Their hope of having a peaceful journey came to an end with a "thunk" and a "thud". The former being an arrow saving the donkey from the remainder of the trip, and the latter being the donkey and Kaitlyn falling to the ground.
Emil scanned their surroundings as he released the rope he'd used to guide the donkey. He drew his blades and his right eye began to glow. He hadn't even needed to spare a thought to call to the Goddess of Puddles's... Seriah's elder twin, who's name he somehow had managed to not know.
"Tsuniah", came a voice, feminine, calm, and imposing. It came directly in his mind. He instinctively knew who it was. The power coursing through him left him little choice in the matter.
He glanced over at Kaitlyn, who was picking herself up from beside the donkey. They made eye contact for a brief moment, and her expression hardened. His gaze followed hers as people appeared from behind rocks, from behind trees, and dropped from tree branches. There were at least 5 armed men, all some meters alway, eyeing them like hungry dogs eyed meat.
Emil grit his teeth. Those gazes were worse than ravenous, and he didn't miss the lustful expressions that crossed the faces of those who approached. For a lot like this, a swift death would be a mercy, one that would be afforded only to him. He raised his blade's, and spared one glance back to see that Kaitlyn had her fireballs at the ready.
There was a collective gasp from half of the bandit party. "There's a mage!" One of them shouted toward the rest.
Emil took their moment of pause to unscrew the top of his canteen. The water snaked out of the canteen and coiled around his knives, sheathing them in water. He then sidestepprd, anticipating an arrow, though unsure of exactly where it would come from. It flew past from behind him, managing to knock his hat to to side, tearing it in the process.
Screams also followed from behind, male, by the sounds of it, along with the sounds of unpacking and crackling.
"Archer's down," came from Kaitlyn behind him, amidst more gasps.
"It's a damn saint!" Emil found himself inwardly chuckling at the concept of a 'damned saint'.
"G-g-golden-eyes!"
Emil sighed internally. He was already bitter about the hat, donkey, and lecherous glances at Kaitlyn, but he wouldn't let his efforts keeping her alive go to waste, not like this. He moved, charging for the closest person to him as more pained screams, the sounds of searing meat, and an anguished feminine grunt could be heard a short distance behind him.
Emil and his enemy moved toward each other, and Emil swung his blade's well before they met. Water arced along his slash, carving skin and drawing blood from shoulder to stomach twice, as Emil's blades crossed each other's paths. The assailant's charge was stopped, as the water hit with the force and precision of a blade. Shock and pain held him in place, and Emil's knives made short work of the man's leg tendons, reducing him to a crumpled heap on the ground. A swift kick left the man weaponless.
He changed direction, glancing again at Kaitlyn as she ran, keeping distance between her and the 2 swordsman giving chase. He closed in on the last bandit who was otherwise not occupied with Kaitlyn. Their blades clashed, and water sloshed around Emil's knives as he was pushed back. Surprised, he lost his focus for a moment, and the water surrounding one of his blades fell to the ground as he was pushed back another step, and then another.
Suddenly, he felt his left eye glow, and power that he didn't ask for, flowed through him, around the weapon of his attacker. The visible trail of divine power, a gentle light blue in color, trailed its way down the man's arm, across his midsection, and down his leg faster than either of them could comprehend, until it reached his foot, and the recently spilled water beneath it. That water became ice and the attacker slipped most unnaturally. He didn't miss this chance, and he plunged the now normal dagger into the man's stomach, and then again to the arms as the man fell to the ground.
He took a few seconds to inspect his surroundings and found a lone man, standing behind Kaitlyn, holding a knife to her throat. The other person chasing moments ago was lying on the ground, groaning in misery, his clothes burning slightly in some places.
"Hold it! Either of you move, and I'll give her a new breathin' hole."
Emil turned slightly to the side, and dropped his dry dagger. "You don't need to do nothin' crazy. Just let her go, leave us be, and we'll be on our way."
"Not a chance. You killed all my friends. I'm taking the girl." The knife shook slightly in his hands as he made his demand.
Emil hadn't killed anyone, and as far as he could tell, based on the pained grumbles from his 'friends', everyone was alive. "You know none of em' are dead, right?" He figured he'd set the record straight, and buy time for Kaitlyn to come to her senses. Surely she had some way out of this. He'd seen her cloak herself in flame before. It was a matter of time, or it should've been. He watched as the blade pressed lightly into Kaitlyn's skin, and a whimper escaped her lips.
It was at that moment that he remembered she was like him, but they were not the same. She wasn't as used to brushes with death, with fights that could end lives, and likely didn't allow anyone close enough to her to hold a blade to her throat. It was like their first meeting, when she'd frozen, resigned to her supposed fate.
She wouldn't save herself, not this time. The moment Emil came to that understanding, he moved. Both eyes flashed for an instant before dimming back to their usual glow as Emil's knife, followed by a trail of water, was flung directly at the bandit's neck.
The distance of some about 10 meters was covered in the span of a breath, and noone, aside from Emil, was able to react. The knife, flung with a speed and force not befitting of a human, tore through the man's neck, before coming to rest in a tree behind them.
The head rolled, and Kaitlyn's face was covered with blood. The incomplete person standing behind her fell to the ground, and the knife slipped away. Only then did thought appear to return to her for the briefest of moments. Her gaze landed on him, who was still in a throwing stance. Her mouth fell open in what was likely a cocktail of relief, shock, and absolute terror.
Emil knew the moment his eyes locked with hers that things were about to become difficult. He didn't concern himself with these thoughts for long. He watched as she touched her face, looked at her hand, and what used to be a person next to her. She immediately fainted.
Excellent fight scene