The wooden mountain pass stretched across the peak's ridge at an even height, following the narrow spine of the mountain with nothing but open air beyond its railings. A light mist drifted lazily across the slopes, thin enough that it barely disturbed the view below. Green valleys rolled away beneath them, broken by winding roads, clusters of homes, and patches of dense forest descending toward the distant coast. Far beyond all of it, the burning town stained the horizon orange. Smoke climbed high into the afternoon sky, carrying the glow of fires that looked almost peaceful from this distance.
Ariel stood alone on one end of the pass.
Astrid and Jouna faced her from the other.
For several seconds, none of them moved.
Jouna's enormous frame seemed even larger against the open sky. Her wild mane of hair shifted gently in the mountain breeze, but her expression remained as reserved as ever. Beside her, Astrid stood with one hand hanging loosely at her side, completely relaxed despite everything that had already happened between them. A faint smile rested on her face.
Ariel stared directly at her.
Not Jouna.
Astrid.
Astrid noticed.
Astrid: "Oh?"
Her smile widened.
Astrid: "Those eyes are different."
Ariel said nothing.
Astrid glanced toward the distant town burning beneath its tower of smoke.
Astrid: "Take a good look. That's what you've chosen."
Ariel's gaze never left her.
Astrid: "All that strength. All that blood. And you waste it protecting creatures who can barely survive a single night without someone stronger shielding them."
Jouna remained silent.
Astrid slowly turned back toward Ariel.
Astrid: "How pathetic."
Ariel: "Are you finished?"
For the smallest instant, Astrid's smile sharpened.
A spark appeared between her fingers.
The mountain pass vanished beneath an explosion.
Ariel moved before the blast fully expanded. Fire and splintered wood erupted outward as she shot through the orange light, her blade already crossing toward Astrid's neck. Astrid burst backward with an explosion beneath her heel, clearing the slash by inches while Jouna drove one transformed dragon leg through what remained of the walkway.
The entire center section collapsed.
Wooden beams tumbled toward the valley.
Ariel stepped onto one of them as it fell.
Jouna's nails struck the mountain.
The ridge answered.
Stone erupted through the earth beneath Ariel in a jagged column. She jumped from the falling beam just before it was crushed, twisting over the rising rock as three sparks passed beneath her.
Astrid snapped her fingers.
They exploded.
The shockwave caught Ariel in midair and hurled her away from the ridge.
Jouna jumped after her.
Her legs had completely changed now, thick scales covering powerful dragon limbs as she kicked off the mountain hard enough to crater the stone beneath her. She crossed the distance instantly and swung a brutal kick toward Ariel's ribs.
Ariel raised her sword.
BOOM!
The impact sent her tearing diagonally down the mountainside.
Her boots hit wet grass.
She slid.
Thirty meters.
Forty.
Ariel planted her blade into the slope and carved a deep line through the earth before finally stopping.
Above her, Astrid descended in a sequence of explosions.
Not falling.
Stepping through the air.
Every detonation changed her direction before gravity could claim her, carrying her effortlessly between the scattered rock formations jutting from the green mountainside.
Jouna simply came straight down.
Ariel ripped her sword free.
Jouna landed.
The mountain shook.
A wave of earth rolled outward from her feet.
Ariel jumped as the ground beneath her buckled, and sparks immediately appeared in front of her.
Six.
She cut through two.
Twisted around another.
The remaining three passed her.
Ariel's eyes narrowed.
They weren't aimed at her.
They struck the stone wall behind her.
Astrid: "There."
The explosions slammed Ariel forward.
Jouna was already waiting.
A massive dragon leg swept across the slope.
Ariel ducked beneath it, the kick ripping through a boulder behind her, and drove her shoulder into Jouna's center before she could recover. Jouna slid back several meters, claws digging trenches through the mountainside.
Ariel didn't pursue.
Her head turned.
Astrid was already moving.
A spark detonated beneath Astrid's foot and launched her sideways.
Ariel watched.
Another explosion changed Astrid's trajectory.
Ariel watched that too.
Astrid's eyes flickered.
Ariel moved.
She didn't chase where Astrid was.
She ran somewhere else entirely.
Astrid's second explosion carried her directly toward Ariel's blade.
Her eyes widened.
BOOM!
A detonation erupted between them.
Astrid blasted herself backward at the final instant, Ariel's sword passing through the smoke where her throat had been.
Astrid landed sideways against a steep rock face.
For the first time since the fight resumed, her smile faded.
Ariel stood below her.
Ariel: "There you are."
Astrid's grin returned immediately.
Astrid: "So you finally decided to use that head of yours."
Ariel: "You're predictable."
Silence.
Then Astrid laughed.
Not loudly.
It began as a low chuckle that slowly spread across her face until something almost feral entered her eyes.
Astrid: "Predictable?"
Jouna moved.
She slammed both hands into the mountain.
The slope convulsed.
Ariel's footing disappeared as the earth split into overlapping shelves, entire sections of grass and stone sliding downward. Trees tilted. Boulders broke loose. A deep crack raced across the mountainside while Jouna dragged her nails through the earth and twisted the terrain around them.
Astrid threw both hands forward.
Dozens of sparks scattered into the landslide.
Ariel looked up.
Astrid: "Then predict this."
The mountainside erupted.
Explosions chased one another through the falling debris, turning boulders into shrapnel and ripping apart trees as the entire slope became a chain of orange flashes. Ariel sprinted across a sliding slab of stone, jumped from it a fraction of a second before Astrid detonated it, and landed atop another fragment tumbling down the mountain.
Jouna thrust one hand upward.
The earth beneath Ariel rose.
A stone pillar launched her toward the sky.
Astrid was already above her.
Ariel pushed off the pillar.
Astrid fired.
Three sparks streaked downward.
Ariel twisted between them.
Astrid detonated one behind her.
The blast accelerated Ariel instead.
Ariel came through the fire.
Astrid's eyes widened again.
Her sword passed within a hand's width of Astrid's face.
Astrid explosion-stepped sideways.
Ariel landed against the vertical side of Jouna's pillar.
She ran across it horizontally.
Jouna burst through the stone from inside.
An earth spear formed around her fist as she emerged, its jagged point aimed straight through Ariel's chest.
Ariel knocked it aside.
Jouna rotated.
Her dragon leg slammed toward Ariel's head.
Ariel blocked.
The impact shattered the pillar around them.
Both women fell with the debris.
Jouna's wings tore from her back.
One tremendous beat stopped her descent.
She surged forward.
Ariel kicked off a falling chunk of stone and met her.
