With her thoughts still lost within the haze of tranquil happiness of companionship, it took Saira a few seconds to understand the warning shouts of the white sorcerer. As the arrows fired by the hollowed archers began flying towards their direction and the others immediately leaped into action, Saira remained standing exactly where she was. With her steadfast faith in the Sun, she had no reason to fear for her life, however, she did not wish any harm to come upon her companions.
With precise, practiced movements, Saira lifted up both her hands to eye-level with her sheathed katana in her left hand, and her right hand over the sword's grip. Lightly wrapping the fingers of her right hand around the sword's grip, in one smooth pulling action, she brought out the sword's sharped blade from its protective scabbard. As the polished silver metal of the blade slid out of the scabbard, a line of intricately-inscribed Eastern text met her eyes.
"With this blade drawn, let justice be done". Saira read aloud the words inscribed upon the sword's blade as she separated the katana from its scabbard. Upon speaking those words, Saira could feel a strange, powerful presence awaken from deep within her soul, as if the simple act of drawing the sword reawakened memories she thought were lost. She now felt as if she and the blade were one, singular entity. She was familiar with it, and it with her.
As the muscular Gerhard continued fighting against the hollowed undead warriors, smashing their heads with his raw strength, Saira could see one hollow closing on him from behind, brandishing a heavy straight sword held high above its head, ready to strike. Before the hollow could do so, Saira instantly burst into action as she leaped forward towards Gerhard and the hollow.
Just as the hollow's sword was being brought down, Saira thrust forward her katana's scabbard, using its hard outer shell to deflect the sword's blade. The sudden impact of the deflection sent the hollow stumbling backwards a few steps as it was caught off-balance. Seizing this short moment of opportunity, Saira quickly reversed her grip on her katana as she flicked the blade in a rapid upwards slicing action through the hollow's jaw and skull. The straight sword fell from the hollow's now limp, lifeless hands as its wielder followed the same action.
Sensing another threat moving in from just beyond the edge of her sight, Saira took a quick step backwards as another sword's blade swung down upon where she stood just moments ago. As the hollow's sword cut through empty air, its equally-empty eyes turned towards her, its mouth twisting into a feral snarl as it was denied its kill. Before the hollow could bring up its sword for its next swing, the edge of Saira's katana flicked through the air several times in rapid succession like a snapping whip, with each snap striking the hollow in different areas. The first snap sliced through the wrist of the hand that held the hollowed soldier's sword, the second cut through the decaying flesh of its neck, just short of decapitating it cleanly. The third cut, however, finished the task that the second could not.
Before she could look towards her other companions to see if they were holding their own against the hollows' ambush, the blur of a speeding arrow flew past her face just as she was about to step forward. Tracing back the arrow's trajectory to its source, Saira spotted the hollow archer perched high above the entrance to the waterway. This archer was well beyond the reach of her katana, but she was not helpless.
As the hollow archer was reaching its back for its next arrow, Saira responded by calmly returning her katana to its scabbard in her left hand. Even as the archer was now preparing to fire, Saira looked upwards towards the sky as she brought up her right hand, as if reaching for the sunlight streaming from above.
"Blessed Sunlight, grant me the power to defeat the enemies that my sword cannot reach."
With those words spoken, streaming sunlight from above collected and materialized itself into her open hand as a golden, pulsating spear of pure brilliant light. Silently offering her thanks and gratitude to the Sun, Saira flung her right hand forward towards the hollow archer positioned above. As if on command, the spear of lightning hurtled forward towards the undead archer, sending it into a series of uncontrollable convulsions as the lightning spread through its body and flesh.
"Praise the Sun."
Saira softly spoke her final words of gratitude as she watched the now-lifeless corpse of the undead archer fall face-first into the ground below.