A late defense

Biara gasped for breath as she stood on the paving stones of the road. Her battle armor was in shreds, thanks to the not-so-tender ministrations of the worgen female known as Lemuelle. The beast had ripped into Biara as if infected with rabies, and her claws and weapons had made Biara's magical shielding virtually useless against the ferocious assault.Where the beast was now Biara could only guess; the last she had seen the thing had been hurled into the high bushes near the roadbed, yipping with pain from her wounds.

The Magistrix looked down at the body lying on the road before her. The young man lay as if dead, blood splattering his body where deadly shards of ice had pierced his armor and the flesh beneath. Uchel looked like he'd seen better days, and his rasping breath told Biara that he might have a broken bone or two to add to his misery. As she stood of him, her own blood ran down her arm from a wound in her shoulder, dripping onto the ground to mix with his.

Our blood is the same color. The thought came with wry amusement as she watched the crimson fluid pool beneath her, the two sources intermingling with no variation between them.

The fight had been fierce. She had caught the two at the Forsaken High Command in Silverpine Forest. She had no idea what they were doing there, but they had been heavily engaged with the Dark Lady's ground forces around the plague tanks when Biara had arrived. Hurling her spells she had managed to distract them from the guards, only to have that beastly worgen all over her. The human had been able to finish whatever mischief they came for before adding his own daggers into the fight. Only her surprise attack had allowed her to defeat them at all.

Defeat them! She smiled again as she stared down at the unconscious Uchel. A Guildwatch General, here in her power. With one word, one spell she could put an end to his interference. She could strike one of the heads off the beast that was her foe, and leave them in utter confusion as her allies moved in to take advantage of the situation. A single spell could end everything. She pointed a carefully manicured nail at the prone man, magic already building within her for the killing blow. So simple an act, so easily completed. Perhaps the forsaken would raise him as the dead to join them. How deliciously ironic.

A branch cracked as a heavy weight moved across it. Biara looked up to see Lemuelle lying in the grass on the side of the road, a strange gnomish device in her hand. She looked briefly at Biara, and then to a plague tank sitting nearby. Biara's eyes followed hers, until she saw that the base of the tank was covered with strangely wired gnomish devices as well.

Explosives. They had sabotaged the tanks. Her eyes darted back to Lemuelle's, meeting the worgen's fierce gaze.

"Bitch!" Biara murmured.

The worgen merely gave her a toothy snarl before one of her fingers depressed the button on the gnomish device in her hand. Biara had only a second to scream out the word of a defensive ward before the very air around her was incinerated by the force of the explosion within the tank. Flaming debris flew past her before the shockwave picked her up and hurled her off the road. The ground flew beneath her, and then rose up swiftly to claim her in a bone jarring impact.

The world went black.

******

Biara woke up sometime later to the gentle shaking of a forsaken guard as he tried to rouse her. Her first view as her sea green eyes opened was that of the clear blue sky. She realized she was lying in the grass on the side of the road, her body aching in multiple places from the impact. Without her last second ward, she'd have died in the blast.

Died in the blast! What of my foes?!

She scrambled unsteadily to her feet, running towards the wreckage of the plague tank, seeing many other destroyed and burning tanks all around the High Command post. There, on the ground near where she had been standing, a trail of blood led away into the bushes. A trail made when Lemuelle had dragged Uchel to safety, keeping him alive while Biara was incapacitated.

No!

Yes. She had failed. They lived for now. Wearily she spoke a word and portal opened before her, sending her to the safety and comfort of Silvermoon. It would take many hours with the healers to ensure that she herself didn't die from blood loss from the many many wounds she'd endured.