BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Handmaiden and Liberty crashed into one another, armored fists and sword arg through the air. Each colliso a shockwave through the air. hua had held back, trying to keep the amount of mana she was drawing into the area and releasing with her abilities to a minimum. Handmaiden and Liberty had no supuns. Handmaiden took a step back, letting a swing of Liberty’s sword pass her by before driving herself forward, throwing a punch that caught the massive woman in the abdomen. Liberty pnted her feet as light fshed from the impact. She didn’t so much as budge as she raised her own fist and swung down at the much smaller woman.
Handmaiden threw her arms up to block, the force of the impact sending her sliding backwards, digging a furrow in the dirt and grass beh her feet. She let out a scream of fury and whipped her arms down, hua’s gut twisting as she saw Handmaiden's twisted limbs set themselves instantaneously.
“You’re strong!” Liberty bellowed as she brought her sword to bare, swinging horizontally with so much force that hua worried the shockwave would hit the on building, “A waste!”
As if in respoo hua’s thoughts, the ground shook and a rippling wave of stone walls rose up from the ground, leaping from the earth with the on building at its ter. They immediately crumbled beh the cussive bst, but enough of the force was lost that the wall above hua’s head only cracked. Past the debris, Handmaiden dove past another swing and pivoted to Liberty’s side, throwing a rapid series of pu the herald’s hips before snapping a kick at her khat finally got a rea.
Liberty pulled away, “Ant!” she roared, fav her knee for a moment and swatted at Handmaiden who dove out of the way again.
Handmaiden ’t build up speed like she did during the fight with A. Her power is raw strength and regeion. No portals means no momentum, hua realized only to gasp as Handmaiden stumbled from ah shaking stomp from Liberty. Liberty swung again, her glowing sword cleaving straight across Handmaiden’s throat. Handmaiden fell back, her legs pnted in the ground and slumped, headless. hua scrambled to her feet. MARTA! She reached for her sword as Liberty turo face her with a sneer.
she regee from something like that? I’ve never- oh.
hua rexed her arms, log eyes with Liberty who paused, frowning. Her eyes went wide as a glowing white figure in a fluttering gown leaped up behind her. An armored shin collided with the side of Liberty’s head and for the first time, hua watched actual pain fsh across the Herald’s face. She staggered to the left, stumbling and nearly falling to a knee as Handmaiden pirouetted in the air, nding and kig off the ground with an arm outstretched, clotheslining a surprised Liberty and dragging her along as she ran, a scream rising from Handmaiden’s throat.
“GO DOWN!”
Liberty pnted her feet as she was dragged all the way to the tree line, further and further away from the on building. “YOU AREN’T WORTHY!” Liberty roared in response as Handmaiden lost her momentum itle against Liberty’s strength. Liberty drove her fist up and into Handmaiden's gut, sending her up into the air as she got to her feet, shoulders hunched, eyes burning with hatred. Handmaiden nded and stood up straight. hua could see parts of the woman’s bhting themselves beh her gown.
How much pain is she in? hua thought and looked down at her side, she scowled and trated. e on! There’s got to be a way te this! There’s got to-
“Teacher!”
hua’s heart turo ice. Her guts bottoming out like a bck hole. She looked up and turned her head towards the source of the voice as Handmaiden and Liberty cshed again in the background. No. Don’t e here. There, standing at the path between the on building and the dojo, off to her left, Lillian. Her friends were with her, even that bastard Otis. She turo see Liberty slow in her fight with Handmaiden, barking out a ugh and snapping out a kick that sent Handmaiden flying bato the trees.
“You came!” she shouted.
o Lillian, the blonde Cassiopeia stared in horror at the humanoid mountain that stood like an obelisk of death in the middle of the courtyard. “...Stel?”
Liberty pointed a fi the girl, “Ewen! Ellis!” she barked, “Grab her!”
hua didn’t have any option now, she o move. She started to cycle her internal energy, even if it meaing the poison start spreading again. “I won’t let you!” she bellowed and grabbed her sword as the two men that had been hanging back sprung into a. Ellis disappeared into a ripple of sound while Ewen spped his hands on the ground. It felt like time slowed for a moment as hua kicked off the ground, she had to move, she had to get there, she had to block them. She had to-
Ewen screamed.
hua turo look as the man staggered, clutg at his head. “What is this noise?!” he shrieked as blood began to drip from his ears. hua whipped her head towards the gathered aspirants and spotted Snow standing there, hand outstretched off to the side with a smug grin on her face. At the same time, Cassiopeia whirled around and swung up towards open air with her hammer, r as she grew in size, hrowing out of the side of her head. Ellis formed just in time for a mass of metal to collide with his jaw, sending him flying up towards the sky.
