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Chapter 35: The unnatural disaster

Gianni didn\'t expect Ginevra to move as quickly. She danced through the battlefield with grace and precision, surrounded by her own strongest fighters—but not as a shield, but as another weapon she wielded.

At her command, they cut through his lines with blades and flames, aiming—he had no doubt—straight for him.

He wanted to marvel at this foolishness, be dazzled by the audacity, be many other things… Anything, but Ginevra\'s target.

That she-monster was a walking catastrophe, a natural disaster born from Enzo\'s vile seed. Only she could, instead of taking a run around the hottest part of the battle, make her way straight through it.

But it worked. Not only she attacked Gianni\'s soldiers, she united her own around herself. Gianni had to step up, or he knew his troops would soon scatter under that onslaught. His own knights, sent to fight with the footmen, couldn\'t protect everyone—they couldn\'t always protect themselves.

"Archers! Shower Ginevra and her lot in arrows," Gianni commanded. "Federico, with me!"

He left the earthy cover, rushing towards his lines and chanting a new spell as he went. The old one, those arcane shields, had already mostly sputtered out under the damage, and Gianni didn\'t have mana for a new spell of that scale, but he had enough to attack Ginevra directly.

"Fight me, she-devil!" he shouted as he put his foot on the bloodied road, his voice enhanced with magic to carry over the battle. "Isn\'t that what you want?!"

"I will gut you and everyone on my way, Oliveira!" she roared back, using the same spell to be heard. "Your strength is nothing against mine!"

Her soldiers echoed her battle-cry with their own. Gianni clenched his fists. From where he stood, he couldn\'t see much beyond the closest line of his soldiers. Ginevra\'s position was even more of a guess than before, but her battle-cry gave him a good guess.

"*Oh, winds that dance through the leaves, let my steps be as swift as the blowing breeze,*" he chanted, giving his legs some extra spryness with the Windstride spell.

Then Gianni turned to Federico and gave the man a good measure. He was a loyal vassal… A loyal man. Dependable and responsible, always, even if he was of few words.

"Federico, watch my back."

He nodded, raising his mace. "It\'s my honor, Captain."

It went without saying that he will do his best, even against Ginevra.

Gianni moved forward. His men gave way; as he passed them, he helped the wounded move to back lines and straighten the formation of those who still had fight left in them.

He knew of Ginevra\'s approach. First, he sensed the pulse of her strong mana pool head. Then a blast of freezing air that sent three of his men flying to the ground, their hands and faces covered with a layer of ice.

Ginevra stood right behind them, her hand still outstretched in a spell. Her knights must\'ve lagged behind at some point, or died—but one mage still stood straight. He held a glyph-covered and glowing blade in his hands, and his sharp eyes measured his opponents.

From what Gianni knew from spies and Cael, this must\'ve been baron Luciano DiNapoli. An arcane swordsman.

Both Luciano and Ginevra breathed heavily and were covered in a thin sheet of perspiration. Gianni and Federico were better off, since they didn\'t have to fight through their own soldiers to get to this place.

Gianni outstretched his hands and read a spell before his enemies could act. A simple Arcane Arrow, aimed at Ginevra.

She dodged, but in Gianni\'s mind, this was just the beginning. He had to press on her. At his side, Federico followed with his own cantrip just as Gianni prepared a stronger spell.

"*Winds of a raging hurricane, bring forth a swift and deadly blade of piercing wind!*"

Luciano was the one to rush forward now, slashing at the flying wind blade with his sword and splitting the spell into two harmless gusts of wind. Ginevra used this opening to send out several arrows of ice at once, forcing both Gianni and Federico to move.

Then Ginevra had to move herself. Her aim at the last two arrows was completely skewered because of the arrows aimed at *her*—somewhere behind the lines, Ignazio was doing his part.

Then she threw a sharp command at Luciano and pointed behind Gianni. The man nodded and, with magic-enhanced speed, dashed away from the fight, slashing at Oliveira soldiers on his way.

It didn\'t take a genius to guess where he was going.

"Federico!" Gianni shouted, giving his lieutenant a command with just that word and a nod.

He nodded back and read a spell, creating a fissure in the ground in front of Luciano. The swordsman faltered at its edge.

Ginevra charged at Gianni, her hand aflame with a spell. He stepped back, chanting a counter-attack—

She changed course at the last moment, slapping that spell at Federico\'s side.

His lieutenant burst into flames in a moment, screaming. Gianni\'s spell flew at Ginevra, only close enough to push her back from Federico.

Another arrow from Ignazio or his archers forced Ginevra another step away. Gianni used that time to read another spell.

By the time he finished, the flames on Federico already died off, but the man was lying on the ground, motionless. Only a weak pulse of mana within told Gianni that he was still alive.

Gianni did all he could by putting a small arcane shield on him to protect him from any other enemy spells. Then he called out for a nearby soldier to carry Federico to the back lines.

And Ginevra attacked again.