Sword against scales.
Metal screamed.
Jouna's forearm had hardened beneath layered umber scales, catching Ariel's blade while her other hand formed a short earthen weapon from the debris swirling around them. She thrust.
Ariel slipped past it.
Jouna drove her knee upward.
Ariel turned just enough to take the blow across her side rather than her stomach.
The impact launched her away.
Astrid appeared behind her.
Ariel saw the sparks before she saw Astrid.
She folded forward.
An explosion detonated above her back.
Ariel dropped beneath it, landed on the steep slope, and immediately began running downhill.
Astrid followed overhead.
Jouna landed farther below.
They were surrounding her again.
Exactly as before.
Jouna beneath.
Astrid above.
Ariel between them.
Jouna drove her nails into the ground.
The mountain shuddered.
Ariel's right foot slipped half an inch.
Astrid fired.
Ariel moved before the sparks arrived.
They exploded against empty ground.
Jouna raised a wall ahead of her.
Ariel didn't slow.
She ran straight up it.
Astrid's hands spread.
Sparks covered the top.
Ariel jumped before reaching them.
The wall exploded beneath her feet.
The blast threw her higher.
Straight toward Astrid.
Astrid's pupils tightened.
She burst left.
Ariel didn't swing.
She watched.
Astrid burst again.
Right.
Ariel descended.
Jouna's wings carried her upward between them.
Her fist came toward Ariel.
Ariel caught Jouna's wrist with one hand.
Jouna's eyes widened slightly.
Ariel rotated around her.
Astrid fired.
The sparks struck Jouna's scales.
Explosions swallowed both women.
Jouna came out first, dropping through the smoke with one wing partially folded against herself.
Ariel emerged above her.
Unhurt enough to continue.
Her attention immediately returned to Astrid.
Astrid was smiling again.
But her eyes weren't.
She fired another barrage.
Ariel cut through the first spark.
Moved around the second.
Ignored the third.
She was getting closer.
Astrid detonated beneath herself.
Ariel followed.
Another burst.
Ariel adjusted.
Another.
Ariel was still there.
Astrid's smile stretched wider.
Astrid: "Come on, then!"
She exploded forward instead of away.
Their weapons nearly met.
Astrid detonated the air between them at point-blank range.
The blast ripped across the slope.
Ariel disappeared into smoke.
Astrid flew backward from her own explosion, rotated once, and landed smoothly against the side of a massive exposed rock.
Her eyes searched the smoke.
Nothing.
Jouna's head snapped toward the ground.
Jouna: "Astrid."
Ariel erupted from beneath the smoke line.
Astrid fired downward.
Ariel changed direction.
The sparks missed.
Astrid burst sideways.
Ariel's sword followed.
A thin strip of Astrid's clothing fluttered away.
Astrid landed.
Her fingers slowly touched her side.
No blood.
Not quite.
Ariel stood twenty meters below.
Astrid looked at the torn fabric.
Then at Ariel.
Her grin returned.
Astrid: "Closer."
Jouna vanished underground.
The mountainside swallowed her completely.
Ariel heard the earth moving beneath her.
Astrid raised both hands.
Sparks formed around Ariel from multiple angles.
Ariel didn't look down.
Astrid watched her feet.
Ariel waited.
The ground broke.
Jouna erupted directly beneath her, one enormous earthen blade forming along her arm as she drove upward.
Ariel stepped aside.
Not backward.
Sideways.
Her hand caught Jouna's shoulder.
She redirected Jouna's rise instead of stopping it.
The enormous vampire stumbled across Ariel's path.
Astrid's sparks arrived.
Jouna was suddenly between them.
Astrid's eyes sharpened.
She changed her aim.
Ariel had already moved.
Jouna realized it too.
Her body was blocking Astrid's cleanest escape line.
Astrid exploded backward.
Ariel didn't follow.
Astrid exploded sideways.
Ariel was already there.
For the first time, Astrid's face changed completely.
Ariel swung.
Astrid twisted with everything she had.
The sword missed her abdomen.
Almost.
A thin red line opened across Astrid's side.
Three drops of blood struck the grass.
Astrid landed several meters away.
Silence returned to the mountain.
Jouna slowly turned.
Ariel lowered her sword.
Astrid looked down.
Her fingertips touched the wound.
She stared at the thin line of blood along her side.
For a moment, the only sound on the mountainside was the distant roar of the burning town far below them and the soft scrape of loose stone sliding down the slope. Jouna stood a short distance away, broad shoulders rising and falling, her expression unchanged despite the shift that had just taken place. Ariel remained still with her sword lowered at her side, eyes fixed on Astrid.
Astrid dragged two fingers through the blood.
Then she smiled.
Astrid: "Again."
She vanished in an explosion.
Ariel moved at the same instant.
Astrid's first burst sent her laterally across the slope, sparks spraying behind her as she twisted her body and prepared the second detonation that had saved her so many times before. Ariel didn't chase the first movement. She cut diagonally downhill instead, boots skidding through grass and loose dirt as she aimed for open space rather than Astrid herself.
The second explosion went off.
Astrid appeared exactly where Ariel expected.
Steel flashed.
Astrid leaned away just fast enough to save her throat, but Ariel's blade still sliced across her upper arm.
Astrid landed hard, sliding several feet.
Another streak of blood appeared.
Her grin widened.
Astrid: "Better."
Jouna slammed one clawed foot into the earth.
The ground between Ariel and Astrid rose in a thick wall.
Ariel didn't hesitate.
She struck the base instead of the center.
The wall cracked sideways.
Jouna's eyes narrowed.
The slab tipped toward Astrid.
Astrid blasted herself backward before several tons of earth collapsed across her firing line, and Ariel was already running up the falling stone.
Jouna thrust both hands forward.
The slope answered.
Columns of rock tore upward around Ariel, trying to box her in.
She jumped from one before it fully formed, landed against another, and kicked off sideways as it shattered beneath her. Jouna ripped more earth from the mountain and shaped it into a broad blade around her forearm before charging.
Their weapons met.
The impact blew dirt outward.
Jouna pressed.
Ariel gave ground for half a step, then rotated her wrist and let Jouna's greater mass slide past instead of fighting it head-on. Jouna corrected immediately, dragon leg sweeping low.
Ariel jumped.
Astrid's sparks were already waiting above her.
Five crimson-orange points streaked through the air.
Ariel twisted around two.
Cut through one.
The final two exploded behind her.
She let the blast carry her forward.
Jouna looked up just in time to see Ariel descending.