“You don’t think I’ve fotten your tricks?!” Cassiopia shouted, “I lived with you!”
Ellis snarled and snapped his fingers, vanishing and reappeario Liberty as Handmaiden came barreling out of the trees. hua stared at the students, wide eyed, aears well up in her eyes as Lillian started barking orders, “I’ll tend to Bck Lotus! Ollie, Val and John, stay on the move! Greg! Repulsion wall on the on building! Alex and Cass, that uy is isoted, grab him! Snow, keep it up! Marc,” she turo Otis as the others started moving, “Think you back up Handmaiden before I get back?”
Pride.
Greg raced over to the wall of the on building and spped a hand against it. hua felt herself get pushed away a bit as gravity repelled her. She turo Liberty and grihe Herald scowled and raised her sword over her head, “I WON’T LET YOU!” she bellowed only to get a face full of Handmaidens fist.
“You’ve got bigger problems!” Handmaiden roared before nding and sweeping out a kick that cracked into Ellis who didn’t even have enough time to whistle. Ellis skipped across the ground like a stone and hit a tree, slumping as an arm swept in around hua’s back. She looked up at her student. Lillian’s hair had gained another colored streak, her internal energy was even more vibrant, cyg with even more certainty.
“You’re poisoned,” Lillian said quickly, “Sit down, I’ll get it out of you, where are the others?”
hua nodded as Lillian helped her to the ground a a wave of heat begin w against the poisorapped in her side, the fire rag through her veins and meridians. “Axel’s hurt badly, the other instructors are inside. Madame Rouge is the st line of defe this point with Doctor Carter trolling the building’s defenses.”
Lillian frowned and nodded as a wild ugh rose up across the battlefield, a golden streak cshed with Liberty’s clow. hua looked up a her expression still as Otis came bde to bde with one of his own heralds from the past. No one is going to be able to ignore him now, she thought bitterly as Liberty swung a titanic blow down at him only for Handmaiden to charge at her side again. The glow on Liberty’s body was intensifying, the anger on her face real. The grouh her feet was beginning to crack.
She looked up into Lillians stern face as the girl held her hands over hua’s side. She could feel the poison burning away. “I’m proud of you,” she said.
Lillian just smiled at her, “Say that again once we’re out of this, teacher.”
hua snorted, “Greedy brat of a student.”
“You picked me,” Lillian said as crashes and bangs and fshes of light shook the ground and illumihe sky.
“Got the red glowy dude!” Alex shouted from afar, “He’s not going anywhere!”
Lillian gnced up from her work and hua just looked at her face, she watched Lillian’s eyes dart about, assessing the area before nodding. “Bring him over! Cass, keep away from your sister and stick with Alex, today’s not the day!”
“Right!” Cass shouted back.
hua let her head fall bato the ground a an easy breath e, she reached for her side and touched where the holes left behind by Dame Kant had been. Smooth skin was all that remained. She experimentally cycled her power through her meridians and nodded, patting Lillian’s hand, “That’s enough. Support your team.”
Lillian looked down at her, “You sure you’re alright?”
hua scoffed, “Who do you think you’re talking to? That poison was designed for a cultivator like us, now that it’s gone and you’re out of the dungeon, I have no reason not to throw everything I have at her,” she growled and got to her feet, grabbing her sword and drawing in a breath that filled her chest. “LI - BER - TY!” she bellowed.
Ahead of her, the fighting stilled. Handmaiden and Otis were standing just a few feet from one another, both looking back as Liberty stood over them, her eyes burning with impotent rage. She was still pletely unharmed from the fight despite every hit she’d taken. The clow on her skin was only getting brighter. Handmaidens stoic frown was a trast to Otis’ posed, cocky smile. Otis was the first to turn and look up at Liberty, “Oops,” he said mogly, “This whole thing was a bad idea, dy.”
