Flames crawled through collapsed houses on both sides of the street, pouring from broken windows and licking across wooden rooftops. Smoke hung low enough to sting the eyes, and bodies littered the roads between overturned festival carts, shattered signs, and abandoned weapons.
For Reina, it was perfect.
Pale light rose from the dead around her.
One soul.
Then another.
Then another.
The orbs drifted through the smoke and vanished into the Reaper's Feast Blade as Reina stepped through Erika's slash. The sword in her hand gave a faint pale pulse, immediately brighter than it had been during their fight near the shore.
Jeremiah attacked from her opposite side.
Reina twisted between them.
Erika's blade passed inches from her chest while Jeremiah's came toward her neck. Reina leaned backward beneath it, planted one hand against the ground, and kicked herself sideways before both could adjust.
She landed among three bodies.
Three more pale lights rose.
Jeremiah: "Don't let her stay near the dead!"
Erika was already moving.
She burst through the smoke and slashed diagonally.
Reina blocked.
Their blades struck hard enough to scatter sparks across the street.
Erika immediately reversed direction.
Reina caught that one too.
Jeremiah appeared behind her.
His sword thrust forward.
Reina spent a soul.
Her body surged.
She accelerated out of the gap with enough force to crack the pavement beneath her foot, leaving Jeremiah's thrust to pass through empty space.
Erika chased.
Reina glanced over her shoulder.
Reina: "You understand the problem now, don't you?"
Erika didn't answer.
She jumped onto the remains of a collapsed storefront, ran two steps across the angled wall, and launched herself down toward Reina.
Reina smiled.
Her blade came up.
Steel crashed against steel.
Farther down the street, Esmarie nearly stumbled.
She caught herself before her knee touched the ground and raised her sword just as a vampire rushed through the smoke.
Sylvie intercepted first.
Her blade cut across the vampire's forearm, redirected his claws, and flowed immediately into a thrust through his shoulder. She twisted aside as another vampire attacked from behind him, then drove her elbow into his jaw before cutting across his chest.
Neither wound was enough to kill.
Both were enough to create space.
Sylvie: "Esmarie."
Esmarie: "I'm fine."
She wasn't.
Her arms felt heavy.
Her breathing had become rough several minutes ago, and the muscles in her legs burned every time she changed direction. They had been fighting far too long without a real opportunity to rest, and the deeper they moved into town, the more vampires seemed to appear.
Sylvie glanced at her.
Esmarie caught the look.
Esmarie: "Seriously. I'm still good."
A vampire came at her from the right.
Esmarie stepped forward herself.
She caught his wrist before the claws reached her, rotated underneath the arm, and drove her shoulder into his chest. The vampire stumbled past her.
Esmarie turned with him.
Her sword slashed across his back.
He spun around angrily.
Esmarie kicked him in the knee.
The leg folded.
She drove her pommel into his temple.
He hit the street.
Esmarie exhaled sharply.
Esmarie: "See?"
Sylvie: "I didn't say anything."
Esmarie: "Your face did."
Sylvie almost smiled.
Another two vampires came through the burning intersection.
Sylvie stepped ahead of Esmarie again.
This time Esmarie let her.
The first vampire attacked high.
Sylvie tilted her head beneath the claws and cut his stomach.
The second rushed around him.
Esmarie moved before Sylvie could turn.
She blocked the incoming strike with both hands on her sword.
The impact nearly buckled her knees.
Esmarie grit her teeth.
The vampire pushed harder.
Esmarie suddenly stopped resisting.
She stepped backward.
His momentum carried him forward.
She redirected his arm past her shoulder and drove her knee into his stomach.
He folded.
Esmarie slashed across his chest.
The vampire fell backward into a burning food stall.
Sylvie finished the first with a clean cut through the neck.
Esmarie leaned against her sword for barely a second.
Sylvie noticed.
Sylvie: "You are tired."
Esmarie: "Didn't say I wasn't."
She straightened again.
Esmarie: "Just said I'm not done."
A violent impact shook the street.
Both looked toward Erika and Jeremiah.