Her scales spread over her shoulder.
Ariel's sword struck.
A crack ran through the umber armor.
Jouna dropped to one knee.
Astrid was already there.
A compact explosion burst from beneath her heel and hurled her straight at Ariel. She came in low, driving a punch toward Ariel's ribs.
Ariel blocked with her forearm.
Astrid detonated at the instant of contact.
The blast kicked Ariel sideways.
Jouna recovered and drove a dragon-leg kick toward her back.
Ariel turned in midair and caught the shin against the flat of her sword.
The force still sent her skidding down the slope.
Astrid followed.
Not at range this time.
She landed directly in front of Ariel.
Ariel raised her blade.
Astrid slipped inside the swing.
A spark flashed against her elbow.
The explosion accelerated the strike.
Ariel barely got her guard up before Astrid's forearm slammed into it. Astrid followed with a knee, detonating beneath her own foot to increase the upward force.
Ariel twisted away.
Astrid spun.
Another explosion snapped from behind her shoulder and drove a backfist across Ariel's cheek.
Ariel staggered.
Astrid: "Did you think figuring out how I move meant you figured me out?"
Ariel wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
Ariel: "No."
Jouna erupted from the ground behind her.
Ariel had already moved.
Jouna's earthen spear stabbed through empty air.
Ariel stepped onto the shaft.
Jouna's eyes widened.
Ariel ran along the weapon, vaulted over her shoulder, and used Jouna's upper back as a platform.
Astrid fired.
The sparks streaked past Jouna's head.
Ariel kicked off.
The first two detonated behind her.
She accelerated through the shockwave.
Astrid's eyes sharpened.
Ariel reached her before the next spark could form.
Their blades and arms blurred together.
Astrid detonated at point-blank range again.
Ariel crossed her arms, absorbed the worst of it, and stayed inside.
Astrid's smile faltered for the smallest instant.
Ariel drove her shoulder into Astrid's chest.
Astrid flew backward.
Before she could detonate away, Ariel followed and slashed.
Astrid blocked with her forearm.
The blade cut shallow.
Blood sprayed.
Ariel kicked her in the stomach.
Astrid crashed through a low rock formation.
Jouna roared and charged.
Ariel turned.
Jouna's dragon legs tore enormous chunks from the slope with each step. She swung a fist wrapped in earth and scales.
Ariel ducked.
The punch obliterated the rock behind her.
Ariel stepped inside Jouna's reach.
Three strikes.
Ribs.
Shoulder.
Thigh.
Jouna's scales stopped the deepest cuts, but each blow cracked the armor further.
Jouna snarled.
Ariel slipped around another punch and kicked her knee.
Jouna's stance buckled.
Ariel grabbed her wrist and used the momentum of the fall.
She hurled Jouna directly toward Astrid.
Astrid burst from the rubble.
Her eyes widened.
She exploded upward.
Jouna crashed beneath her.
Ariel was already following both.
Astrid: "Jouna!"
Jouna drove her claws into the ground.
The mountain shook.
Ariel's next step landed on earth that no longer existed.
The slope dropped beneath her.
Astrid fired downward.
Ariel twisted as the sparks struck the collapsing ground.
The explosion swallowed the crater.
For a second, both vampires lost sight of her.
Then Ariel came out through the smoke.
Jouna raised both arms.
A wall of scales covered them.
Ariel slammed into her anyway.
The impact drove Jouna down the mountain.
They tore through grass, dirt, and exposed stone before Jouna dug her dragon claws into the earth and stopped them both.
Ariel jumped away first.
Astrid appeared above her.
Ariel looked up.
Astrid came down with both hands together.
A massive explosion erupted.
The upper slope disappeared beneath fire and dust.
Ariel hit lower ground hard enough to carve a trench.
Astrid landed on a broken shelf of stone.
Jouna dropped beside her.
The mountain above them was already torn apart.
The three had descended hundreds of meters.
Below them, the terrain began to flatten.
Ariel pushed herself up.
Astrid watched her.
Astrid: "You're irritating."
Ariel: "You talk too much."
Astrid laughed.
Astrid: "And you're finally entertaining."
Jouna's wings spread.
She launched herself downhill.
Ariel followed.
The fight broke from the steep mountain slope onto the wider ground near the base.
Grass gave way to broad stretches of dark earth and shattered stone. Trees stood farther apart here, some already leaning from the tremors traveling through the mountain. A narrow road cut across the base before disappearing around the forest.
Jouna hit the ground first.
Both hands slammed down.
The earth rippled outward.
Ariel jumped.
Astrid scattered sparks across the sky.
Dozens.
They came from every angle.
Ariel turned in the air.
Her sword flashed.
One spark split.
Then another.
She dropped between two more as they exploded.
Jouna vanished underground.
Ariel landed.
The dirt beneath her shifted.
She jumped again.
Jouna burst out exactly where she had been standing.
Ariel used Jouna's shoulder as a step.
Jouna swung upward.
Missed.
Astrid came in from Ariel's right.
Ariel turned left.
Astrid detonated left.
Ariel changed again.
Astrid changed with her.
They met in the air.
Astrid drove a punch forward.
Ariel caught the wrist.
Astrid smiled.
A spark formed between their hands.
Ariel released her.
Astrid detonated.
Ariel was already falling.
Jouna thrust one arm upward.
A massive pillar of earth shot from the ground.
Ariel planted one foot on the side.
Ran.
Astrid followed overhead.
Jouna ripped the pillar sideways.
Ariel jumped from it just before it collapsed.
Astrid fired.
Ariel spun around the first spark.
Cut the second.
Used the third explosion behind her to increase her speed.
Astrid realized too late.
Ariel appeared directly in front of her.
The slash crossed Astrid's chest.
This one was clean.
Astrid dropped.
She caught herself with an explosion before hitting the ground.
Ariel landed first.
Jouna attacked from behind.
Ariel sidestepped.
Jouna's claws tore through a tree.
Ariel struck the scales along her ribs.
Another crack.
Jouna swung her dragon leg.
Ariel ducked and shoved her forward.
Astrid came in at the same time.
Jouna's kick crossed directly through Astrid's path.
Astrid blasted herself upward at the last second.
For the first time, the two had been forced to avoid each other.
Ariel looked up at them.
Astrid stared down.
The smile on her face was beginning to change.
Ariel charged Jouna.
Astrid fired.
Ariel didn't retreat.
She moved closer to Jouna.
The sparks exploded against the earth between them.
Jouna raised a broad umber shield from the ground.
Ariel ran up its face.
