Reincarnated as the Only Human

Rhefia PoV

With the moonlight illuminating everything around us I was able to see quite far, while the torchlight scattered around the city helped me keep an eye on everything that I felt required my attention.

Since it had reached that ’time’ already, I was posted up in the little perch on my own, my bow leaning on the wall beside me while I just kept a lookout until something happened; just below me was Aethisia, napping quietly and waiting for me to tell her to take over or wake her up because we had company.

I had taken the time to carve a little lookout nest into the rock face above the cavern entrance, concealing us rather well from view and hopefully making it quite difficult for us to get found out prematurely.

The real hope was that we would have enough time to get a handful of arrows off before we needed to retreat down into the cavern below, and since we were against an unknown quantity of mercenaries that was quite pivotal to the battle to come.

All of the citizens below were relying on us to not make any mistakes and to keep them safe, which draped a certain weight on my shoulders that I hadn’t felt in quite some time; it was an uneasy weight that was quick to be knocked off balance, and it was one that made me wary.

It was one that made it easy for me to disassociate with each individual below since thinking of them as a collective of ’civilians’ was easier than me thinking of them as real people with their own lives... because if I let down a few of the civilians I could deal with that easier than I could knowing that Sarah or Jessie were either dead or injured.

Shaking those dark thoughts from my mind, I returned my focus onto the town below, entering a sort of trance for however long as I just continuously looked around and kept watch; I didn’t know when they would arrive, just that they would, and up until they did this was going to be quite irritating with how boring it was.

Yet it was good to be bored because it meant nothing was happening, and when nothing was happening no one was at risk of getting killed... so when I noticed that something was happening I felt a jolt of adrenaline that sharpened my senses instantly, and with a quick nudge to my daughter’s knee I had my bow in hand and an arrow on the string.

Far in the distance I could see a spattering of torches creeping through the trees, getting closer and closer before they got extinguished when they got too close to the walls; they were too far for me to see them, but if someone was going to extinguish their torch before they arrived inside of the walls it usually meant they weren’t friendly.

Aethisia was up beside me a moment later, her own bow in her hand and ready to sing its deadly song, and thankfully she caught the last of the torches getting extinguished so she had no questions to ask.

Looking through the ’window’ I had created, we watched over the town and waited for the mercenaries to begin showing themselves, the previously agreed upon plan already ringing in our heads.

Whoever we saw we would shoot immediately, and hopefully we could take out quite a few of them before we needed to retreat back down into the cavern; speaking of, I reached for the rope beside me and tugged on it, letting the chimes way in the back clatter together softly to alert the people below.

They just needed to get into position, hoist their spears and wait for the mercenaries to attempt to breach the walls; they were going to have to come all the way to us, because otherwise they were going to have to just abandon this and head back the way they came.

If they were smart they would know they were likely going to be caught between us and the soldiers that were going to respond to the town being taken over, so they would either push forwards aggressively or cut their losses and run while they still could.

If they were dumb they would take their time working through the town, searching for the citizens and hoping to find their peers in charge; I knew they weren’t dumb though since those torches went out early, which was a precaution that no brash leader would take.

It made it clear to me that this Altan was disciplined enough to think that her vanguard might have failed, and if she was able to grasp that early it meant she was quite sharp... and therefor very dangerous.

With all of the torches in the town I was able to keep track of most things, and when I saw one go out I couldn’t help but smile wryly since it meant they were really being wary of everything; likely some mage was being told to douse those flames, but sadly for them the moonlight was just bright enough for me...

So much time spent in the depths of a forest from dawn to dusk meant I was more than capable of seeing rather well with little light, and for them it meant I could tell where they were even though they were being this cautious.

I counted over a dozen already creeping through the town, a few of them flickering with mana as they extinguished the torches we left around the area, so I drew back the arrow and waited, watching them and waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

Aethisia mimicked me, waiting for me to let my arrow loose first; each second had my heart thundering in my chest as the adrenaline started to rush, and with that increased blood flow my senses were at their peak.

Time slowed to a crawl as I strained them even further, so by the time I saw the next flicker of magic I snapped my bow over towards it and took aim, finding a masked Beastkin of some kind slinking through the streets.

When the arrow was released it sliced through the air quietly before piercing the skull of the Beastkin, dropping them instantly and sending a rush of satisfaction throughout me as I reaffirmed my abilities in the most practical way.

Another arrow was nocked immediately, and my bow was turned towards the next target almost at the same time that the first mercenary had dropped; beside me Aethisia had shot once as well, and I could see a mercenary drop just a few feet away from the Beastkin I had shot, meaning she was picking her targets with me.