Speech = ``…..´´
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Iris knew she was screwed…
She ducked her head to the left, blade sliding through the air where she had just been…, a bar of blinding light as it was infused to the brim with all the magic she could conjure. Making her red wine eyes useless for a couple of seconds.
Her tongue trailed her upper lip, now broken. Tasting sweat and blood….
Details that spoke far of the struggle and utter magnitude of this fight. A reminding that she did not needed or wanted, yet registering all the same.
Her eyes blinking, partially blinded still by the glowing red disks of death. She was forced to predict, to anticipate…veering left and slamming down with her sword bearing hand.
She caught something, a forearm in the midst of a powerful punch, unnaturally strong, bringing it down from her neck where it almost crushed her throat like a twig.
It instead struck her side, right direct to her ribs. Fracturing them and throwing her back as she moved…or more like stumbled with the force of the blow.
Spit and blood gushing out from her lips, yet she had not even time to gasp in pain.
She was completely screwed to a point that she could not get it around her head…
She knew of adversity, of strong opponents even though weaker than her of course…, but this.., this…
She bit her lip though she only managed a half way grimace..
She had thought the unliving abominations were already far stronger than anything living she had faced. But she was wrong…
Those things would not have lasted half a breakfast against her new assailants. So how could she...?
It was surreal…
It was impossible..
And yet it was happening before her eyes, she was l-
She clenched her jaw.
No, she could not give in to the cackling voices in her head.
She needed to find a way to fix this, even if it was hopeless she had yet to give her final and last shot.
But she better do it fast because things were looking grim and not getting any better…
She rolled as she hit the ground, coming up to her feet half a second later, blade in hand ready to plunge at command. Eyes blinking rapidly as they finally ride themselves of the flashing after images of the mana crackling clashes.
She felt the energy that was inside her sour up as she called out to it once more, making her slide to the left and raise her blade to the air..
CLASH...!
Burning sparks of energy rained all over her face as three blades slammed down against the pale red of her own blade.
Blood pumping violently inside her through veins and artery's as the shock-wave of the impact shook her body, her muscles bleeding out as they tried their best to held this titanic triple strike from both the human and the Therianthrope.
For a second she thought she succeeded even if the of her boots were burning by the sheer friction against the cold ground as she had been pushed back far more than she would have believed.
The dark trails of her heels on the stone telling a different story...
One that she would realize sooner than later when the human still holding her blade with one hand almost lazily kicked her on the other side of her ribs, using the moment to attempt an offensive, one that she was wholly unprepared to stop or even predict as it hit on point.
Crack!
She was thrown away, this time her body unable to land properly on the ground like before, instead rolling and hinting the cobblestones loudly and painfully as she gasped for breath. Feeling the internal bleeding begin again...
She did not have much time to ponder about which flavour of agony she preferred as she staunched, automatically before rising from her fallen form by the pull of muscle memory than anything else.
Seeing her foes approach at her at different times and paces once her face was no longer staring at the broken ceiling above her head.
The human.., if he could even called that was walking slowly in her direction. His demeanour calm and collected, his face a stoic mask of boredom as it was a game that he had not much amusement with it for him
The woman in the other hand..., its dull eyes reflecting no emotion behind them was dashing madly at her.
Normally having a foe fight her one on one in this manner would not be that bad, but the two of them were far..far more skilled and dangerous than anything or anyone she had seen before.
More than she had previously given them credit for.
The two were extremely strong, fast enough that she was almost killed on the spot when her eyes were deceived by after-images.
And the two hit always like a fucking stamped of carriers running over her...
At least she would have to be glad that the white haired human seemed not any-more thrilled to fight her, not out of weakness though...but rather he had considered her after their first minutes of combat beneath his notice.
Only joining here and there to put a little more pressure on her when he felt like it. And this, much to her dismay was one of those...
She channelled her energy through her sword and swung, an ample arc of lighting and fire coming out from all over its length and flying in a crescent moon of flames towards the two.
The woman ducked to the side,
The man merely decided to cut through the flames with a single counter swing of his own, the gush of wind that followed almost made her stumble backwards when it landed on her like a literal slap.
By the time her sigh returned he was strolling slowly towards her, his long sword being drag along the floor. Scratching it and making spark coming a lit by it.
