Page 35 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

Kolfinna cursed and wrenched more stones from the earth. But in mere seconds, a boom and flash of blue fire blasted the creature. It didn’t even scream as it fell to the ground. The remaining fire licked the nearby trees and melted the snow. Awave of heat hit Kolfinna and she gritted her teeth as a charcoal-like, burning flesh type of smell rolled over her.

Herja laughed loudly. “Beat you to it, fairy-girl. You gotta be much faster than that.Andaccurate.”

Kolfinna’s eye twitched.

This wasn’t a competition, but she swore she’d get the next one.

Ivar waved his hand and the nearby clumps of snow clinging to the branches shifted as he drew the moisture out of them. Suddenly, a streak of water glittered in the air. He flicked his wrist and the water swirled over the fires, putting them out effortlessly.

“My water is still stronger. If it wasn’t, your fire would still be roaring,” Ivar said snidely. “No need to act all cocky with the new recruit.”

Herja frowned, and Kolfinna could’ve given him a hug for that—dampening Herja’s mood was worth being around the sly and mocking man. He certainly earned a brownie point from her.

“Whatever,” Herja muttered, urging her horse forward.

“Good job spotting that thing,” Gunnar said between glances at Kolfinna and the blackened corpse of the creature.

“Thanks,” Kolfinna muttered. She still had missed, even if she was one of the first to act, so there wasn’t much glory in that. After her training session with Inkeri yesterday, her practice with Joran had proved to her that she still had a lot to practice when it came to striking moving targets. Even as she thought that, her mood further soured. She hated thinking about Joran. For many reasons. One, he reminded her too much about the mark he had sealed on her wrist and everything it signified. Two, she hated how he hid that he was a fae and that he couldn’t commiserate with her—it would’ve definitely been better to know that she wasn’t the only one struggling with survival. Andthree, she simply hated that he had seen her naked and seen that vulnerable part of her.

Their party moved forward, more alert than before. Kolfinna raked her mana over the passing stones, her mana gripping them and releasing them when she moved forward. She would be ready for the next one, she told herself. And this time, she didn’t plan on missing.

A blur of movement to her left caught her attention. A goblin sat on one of the branches a few dozen feet away, watching them. A wooden club was slung over his shoulder.

Their eyes met.

Kolfinna raised her hand and chucked a stone at the creature. Her attack struck it on the shoulder and it lurched to the side. An ugly scream emitted from the creature as it fell, sharp branches scratching and tearing its body. Kolfinna was about to launch another stone at it, but the creature was already running away.

It didn’t get far.

Water swirled around the creature so quickly that Kolfinna only blinked and it was there, completely encapsulating the magic beast in a ball. The beast flailed within the floating water and a rush of it filled its mouth. More and more until the ball grew smaller and smaller. It took Kolfinna a horrified second to realize that Ivar was drowning the beast and filling its lungs with water until it would burst.

And that’s exactly what happened. Meat and organs splattered in seconds, splashing over the barren trees with bright blue blood. The goblin’s chest had blown apart and its limbs lay in a pile of its blood and guts and bones.

Kolfinna frantically tried to stop her horse before she leaned over its side and vomited.

She had never seen a water elemental use their magic like that. She hadn’t even known it was possible.

Because how … how could someonedothat?

She definitely had a new fear unlocked, she realized as she finished retching from her spot in the middle of their party. She gave Ivar a wary glance.

He only raised a sardonic eyebrow.

“You good?” Gunnar asked.

“I’ve … never seen anything like that.” She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Her stomach twisted once more and she looked away from the gruesome scene.

They were met with a few more goblins after that. For whatever reason, Kolfinna was able to spot them before anyone could, but she only killed two of them. The others she either missed or her stones hadn’t been able to deal the finishing strike in one hit.

After the seventh goblin, which Inkeri managed to kill by slicing it in half with her air magic, she turned to Kolfinna with a wide-eyed stare. “How are you able to see and hear all these things before us?”

Gunnar flexed his wool-gloved hands. “Yeah, that’s really impressive.”

All at once, everyone was looking at her in a new light. Kolfinna could only blink at them slowly. Heat crawled up her neck at their stares; she didn’t like having all the attention on her, especially since she couldn’t answer their question.

Frankly, she had no idea why her reaction time was faster than theirs. Especially since they were trained soldiers and she was an ex-Royal Guard who, apparently, wasn’t trained that well.

In the Royal Guards, during the Eventyrslot runs and during the West Border mission, she hadn’t seemed that much faster with her reactions.

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