Sonia did not know how much more of this she could take. She was quite sure she had broken a rib or two when she was thrown from her charger and though the Gems' power was said to be near-limitless, the capacity of the mortal mind and body to channel that power was not. Against an ordinary human opponent, there is hesitation, retreat, some manner of pause that gives the wielder a chance to recover, but not these madmen. They were relentless and at the rate they were coming, it was just a matter of time before Sonia found herself being torn limb from limb.

She had Jill covering her, but her sister's arrows were running low. She could, of course, ably defend herself with a knife or spear, but if the enemy was able to get that close, they would not last long.

One might ask where the allies of the vice-captain of the expedition were to be found and the answer was nowhere near. Even thrown into disarray by the madmen in their ranks, the Corinthians in the van made a clear move to fall back and leave Sonia to fend for herself. She knew something like this was coming. She would not have been surprised if it was a man with his senses intact who speared her horse. If not for the madmen attacking anyone and everyone, there might have been an attempt to finish her off the moment she was thrown.

She needed to regroup with Mark. That would be their best hope, if he had not let that soft heart of his get him killed. He would be fool enough to weigh his own life less than some poor fool driven mad, but surely he still lived. She would know it if he died. An Elemental Knight knows the day one of his fellows are born via the Rite of Succession and the day that they die. Mark's time was not yet up and neither was hers.

Jill nodded.

She did not have the time or the energy for another sustained wall of flame, so Sonia settled for unleashing a burst of flame to stagger anyone coming at them as they made their retreat. However, when she turned escape through the right flank of the formation the way Mark had gone, she found herself facing Einar Ulfson and about twenty of his mercenaries barring her way.

Einar's men were supposed to be on the left wing, yet somehow amidst all this chaos they managed to cut across the Gladian ranks more or less unscathed. That did not seem too likely unless they were allowed to pass unmolested.

Einar cracked a grin and told his men, "Well, boys, looks like we'll have settle for jus' doublin' our money." Then to Sonia he said, "You're lookin' weary, milady. Even you witch-knights have your limits. Well, let it not be said I ain't the sportin' type. You an' me, milady. A proper duel."

Einar gestured to his men with their spears at the ready.

What Sonia wanted to do was roast the lot of them like suckling pigs, but she had already used too much of her power. If she tried to raise up a wall of flame under their feet, the spell might not even cast and if it did, the overexertion might knock her out cold. Neither was preferable when steel might yet avail her.

Einar grinned and told his men, "Set the stage for us, boys."

The tight formation fanned out to encircle them. Instead of all of them pointing their spears inward, they alternated between keeping the combatants in the circle and warding off any threats from without in pairs that were practically joined at the hip. They may have been mercenary scum, but they were fairly well-disciplined, Sonia would grant them that.

Einar saluted with his sword and Sonia grudgingly returned the gesture before beginning their match.

Northmen were mostly hack-and-slash-style swordsmen—those who were swordsmen, that is—, but Einar was more of a stick-and-move-style fencer like Sonia herself and that was largely because of the enchanted blade Heartseeker that was awarded to him when he became General of the Marauders' Swordsman Division. The enchantment on the blade worked just as it was named, seeking out the heart of the wielder's opponent. It was probably quite useful for ordinary duels, but it was less suited for the battlefield.

It seemed quite difficult to resist the pull of the blade, so it was more like the sword wielded the man instead of the other way around. As such, Einar's moves were easy to predict and therefore easy to block and parry. If he slacked any on his defenses, it would have been a short match.

After exchanging a few blows, neither side showed any sign of taking the advantage, but unless he resorted to spoiling the match with the help of his men, Sonia did not see how Einar thought he could win.

She decided to tell him as much in the hopes that it might cause him to falter.

Einar, however, was not so easily shaken.

Einar swung his shield at Sonia's head and when she dodged, he followed through with a lunge. Only he was not aiming for Sonia. He was aiming for Jill and with her guarding Sonia's back, her own back was exposed once Einar succeeded in separating them. She was run through cleanly before she even realized she was vulnerable.

Sonia threw everything into a lunge of her own, piercing Einar's mail shirt, or perhaps it would have been more accurate to say she melted through it with her flaming blade that set Einar alight. The spears around her closed in. Most of them bounced off her armor, but one skewered her arm and two or three others got her legs. A couple others went through the already mortally wounded Jill and one even got Einar, either by accident or to spare him the agony of burning to death.

With her legs wounded, they could no longer support her and Sonia fell to her knees. The spears would be aimed at her head next, but a bit of rock jutting out of the ground near where she fell meant that things would not go the way the mercenaries intended.

Although it looked similar, her main gauche was not the blade crafted for her ancestor Leander. It was something she commissioned herself, with a False Gem in the pommel of her own creation. A False Gem was not crafted to the same caliber as the True Gems. They were far more fragile and that fragility made them dangerous.

Sonia looked to her adoptive sister, already gone, and she thought briefly on the daughter she was leaving behind, and the infuriating man who sired her. And at last, she glared defiantly at her would-be executioners.

She then struck the rock with the pommel of her main gauche. The False Gem cracked and red light streamed out before it could no longer hold back the power within. Sonia had always thought it best to go out in a blaze of glory. She did not necessarily mean to take it quite so literally, though.