Not even his luxurious robes were caught by the dying embers of her attempt.
She grit her teeth, cursing internally but not for too long as the woman's whereabouts made themselves known when she felt a looming shadow above her head.
The Therianthrope having climbed over one of the columns that had survived the battle and using it as a stepping stone to jump down at her as her clawed fingers had easily found spots to hang from upside down.
Like a humanoid bat…, but instead of wings it had a long, fluffy tail before visible muscles tensed as they propelled the warrior in a one way fall over her head.
She would have lost her head right there and then had she not swung upwards in a mad, desperate attempt.., pulled out more by instinct than anything else as she forced her arms to raise her blade just in time to block those twin saw like weapons of hers...
Putting her all into it, and yet Iris struggled to not buckle under it…
If they continued like this, the blade under her grasp would break sooner or later. And habit that weapons under her grasp shared more often than not given her terrific strength, now more than ever with those two monsters wearing human faces.
But for now it held.., shaking and trembling under her grip. Dents formed all over its length, but it held.
As she dodged her blow like he had saw it coming a mile away, before he delivered a blow to her stomach with his fist the equivalent of a dragon using its head as a battering ram.
That man was more terrifying and dangerous than anything she had seen before.
She grunted as the fist drove into her gut again, shooting her back for a fourth time…
Heels scraping the hard, dusty shattered cobblestones of the broken underground room they were in at the moment.
Blood slipping through her already bloodstained teeth into the ground. Her mind was becoming foggy, her body numbed as the damage was starting to take its toll.
She would be lucky if she were able to eat with a straw after she was through this. If...she could get through this at all.
She spatted a gobbled of blood to the ground, wiping the stains over her lips with her hand before she sent a wave of fire at them, this time four columns of bright, scorching flames that set the air a lit like candles in a feast that cut through the air from multiple directions.
Hoping to consumed them with it…, or at least make them have less room to manoeuvrer for her next wave..
But that would not come to pass...
Much to her chagrin, they dodged each and everyone of them with contempt-full ease.., before with the sudden move of the human who called itself Fenrir blew the flames against her with the swing of his blade in a horizontal push..
...Goddess dammit..
The assailed princess thought to herself as she ducked out of the way, yet not fast enough as she could feel her back aching with the touch of flames trying to spread through her vest. She threw it away, leaving only her marred and barely recognisable white under-shirt to the view.
They were not giving her any openings, not even moment of respite.
``Risible…, is this what the best of Midgar has to offer? Oh I expected more, so much more...but yet again…, the likes of you never thought they would have to fight a true battle to begin with. Didn't you? Little girl..?´´
She grimaced, understanding how pathetic she must look to them.
`` Dully noted.., but I don't care of the words of filth like you...´´
She grunted as she graved the blade with her other hand, preparing herself for the next clash.
Fenrir merely chuckled, one that was void of any mirth or anything that could have made it human. It felt like the growling of a wolf that was struggling to breath through bloodstained fangs.
If only he looked that way…, at least his interior would match his exterior.
``How the weak bark, truly...such a pathetic little show you have given me...´´
She clenched her jaw.
``Perhaps I should go take a visit to your sister and see for myself if she has anything to offer but that little shit between her legs, I am sure there will be much to be discussed when I meet with her´´
Her eyes widened, before they start to twitch uncontrollably, a fire appearing behind their depths.
``You-... ´´
She growled dangerously, her knuckles turning a deadly shade of white as rage started to seethe out form her words.
The mentioning of her sister unleashing something ugly inside her, sparks of scarlet energy dancing from her finger tips and her mane.
``But yet again, I don't even believe she would be even worth my spit given her reputation as a total failure..´´
Failure?
Failure!?
Her sister...!?
``You Son of a bitch..!´´
She cried out, her lungs allowing her a little push to make the sound of her voice reach out to the confines of the entire building and beyond.
Rage and hatred clouding her mind, but granting her so much needed relief from any worries and fears that may have started crawling at the back of her mind.
Pushing her now forward towards the man like a mad bull.
Fenrir merely shook his head in disappointment, hosting his blade over his shoulder as he saw her coming.