Reina had spent another soul.
Pale energy covered her legs as she drove Erika backward through the remains of a wooden wall. Erika disappeared into the building, but Jeremiah attacked before Reina could pursue.
He aimed for her sword arm.
Reina parried.
Jeremiah immediately stepped inside the reach of the Reaper's Feast Blade and drove his shoulder into her.
Reina slid backward.
Erika burst back through the wall.
Her sword came from Reina's blind side.
Reina turned.
Too late.
The edge grazed her ribs.
Blood appeared.
Erika followed with another slash.
Reina blocked.
Then another.
Blocked.
Erika continued pressing.
Her attacks weren't simply fast.
They changed character every few movements.
One strike was elegant and mechanically perfect.
The next came from an awkward angle no formal sword style should have produced.
Then she returned immediately to textbook footwork.
Reina's eyes remained fixed on her.
Reina: "Still a beast pretending to have manners."
Erika's smile flashed for an instant.
Erika: "You already used that one."
She attacked again.
Reina's expression flattened.
Their swords collided repeatedly as they moved between burning buildings.
Jeremiah stayed just outside the exchange.
Watching.
Counting.
Reina reinforced herself.
One soul.
She used Soul Edge to extend a slash beyond the physical blade.
Another.
Erika avoided the pale continuation by bending almost completely backward, then rolled over one shoulder and came back to her feet.
Jeremiah attacked immediately.
Reina blocked him.
Jeremiah didn't commit.
He struck once and withdrew.
Reina's eyes narrowed.
Jeremiah was making her work for everything.
Not trying to defeat her with any single attack.
Forcing her to spend.
That had been effective near the shore.
Here, it barely mattered.
Another pale orb entered her sword.
Then two more.
Then five.
Jeremiah glanced around.
There were corpses everywhere.
Hunters.
Vampires.
Civilians.
The battle had turned the entire town into ammunition.
Jeremiah: "Damn it."
Reina heard him.
Reina: "You finally brought me somewhere useful."
Jeremiah: "You ran here."
Reina: "And you followed."
She smiled faintly.
Reina: "That was the useful part."
A scream came from the intersection.
Three more vampires had found Sylvie and Esmarie.
Then two more appeared from an alley behind them.
Esmarie looked around.
Esmarie: "Five?"
Sylvie raised her sword.
Esmarie: "I'm starting to feel insulted."
The vampires rushed them.
Sylvie stepped into the center.
Her blade moved in clean, economical arcs, never traveling farther than necessary. She caught the first vampire across the wrist, pivoted around the second, and used his body to obstruct the third.
Esmarie backed toward the wall.
Not retreating.
Positioning.
The fourth vampire lunged.
She ducked and drove her sword upward through his side.
He snarled and grabbed for her.
Esmarie ripped the blade free and kicked him away.
The fifth came immediately.
Too fast.
Sylvie's sword intercepted his claws inches from Esmarie's face.
Sylvie: "Behind me."
Esmarie: "No."
She stepped beside her instead.
They fought shoulder to shoulder.
Sylvie handled three.
Esmarie took two.
One vampire slashed Esmarie's sleeve and opened a shallow line across her upper arm.
She hissed.
Then slammed her forehead into his nose.
He stumbled.
Esmarie cut his leg.
Before the second could reach her, she grabbed the first vampire's shoulder and shoved him into the attack.
The two collided.
Esmarie stabbed through the gap between them.
One dropped.
The other jerked backward.
Sylvie turned from her own opponents and finished him before he recovered.
The remaining three hesitated.
That was their mistake.
Sylvie and Esmarie moved together.
Ten seconds later, the intersection was clear.
Esmarie bent over slightly.
Her breathing was much louder now.
Sylvie wiped blood from her blade.
Sylvie: "Still not done?"
Esmarie raised one finger.
Esmarie: "Don't start."
Another crash rolled through the town.
A building across the street split open.
Erika flew through the upper floor and landed on the roof of the structure opposite it.
She immediately ran along the tiles.
Reina appeared behind her through pale light.
Reaper's Passage.
