Gregor took one glance at the rebel, and was immediatly upset. He was just a boy, no more than twelve! The two squared off, sizing up the other. While he appeared brave and confident on the outside, Gregor could see the fear in his enemy's eyes. He was as Gregor had been before the war, young and innocent, tough even, but only on the outside. But worried and fragile. Of course, that was a special circumstance, asthere had been a prophecy fortelling his death hanging his head. So the boy was maybe a bit less solumn, though it could not be an appealing thought, fighting the warrior. But still,Gregor did not want to hurt him; he was still just a boy.

Stellovet's bond was on the ground, its chest still.

"No!" she cried out in rage and despair.

"I will fight her on the ground, you need to get Howard and Ergane to the hospital," Luxa whispered to Aurora.

"But-" her bond began to protest.

"Go! I'll be fine."

Aurora reluctantly let Luxa put the unconscious human on her back, then picked up the bleeding flier in her claws.

"I will take them to the hospital here, at the fount, then I will be right back."

Looking back at her bond on the ground, the golden bat began to fly her wounded friends out of the combat zone.

The boy attacked first, viciously, when Gregor realized that this was the other rager in the prophecy. Glancing briefly at the enemy's blade, he noticed that it was not like the other swords down here. For one, the blade was a pearlescent black. The hilt was curved like two s's intersecting...

Oh my god, Gregor thought, eyes widening as he made his discovery. Not only is he a rager, he's got the Sword of Shadow.

The rager rained a storm of blows on Gregor, who snapped back into focus and parried them all. Then Gregor attacked, with the same result. The fighting kept going like this, until Gregor broke the sword the rager was using, the Sword of Shadow, into a jagged broken edge.

"Cousin." Stellovet acknowledged Luxa's presence through gritted teeth.

"Stellovet, how badly do you desire the throne?" Luxa half-sighed. "Badly enough to kill your own brother?"

"And my cousin, too!" she growled, lunging for her, sword and dagger drawn, but Luxa easily deflected her blades.

Stellovet was overcome with fury, fighting viscously. Luxa tagged her cousin's shoulder, but that caused Stellovet to get her left hip. With a loud clash of metal on metal, Luxa and Stellovet's blades locked, as they became very close. With a grunt of pain, Stellovet received Luxa's knee in the gut, knocking the wind out of her and knocking her down.

Luxa stood above her cousin, ready to drain her light. Stellovet was seconds away from dying, and she knew it, too. She wasn't finished yet, though.

Nike engaged the only remaining flier, a reddish male, in combat.

He attacked Howard, she thought bitterly. And the other one, they hurt my brother.

She buffeted him with her wings, lashing out with whatever was handy. Claws, teeth, wings, Nike showed no mercy.

They hurt my bond and my brother! Rage was taking over. They have to pay!

The flier had no idea how to defend from another flier's attack, it wasn't trained. The fliers had never fought like this before.

With a growl and a grunt, Nike got her snout to her enemy's neck. She clamped her jaws down, ripping out with a shower of warm blood. The male flier gave a garbaled cry, as it's throat passage began to fill with blood. Nike's white stripes were getting stained, as the Underland experienced just about the closest thing to a rain storm it would ever get. The flier plummeted to the ground, dead.

Staggering backwards, the boy's rager ability abandoned him. Gregor moved in for the kill, preparing the execution. But when he saw the fear in the boy's eyes, he hesitated. He had difficulty killing other people, but a boy? Gregor couldn't.

"Don't kill me," the rager pleaded softly.

Backing away a few paces, Gregor lowered his sword slightly, appalled at what he had almost done. The boy in front of him slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Was he really going to kill this kid? Had this boy been dragged in to this like Gregor had been dragged into the war? Out of nowhere, the rager lunged at him, eyes narrowed, stabbing out with the broken sword.

Grasping her sword on top of her, much like the stone knight in the cloisters, Stellovet waited until her cousin had her arms slightly higher to deliver the final blow before she could act. The timing had to be exact. With one precise movement, Stellovet rolled into Luxa's left leg, blade somewhat extended, slicing her cousin's Achilles tendon.

Crying out in pain, Luxa toppled to the ground, blood spewing from her ankle. This would be it. She could not hold off Stellovet from the ground for more then a minute. But maybe, a minute would be all she needed. Might as well die without giving up. Luxa pulled up her sword in defense, and managed to shear off Stellovet's forefinger and thumb, deeming her sword arm useless.

This only enraged Stellovet farther. But she must have known that she had to end this fast.

Gregor barely had time to react. He deflected the rager's broken sword so it clipped his side instead of planting itself in his gut. With one upward stroke of his sword, he decapitated the unfortunate rebel.
Two things happened at once. Signifying her arrival with a flash of golden wings, Aurora grabbed Stellovet by the shoulders, carrying the traitor backwards, away from her bond. At the same time, Stellovet hurled her dagger at her cousin. Luxa brought her right arm up to block the short blade. The dagger went right between the two bones in her forearm, all the way through so it stuck out the other side, pinning it to her body, where it had also penetrated near the bottom two ribs on her right side.

Still in Aurora's claws, Stellovet struggled to get free. She ended up sinking her teeth into the unsuspecting bat's right claw. Surprised, Aurora loosened her grip, and Stellovet managed to slip free. Unfortunately for her, by that time, they were over one hundred feet in the air.

Stellovet met the same fate as another traitor cousin before her.

Gasping, he staggered backward, glancing at the wound in his side. The blood pouring out of it was mixing with something from the sword, forming a black tar-like substance. Falling backward on to the stone, his eyes rolled up into his head as he passed out. That was when the nightmare began.
Luxa was losing a lot of blood. She knew she'd be dead within minutes. A warm, wet pool was forming on her stomach. As she watched her cousin fall and her bond turn around to come get her, the world dissolved into nothingness. She felt herself running out of time…