"Kyo, are you okay?"

But Kyo didn't answer. His hands were balled against his leg. The ashes of Amera's books had partially singed his hand. He hadn't moved since Amera's book was vanquished.

Phil raised a hand to silence Seiku, shaking his head. Trying to rise a response out of him was pointless.

"Well, we may as well try and finish this," Phil muttered, snide, turning a few pages in Resh's book. "Gigano Mirar!"

A larger mirror extended from the floor and fired a sparkling beam straight toward Lulubell. Her mouth was thin. Grim.

Lulubell removed her hand from her broken eye socket and tried to open her eye, but it was useless. She'd been rotating a hand over it since Amera's attack and could only do that. It was heavily swollen. Sad, ugly, and purple. Though it would probably heal within a night's rest, she could only guard it from incoming attacks and observe the battle through a blur.

Resh launched herself at Lulubell, faster and nimble, but Lulubell intercepted the tackle, catching her midair and flinging her into one of the craters. While the girl was down, she scrambled to dig an elbow into the back of her neck, but Resh moved, hissing, kneeing Lulubell under the chin and sending her stumbling.

"Kuroguran!"

"Sunrei."

The rabbit was back. Lulubell heard the telltale sound of crackling electricity and found the animal near her side, a blur of aqua and silver. However, Barrett intercepted him, driving a knee into the rabbit and knocking it somewhere far.

"Itosagi!"

There was a sound of scuffling. The girl screamed. Another sound like fist meeting teeth. Lulubell covered her eye in lieu of an icepack. Barrett backpedaled, replacing his stance near his partner.

"And you couldn't handle that?" he sneered.

Lulubell tore her hand off her eye and bared her teeth–ready to jump him, instead–but she heard the sound of approaching and miraculously caught Resh's ankle.

"Saw that coming, did you?" she asked slyly.

If only. Her eye was still useless. Lulubell flung Resh a short distance and saw the blur of Itosagi in front of her in the next second, claws raised and electrified. It took a stumble to dodge the onslaught. She managed to evade a majority of the hit, but she was still affected by a mild aftershock, which chattered her teeth and shook her whole frame. Resh was in her face again with a vengeance. Even with her bad eye, she could see the wild shine in her gaze.

Resh locked an arm around her neck and raised the other to the ceiling. "Mirudo!"

A larger mirror materialized, which rammed Lulubell straight into a wall and exploded upon impact. The sound was devastating and the explosion was horrific. Barrett raised a hand to guard his face against the splatter of glass. Lulubell had not yet risen. Her partner, Luna, hadn't even reacted.

"So. Did we win?" Phil asked, looking around.

Resh pursued her mouth, silent. Against the floor, Kyo clenched his hands.

But a crunch alerted them. Itosagi and Resh lunged over their partners to intercept any incoming danger.

Lulubell had risen. Her hair was messy and her clothes were shredded. Her back and shoulders were hunched in battle stance. Three of her top teeth had been knocked clean out.

"Bel...believe me, you'll need an army to take me out," she said, pointing a shaking hand at them. In her other hand was a glittering, jagged slice of glass. "Luna, make it quick."

"Oh, come on, she has to be done at this point," Phil grumbled.

"Hardly." Resh answered, squinting over at Lulubell. If her body wasn't physically managing itself, her willpower undoubtedly was. She was nearly invincible. "Amera was right. This could be tough."

"Well, we promised to finish what she couldn't and that's what we'll do," Phil responded, the glow from Resh's book momentarily blinding him. Kyo glanced between them, then ducked his head again.

Resh jumped over Phil and Lulubell aimed the shard at her.

"Mirudo!"

"Harazado!"

Tyson rolled his eyes, scoffing. "This is such a pain."

"Sundance, look out!"

Sundance snapped to attention and evaded Ophelia's kick with an elbow-block. He tried to drive that same elbow into her throat, but she caught his forearm easily, twisting it, diverging his aim, and flinging him down onto the bridge. Ophelia opened a hand without needing to glance Caleb's way.

"Ralodo!"

"Upra!"

Red paint and concentrated snow clashed. Both dissipated without causing damage. Sundance tried to crawl away, back toward Eve, but Ophelia grabbed his ankle and twisted it, throwing her full weight on it in an essential tackle. He screamed. Unconsciously, Eve lifted a hand to her chest.

Ophelia climbed to her feet, dusted off her clothes. Her hair was messy. There was a tiny scratch on her cheek. Otherwise, she was unharmed. Sundance clutched his ankle, worried.

"Seems the little baby has a little bruise, yeah?" she asked, exaggerating her tone of voice. "Don't worry, I'll end your suffering soon enough! Caleb, would you please?"

Sundance scrambled to his feet, but his ankle was hard to stand on. From what he deducted, it wasn't even broken, but it would still cost him. He turned to Eve. "Eve, a spell!"

"Wait, hold on!"

"Reysa!"

Earlier, Sundance would've paid attention to Caleb because Eve was worried about him and his health, but he couldn't care less about him now. Ophelia closed both eyes, lifted one hand, and ice needles– sharp as tack–poured straight toward them.