Jeremiah looked toward the corpse Reina had used.
Another soul gone.
He filed it away.
Erika jumped from the roof.
Reina followed.
Both fell toward the street while exchanging strikes in midair.
Reina's blade came horizontally.
Erika caught it.
The impact altered both of their falls.
Erika kicked against the wall of the building beside them and pushed away.
Reina spent another soul.
Reinforcement.
She accelerated through the air and nearly caught Erika before she landed.
Jeremiah entered beneath them.
His blade forced Reina to abandon the pursuit.
Reina landed.
Jeremiah attacked her immediately.
Erika touched down behind him.
The two switched without speaking.
Jeremiah withdrew.
Erika entered.
Reina blocked.
Jeremiah attacked again from another angle.
They were rotating pressure.
Reina recognized it.
She smiled anyway.
Because behind them, more pale lights were rising.
Dozens of corpses remained throughout the burning district.
And farther down the road, another group of vampires was approaching through the smoke.
Jeremiah noticed them.
So did Erika.
Esmarie and Sylvie turned at the sound of footsteps.
At least eight.
Maybe more behind them.
Esmarie sighed.
Esmarie: "You know, I'm really starting to miss the beach."
Sylvie: "You complained about the sand."
Esmarie: "I take it back."
Reina lifted the Reaper's Feast Blade.
Pale light flowed into it from every direction.
One orb.
Three.
Six.
More.
The glow around the weapon intensified until it painted Reina's face white against the orange fire behind her.
Jeremiah tightened his grip.
Erika lowered her stance.
Reina looked between them.
Reina: "You wanted to exhaust my souls."
Another orb disappeared into the blade.
Reina: "Unfortunately…"
Her eyes shifted toward the bodies covering the burning streets.
Reina: "You've followed me to a banquet."
***
Reina moved first.
A pale sheen washed over her body as another soul disappeared into Reaper's Feast.
Jeremiah's eyes sharpened immediately.
Jeremiah: "Sanctuary."
Erika was already in range.
Her blade came down hard enough to split Reina from shoulder to waist.
It passed cleanly through the space she occupied.
No blood.
No resistance.
Nothing.
Erika's eyes narrowed.
Reina stepped through the attack and shoved her aside with one hand.
Reina: "You should listen when he speaks."
Jeremiah came in from the opposite side.
Not with a slash.
He drove his shoulder into Reina's chest and forced her backward several steps.
Reina's expression changed slightly.
She couldn't be hurt.
That didn't mean she couldn't be moved.
Jeremiah: "Don't attack her. Control her."
Erika understood immediately.
Reina tried advancing toward the corpse-covered intersection ahead.
Erika cut across her path and struck with the flat of her blade, turning Reina's shoulder just enough to redirect her toward a collapsed storefront instead.
Reina pivoted.
Jeremiah was already there.
He hooked his foot behind hers and shoved.
Reina stumbled sideways.
She recovered instantly and swung Reaper's Feast at his neck.
Jeremiah ducked.
Erika stepped in.
Her sword caught Reina's wrist and forced the blade upward.
They were no longer trying to damage her.
They were fencing for space.
Reina realized it.
A faint smile returned.
Reina: "Interesting."
She shifted her footing.
Jeremiah went to push her again.
Reina let him.
At the last second, she rotated around the pressure and used his momentum to throw him past her.
Erika attacked from behind.
Reina bent beneath the blade and continued walking.
Another pale soul rose from a body beside the street.
It entered Reaper's Feast.
Jeremiah clicked his tongue.
Even invulnerable, she was harvesting.
That was the problem.
Every second Sanctuary remained active was a second Reina could spend turning the dead around her into more options.
Farther down the street, Sylvie blocked a vampire's claws with both hands on her sword.
The impact pushed her backward across broken glass.
Esmarie came in from the side.
She slashed across the vampire's leg.
He stumbled.
Sylvie finished him with a thrust through the chest.
Another vampire rushed them immediately.
Then another.
Sylvie pulled her blade free and stepped in front of Esmarie.
Esmarie: "You don't have to keep doing that."
