The Crimson Tale of Conquest

Lucilla's fist launched itself directly next to the womans face, the heat radiating off the Crimson eyed womans hand burned her targets cheek slightly. The woman had managed to avoid the attack, but the speed of which Lucilla moved surprised her. She wasn't expecting much from the girl after seeing her, but her physical strength and the wind magic she could sense around her legs was much more formidable than expected. Not that it was a problem.

Avoiding the attack the woman retreated backwards from Lucilla, swinging her sword as she went. She winced a little as she moved her body, but she didn't faulter. Lucilla stopped in her tracks to avoid running into the sword, she attempted to continue running after the woman but dove to the side when a hail of magic arrows rained from the sky. The man behind Lucilla's target was holding a bow, already drawing the string again.

"Nice one Rupert." The woman said to him.

"J, how many times do I have to say to not underestimate your imponent. This is why that girl got the better of you." Rupert chastised her.

"Whatever- Whoa! That was close."

While Lucilla was busy avoiding the arrows, Morella had one of the many water tendrils surrounding her attack the woman named J. The tip of the tendril froze over into an ice spike large enough to skewer the woman, but she managed to avoid it by jumping to the side, grabbing her side with a grimace. She started to chant a spell as she continued to avoid the countless water tendrils after her, every sharp movement causing her face to twist in discomfort. Once she finished chanting, she pointed her sword in Morella's direction, a flurry of Fireballs flew in her direction.

"Whoa!" Morella yelled in surprise, forming the water around her in a wave to surf herself to safety.

"I don't know what kind of water Nymph you are, but all of you sure are scared of fire." J laughed.

Seth and Lucilla both took this opportunity to move in one J. Seth managed to use the shadows to trip her, allowing Lucilla to move in closer while she was off balanced and still trying to defend against Morella's barrage of attacks. Lucilla aimed low and clawed at her torso. The black cloth ripped apart revealing leather armor made from monster hide underneath. Lucilla's Iron gauntlets weren't strong enough to claw through them in in go.

Monster hide was light and tough. Depending on the monster it could even be tougher than metal armor. This was clearly a high-quality piece of equipment. If Lucilla had done this attack against normal leather, or even just a weaker monster leather, she would've been able to tear it apart. Since she didn't, she' now has to find an opening in the armor, making the fight that more tedious. Thankfully if a person is wearing leather armor, they prefer movement over protection, meaning Lucilla could probably find an opening somewhere.

Lucilla tried to follow up her attack with another, but Rupert had his bow trained on her. Noticing this Lucilla stopped in her tracks as an arrow with explosive speed sped passed her. Just the shockwave alone caused her to stumble a bit, allowing J to retreat to where Rupert was positioned. She smirked at Lucilla as if to mock her.

"Well, what now huh?" She asked still smirking.

Lucilla said nothing, she proceeded to run around the pair, using the pods around them to occasionally jump off from. She used wind Infused Chi to increase her speed, making it harder to follow her movements.

The pair looked around confused, but J suddenly felt a chill run down her back, turning around she saw Aliaa almost directly behind her. She brought up her sword and was able to defend against the attack. Aliaa didn't try to follow up on it and instead had retreated, that's because in the next instant Lucilla had charged directly at J when her attention was focused on Aliaa. She aimed for the woman's head, but in at the last moment she brought her arm up to block the attack. Her arm made an audible crack in the process, but otherwise she was able to escape the pincer without a problem. Lucilla, who's only goal was to do a hit and run, retreated immediately, once again running around the place.

Rupert attempted to cover J and shoot down Lucilla but was forced to defend himself when Morella sent a bunch of ice knives in his direction, copying J's attack from earlier. Turning his bow from Lucilla to the incoming attacks he released the charged arrow he had prepared. 'It's too late to let loose a multi shot arrow at this point.' He thought, letting the charged arrow fly.

