Salome toughened her skin as best she could with her Aether, making it almost as hard as stone. Even if she took an arrowhead on, it would merely chip away at her with a slight chance of getting lodged under her skin…

Well, a mundane arrow shot by a mundane archer, but the shots from the archer she was facing were much more harrowing. Possessing some enchantment or enhancement that sharpened and reinforced them.

With a hefty flap of her wings, Salome shot forward toward the three, but before she reached them, she flapped her wings again and shot herself to the ceiling. Then, she kicked off the ceiling, angling herself over the knight and at the archer, the greatest threat.

However, it seemed the knight's shield did more than just disrupt projectiles.

As Salome zipped through the air, she felt an odd force slightly change her direction, and she ended up crashing into the tower shield.

Salome groaned as she kicked off the shield, which slowed her down by disrupting the flow of Aether in her body.

'Argh.'

While staggered, the mage and archer let off attacks once again.

Salome tried to dodge, but, impaired, she was forced to sacrifice a quill to block the arrow and had to let the beam of light impale her shoulder.

A steady stream of blood poured from her wound as the knight yelled:

"Meryil, start it!"

All of a sudden, Salome sensed a mass of Aether pooling in the archer's hand as she nocked an arrow and held still.

'That looks scary…'

Salome jumped away, keeping her distance.

While that seemed counterintuitive, giving room for the archer to charge an Aether-powered shot, Salome had been in enough outnumbered battles against a similar makeup of humanoids to know what they actually had planned.

In fact, she'd lost a few good subordinates this way…

The scout was probably signaling where to shoot. Then, the next time Salome charged and was distracted, the archer would try to take out a weaker member while disguising the attack to look like it was aimed at her.

The actual target was either Toy or Awilix.

While the loss itself wasn't desirable, what was even less desirable was that Salome would get minimal remuneration for the sacrifice, most likely being kept at bay by the knight again.

However, Salome also kept in mind that she'd barely scratched the surface of the invader's bag of tricks. They had more trump cards up their sleeves. Maybe quite literally.

And most definitely a backup plan if Salome didn't fall for their trap.

As for how to combat this…

She decided to keep her distance and wait until the archer fired…

If she did shoot, Salome wouldn't come out unscathed, but she could block it. If she didn't shoot, the three would be stuck there, leaving the scout on her own against Awilix for an extended time.

While Awilix's win wasn't guaranteed, humans didn't tend to like risking their own if it wasn't necessary.

If Salome held, she was almost sure they'd call off the attack, rush it, or change it. Depending on their backup plan.

Also, there was the fact that Mias was locked in a duel with Jaune behind them. The matchup looked even for now, but the Reaper was just too deadly a foe in a one-on-one battle for any without a significant power gap to win.

Mias was intelligent, and his battle IQ was through the roof. He never missed a step (float?), never gave an opening without reason, and never failed to place an attack.

From what Salome could spare to see, Jaune wasn't bad — which was a hefty compliment coming from her — but he was nowhere near Mias. And, it was apparent that the trio Salome faced knew it as well. However, they couldn't help the poor man in the slightest.

Salome stood proudly a little in front of the Eclipse, while making sure to keep her senses sharp, trying to pick out where the scout was. As she did, she taunted the archer, moaning while screaming:

"Come on, sweety, shoot! Cover me with your Aether ᥫ᭡!"

As she shouted, Salome felt something shift behind her.

The knight tensed at Salome's scream. Then shouted:

"Switch!"

As Salome had feared, they did in fact have a backup plan. But it wasn't anything she was expecting…

Teleportation was rare — very rare.

Usually, only the elite of the elite possessed such abilities. So when the archer appeared behind her head with her bow full drawn and fully powered, she was barely able to raise and fold her wing around herself.

The archer let the shot fly from point-blank range.

The terrible shot ripped through Salome's left wing and shattered a plethora of her protective quills before carrying through and lodging itself in her stomach.

Salome winced in pain, but pain wasn't going to stop her.