Jouna ripped it sideways.
Ariel jumped.
Astrid appeared above her.
Ariel swung.
Astrid blocked.
Ariel followed with a kick.
Astrid detonated between them.
Both were thrown apart.
Jouna formed a spear.
She threw it.
Ariel twisted.
The spear passed beside her.
Astrid changed direction to avoid it too.
Ariel saw the movement.
She smiled faintly.
Astrid noticed.
Ariel: "You're getting in each other's way."
Astrid's eyes hardened.
She disappeared.
Ariel turned.
The explosion came from behind.
She blocked it.
Astrid came from the side.
Ariel intercepted.
Another explosion.
Ariel adjusted.
Another.
Ariel stayed with her.
Astrid's breathing had changed.
Only slightly.
But Ariel heard it.
Jouna attacked from below.
Ariel stepped aside.
Astrid tried to capitalize.
Ariel pulled Jouna's arm across the line between them.
Astrid aborted the strike.
Ariel struck Jouna.
Then Astrid.
Then moved before either could answer.
The rhythm was hers now.
Jouna's scales were cracked in several places.
Astrid had three fresh cuts.
Ariel was wounded too, but her movements had become cleaner with every exchange.
Jouna landed beside Astrid.
Astrid didn't look at her.
She watched Ariel.
Thinking.
Jouna's eyes shifted toward Astrid.
Astrid: "Jouna."
Jouna: "I know."
Ariel advanced.
Astrid moved first.
A familiar explosion sent her left.
Ariel's eyes narrowed.
She knew this.
Second burst next.
She cut toward the escape angle before Astrid even detonated.
Astrid smiled.
The second explosion never came.
Ariel's expression changed.
The earth beneath her foot folded inward.
Jouna had already moved it.
Ariel dropped half a step.
That was enough.
Astrid detonated from directly above.
Ariel raised her sword.
Too late.
The explosion drove her into the ground.
Dust burst outward.
Ariel rolled across the earth and forced herself back to one knee.
Blood ran down the side of her face.
Astrid landed lightly.
Jouna rose from the earth beside her.
Astrid looked at Ariel.
That vicious smile had returned.
Astrid: "Got you."
The battle tore away from the mountain pass and spilled down the slopes like a natural disaster given will. Ariel moved first, carving a bright path through the mist with white fire running along one side of her blade and black fire coiling around the other. Her feet struck rock, root, and broken earth in a rhythm so fast it seemed she was skipping across the mountain itself, leaving scorched streaks wherever she passed. Jouna met her head-on more than once, dragon legs digging into the slopes as she swung heavy arcs of stone and earth up from below, while Astrid stayed just beyond reach and filled every opening with murderous sparks. The three of them crossed over ridges, smashed through clusters of trees, and sent loose debris clattering down into the forests below. For a moment Ariel looked like she had found the pace she wanted, because her slashes were crisp, her movement had sharpened again, and the two vampires were forced to readjust around her instead of the other way around.
That brief momentum was exactly what Astrid had been waiting for. She grinned with that vicious, delighted madness of hers and began changing the tempo, no longer firing simple shots to herd Ariel around but layering them with frightening precision. Sparks snapped toward Ariel's shoulders, legs, and blind spots in staggered timing, forcing her to cut one burst apart while twisting away from the next before it erupted. Jouna understood the shift immediately and attacked in sync, raising a slab of earth in Ariel's path one second, then bursting from the ground with a spear of stone the next. Ariel split the slab in two with a slash of black fire, vaulted over the rising spear, and came down hard on Jouna's shoulder, only for hardened scales to take the brunt of it and keep the strike from biting deep. Astrid capitalized before Ariel's feet even settled, sending three separate detonations into the space around her and blasting the road apart. Ariel sprang out of the collapsing asphalt and landed on a steep embankment, but by then Jouna was already inhaling.
The first breath blast roared across the mountainside like a cannon of earthen ruin. Ariel swung her blade and met it with a wave of white flame that split the attack down the center, but Jouna was already preparing another one before the last burst had even finished tearing apart the hillside. The second came wider and lower, ripping through trees and turning the road below into a smoking trench, forcing Ariel to kick off a boulder and throw herself sideways through a spray of burning leaves. The third was launched from above after Jouna beat her wings and took to the air, angling the blast downward to collapse Ariel's footing and box her into Astrid's line of fire. Ariel cut through part of it and slipped the rest by sheer instinct, but the pressure was mounting too fast now, because every defense bought her only a moment before the next attack arrived. She had to keep moving, keep cutting, keep reading, and there was no room left to impose her own flow on the battle. Even so, her eyes never lost their focus, and the hand gripping her blade never loosened.
The fight crashed into a road carved through dense tropical green, the sort of place that might have looked serene on any other day. Thick walls of mountain foliage rose on both sides, and beyond them the land sloped toward distant neighborhoods and the red wound of the burning town far below. Mist clung to the upper ridges while ash floated in from the fires, making the entire stretch look dreamlike and ruined at the same time. Ariel landed in the middle of the road and immediately had to duck beneath a crescent of compacted earth Jouna launched like a giant axe blade. She slid under it, drove forward, and slashed upward in a black-white cross that would have taken most enemies apart, but Astrid intercepted with a burst of sparks that exploded against Ariel's path and forced her to recoil. Jouna slammed her clawed hand into the ground and sent a miniature earthquake racing up the road, rupturing the pavement in jagged lines and throwing chunks of stone into the air. Ariel danced over the broken surface and cut through the flying debris, but the moment she did, Jouna unleashed another breath blast and Astrid peppered the same lane with detonating sparks, turning the entire roadway into a corridor of destruction.
Ariel finally got pushed on the defensive in full. She disappeared through smoke, then burst back out wreathed in black veins and both kinds of fire, trying to spear straight through Jouna before Astrid could line up another shot. Jouna met her with a dragon-forged weapon shaped out of the road itself, and the clash rang so sharply it sent cracks racing through the ground under both of them. Ariel slipped inside the next swing and drove a knee into Jouna's midsection, then pivoted for a slash at the neck, but another spray of sparks struck at her flank and forced her to turn the motion into a block instead. The explosion blasted her off line and nearly opened her up for Jouna's claws, which missed by inches as Ariel twisted through the gap and landed in a crouch several meters away. She came up breathing harder now, shoulders rising and falling just enough to show how much the two of them had taken out of her. Astrid laughed at the sight, not because Ariel looked broken, but because she still didn't, and that only made the hunt more thrilling.