``And now you have lost your composure like a little brat, truly….the warriors of this kingdom are beyond useless. I should have taken command long before this day...´´
``JUST FUCKING DIE...!´´
``Lili.., take care of her…, she bores me...´´
He ordered, though needlessly since before he even finished his sentence the rabid woman had already sprinted, with even RENEW speed at her. Her body becoming a blur of pale flesh. Wrapped with threads and threads of magic that when the two clashed shattered the room they stood, the walls crumbling around them like mud under a heavy rain.
Debris and chunks of rock and wood falling all around them like small sized meteors that crashed loudly into the ground, exploding into thousands of shards of sharp rock and wood and shrouding the room in puff of smoke and clouds of dust.
Magic collided with one another, burning and throwing sparks of blinding light everywhere where they connected.
But that was not what her attention was focused on..
But rather in the vexing, infuriating thought that she had yet not succeeded pulverizing the woman who stood between her and her target by her own scarlet hurricane.
The grimace in her face growing deeper and deeper as her attack was slowed down, even pushed back...
Little by little…
That could not be…!
It was impossible..!
Who.., no, what was she..!? The amount of energy alone was immeasurable and she was not showing that she was tired in the slightest.
Her moment of doubt permeated through her body and mind for just a second, one that the creature used to slam her fist into her face.
Not caring whether the magic would scorch the offending arm into a bloody crisp in the process.
But such things did not seem to matter to the dull eyed beast woman as she succeeded in her task, disrupting her concentration as her fist dug in to her skull, forcing her head backwards into a position that it would have easily snapped by the sheer motion itself before the rest of what was left of the Therianthropes own power blast clashed and struck at her directly at point blank range.
Electrifying her before exploding violently...
She was thrown away like a rag-doll.., one eye closed to a half lid in a rictus of pain while the other remained open as she was too weak to close it on her own. Gasping for breath, yet struggling to put any air inside by the blocking nature of the agony she was subjected to. Her world seemed to dim around her…, more so when she tore through a wall with her battered body.
She was not given any respite, a burn out hand lunged forward and graved her by the hair, pulling out painfully as they closed tightly around the scarlet threads of silky hair, yanking her from the ground before slamming her back into the floor mercilessly.
Once, twice, thrice…and so many more times.
Bells ringed inside and out of her skull through out the whole experience, bones creaking and threatening to snap as each bash created a crater in the shattered cobblestones.
Shards of rock digging into her scalp, leaving blood all over the dusty grounds.
She would have wished to say that she had broke out of her grip on her own, that she had break free of her hold and push her back..
But that would be a lie..
She did find herself eventually free of it, but that was when the Therianthrope grew bored of racking her skull against the pavement and kicked in the barely healed ribs, breaking them once more as she was sent flying away.
One moment her body was on the ground, the next she was stuck in a no small crater on a wall.
At least there she could see, if only hardly the spot of her assailant approach her.
Gritting her teeth she cocked her head to the side just in time as a fist slammed and tore through the surface of the wall where her head had been a moment prior.
And then she swung with a blind, almost desperate attack. Hoping to cut her hand off now that it was stuck in the wall….
Her blade found its target, but not the one she intended as the cold steel collided with two sharp fingers that had been too slow to pull out from the crater.
Cleaving them and throwing them to the ground like bloodied worms of flesh...
She smiled. It was the first actual hit she had managed in these last ten minutes, she took a step forward, hoping to follow her strike with another one, this time hoping to aim for her central body mass and tear her in half.
Only for the woman to use her own blood as a weapon as she threw the warm, sticky substance that was dripping from her now severed fingers at her face, hitting her directly in the eyes.
The next thing she knew was that a barrage of fists stuck her in the ribs, stomach and face. Trying to mould her body as if it were clay, liquefying her organs before she was thrown out to land on her own ass...
Spatting a gobbled of blood to the ground while she tried to use her blade as a clutch
She was loosing consciousness…
And she was doing it fast...
``You bitch…., you are not fighting... with honour...´´
She snarled, glaring hatefully at the object of her anger, but no response she would receive from her as she was retrieving her saw like blades back.
As expected.
And then the battle resumed once more..