The scourge still lived, so she must as well.

However, the arrow was dragging her down, an enchantment having been inscribed on it.

The archer screamed as she looked at Salome.

"Holy hell… it survived?!"

Salome panted. She struggled to pull out the arrow and free her wing.

"I don't particularly… like my guts being rearranged… in this fashion."

Even after the arrow was removed, the odd slowing effect still carried over her — slowing her to a pitiful speed. Even her empowerment from the damage she received wasn't enough to counter the effect.

The archer tried to knock another arrow to finish the job, but a feisty cat shot from the wall of Eclipse and barreled toward her. The archer was forced to jump away as Awilix gave chase.

Salome slowly stood up and looked back at the knight to find the scout rushing toward her, a mass of scratch marks from Awilix covering her body…

'I see…'

The mage had somehow switched the scout and archer's places.

'It's been way too long since I've fought something with intelligence; it seems my senses have dulled.'

Not considering every possibility was foolish.

The scout with dual daggers leaped at Salome, but a tiny goblin soon shot from the Eclipse as well and poked at the lithe girl with the tip of her halbard.

Salome smiled as she watched Toy send attack after attack against a much stronger opponent with a similar skillset. Yet, the goblin was too adept in her acrobatics to let the scout land a single blow despite their gap in strength.

Though one or two blows would be all it would take to kill the goblin, who wore little to no armor and no defensive reinforcement. Especially so in the face of an Emergent when she herself was merely a Nascent Aberrant.

'If she lives today, I wouldn't be surprised if she ascends and gains a Trait…'

Toy only needed to hold out a couple of seconds for Salome to gather her bearings.

The knight screamed:

"Reset!"

A moment later, the archer and scout fought their way back and took cover behind the knight.

Awilix reluctantly retreated, and so did Toy, both of them standing between Salome and the invaders.

Salome staggered for a few more seconds before tearing out the rest of the arrow and extending her wings to maximum breadth.

Her eyes locked on the knight…

'You… You're the threat!'

While having to kill the group's tank first wasn't ideal, Salome wasn't one on whom defense mattered much. All she had to do was get by the shield and touch the man's body, then she could siphon Aether.

The current problem was her obviously impaired state. She was physically stronger due to Slight Masochist, but too slow from the curse to make proper use of her boosted strength.

Salome looked at the cat and spoke in Vale's language:

"Awilix… deactivate it. The orbs, too."

Awilix glanced and hissed at the wounded Salome, but did as asked. Letting the Eclipse dissipate.

Salome kept her eyes trained on the knight, who was whispering something to the mage, as she asked the cat:

"Do you have enough Aether to activate it again?"

Awilix snarled:

"No…"

Eclipse was a strong ability, but a costly one. One that Awilix had already used once that day when fighting Level 6, and again to fight the scout.

As Awilix bounded around, turning the light orbs off, Salome looked over at Toy, who was relatively unharmed, but her Aether supply was dwindling.

Then, Salome said:

"Stand guard."

Salome was a proud queen, but also a pragmatic one.

She wasn't too happy about doing this — humiliated even — but she had to do it… Relying on another… She had to trust in Mias.

"If they turn on the Reaper, we attack. If they continue keeping their distance like this, just focus on dodging. Do not get drawn in."

Awilix returned to her side, then snarled, but it seemed like she learned after having her ankle popped out that pain wasn't fun and was in line with taking the safe approach.

Toy happily listened while holding her halbard at the ready.

"Understood, master."

Salome's gaze all the while stayed locked on the knight with Mias and Jaune in her peripheral vision off behind them.

'Now, what will you do…'

The scout was able to fight, but was injured. The mage was unharmed and near half capacity, the teleport seemingly taking a lot out of him. The archer took a few blows from Awilix and had used a lot of Aether in her charged attack, but was in an alright state. The knight was perfectly healthy.

But Jaune… the warrior fighting Mias with a dagger.

The injuries were mounting on his body, and from what Salome could tell, he'd yet to land a single blow on the smoky reaper.

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