Page 43 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

They circled each other. Kolfinna’s ribs throbbed painfully and her vision waned with every passing second. Broken bones seemed to heal slower than wounds on her flesh, she realized, since she could still feel the broken parts of her ribs. Moving hurt and breathing hurt even more. The rush of adrenaline couldn’t completely mask her pain.

Kolfinna continued to throw stone spears and slam pieces of rock at the monster, but for whatever reason, it was unfazed. It didn’t falter and only pushed aside her attacks like they were buzzing flies.

It also didn’t help that every passing second felt like her last.

Kolfinna finally wrenched her sword out of its sheath. She wasn’t as good with a sword as she was with her stone magic, but considering how her magic wasn’t putting a dent on the creature, this was her only option.

She charged forward, sword raised. The creature backed away and dodged her attack with a roar. They rounded each other again, the goblin breathing in and out deeply while Kolfinna tried to calm her uneven breaths. She needed to finish this quickly.

Right when the creature lunged, Kolfinna brought down her blade. Her sword sank into the goblin’s forearm. But only an inch.

Her eyes widened. In slow motion, it smacked her face and she tore to the other side of the room. She crashed into the wall and could feel the rough textured wall ripping through the skin of her face. Her chest felt like it had cracked open and more blood filled her mouth and nose.

She couldn’t die here.

She turned and tried to pull herself up. Tried to look past her distorting vision. Tried to use her mana to attack. But her movements were sluggish and she could barely move.

She didn’t want to die. Not like this. Certainly not by this creature.

She could already see its feet lumbering toward her motionless body. She could hear its jagged breathing. It knew she was done for.

Where was Ivar? Where were the rest of her teammates when she needed them?

No, he needed to save the children. It was probably better that she was alone here.

But she didn’t want to die.

Not like this. Not now.

The goblin’s breath fanned across her face and smelled like rancid meat. Right when it reached to grab her, Kolfinna’s magic flared and her mana came to life all on its own. Black shadows ripped through her chest and burst over the creature’s skin. The creature reared back with a scream, its arms flailing as black flame-like shadows spread over its body. The shadowy tendrils whipped out of her body with a life of their own. They seized the creature, wrapping it up tightly. The smell of burning flesh and the creature’s screams filled the air, and an ice-cold chill emitted from the shadows, writhing out of her hands and feet. Inky black splotches filled the ground and stained her hands with black.

Kolfinna watched in horror as the creature fell to its knees, the shadows consuming it with swathes of ominous black. Sheremembered the looks on the faces of Hilda’s lackeys as they had died in the same way. Seconds passed and the creature finally fell to the ground. The shadows slowly receded from the ink-stained corpse and flitted back toward Kolfinna. She tried pulling away from them, but they slithered and disappeared into her skin in seconds.

9

Kolfinna layon the ground for several minutes. Just breathing, thinking, and allowing her body to heal itself. The cuts inside her mouth healed first; that only took a minute. Her face took at least two minutes. But the rest of her body took longer. Her ribs continued to throb, but not as painfully as before, and she could at least breathe without feeling like she would lose consciousness.

Her mana was close to being drained completely. She guessed she had about ten percent left. Not nearly enough to continue fighting, so she would have to rely on her sword skills. Speaking of the sword, it was lying on the ground several feet from her. A thin crack ran along the middle of the blade.Great.

Her hands were still stained with inky shadows and no matter how much she rubbed them against her pants or the front of her uniform, they didn’t smudge at all. She couldn’t remember how she had washed them off last time. After she had left Hilda’s torture cabin, she had stumbled into the bakery Fenris’s wife, Malene, owned. Everything after that was a blur, but when she had awoken at Fenris’s estate, she hadn’t noticed any inky stains on her hands.

These stains were probably remnants of her magic. Time would probably fade them.

Her ears nearly twitched as she caught soft footsteps headed her way.

“Kolfinna?Kolfinna!”

She paused—it was Ivar. Judging by the sound of his voice bouncing off the stony, craggy walls, he was at the end of the hallway, maybe, where she had been before the monstrous goblin had attacked. His rushed footsteps echoed in the distance.

Kolfinna hurriedly pulled herself into a sitting position. Her teeth gnashed with each other from the effort, and her hands scrambled against the dusty ground and the bumpy walls. Although the worst of her injuries were healed, she was still sore and her ribs weren’t completely healed. She could probably walk, though, and not black out.

She needed to get out of this room before he stumbled upon her and saw everything she couldn’t explain—the obvious scuffles of a hard-won battle, the black stains all over the ground and the goblin monster, and her miraculously healed body despite the fresh blood on her uniform.

She pushed herself to her hands and knees.

Just a bit more?—

Too late.

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