You barely see it in the corner of your eye; a blow aimed at your head!\n\n[[Dodge|Dodge_Blow]]\n[[Parry|Parry_Blow]]

You pick up the shield of one of the fallen soldiers and with a deep breath charge forward at the first opponent. Your shoulder crunches as it hits the inner side of your shield which itself is beating against the enemies torso on the other side. The soldier who did not expect this kind of attack is thrown backwards into the air towards the edge of the bridge. As you swing with your sword hand towards the other threat to get distance between you, you hold your shield up over your head and kick the tumbled enemy down the bottomless pit.\nThe other soldier who apparently is not scared by the fading screams rushes forward while attempting to do to you what you did to his comrade. You fake a sword blow towards his left arm and as he tries to block the attack you spin around your own axis hitting his sword with the outer edge of your shield and his unprotected right side with a backhand swing, leaving behind another lifeless corpse on the ground.\n\n[[Breathe slowly|Breathe_Slowly]]

As the incoming blade swings by your body you decide to take the chance and strike directly towards the opponent's unprotected throat.\nYou see the fear in his eyes as he gasps for air knowing this will be his last moment in this mortal world.\n\n[[Look around|Look_Around]]

You leap aside, missing only by inches what could have been your quick death.\n\n[[Counterattack|Counterattack]]\n[[Fall back and execute|Fall_Back_Execute]]

You open your eyes, and hear it again: "Give up you coward!" There it is, in the dark sky: A giant grotesque face formed out of shadows and fiery lights. "You cannot save her!"\nYou don't know how much time has passed, or how much longer the barrier is going to stand. What you know is that there's no more artifacts to protect you; this is going to be your last fight.\n\n[[Wait|Wait]]\n[[Take down barrier|Take_Down_Barrier]]

Despite your exhaustion you decide to fight back the two approaching enemies.\n\n[[Pickup second sword|Pickup_Second_Sword]]\n[[Pickup shield|Pickup_Shield]]

The pulsating light of her body starts to intensify more and more until you have to squint your eyes to not be blinded completely. You feel the radiating warmth on your face and try to get a hold of her, but as you reach out with both your hands the light erupts with a blast in all directions; time starts to speed up again and every soldier hit by the light disintegrates where he stands to leave behind only a pile of dust. Even the dark visage in the sky disappears and reveals the sun's face.\n\n[[Open eyes|Open_Eyes]]

You try to grab something with your hands but only feel air and dust. Slowly opening your eyes you see what you've feared the most: Her body has vanished completely leaving nothing behind but your memory of her and the time you spent together. As you drop on your knees and reach out your arms to the sky you shout with all of the little strength you have left, a last cry of desperation.\nYou remain motionlessly for some time still feeling the weight of her hand's comforting touch on your shoulder. Then as the exhaustion starts to take its toll you slowly drop to the ground fainting away into nothingness. At last though the voice was right: You couldn't save her.

You quickly take a step backwards to get some space between you and your opponent. As you raise your hand, fire erupts from it and bursts forward engulfing the attacker in a cloak of flames and throwing him backwards.\n\n[[Look around|Look_Around]]

Sacrifice

You decide it's best to recover strength as long as the barrier is still holding.\nAfter a few minutes already you feel the sphere starting to lose integrity. The soldiers on the other side who realize the same thing rally around the shield waiting for it to fail completely. You pick up your sword and shield and get into position to fight back the horde of enemies. After another minute the sphere starts to shrink collapsing into a single point in front of you and triggering a bright flash of light.\n\n[[Use distraction|Use_Distraction]]

You slowly turn around and try to make out what is behind you, then your heart skips a beat: You stare directly into the glowing face of the one person you love. "No!" Tears and despair overcome you as you realize what is happening. "Don't try to stop me." A smile on her face, and her lips silently forming her last words: I love you.\n\n[[Reach out|Reach_Out]]

You use the valuable seconds while the soldiers are still dazzled to concentrate and hold your fist up in front of you; a ring of sonic waves erupts from it expanding towards your enemies and knocking the first row off their feet. You leap forward striking two of the soldiers while they are still on the ground. Block, thrust, block, feint, spin; the dance of blades as your mentor used to call it is still in your blood. You cause havoc in the midst of the attackers, but dozens more are approaching filling every gap you blow into the enemy line.\nThen, a splitsecond of inattention and a sharp pain runs up your leg into your spine. You manage to fight off the soldier who hit you with a single strike, but the pain has a bearing on you. After two more killed enemies and a ball of fire directed at the approaching opponents, another blade leaves behind a bleeding wound on your waist. Fear overcomes you as you feel the loss of blood affecting your movements and vision.\nWith the last ounce of strength you push back three enemies at once, when suddenly everything around you starts to slow down; the three soldiers stop mid-air, a blade from the right side halts just a few inches before you and even the wind seems to stop blowing. Then you feel a touch of light on your shoulder from behind...\n\n[[Turn around|Turn_Around]]