Sylvie: "You're tired."
Esmarie: "Still not done."
She moved past her.
The first vampire swung.
Esmarie ducked and drove her shoulder into his stomach.
He folded.
She stepped around him and cut across his back.
The second came from her blind side.
Sylvie intercepted.
Her blade redirected the claws away from Esmarie's neck.
Sylvie turned with the motion and slashed the vampire's forearm open.
Esmarie spun back around.
Her sword drove through the gap Sylvie had created.
The vampire dropped.
Esmarie immediately had to brace a hand against her knee.
Her breathing was getting worse.
Sylvie noticed.
Again.
Esmarie: "Don't."
Sylvie: "I didn't say anything."
Esmarie: "You keep making that face."
Sylvie: "What face?"
Esmarie: "The one where you're about to tell me to sit down."
A vampire came through the smoke behind them.
Sylvie looked over Esmarie's shoulder.
Sylvie: "Then stand up."
Esmarie straightened.
The vampire lunged.
She met him herself.
Their weapons collided once.
Twice.
The third strike nearly knocked her sword from her hands.
Esmarie grit her teeth and changed angle instead of trying to overpower him.
She let his next attack pass beside her and stepped close.
Too close for him to swing properly.
Her knee hit his stomach.
He doubled over.
Esmarie drove her blade under his ribs.
He went still.
She pulled free.
Esmarie: "See?"
Sylvie: "Impressive."
Esmarie: "That sounded sarcastic."
Sylvie: "It wasn't."
A violent crash interrupted them.
They both looked back toward Reina.
Jeremiah had just driven her through the remains of a wooden stall.
Reina walked straight out.
Untouched.
Erika came from above.
She landed on the stall's broken roof and kicked off, dropping toward Reina with both hands on her sword.
Reina raised Reaper's Feast.
Their blades met.
The attack couldn't wound her, but Erika's weight and momentum still drove her backward.
Reina's boots cut lines through the ash-covered road.
Jeremiah attacked her legs.
Not cutting.
Sweeping.
Reina jumped over it.
Erika immediately shoulder-checked her in midair.
Reina was knocked sideways into the wall of a building.
She pushed off it before either could trap her.
Another corpse lay near the doorway.
A pale orb began rising.
Erika saw it.
She kicked the body farther into the burning structure before Reina could reach it.
Reina looked at her.
Erika: "No free food."
Reina's smile faded.
She stepped forward.
Jeremiah moved in.
Reina rotated Reaper's Feast around her body, forcing both of them to hesitate.
Even invulnerable, the weapon itself could still kill.
That was what made Sanctuary dangerous.
They couldn't injure Reina.
Reina could still injure them.
She pressed.
A horizontal slash forced Erika backward.
A thrust made Jeremiah pivot away.
Reina stepped between them and headed for the next cluster of bodies.
Jeremiah blocked the path.
She attacked.
He parried.
Erika came from the side and hooked her blade against Reina's weapon, dragging it outward.
Jeremiah immediately shoved Reina in the opposite direction.
She slid across the street.
Reina: "You two are persistent."
Jeremiah: "You noticed."
Reina advanced again.
Jeremiah's eyes flicked toward the pale glow surrounding her.
Then toward the burning building behind them.
He had been counting.
Not perfectly.
Close enough.
Jeremiah: "Erika."
She understood from his tone.
Her stance lowered.
Reina noticed.
The pale sheen around her body began to flicker.
Jeremiah: "Three."
Reina's eyes narrowed.
Jeremiah: "Two."
Reaper's Feast shifted in Reina's hands.
She stepped back.
Jeremiah: "One."
The glow vanished.
Erika exploded forward.
Reina raised her sword.
Too late.
Erika's first slash knocked Reaper's Feast aside.
The second cut across Reina's ribs.
Blood sprayed.
The third came for her neck.
Reina bent backward beneath it and spent a soul.
Reinforcement surged through her body.
She launched herself away fast enough to leave a crack in the road.
Jeremiah chased.
Reina turned and swung.
Soul Edge extended beyond the blade.