Iris felt her every muscle creak as she contended with the Therianthrope who was herself obviously not fazed in the slightest by her struggles even if she was wounded, wounds that had been caused not by her own brilliance of strength, but rather the sheer, uncaring lack of any self interest to protect herself..putting everything into attack.
She would have have her…, were she not as bad if not even worse off as she was…, her clothes were torn, gashes having cut through the silky cloth and dug into the flesh below. Flesh, that was aching and crying out with a soundless voice by all the bruises and broken bones she had received in any conceivable kind..
Her magic alone having been the reason why her vital organs had not failed her completely…
This forced the warrior princess to memorize them, eschewing any and all movements or manoeuvrers which would make her rely on the actions that would have put too much strain in those damaged parts which had failed her, and conditioned though she was for this kind of attrition.
One that she was loosing, badly….
And yet, even as she tried…, fighting this woman...did not mean that it was always possible.
And she seemed to know it as-well, appearing to learn her strengths and her weaknesses more and more intimately than she ever would with every damn clash of their weapons and exploiting them mercilessly.
Her chosen weapon was not equal to her families own combat artefact, but by far...it served admirably as it drove off the blond woman's strikes, counterstrike and blocks whenever it was possible.
Sending pulses of air and energy around them, forging scarlet lightning with each colossal swing.
And yet, the only reason that she was alive was that her utmost efforts had by far avoided a fatal blow as-well as the fact that the other contender was no longer attacking.
The white haired bastard watching the contest now from afar with a bemused expression.
She gritted her teeth, realizing that for the likes of him...this was nothing but a spectacle.
A show to enjoy...
When she would force her to move where her guard was weakest, she would scream rage. Pushing her battered limbs and bleeding muscles into position by sheer grit and human strength alone to meet the strike.
Shoving her to the side at best of times, sometimes earning a few more superficial cuts to adorn her already bleeding and blood-drenched coat.
But how much of that she had left…?
Her faith in herself and her duties that she STILL had to up hold fed her power, the rage of the lives that had been lost dimmed the pain that had taken residence, her determination gave her the energy that she needed to go on….
But it felt like she was on a ledge, held from falling by no more than a tiny thread at her back.
Should it threaten to snap, should it falter even for a moment-….
Her enemy thrust herself at her…, her curved blades dancing between her fingers, glowing with energy as they started to cut through the air with sparks of lightning through their bloodstained, razor sharp edges.
She was not pulling her punches any more wasn't she? She was feeling in her own flesh and bone the way the Therianthrope strikes were becoming more and more fiercer…
Iris skidded back from the strike, knowing that she could not block it where she stood, but not lowering down her blade in case it was followed with a mad dash like so many times before when she touched the ground.
That would prove the right choice…., for even as it appeared that she avoided the strike, she still received the blow all the same.
As it travelled through the air between them on an invisible tendrils of energy. Her blade holding much of the x type cut, but not shielding her arms completely as a chunk of her uniform and her arms flew away, showing the white bones below...
And yet, had she not had her blade ready she would have more likely been cut in four pieces by now.,..
Screaming, she was sent tumbling, falling and collapsing into a heap of rubble. Scarlet blood becoming mixed with the dusty ground underneath her, making a small pond...
Her foe throwing one of her blades at her before she even landed.
She could not dodge it…
Using every last ounce of combat awareness that she had, she clumsily angled her blade into the path of the Therianthropes weapon. Grunting in shock and pain as it met hers with unusually heavy blow, speaking great lengths of the true strength that slim body hid within with such ease.
Knocking her sword out of her hands and sending it clattering to the floor, but not her foes...which seemed to spun back, guided by either magic or unholy powers.
Arching into the air like a saw blade, meeting its owner in the sky as the woman had leapt with unusual grace into the air to grab it...
Her battered and half closed wine hued eyes widened with horror as time seemed to slow down as she watched the Therianthrope athletic body started to contort to allow for what was more likely be a rapid descent..
The sound of those saw like blades digging into her body and claiming her life already echoing endlessly inside her skull, her heartbeat throbbing louder and louder, threatening to snap as the adrenaline pumping inside her became more than it could take.
No! This could not be happening! She had wanted her to block!? How could she knew that she would even do so or had the time..!?
The sword was not far away from her, but she would not reach in time. Her body aching and failing to move her out of the way, not even as she tried to put every ounce of what was left of her will to do it...
