left fist and finishing with a Mach Straight with the right fist. All three hits connected and the man fell onto his back in a daze.

Leona felt an impact from behind and saw hands wrap themselves around her waist. Leona planted herself and resisted the attempt to slam her to the ground and the Jackal came to the rescue by latching onto the attacker's ankle with his teeth. The man yelled and released her to fight off the Jackal, giving Leona time to draw her Silver Longsword and slash the distracted man three times across the chest before finishing with a stab. He fell to the ground and Leona turned towards a second man who had entered the fray with a pickax in hand.

She ducked the first frenzied swing and stepped back from the second. She ducked and spun left under the third swing and stabbed the slaver through the back before he could turn to face her. Yet another man rushed at her, closing rapidly and slugging her in the face with his left fist. She staggered back and the opponent grabbed her shoulders, then headbutted her twice before kneeing her in the stomach. The dazed Leona tried to fight back with her sword but he effortlessly dodged the diagonal swing and hit her in the side of the head with a spinning backfist.

Leona's vision blurred and the sword was kicked out of her hand by the speedy slaver before another punch was delivered to the left side of her face. Leona was knocked onto her back and a boot pressed against her throat while her right hand was pinned to the ground by the man's other foot. The blonde began to struggle as she was slowly being strangled into unconsciousness. She could not afford to pass out because if she did she was as good as dead. Leona's left hand scrabbled to get a grip on the boot pressing against her throat but in between her blurring vision and his tenacity the boot could not be budged.

"Ra...fale... HELP." Leona telepathically called to her faithful summon. She continued to fight to remain conscious as the slaver continued to apply pressure to her windpipe. Leona's vision was going dark and she was about to lose the fight when she saw a burst of violet punch through the man's chest and the pressure on her windpipe was suddenly lifted. The Wizard Saint gasped for air and a white-gloved hand was extended to her.

Leona was helped up by Rafale, who had saved her life yet again. She reclaimed her sword and looked behind Rafale to see seven slavers advancing on them. Leona took a deep breath and stepped forward, using her Daunting Roar ability in an effort to break up the group. They took one step forward before they were all caught in the barely visible cone of sound and paused in place, uncertain as to what to do. Leona stepped forward with weapon in hand and they all panicked and ran for the entrance to the mine.

"Tempest Avian, there are seven men in white headed your way." Leona informed him. Her throat hurt from being stepped on and pressed, but she was safe for the moment. The aching blonde turned her attention towards the passage that the slavers had died defending and the slaver who had been dazed by her hand-to-hand combo came to. He noticed that his fellows had fled without him and he scrambled away from Leona and Rafale on his hands and knees. He hurried to his feet and fled the area without even giving them a second glance.

With him no longer a threat, Leona and Rafale were joined by the Jackal, who had survived the intense fighting by virtue of sticking close to his mistress. He sniffed the air and pointed his body towards the passage, then sprinted down it without another word. Leona and Rafale followed close behind him.

[Post Word Count: 1,064]
[Total Word Count: 12,589/12,500]

-At the end of the tunnel, fifteen minutes later-

Leona and her summons had followed the tunnel to its end, which opened to the desert outside. The tunnel opening looked to have been a recent addition to the mine because it had been hastily made and the tools used to make it were lying nearby. The mouth was unevenly hewn out of the rock and it was only partially supported, making her believe that the slavers had rigged it to collapse so that they could stop pursuers in their tracks. Thankfully they had not gotten the chance to rig it to collapse. Leona strode out into the night with Rafale and the Jackal at her side to keep an eye out for any remaining slavers or for newly arrived threats like the Crimson Sashes or any one of Central Desierto's outlaw gangs.

Leona looked towards the sand and saw numerous tracks made by horses that led towards dunes in the distance. She sighed. There was nothing she could do about the slavers getting away. She had a faint idea of the direction they were going in, but she could not afford to chase them because her orders from Chief Elijah were to guard the mine until friendly forces could get here... if they ever did. The Winged Lion was still en route to Nebdoui and she would have to wait for him to deliver her message to the chief before she could call him back to aid in the defense of the mining camp.

"There's nothing we can do now, guys. C'mon, let's go back to the mining camp." Leona said to Rafale and the Jackal before leading the way back into the mine. She was disappointed that she could not kill all the slavers before their leader escaped, but she had secured the mine. The trick would be holding onto it long enough for help to arrive.

-Thirty-five minutes later, in the mining camp-

Leona and her summons emerged on the other side to find footprints in the sand leading to five white-clad men lying dead on the sand with multiple steel projectiles protruding from their torsos. Tempest Avian had taken care of five of the eight fleeing slavers for Leona. Tempest Avian must have seen her because he soon landed a short distance in front of her.

"Eight men emerged from the mine. I was only able to stop five of them... the rest were far too fast to hit." Tempest Avian reported to Leona.

"It's OK. You did the best you could. Besides, their leader's already left to go get reinforcements, so sooner or later we'll get another shot at them." Leona thanked him for eliminating most of them before they could form up and go in for another attack on her. The battered and bruised Wizard Saint surveyed the area and felt a measure of satisfaction that she had reclaimed the iron mine and its valuable resources for her home village. The slavers would get no more iron ore from here while she still lived.

-Six hours later-

After sending Tempest Avian back into the skies to watch for approaching people Leona had taken refuge on the sand to the left of the mine entrance while the Jackal and Rafale stood guard. She had spread her desert cloak to keep her off the ground while she leaned against rhe rock with her Silver Longsword at her side and her knife in her right boot. She had been asleep for two hours when she was awakened by the deep bass tones of the Winged Lion's voice echoing in her head.

"I have made contact with your Chief Elijah. He has been given your message." The lion informed her. The drowsy blonde slowly woke up and stretched her arms.

"OK. What did he have to say?" Leona asked him.

"Your elder is astonished that you would take such a grave risk. However, he is grateful for your efforts." He answered.

"Yeah? Well, tell him that I've driven off the slavers who occupied the mining camp. I'm in control of the mining camp and the mine, but the slavers are gonna come back with more men any time now." Leona told the Winged Lion to relay her new message. She waited in drowsy silence for the message to be relayed and listened out for a report from Tempest Avian concerning any ground activity in the area. So far the metallic owl had been quiet, which was a good thing because Leona was far from ready for another fight.

"He wants you to return to the village." The lion reported back. Leona was stunned. Hours earlier she had cleaned out the slavers at great personal risk to take this place back and now he wanted her to abandon it? What was Chief Eliljah thinking?

"He wants you to return. NOW." The lion added as if he and the chief could read her mind. Leona was stunned by the news to retreat, but there was nothing she could do about it except comply. She only hoped that Chief Elijah would come up with a plan that would enable her to take the mine back and reclaim it permanently the next time she came here.

"OK, I'm returning now. Tell him I'm on the way." Leona reluctantly agreed to her chief's request. She dispelled the Jackal and called out the Griffon, then gathered up her meager equipment and packed it away before hopping on board the Griffon for the return trip to Nebdoui. Once she was on board she gave the order and the Griffon took off with Rafale and Tempest Avian flying as escorts.

Leona had driven away the slavers and in doing so had won a temporary reprieve for Nebdoui, but the situation would not be stabilized until the mine was permanently reclaimed. The chief would need to come up with a lot of manpower if he wanted to hold onto the mine. She had no idea where he could get the men needed to take and hold the mine, but that was his problem to deal with. Leona had done her part for today.

[Post Word Count: 1,025]
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