Jeremiah stopped short.
The pale continuation sliced through the front of his coat.
Erika attacked from behind.
Reina vanished.
Reaper's Passage.
Erika's sword cut empty air.
Jeremiah spun.
Reina appeared beside a corpse near the burning intersection behind them.
She attacked immediately.
Jeremiah barely got his blade up.
The impact drove him back.
Erika came after her.
Reina disappeared again.
Another corpse.
Another angle.
Reaper's Feast appeared beside Erika's shoulder.
She ducked.
The blade cut a lock of hair instead.
Erika turned and countered.
Reina spent another soul and reinforced herself again.
Their blades collided.
This time Reina held her ground.
The fight accelerated.
Reina began chaining everything she had.
Passage.
Reinforcement.
Soul Edge.
Every time Erika and Jeremiah started boxing her in, she disappeared through the corpse field and reappeared somewhere else.
Every teleport cost her.
Every boost cost her.
Every extended slash cost her.
But the burning town kept feeding her replacements.
Jeremiah was forced to keep changing angles just to stay between Reina and the densest clusters of bodies.
Erika stayed on her relentlessly.
She was beginning to win more of the direct exchanges.
Reina blocked high.
Erika cut low.
Reina stepped aside.
Erika reversed the blade mid-motion and nearly caught her hip.
Reina twisted away.
Jeremiah attacked where she moved.
She parried.
Erika attacked again.
Reina had to Passage out.
Jeremiah noticed.
Erika did too.
They were making her spend.
Not fast enough yet.
But faster than before.
Across the street, Sylvie and Esmarie were doing the same thing in their own way.
The vampires around them were thinning.
A tall one rushed Sylvie from the front while another circled behind Esmarie.
Sylvie stepped into the first attack.
Their blades locked.
The vampire pushed.
Sylvie gave ground deliberately.
Esmarie saw the second one coming.
She turned.
Her arms were heavy now.
Her legs even worse.
The vampire was fresh.
That mattered.
He attacked hard.
Esmarie blocked once.
Then again.
The third strike knocked her sword wide.
He lunged.
Esmarie stepped inside the attack instead of away.
The claws passed behind her back.
She trapped his wrist under her arm.
Then drove her forehead into his face.
He staggered.
Esmarie kicked the side of his knee.
The leg bent.
She pulled her sword back into line and slashed across his throat.
He dropped.
Esmarie nearly went down with him.
She caught herself on the wall.
Sylvie had already finished the other vampire.
Sylvie: "That one hurt."
Esmarie: "A little."
Sylvie: "You're bleeding."
Esmarie looked at the shallow cut across her side.
Esmarie: "I've had worse."
More movement came through the smoke.
Three vampires.
Sylvie sighed softly.
Esmarie: "Only three?"
Sylvie: "You sound disappointed."
Esmarie: "I'm exhausted. I'm trying to stay positive."
They attacked.
Sylvie met two.
Esmarie took the third.
The fight became ugly and close.
No room for elegant movements.
No clean lines.
Burning debris narrowed the street and forced everyone together.
Sylvie parried one vampire into the other, used the collision to cut across both, then ducked beneath a wild claw aimed for her head.
Esmarie got driven backward into a storefront.
Her opponent attacked again.
She blocked.
Her arms shook.
He smiled.
Bad choice.
Esmarie saw it.
He thought she was finished.
She let her sword drop slightly.
He committed.
Esmarie moved first.
One step sideways.
His claws missed.
Her blade came up underneath his arm and drove through the chest.
His expression froze.
Esmarie pulled free.
He fell.
Sylvie finished her second opponent and turned.
The last vampire hesitated.
Esmarie looked at him.
Sylvie looked at him.
He ran.
Sylvie chased.
She caught him before he reached the alley.
One clean slash.
He dropped.
Silence settled over their section of the street.
For the first time in what felt like forever, no new vampire immediately appeared.
Esmarie leaned heavily on her sword.
Sylvie returned to her side.
Sylvie: "Done?"
Esmarie looked around.
Bodies.
Fire.
Smoke.