Jouna's contribution shifted from support to outright bombardment. Her chest heaved as she drew deeper and deeper on her curse, and soon the mountain echoed with rapid successive blast breaths that tore up everything they touched. One blast sheared the top off a ridge and sent it tumbling into the forest. Another devoured a stretch of road and blasted open the hillside until exposed rock and molten debris smoked beneath the rain of ash. Ariel cut through one, dodged two more, and got clipped by the fourth as it exploded against the terrain beside her, sending heat and stone fragments crashing over her body. Astrid used every single opening those attacks produced, firing sparks not where Ariel was, but where she would have to go if she wanted to live. By then the fight had stopped being a duel and had become a sustained execution attempt, with Ariel surviving only through will, experience, and a level of battle sense that bordered on terrifying.
Then Astrid decided to end it. She stepped back onto the remains of a shattered rise, eyes shining with manic exhilaration, and spread one hand as sparks began to gather in unnatural quantity. The atmosphere changed at once. Even Jouna withdrew without being told, because she understood exactly what was coming and had no intention of standing inside it. Astrid's sparks converged at a single point and erupted into massive rings, one after another, stacked high in rapid layers over the battlefield. Each ring hissed and roared with such extreme heat that the ground below began to glow, and the air around them warped so violently it looked like the mountain itself was bending. The sparks were not drifting or decorative. They were dense, furious, and violent, turning the road, the slopes, and the surrounding mile into a furnace for the briefest moment before collapse. Ariel looked up from the center of that doomed space and knew there was nowhere she could run that would truly take her outside its reach.
She braced anyway. White flames rose along one arm of her blade and black flames engulfed the other, her entire frame burning brighter as she chose to face the attack instead of cowering before it. Astrid's grin widened as the rings held for only a heartbeat longer, and then the whole structure gave way at once. The stacked rings collapsed inward and detonated into an enormous explosion that swallowed Ariel completely, blasting the roadway apart, shredding the forest edge, and carving a crater through the mountainside with a roar that drowned out everything else. Fire and shock tore through the area in a single overwhelming burst, and for a moment the only things visible were blazing orange light and a storm of debris. Jouna shielded herself with scales and earth while Astrid rode the force of her own attack with savage delight, staring into the center as if waiting to watch a verdict be delivered. When the flames finally began to settle, the landscape they had been fighting across barely resembled itself.
Ariel was still standing.
Her body wavered where she stood at the bottom of the blasted crater, one knee slightly bent, one shoulder lower than the other, both arms trembling from the strain of enduring what should have killed her. Her clothes were in ruins, her skin burned in places, and blood traced dark lines down her arms and along her side before disappearing beneath the twin heat of white and black flame. The fire around her had undeniably weakened. It no longer surged with the same proud force as before, but flickered unevenly, shrinking and rising again like a light caught in violent wind. Even so, it had not gone out, and neither had the gaze in her eyes. As Ariel drew one more ragged breath and lifted her blade again, there was the first faint hint that the thing flickering inside her was not merely failing. It was changing.
The crater smoked beneath Ariel's feet.
For several seconds, neither Astrid nor Jouna moved. The road had been erased around them, replaced by blackened earth, shattered stone, and burning trees bent away from the center of the blast. Heat rolled across the basin in visible waves, and fragments of glowing debris continued to fall from the slopes where Astrid's ultimate had torn through nearly everything within reach. Jouna's scales were still raised along her arms and shoulders, though even she had retreated far enough to avoid the center of it. Astrid stared through the smoke with a look that slowly shifted from satisfaction to disbelief.
Ariel was still standing.
Her body looked scorched from head to toe. Blood ran down one arm and across her ribs, one side of her face was burned badly enough that her eye remained squinted, and the hand around her sword trembled from exhaustion. The black and white flames that had once surged around her were barely there now, flickering weakly along the edge of her blade before disappearing again. She looked like someone who should have collapsed several attacks ago. Instead, she remained upright in the center of the crater, breathing hard and glaring straight back at them.
Astrid's eyes narrowed.
Astrid: "You should drop any second now."
Ariel didn't answer.
She lifted one hand to her side.
A faint pulse of curse blood moved through her body, weak compared to what she had used earlier, but enough. Burned flesh slowly tightened. The worst of the bleeding stopped. Her shoulder shifted back into place with a small jerk, and the swollen skin around her eye healed just enough that she could open it further. Ariel exhaled through her nose, straightened slightly, and looked at both of them.
Then she smirked.
Ariel: "What's wrong. Was that the best you got?"
Astrid's face changed instantly.
The grin vanished.
Astrid: "You—"
Ariel tilted her head.
That only made it worse.
Astrid: "You arrogant bitch."
Jouna glanced toward Astrid, then back to Ariel. She could feel it too. Ariel's curse blood had fallen dangerously low, and her breathing had not recovered at all. The healing had cost her more of what little remained, leaving the black and white flames around her even weaker than before. By every sensible measure, Astrid was right. Ariel should have been moments away from collapse.
A spark shot from Astrid's hand.
Ariel stepped aside.
Another came immediately after it.
She tilted her head.
The spark missed her cheek by less than an inch and exploded against the crater wall behind her.
A third streaked toward her chest.
Ariel moved her sword once.
The flat of the blade knocked it into the ground.
The explosion burst beside her boots.
Instead of resisting the shockwave, Ariel let it move her.
One step.
Two.
She was suddenly much closer.
Astrid fired again.
Ariel kept walking.
Astrid: "What are you doing?"
Ariel: "Winning."
Astrid's eye twitched.
The ground beneath Ariel erupted.
Jouna came through it with one transformed dragon leg already swinging.
Ariel didn't block.
She moved half a step inward.
The kick passed across her back close enough to pull at her clothes, but Ariel had already turned with it. Her blade snapped down behind Jouna's knee, slipping into one of the small gaps between the scales.
Jouna grunted.
Her leg buckled.
Ariel rotated around her enormous frame and drove the hilt of her sword into Jouna's ribs.
Jouna swung an elbow.
Ariel ducked.
Astrid's sparks arrived from the other side.
Ariel saw them through the gap beneath Jouna's arm.
A tiny flicker of white flame appeared beneath Ariel's heel.
Just enough.
She shifted several inches.
The sparks passed beside her.
They exploded against Jouna's scales instead.
Jouna stumbled forward.
Astrid's expression hardened.
Ariel didn't waste the opening.
She stepped around Jouna and slashed once across the already cracked scales along her side. Black flame touched the blade for barely a heartbeat, no larger than a thin coating around the steel.
The scales split.