Not that she had any to do so, nor would she be given that much as the female Therianthrope was already spinning down, like an exotic dancer going through the last moves of her warm up. Dual blades in her hands in that x position. Ready to finish what she had started not so long ago...
Her lips quivered with both rage and impotence, her eyes refused to blink, fixated on the dull, unliving purple ones of the her soon to be killer, her jaw clenched in one final show of anger and defiance...
This…., this could not be true. She had….
She had lost…!? To them..!?
The thought was bewildering, shocking and a part of her refused to even believe it, claiming it to be the work of her delirium from the pain searing through her nerves like a hot steaming iron working on a blade under a smiths hands...
And why would she not? It was an alien concept, a bitter taste she had never felt, a cold blanket in a frigid day of winter. A fact that had never happened in her life.
This was not happening...
This could not be happening…, for its consequences would be too large and terrible to even put on a list.
And yet here she was..., kneeling down, bleeding out from a thousand wounds, her body refusing to obey if only for its survival sake.
She was….
It was…
Over…?
There was no way she could fight and beat this woman, nor the man behind her as she was now…
Her titles, her pride, her strength, her achievements….
They meant nothing as the cold steel descended on her, and soon enough, she would not be able to worry about it either...
She clenched her fists, digging her nails into the palm of her gloves and yet she was not even able to made her knuckles turn ghastly white.
She was about to die….
Because the winner always takes all…
So, as she saw the distance between the woman named Lili and her grow smaller and smaller by the second, her eyes nothing but shaking pins, unable to look away she decided to dedicate her final thoughts to someone else than her executioner.
The only person she had ever cared for…
Those red eyes and that silver hair dangling between those small shoulders as the wind brushed them softy against her back.
Someone that even though now loathed her for reasons she had yet to understand, and had wished to rectify now never would..
…..
Life wasn't fair…, wasn't it?
``Alexia….I am so sorry….´´
But just as the steel edge was about to connect with her something startled her.
A cold wave seething through her flesh and bone, weaving deeply inside to the point that it appeared to became solid inside. A flash of light , and the left arm of the Therianthrope fell off its socket in a spur of blood.
A dark, massive shadow appearing in the next blink of her eyes, having dodged, no.., taking the brunt of those sharp blades into the side of its head with no apparent damage before a gloved, hand decorated with bones and talons closed tightly into a fist and slammed itself into the woman's exposed belly.
Tearing through it like it was wet paper, flesh bursting and bones shattering like shards of glass from the now open wound by the motion of the attack, shock-waves coursing through the Therianthropes body before she was thrown away like a rag doll….
Never to be seen again.
With the Therianthrope gone from her sights, her body slumped down into the ground, her eyes lost in the dark ceiling above her…
Not fazed at all as rain water started to fall over her by the broken spots that led to the outside world..
She was numb to it as her body had finally stopped following her orders...
As the darkness claimed her and her senses blurred out into nothing a towering figure approached her.
She felt cold…
She felt dread course through her still living body.
But there was nothing she could do as the avatar of death descended slowly over her, its fleshless face looming barely a few centimetres from her own. Radiating even from her barely conscious form raw power that stabbed her every pore with invisible needles.
Red glowing eyes akin to burning stars looking and mirroring hers…
Then a hand filled with sharp ebony talons approached her and brushed against her skin..
Wiping away the blood from her lips.
``You have done well, daughter of the blood…..now I take your place in the hunt´´
That was the last thing she heard before she finally lost consciousness and the other side claimed her.
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A/N
Finally Fenrir and Reaper meet face to face, a nightmare against a revenant, the kingdom is about to shake to its foundations in the following chapters.
Iris is strong, but in Eminence of shadow verse she is not that much of a heavy hitter, I mean…, the Rounds are stronger than the hero spirits, the hero spirits are stronger than Beatrix, Beatrix is stronger than Iris….and even Alexia appears to be having a growth rate higher than the first princess of Midgar which doesn't leave her in a good spot. At least she is sturdier enough to at least waste her foes time.., at least this is gonna make her realize that she is not the one and all blade to fight her kingdoms foes.
I could be wrong so feel free to agree or disagree with my assertion.