Nothing moving nearby.
Esmarie: "Yeah."
She breathed out.
Esmarie: "Finally."
Another explosion came from Reina's fight.
They both turned.
Erika flew backward through a cloud of smoke and landed on one knee.
Jeremiah blocked a Soul Edge that carved through the building behind him.
Reina appeared from Reaper's Passage beside another corpse.
Blood ran down her side from Erika's earlier wound.
Her expression had changed.
Less amusement.
More focus.
Erika rose.
Jeremiah stepped beside her.
Then Reina noticed something.
The surrounding noise had changed.
No more vampires screaming.
No more claws scraping through nearby alleys.
No more interference.
She looked past Erika and Jeremiah.
Sylvie walked toward them.
Esmarie followed more slowly, using her sword to help keep herself upright.
Reina's eyes narrowed.
Erika glanced over her shoulder.
A smile appeared.
Jeremiah exhaled.
Esmarie stopped beside Sylvie.
She looked at Reina.
Esmarie: "Sorry."
She took another tired breath.
Esmarie: "Took us a little longer than expected."
Sylvie raised her sword.
Sylvie: "We're finished here."
Reina looked at all four of them.
For the first time since reaching the burning town, there was nobody left to divide their attention.
Nobody left to keep Sylvie and Esmarie occupied.
Nobody left between Reina and the entire team.
Reaper's Feast tightened in her hands.
Pale light drifted through the smoke around her.
Erika lowered her stance.
Jeremiah did the same.
Sylvie stepped forward.
Esmarie forced herself upright.
The banquet was still full.
But now Reina had four Hunters sitting at the table.
Jeremiah kept his eyes on Reina.
Jeremiah: "We don't need to overpower everything she can do."
Erika tightened her grip.
Sylvie stepped up beside her.
Esmarie forced herself off her sword and stood straight.
Jeremiah: "We just need one moment."
Reina's pale blade glowed through the smoke.
Jeremiah: "One stretch where we hit her so relentlessly she can't activate anything."
Erika smiled.
Erika: "Then let's make one."
They moved.
All four at once.
Erika reached Reina first, forcing Reaper's Feast high with a rising slash. Jeremiah immediately cut toward her exposed ribs, but Reina pivoted around Erika and intercepted him with the lower half of her blade. Sylvie stabbed through the opening created by their clash, forcing Reina to retreat two steps before Esmarie attacked from her opposite side.
Reina twisted between them.
Her blade flashed.
Jeremiah felt the first cut across his shoulder.
Blood sprayed against the burning street.
He didn't stop.
Sylvie attacked the instant Reina's sword passed him, driving a precise thrust toward her stomach. Reina turned her hip aside and slashed across Sylvie's upper arm on the return.
Sylvie flinched.
Reina rotated again.
Esmarie came in too late to avoid the next strike.
The edge carved across her thigh.
Her leg nearly folded.
Erika caught Reina's follow-up before it could reach Esmarie's neck.
The impact rang through the street.
Erika pushed.
Reina pushed back.
Jeremiah attacked her side.
Reina disengaged from Erika and ducked under him, then dragged Reaper's Feast horizontally across his abdomen.
A shallow but long cut opened through his clothes.
Jeremiah hissed and backed away.
Sylvie immediately took his place.
Her blade came straight down the center.
Reina parried.
Sylvie changed to a thrust.
Reina slipped past it.
A third.
Reina knocked it wide.
Then she stepped inside Sylvie's reach and cut across her ribs.
Sylvie staggered.
Esmarie rushed in before Reina could finish her.
Their blades collided.
Esmarie's arms shook violently.
Reina noticed.
She shoved harder.
Esmarie's knees dipped.
Reina: "You're exhausted."
Esmarie: "Yeah."
She suddenly stepped sideways.
Reina's pressure carried past her.
Esmarie swung for the neck.
Reina barely caught it.
Jeremiah entered from behind.
Reina spun and cut him across the chest before his blade could descend.
Another wound.
Another step backward.
Still Jeremiah didn't stop.
That was the point.
Nobody stopped.