Jouna's blood hit the dirt.
The black flame vanished immediately.
Ariel was already conserving it.
Jouna turned with a growl and drove both hands into the ground.
The earth trembled.
Ariel felt the vibration travel through the soles of her boots.
She jumped before the miniature earthquake fully broke loose.
The crater floor buckled beneath her.
Astrid was waiting above.
An explosion launched her forward.
Ariel raised her sword.
Astrid's fist struck the blade.
A compact detonation erupted from behind Astrid's elbow.
The force drove Ariel backward through the air.
Astrid followed with another explosion beneath her foot.
She appeared above Ariel and swung down.
Ariel twisted.
The strike grazed her shoulder.
Astrid detonated again.
Ariel crashed into the earth.
Dust erupted around her.
Astrid landed several meters away.
Astrid: "Stay down."
Ariel pushed herself up.
Astrid: "Your body's finished."
Ariel stood.
Astrid: "Your curse blood is practically gone."
Ariel picked up her sword.
Astrid's teeth clenched.
Astrid: "So stay the hell down!"
Dozens of sparks shot forward.
Ariel ran.
Not away.
Toward them.
Her sword moved in short, efficient arcs.
One spark was cut aside.
Another passed beneath her arm.
A third detonated beside her shoulder and tore more blood from her skin, but she didn't stop. A fourth came straight for her face.
White flame flickered.
Barely anything.
Ariel's head shifted.
The spark missed.
Astrid's eyes widened.
Ariel crossed the remaining distance.
Astrid explosion-stepped backward.
Ariel didn't chase.
She turned.
Jouna was already there.
An earthen sword had formed around Jouna's arm.
Ariel met it with steel.
The impact sent pain up her entire body.
Her knees nearly gave.
Jouna pressed down.
Ariel's arm shook.
Jouna's eyes narrowed.
For a moment, it looked as if pure strength would finally break her.
Ariel smiled.
Then she stopped resisting.
Jouna's weapon dropped farther than expected.
Ariel slipped alongside it.
Her blade traced across Jouna's wrist.
Jouna recoiled.
Ariel stepped inside her reach and struck her ribs again.
Once.
Twice.
A third strike against the damaged scales.
Jouna roared and swung her dragon leg across.
Ariel ducked.
The kick tore a groove through the earth.
Ariel rose beneath it and drove the pommel of her sword into Jouna's jaw.
Jouna staggered.
Astrid appeared behind Ariel.
Ariel turned before the explosion came.
Their eyes met.
Astrid detonated.
Ariel's sword caught her forearm.
The blast threw both of them apart.
Ariel landed badly.
Her ankle rolled.
Pain shot through her leg.
Astrid landed upright.
For the first time in several exchanges, Ariel looked slower getting back up.
Astrid saw it.
The smile returned.
Astrid: "There."
Ariel looked down at her ankle.
Then at Astrid.
She stepped forward anyway.
Astrid's smile faded.
Jouna rose behind her.
Both vampires attacked together.
Jouna reshaped the earth into jagged pillars that erupted around Ariel while Astrid fired sparks between every opening. Ariel had almost no flames left to clear the space, so she stopped trying. She moved through the gaps with nothing but footwork, slipping between stone and explosions by margins so small that every mistake would have ended the fight.
A pillar rose beneath her.
Ariel stepped onto it.
Astrid fired.
Ariel jumped.
Jouna ripped the pillar sideways.
Ariel let herself fall.
A spark detonated above her.
The shockwave drove her downward faster.
Jouna came from below.
Ariel twisted in the air and planted one foot against Jouna's shoulder.
She kicked off.
Astrid was already moving.
Ariel didn't follow her.
She turned back toward Jouna instead.
Her blade flashed.
Jouna raised scales.
Ariel struck the same damaged section.
Again.
Again.
Again.
The armor finally broke.
Jouna's blood sprayed across the ruined road.
Astrid screamed.
Astrid: "JOUNA!"
Ariel looked over.
That was all Astrid needed.
She exploded forward.
Her knee slammed into Ariel's stomach.
Ariel folded.
Astrid grabbed the front of her clothes and detonated point-blank.
The blast sent Ariel through two trees.
She hit the ground hard.
For several seconds, she didn't move.
Jouna landed nearby, breathing heavily now. The rapid blast breaths from earlier had taken far more from her than she had allowed herself to show, and every breath came deeper than the last. One wing hung lower than the other, several sections of her scales were shattered, and blood ran down her side where Ariel had finally broken through. Even so, she stepped between Astrid and Ariel.
Astrid stared past her.
Astrid: "Don't get in my way."
Jouna: "You're angry."
Astrid: "Obviously."
Jouna: "Then think."
Astrid looked at her.
Jouna's voice remained quiet.
Jouna: "She wants that."
Astrid's jaw tightened.
Ariel moved.
Both turned.
She pushed herself onto one knee.
Her sword was still in her hand.
Ariel used it to stand.
Astrid stared at her like she was looking at something unnatural.
Astrid: "How?"
Ariel breathed in.
It hurt.
Her lungs burned.
Her muscles felt hollow.
Her curse blood barely moved.
Every instinct in her body was telling her that enough was enough.
She ignored all of it.
Ariel raised her sword.
A small flame appeared along its edge.
Black.
It flickered once.
Almost disappeared.
Then remained.
Astrid fired another spark.
Ariel cut it.
Jouna charged.
Ariel sidestepped her.
Astrid explosion-dashed in.
Ariel parried.
Jouna attacked from behind.
Ariel ducked.
Astrid's strike passed over her.
Jouna's claw came down.
Ariel rolled beneath it.
She rose between them.
Steel flashed.
Astrid's shoulder opened.
Jouna's arm followed.
Both recoiled.
Ariel stepped forward.
Astrid stepped back.
That was the first time.
Ariel noticed.
Astrid noticed too.
The look on her face became murderous.
Astrid: "Don't you dare."
Ariel kept coming.
Astrid fired sparks.
Ariel moved through them.
Jouna raised the earth.
Ariel climbed it.
Astrid detonated the top.
Ariel jumped through the fire.
Jouna spread her wings and rose to meet her.
Ariel twisted around her.
A single flicker of white flame burst from her foot.
Just enough to change direction.
She dropped behind Jouna.
Her blade struck the base of one wing.
Jouna fell.
Astrid came in screaming.
Explosions burst from her feet, elbows, shoulders, and hands as she attacked at close range with everything she had left. Ariel met her with steel. No large flames. No overwhelming force. Just swordsmanship polished down to instinct.