Liberty looked down at him and raised her fist with a snarl, “We’ll see about that, child.”
hua took a step forward and was about to begin her charge when a red crackle of electricity spread across her path. Behind her, Greg shouted, “Don’t touch it!”
She hopped back as more streaks of red lightning bounded across the battlefield. hua spotted one open near Cassiopeia and Alex who were running in their dire, an unscious Ewen under Alex’s arm. Cass grabbed Alex and leaped, pulling him away from an arm that reached out of a tear iy that tried to snatch Ewen away. Three more rips appeared behind Liberty, Dame Kant falling out of one and Ellis falling out of the sed. From the third stepped a new man in a red suit. He threw out a hand and two crest shaped ribbons of ed crimson light u Handmaiden and Otis. The pair retreated, not letting the attacks touch them.
The man clicked his tongue.
“Halloway,” Liberty growled loudly enough for hua to hear.
“We o go, my Lady,” he said quickly, his eyes fixed on a spot just behind hua. She gnced bad saw Greg leaning against the wall of the on building with a grin on his face, he waved his fingers at the newer.
“This trash isn’t an issue,” Liberty snarled, “I’ll just-”
“My Lady,” Halloway insisted. Liberty raised her fist to bad him but he spoke before he lost his head, “Ishtar is attag the main pound. I just got word from Phillip.”
The etlefield went quiet.
Otis burst into ughter as Liberty rounded on Hallway with wide eyes. She grabbed him by the shirt and lifted him off the ground only to drop him a out a furious breath. She turned and fixed her eyes on hua who stood tall. hua jerked her , “Run away, Vilin, and go up your mess at home. Maybe leave it better defended ime.”
There’s no point in trying to arrest her now. She just keeps getting stronger. We’ll end up getting fttened, she thought a Handmaidens gaze. The gown wearing woman nodded her agreement. Thank you, Sonya, she thought with a breath. She refused to attribute the credit to Ishtar.
Liberty scowled, “This is far from over, Heroes,” she rumbled before pointing a fi Cassiopeia, hua moved to staweewo, “e here, now, girl. Last ce. Return Ewen while you are at it.”
“Fuck you!” Cassiopeia shouted back. “I’m never going back to that pce! This is where I belong!”
Liberty looked like she’d been spped, the expression on her face more shocked than from any of the blows delivered on her by Handmaiden. She lowered her hand and nodded slowly, “I’ll kill ovna for this,” she said quietly before turning to Halloway, “Suit yourself, you’ll die with the rest wheime es. Halloortal.”
Halloway gnced past her before looking up, “Ewen? The surviving followers?”
“This is their failure, we’re leaving,” she said.
Abandoning your men and bming it on them, you really are the worst, Liberty, hua thought as Halloway threw out a hand and a rge rift formed in the air behind them. Liberty reached down and grabbed Ellis and Kant. Ellis was bloody but awake, Kant looked like she was barely ging to life. hua’s shoulders rexed. She didn’t move though, not until the four shapes disappeared into the rippling red light and vahe tear smming shut.
hua let out a shaky breath, she felt her legs grow weak as the tensio her body. It was all she could do to turn to the two corpses still ying at the entrao the on building. She closed her eyes and rallied herself. Tonight is far from over. She raised her voice, “Liberty has retreated!” she bellowed, “Doctor Carter! tact Pandora Headquarters, we’re going to need support for the up!”
“Teacher,” Lillian said o her, a twinge of worry in her voice.
She turo her student and put a hand on her shoulder, “Not until its all done. You lost peers tonight, I’m sorry. you keep going?”
Lillian looked down at her feet and exhaled, she raised her and looked hua in the eyes, “Yes ma’am.”
hua turned back to the ruined courtyard. The bodies of cultists spread out, the few survivors left behind. There had been so much age in one night all to soothe the ego of that monster. She’d seen Liberty’s cruelty in Sonya’s memories, but experieng it with her own eyes was something pletely different. She couldn’t argue with Sonya’s goal to put that animal dowime it’ll be far worse. I’m afraid we have a war ing, she thought as she turo the heroes standing arouhe lines have been drawn, the fog of war lifted, it’s only a matter of time.