Erika attacked.
Sylvie followed.
Jeremiah attacked from the opposite side.
Esmarie pushed in whenever she could find enough strength to move.
Reina's sword became a blur between them.
She cut Jeremiah's forearm.
Opened another line across Sylvie's shoulder.
Caught Esmarie across the side.
Every wound slowed them.
None of them withdrew.
They were forcing Reina to spend every fraction of attention on survival.
She tried creating distance.
Erika erased it.
She tried moving toward another corpse.
Jeremiah blocked the route.
She knocked him aside.
Sylvie replaced him.
Esmarie stumbled behind them, breathing hard enough that she could barely hear over her own lungs.
Then Reina's eyes moved.
Only slightly.
Her blade shifted.
Barely a few degrees toward a corpse lying beside a collapsed building.
Esmarie saw it.
Esmarie: "Erika! Right side!"
Reina vanished.
Reaper's Passage.
Erika was already there.
Reina materialized beside the corpse and immediately raised her blade.
Erika came straight down.
Reina blocked.
Or thought she did.
Erika's attack stopped short.
Feint.
Her body spun the opposite direction.
Her sword came around toward Reina's neck.
Reina's eyes widened.
There wasn't time.
She threw up her left arm.
Erika's blade cut through it.
The arm flew away.
Reina recoiled.
Sylvie was already moving.
One thrust pierced Reina's side.
Another drove into her shoulder.
A third entered near the ribs.
Not killing.
Stopping movement.
Keeping her body occupied.
Keeping her from getting the fraction of concentration she needed.
Reina tried raising Reaper's Feast.
Jeremiah stepped in.
His sword came down.
Her other hand was severed at the wrist.
Reaper's Feast slipped free.
For the first time since the battle began, Reina completely lost contact with the blade.
Erika stepped forward.
Her sword swept toward Reina's exposed neck.
Reina moved instantly.
Both arms regenerated in bursts of flesh and bone.
Her hands came together.
Clap.
Erika's blade stopped between Reina's palms.
Everyone froze for half a heartbeat.
Reina kicked Sylvie in the stomach.
Sylvie flew backward across the road.
Jeremiah reacted immediately.
He punted Reaper's Feast away.
The weapon spun through the smoke and disappeared beneath a burning cart.
Reina's eyes snapped toward it.
Erika twisted.
Her body rotated around the trapped blade, ripping it free from between Reina's hands.
Jeremiah attacked.
His sword went for Reina's neck.
Reina's fingers changed.
Claws extended.
She caught the blade.
Crack.
Jeremiah's sword shattered.
His eyes widened.
Reina turned toward him.
Esmarie moved.
She had almost nothing left.
Her arms felt numb.
Her wounded leg screamed every time she put weight on it.
She pulled her sword back beside her head.
Then threw it.
Like a javelin.
The blade crossed the street.
Reina turned.
Too late.
The sword drove straight through her chest.
The point erupted from her back.
Her body jerked.
Her claws stopped inches from Jeremiah.
At the same moment, Erika was still rotating.
The motion she had used to free her weapon never completely stopped.
Her feet left the ground.
Her hips turned.
Then her upper body followed.
Erika extended her sword arm.
One clean arc.
The blade passed through Reina's neck.
Her head separated.
For one brief instant, Reina's body remained standing.
Then the head hit the street.
The body followed.
Silence.
Reaper's Feast stopped glowing beneath the burning cart.
The pale souls drifting around the battlefield faded into nothing.
Erika landed.
She stared at Reina's body.
Then down at her sword.
Jeremiah looked at her.
Sylvie slowly pushed herself upright.
Esmarie stood several meters away without a weapon, chest heaving.
Nobody said anything.
Then she raised both hands.
Esmarie's exhausted face broke into a huge smile: "Erika!"
Sylvie immediately did the same.
They ran toward her.
All three came in with their hands raised, bloodied and exhausted but laughing anyway, while Erika finally smiled back at them in the middle of the burning street.
Jeremiah: "We couldn't have done that without you kid, good work."
The Reaper's Banquet was over.