Having bought some valuable seconds you quickly look around to assess your situation: Two more attackers are approaching from across the bridge, who knows how many more are on their way. You will be able to handle them, but only at a considerable cost; the wound on your lower leg is still bleeding and needs to be taken care of.\nYou remind yourself that defeat is not an option, for the sake of everything you love.\n\n[[Fight attackers|Fight_Attackers]]\n[[Use ward|Use_Ward]]

There is no point in delaying the inevitable; you pick up your sword and shield and get into position to fight back the horde of enemies. The soldiers who realize this start to rally around the shield waiting for it to vanish. You speak a single word, and the sphere immediately starts to shrink collapsing into a single point in front of you and triggering a bright flash of light.\n\n[[Use distraction|Use_Distraction]]

The exhaustion is slowly taking over your whole body; your shoulder feels sore after the fight and your leg definitely needs your attention as well. You know you will probably not survive another head-on fight in this state.\n\n[[Use Ward|Use_Ward]]

You remain in your meditating position reducing all unnecessary body functions to a minimum. The noises surrounding you, the slight breeze and the pressure on your legs start to disappear as you slowly fade into your dream world.\n\n\n<i>...you hear the cry of desparation coming from the burning girl and you run towards her... fire and flames everywhere, raining from the sky and soaring from the red ground, stoked by whirling wind... every step you take is a struggle, a fight with the blistering heat, but regardless of how far you get you don't seem to come any closer to the screaming person...\n"Don't leave me here!" ...you want to answer her, but your dry lips won't move... then another voice, deep and fearsome: "Give up you coward, you are too weak to save her!" ... and again and again...</i>\n\n[[Wake up|Wake_Up]]

As you see the next enemies approaching you take the last rune stone out of your pouch, hold it in one hand in front of you and start to recite the verses you were taught so many years ago. The stone starts to crumble and a spherical barrier of light begins to form around it slowly extending outwards until it first includes your hand, then your arm, your whole body and finally the whole width of the bridge. You are safe for now.\n\n[[Inspect leg wound|Inspect_Leg_Wound]]

As your heart rate slowly starts to normalize you sit down with both hands on your legs, a straight back and closed eyes. Despite the battlecries and taunts of soldiers trooping up just outside the barrier you manage to turn your consciousness inwards; to feel the cyclic flow of blood through your veins, the expanding and compressing of your lungs, the tension in every muscle... and the disturbances coming from where this equilibrium has been broken. You focus on the wound on your leg; the natural healing process of your body is already occurring, but not fast enough. You concentrate on the breach and after some time feel more and more energy flowing into your leg, advancing the healing process by hours, then days, then weeks and finally leaving nothing but irritated skin and slightly aching muscles.\n\n[[Rest|Rest]]

ClairDeLune

You quickly manage to raise your swordhand and deflect the attack away from you.\n\n[[Counterattack|Counterattack]]\n[[Fall back and execute|Fall_Back_Execute]]

You pick up a sword of one of the fallen soldiers with your offhand and decide to wait for the attackers' first move. As both soldiers attempt to strike at the same time, you duck to dodge the first blow and parry the other one with your mainhand. The first opponent who apparently did not expect this almost loses balance as his swing misses his target. Seeing this you quickly leap forward to hit the only standing leg with the blunt side of your other sword. The soldier loses control completely and falls towards the ground; the other one decides to take the chance and kick towards your lowered head. You try to dodge the incoming attack, but it still hits your left shoulder knocking you off your feet.\nAs the enemy initiates the finishing blow with both his hand on the sword's hilt and the blade directed towards the ground, you close your eyes for a short moment to feel a pulse of force leave your body outwards in all directions. While the surprised soldier is thrown backwards you quickly jump on your feet to follow up with a single blow directed at his lower torso. You feel a jolt as the sword hits its target with precision. The other soldier who just got up again trying to revenge his comrade rushes towards you with a raised weapon. As you leap left to dodge the incoming blow your opponent starts to tumble because of his misdirected swing; you decide to take the chance and push him further sending him towards and over the edge of the bridge down into a bottomless pit.\n\n[[Breathe slowly|Breathe_Slowly]]