Astrid punched.
Ariel parried.
Explosion.
Ariel turned with it.
Kick.
Ariel slipped outside.
Explosion.
Ariel ducked.
Elbow.
Ariel blocked.
Explosion.
Blood sprayed from Ariel's arm.
She stepped forward anyway.
Astrid's eyes widened.
Ariel struck.
Astrid barely avoided it.
Jouna reentered from the side.
Ariel turned.
Dragon claw.
Parry.
Dragon leg.
Duck.
Astrid from behind.
Ariel blocked without looking.
The impact shook her entire body.
She almost fell.
Almost.
Then Ariel pushed back.
Her sword traced across Astrid's ribs.
She reversed the motion.
The pommel struck Jouna's throat.
Jouna staggered.
Ariel spun.
One clean kick sent Astrid across the broken road.
Jouna charged again.
Ariel stepped inside.
Her blade stopped at Jouna's neck.
For half a second, everything froze.
Jouna stared at her.
Ariel could have cut.
Instead, Astrid attacked from the distance.
Ariel turned and knocked the spark aside.
Jouna moved.
Ariel was already gone.
She crossed the distance toward Astrid.
Astrid's eyes went wide.
Astrid: "What the hell are you?"
Ariel kept walking.
Her body was barely holding together.
One eye remained narrowed.
Blood covered her arms, legs, and face.
Her breathing sounded ragged.
Her sword arm trembled.
But the tiny black flame along the blade continued to burn.
Astrid took another step back.
Ariel smiled.
Then she raised her sword.
Ariel: "Just who the hell do you think I am?!"
***
For a few seconds, nobody moved.
Ariel stood in the middle of the ruined road with her sword still raised, one eye narrowed and her entire body trembling beneath the punishment it had taken. Blood ran down her arms and legs, her clothes were scorched beyond recognition in places, and the small black flame along her blade flickered so weakly it looked ready to disappear with the next gust of wind. Across from her, Astrid and Jouna were in better shape at a glance, but only barely. Astrid's breathing had become sharp and uneven, several cuts marked her body, and Jouna's scales were fractured in multiple places while one wing hung lower than the other. The difference was simple now: all three were exhausted, but Ariel was the only one who looked like exhaustion no longer mattered.
Astrid rose from her crouch with a snarl and immediately fired. Sparks tore across the road in a wide spread, some aimed directly at Ariel while others curved toward the ground and nearby rock to create overlapping detonations. Ariel didn't answer with a large flame attack. She simply moved. One step carried her outside the first line, a turn of her sword deflected another spark into the dirt, and a tiny pulse of white flame beneath her foot shifted her just far enough that the next explosion passed behind her instead of catching her side. Astrid changed angles and fired again, but Ariel kept advancing with the same economy, wasting nothing and never moving farther than she had to.
Astrid: "Stop walking toward me."
Ariel said nothing.
Jouna moved to intercept.
She drove one dragon leg into the ground and ripped up a thick wall of earth between them, then reshaped the top into jagged spikes aimed toward Ariel's chest. Ariel cut only one narrow section open instead of destroying the whole wall. She stepped through the gap, turned her shoulders as Jouna's claw came across, and slipped inside the swing before the larger vampire could recover. A brief flicker of black flame coated the edge of Ariel's sword.
One slash.
The flame vanished.
Another section of Jouna's scales split open.
Jouna staggered back.
Astrid exploded in from the side.
Ariel parried the first strike.
Astrid detonated at close range.
The blast tore more skin from Ariel's forearm and shoved her half a step sideways, but she stayed within reach. Astrid's eyes widened as Ariel immediately countered with the pommel of her sword, cracking it into her jaw before following with a shallow cut across her shoulder. Astrid blasted herself backward and landed several meters away, but Ariel was already turning toward Jouna again instead of pursuing.
That bothered Astrid more than the hit.
Astrid: "Look at me."
Ariel ignored her.
Jouna thrust both hands down.
The road buckled.
A miniature earthquake raced outward, breaking the pavement into staggered slabs and sending dirt and stone upward. Ariel rode the first rising section instead of jumping away, then stepped onto a second as it tilted beneath her. Jouna emerged from underneath with an earthen spear in hand, but Ariel twisted around the point and used the shaft as a guide, sliding along it until she was close enough to drive a knee into Jouna's ribs. The giant vampire grunted and swung her wing across like a shield.
Ariel ducked.
Astrid's spark shot through the opening.
Ariel caught it with the flat of her sword and redirected it.
It struck Jouna's raised earth weapon.
The explosion shattered it.
Jouna looked toward Astrid.
Astrid's expression twisted.
Ariel moved between them.
One tiny white flame flickered beneath her heel.
She vanished from Jouna's front and appeared at Astrid's side.
Astrid exploded away.
Ariel didn't follow the first burst.
She waited.
The second came.
Ariel was already there.
Her sword cut across Astrid's back.
Astrid gasped and stumbled forward.
Ariel landed behind her.
Astrid whirled around.
Astrid: "How many times are you going to do that?!"
Ariel: "As many as it takes."
Astrid's face contorted.
She threw both hands forward.
A storm of sparks filled the space between them.
Ariel moved straight into it.
She slipped past the first pair.
Cut a third.
Let the fourth detonate behind her and used the edge of the shockwave to increase her speed. A fifth scraped across her shoulder before exploding against the road, but Ariel never stopped. Astrid fired faster, abandoning precision for volume.
Ariel kept coming.
Jouna appeared from underground.
Her claws burst through the pavement directly beneath Ariel.
Ariel stepped onto Jouna's forearm.
Jouna's eyes widened.
Ariel used the rising limb like a platform and launched herself over her head.
Astrid saw the approach and explosion-stepped backward.
Ariel landed where Astrid had been.
Astrid changed direction.
Ariel followed.
Jouna raised a stone wall.
Ariel cut through a narrow opening.
Astrid fired through it.
Ariel parried.
Jouna attacked from behind.
Ariel ducked.
Astrid's spark passed over her shoulder and struck Jouna's scales.
The explosion forced Jouna back.
Ariel rose between them.
Her sword moved once.
Astrid's ribs opened.
Twice.
Jouna's forearm bled.
Ariel stepped through.
For the first time, both of them turned after her instead of attacking.
Ariel stopped several meters away.
She breathed in slowly.
Her shoulders shook with it.
The black flame along her sword flickered again.
Astrid stared.
Jouna stared too.
Neither moved.
Then Astrid screamed and charged.