"Eve, a spell!"

"The second spell, Lebashi! God, Sundance, can't you–"

He didn't pay attention. Actually, he didn't have time to. Sundance managed to intercept the ice needles with his shield, which was circular and dripping of purple paint. Fortunately, it held, but Ophelia launched herself over it and flung a surprise punch into the side of his head, which sent him reeling. He slid across the floorboards and hit his head again, seeing a maelstrom of color. Someone was screaming. Someone was laughing. Sundance lifted a hand to the back of his head and tried to feel for abnormalities, but his world was spinning and he could only see stars and shapes and angry rabbits.

"Sundance...Sundance, oh my God–"

Instinctively, he jumped, ready for Ophelia, but it was only Eve. She grabbed him, held him. So close, so warm. So not Eve.

"Are you okay? Are you bleeding anywhere? How's your head?"

"It...it's fine–"

"Are you sure? It doesn't look like you're bleeding, so I think you're okay to continue and whatever–"

The sound of malicious laughter interrupted them. Reminded of Ophelia's presence, Sundance shoved aside Eve and staggered to his feet, but she was standing at Caleb's side, a few feet away. She'd barely broken a sweat. One of her braids had come undone. "How humiliating. I'd only knocked you into the bridge and you need so much coddling? The secondhand embarrassment is painful." she said, motioning behind her. "Caleb, hurry with a spell. I'd like to finish this."

"Ralox."

Ophelia's eyes faded and she briefly opened her mouth as ice beetles skittered out, spilling and scrambling toward them.

"Oh my God, ew, they look like actual bugs."

"Eve, we can't play around." Sundance answered sagely. "Concentrate on a spell."

"Um, yeah," she said, glancing quietly between Sundance, then sliding her gaze toward Caleb. But he wasn't even looking at her. He wasn't looking at anyone, actually. Hands in his pocket and face toward the floor. His expression was misty. Blank. Like, the underside of a seastone.

"Eve!"

"What?!"

The ice beetles were approaching closer. Eve flipped a few pages back in Sundance's book and withdrew a few feet herself. "Upra!"

Sundance's eyes materialized as red paint spewed from his mouth, exploding the ice beetles at point-blank range. Before he had a moment, Ophelia grabbed him, snatching him by the back of his hair and slamming his face over her knee. Ophelia still had him by the hair. And with that leverage, she ran his face into the bridge railing, slamming his head further. Blood splattered. Ophelia was laughing, taunting him.

Eve lifted a hand over her stomach, led it over her heart, which was racing. She sunk to her knees, half-collapsed over Sundance's book, and covered her ears. "Oh my God, oh my God. What do I do? What do I do? I don't even have a spell. I'm gonna lose it. I'm seriously gonna lose it–"

"Eve...I'm fine. It's okay."

Eve uncovered her ears to look. Ophelia had thrown aside Sundance again to dust off her hands and stretch or whatever she did. Sundance was half-collapsed himself. There was a giant gash over his eyebrow and another behind his head. Both of which were bleeding profusely. He was trying to staunch the one near his eye with his hand. His nose had a crook to it and Eve didn't even want to question what had happened to it.

"I'm fine, Eve." he said again, steadier. His head remained low. "Don't be scared."

"Sundance," she said, having no idea what to say. "Sundance...I don't–I just can't handle seeing you hurt."

Sundance nodded, raising his face. Eve didn't want to look away but she did. For a moment, anyway. The sight was a gruesome shock. Half of his face was bloodied. The gash over his eye was starting to crust over, which in turn, was swelling his eye shut.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said, fluttering her hands around her face, probably looking like some form of crazy. "But it's so...hard. I can't with you...like this. It's hard for me. It's too hard for me."

Sundance closed his eyes and placed a hand under his nose, sniffling. For a moment, she thought he was crying, but when he removed the hand, it withdrew dark.

"Eve, I'm a mamodo. I've trained for this. This–" he said, motioning to his face. "Doesn't matter. I'll be okay. It'll heal eventually. I'm only worried about what happens to you."

"No, no, I know–"

"No, I don't think you do." he hissed, sounding angrier. Sterner. Eve blinked, surprised at his tone, but decided to remain silent. "I'm here for a battle. A battle to become king of my world and it seems I'm the only one taking that serious. I'm not trying to argue, but I want you to read my spells when I tell you to. Not just stand and blink at me when I obviously need you."

"Yeah..."

Sundance nodded, climbing to his feet with a stumble in his step. "It's going to be okay, I promise."

"Do you need ten more minutes? Believe me, I have all the time in the world." Ophelia announced, opening her hands toward them mockingly.

Eve reopened Sundance's book without answering. Sundance raced toward Ophelia, fists raised, and took a knee to the chest and another jab to the nose. This was when Eve raised her face to the sky. It was so hard to watch.

So did not meet my goal of updating before 2016 and/or around Christmas, but here we are. Two battles are still going strong, Lulubell is surviving off a heavy adrenaline rush, and Sundance is on the losing end of his battle. What could possibly go wrong? R&R! Happy 2016!