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Éliane decided she had been too arrogant. 

Foreigners generally supposed that of Skaelans, given how truly superior Skael as, but she meant that in a different way. She had thought she could deal with the heat, even though she was from a cold and snowy land. What had she been thinking?

She had made her best attempt at modifying what she had in her wardrobe to better suit the heat and the ever present sand of the desert. She kept the main uniform, naturally, but she had shed her heavier undergarments and shirt, replacing them with a far, far lighter piece of fabric she picked up back in the city. Unfortunately, even that bit of foresight still meant suffering, but at least she wasn’t wearing heavy armor like Galahad. 

For once, the woman was not thinking of combat. Between the heat and Arton’s revelations, it was too much. Rationing the water as-is was difficult. 

Unfortunately, not all things could go smoothly, and they found something more than just sand after three days. Moments blurred together as they encountered Valheimans once more, and Éliane found herself with her gunblade drawn, fighting against the strongest foe she’d seen yet on this journey. 

She was aiming at the abominably large samurai when she suddenly found it amidst their formation. 

[b]“Shit—”[/b] Barely able to react, she was instead thrown back by Galahad as he interceded on her behalf. The Skaelan woman frantically rolled out of the way, glancing back in time to see Izayoi in turn rescue Galahad from his own untimely demise. Clicking her tongue at her own negligence, she kicked back to create more distance, switching to her rifle just as Galahad came to the same conclusion as they watched the two samurai play off of each other. She met his eye, and nodded, quickly finding an angle and then bring up her weapon.

[b]“You heard him!”[/b] she repeated. [b]“Surround him and shoot him!”[/b]

The bolt of her rifle smoothly clacked into place as she took aim and concentrated. She had not bothered to load her regular rounds for this. She went straight to explosive. A crack went out as Éliane pulled the trigger, followed by an explosion and another crack as she worked the bolt again as she poured on the lead on the giant man. It was not the glorious combat she liked, but against Valheimans, more high explosives from long distance tended to work best…