Explosions burst beneath her feet in rapid succession, each one launching her faster than the last. She closed the distance with a vicious hook aimed at Ariel's face, followed immediately by an elbow driven by another compact blast. Ariel blocked the hook, slipped the elbow, and pivoted before Astrid could set up the next detonation. Her sword struck Astrid's side.
Astrid twisted away.
Ariel followed with a kick.
Astrid hit the ground.
She rolled and blasted herself back upright.
Jouna attacked at the same time, charging from Ariel's blind side with both dragon legs tearing trenches through the road. Ariel turned and caught the first claw strike against her sword, but the force nearly knocked the weapon from her hand. Jouna followed with a knee.
Ariel moved outside.
Another dragon-leg kick came immediately.
Ariel ducked under it.
Her sword snapped upward.
The blade struck the cracked scales at Jouna's thigh.
Jouna stumbled.
Ariel stepped in.
One hand struck Jouna's sternum.
A tiny flash of white flame burst between them.
Not enough to burn.
Just enough to add force.
Jouna was thrown backward.
She crashed through the remains of a stone barrier and rolled into the dirt.
Astrid froze.
Ariel turned toward her.
Astrid's eyes widened.
Astrid: "No."
Ariel advanced.
Astrid fired sparks.
Ariel cut one.
Dodged another.
The third exploded against her side.
She stumbled.
Astrid smiled.
Ariel kept walking.
The smile disappeared.
Astrid fired again.
Ariel slipped through.
Astrid explosion-stepped away.
Ariel followed.
Another explosion.
Ariel followed.
Another.
Ariel followed.
Astrid's breathing became ragged.
Astrid: "Stop it."
Ariel said nothing.
Astrid: "STOP IT!"
She burst sideways.
Ariel cut across the angle before she arrived.
Astrid twisted desperately.
The blade still caught her shoulder.
She spun and landed hard on one knee.
Ariel stopped.
Astrid looked up.
For the first time, there was no grin on her face.
Only fury.
Jouna slowly rose behind them.
She was breathing heavily now, each breath deeper than the last. The repeated blast breaths from earlier had drained her far more than she had let on, and her body was starting to show it. Her wings trembled when she spread them, her scales were broken in broad patches, and even her transformed legs no longer carried the same effortless force. She watched Ariel standing ahead of them with almost nothing left in reserve.
And she understood.
Jouna: "So this is why…"
Astrid snapped her head toward her.
Astrid: "What?"
Jouna's gaze never left Ariel.
Jouna: "Why they called her the Dragon Empress."
Astrid's face twisted.
Astrid: "Don't start."
Jouna: "I'm not praising her."
Astrid: "Sounds like it."
Jouna: "I'm stating a fact."
Astrid looked back toward Ariel.
Ariel stood there covered in blood, breathing hard, sword arm trembling, one eye still narrowed.
And still she looked ready to come forward.
Astrid slammed her fist into the ground.
The impact cracked the road.
Astrid: "HOW?!"
She hit it again.
Astrid: "How the hell am I losing to you?!"
Ariel stared at her.
Astrid: "You're exhausted! Your curse blood is almost gone! You should barely be able to move!"
Ariel lowered her sword slightly.
Ariel: "You decided I was finished."
Astrid glared at her.
Ariel: "That was your mistake."
Astrid's hand shook against the ground.
Jouna said nothing.
She didn't need to.
She could feel the direction of the battle now.
If they continued like this, they would lose.
Astrid knew it too.
That was why she was so angry.
Ariel took another step.
Astrid stood.
Jouna moved beside her.
The three faced one another again.
This time the silence felt different.
There was no question of who had momentum.
No question of who was being pushed back.
Ariel's victory was no longer some distant possibility hanging at the edge of the fight.
It was approaching.
Slowly.
Relentlessly.
Then the air behind Astrid and Jouna shifted.
A gate opened.
Nobody was attacking.
Nobody was in danger of being struck.
The fight had simply reached one of those brief pauses where all three needed a second to breathe.
A small figure stepped through.
Astrid looked over first.
Her expression immediately worsened.
Astrid: "You've got to be kidding me."
Jouna's eyes narrowed.
Ariel turned.
Lily stepped onto the ruined road and looked around at the devastation with mild interest. Her gaze passed over the blasted earth, the broken cliffs, the burning trees, and finally Astrid and Jouna themselves. She took in their wounds without much urgency.
Then she saw Ariel.
Everything else stopped mattering.
Lily's eyes widened.
Her face brightened.
Lily: "Ariel…"
Ariel's grip tightened around her sword.
Astrid pushed herself fully upright: "What the hell are you doing here?"
Lily looked her up and down: "You look awful."
Astrid: "Don't irritate me anymore than I already am."
Jouna exhaled through her nose.
Lily placed one hand against her chest: "I finally get to meet you."
Ariel raised an eyebrow: "Who are you?"
Lily: "I've been waiting a very long time for this."
Ariel raised her sword a little higher.
Lily didn't seem bothered.
If anything, she looked happier.
Lily: "You're my idol."
Ariel stared at Lily for half a second longer.
Her face twisted immediately.
Ariel: "What the hell."
Lily smiled brightly.
Lily: "Your partner showed me something very interesting. You might wanna go check on him now though, he's unconscious. And who knows what can happen while he's like that."
Ariel's eyes widened.
Ariel: "Chifuyu!"
She turned at once.
Astrid: "Oi! We're not finished here."
Jouna: "Astrid, wait!"
Ariel stopped and looked back over her shoulder.
Ariel: "You already lost. I'd kill you right now, but I don't know that woman's curse."
Lily raised a hand.
Lily: "My name is Lily!"
Ariel ignored her.
Ariel: "Stay put. I'll come back and finish you in a bit."
Astrid: "GET BACK HERE!!!!"
Ariel was already moving.
Lily watched her disappear through the ruined road and toward the mountain paths beyond, looking almost pleased with herself.
Lily: "Ah… Off she goes. But we'll be seeing each other a lot soon."
Ariel pushed forward as fast as her battered body would allow, forcing strength into legs that should have stopped moving long ago. After several seconds, she glanced back toward the distant figures behind her, her expression darkening.
Ariel: "That chick gives me the creeps. If I tried to keep fighting, I feel like something worse than death would've happened."
Her eye narrowed.
Ariel: "But that explosion girl… I will kill her."
Back on the ruined road, Astrid remained frozen where Ariel had left her.
Her teeth sank into her lower lip until blood appeared.
Astrid: "Ariel…"
Her hands trembled with rage.
Astrid: "I will kill her."