Anais let out a long breath, her senses alive with the flow of mana coursing through her. Her heart pounded in her chest. In seconds, she’d gone from feeling mostly in control of the situation to being surrounded. Tactically, she wasn’t in a great place. Normally, when a mage was surrounded by enemies, the best option was to blast the enemies away with an explosion of raw magic... but if she did that, Sabriella and the princess could get caught in the blast.<br/><br/>She watched Sabriella charge toward the princess out of the corner of her eye and smirked to herself at the sudden pang of envy in her heart.<i>You never wanted to be the damsel in distress, did you? Rescuing the princess is the right thing to do, by any measure.</i>Then why did it still sting?<br/><br/>She drew<i>Theneras</i>from its scabbard and held it pommel-up, keeping the focus emerald level with her eyes, which shared its colour. The dire wolves might have been part of the natural order once, but the virus had taken that away from them. If the party was defeated here, the last hope for the world might well go with them... though the thought of what would happen after that defeat frightened her even more than the end of the world did.<br/><br/>After all, if the dire wolves broke through her magical barrier, she wouldn’t be much better off than the princess. She was quick, but she didn’t have any armour to protect her. The thigh-length skirt of her tunic was less of a defense and more of a... stylistic choice. Even her enchanted cloak wasn’t really much use if something got under her tunic.<br/><br/>The sound of a firearm rung in her ears, snapping her out of her thoughts.<i>You put me to shame, princess. Here I am worrying about how the wolves might win, and you’re already fighting.</i><br/><br/>The air around her crackled and hummed. A twisting, blue bolt of lightning arced down from the canopy, crashing into her emerald focus, then curved toward the wolves in front of her, looking to electrocute as many of them as it could. If she frightened them too much, they’d all go after the princess, but she could only hold back so much.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>