The shockwave diverted many of the ice knives off course, making it easier to doge the rest, or let them fly past them since they were only there to make it harder to move out the way and flew wide. Once that problem was solved, he glanced over at his partner to assess the damaged that was done. Her left arm dangled at her side, but her right arm, that still griped the one-handed short sword was fine.

Rupert turned his attention back to the four people trying to kill them. They were at a disadvantage right now. Sure, a good portion of the people in the room weren't able to fight, but the ones that they were facing was still a challenge to deal with. He once again brought up his bow and started chanting turning his normal arrow into an explosive arrow. He trained his sights on the fast-moving Lucilla, he wasn't going to hit her, but he could get close.

With a deep breath he released the arrow, it landed on a cluster of pods and exploded, killing whoever was inside. Metal shrapnel and broken glass flew out as projectiles, and Lucilla was one of them. She was caught up in the explosion and was sent flying backwards, getting injured by the flying projectiles that was once a pod. She skipped on the ground for a couple feet before crashing into another cluster of pods. cracking the glass of one.

"Lucy!" Morella yelled with panic in her voice.

"I'm fine don't worry about me!" She yelled back.

J took this opportunity to run up to Seth brandishing her sword, Seth manipulated the shadows and solidify them into twin blades. He managed to block the attack with them, but J's Mithril sword had partially cut into the shadow blades. J followed up the attack with a kick into Seth's gut, freeing her sword in the process. She grimaced as her left arm violently swung around.

Seth was pushed back, but he stayed on his feet. He struggled to breath, but he didn't let that stop him from using fire magic and sending it in J's direction. J ran Mana through her sword and cut the ball of fire in two. She was still singed a little but not enough to worry about it. She charged Seth once more swinging her sword at him, Seth used his shadow blades to defend, but this time they were cleaved in two and the Mithril sword cut deep into his left shoulder.

"Gah!" He cried out. But before J could make the finishing blow a torrent of water hit with a force strong enough to crack stone. She went sailing, but she managed to right herself in the air just in time. Rupert chanted something, which caused a wind cushion to surround J, softening her fall.

Lucilla had gotten back to her feet and stood next to Morella, while Aliaa helped Seth retreat to their position. Rupert got closer and stood next to J, an arrow already in hand, ready to fire at a moment's notice. The two-sides glared at each other.

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---Cristina's POV---

Cristina was starting to get annoyed. She looked at the large woman named Berta and sighed. She knew she would win in the end without much trouble, the problem was this fight was becoming tedious. Cristina was holding back to avoid harming her allies on accident, but that also meant it was taking longer to take down an opponent she was stronger than. To make matter worse, Berta was at the perfect level of strength to frustrate her, not strong enough to beat or even harm her, but strong enough to defend against her attacks while she was holding back.

"Alright, I'm done." Cristina said. "Viola, can you make a hole to the surface!?" Cristina called to the injured Dryad.

"Uh, sure, give me a few minutes!" She called back. Her foot was still missing but she had successfully stopped the bleeding. She was hanging back with Yuki, Judieth, and Maisy. Yuki was down for the count and the other two was focused on healing. Viola was there to not only tend to her own wounds but defend these three so the other's up front could focus on fighting.

Closing her eyes Viola concentrated, a rumbling noise could be heard above them, along with faint vibrations shaking the room. Cristina was capable of keeping her opponent busy for a few minutes. More than capable, so while she waited, she once again attempted to cut down Berta. She got in close and swung her sword, which was covered in a dark film. Berta used her halberd to redirect the attack instead of taking it head on. The Mithril weapon was fully capable of dealing with Cristina strength, taking the brunt of the blow, saving Berta's own arms from breaking.

After a few minutes of cat and mouse, with Berta staying on the defensive and trying to keep distance from Cristina, a hole opened up in the ceiling. Long thick roots of plants broke through the ceiling sending debris and dust flying throughout the room. The fight between Lucilla and the other two bodyguards was momentarily paused as they braced themselves against the ceiling's destruction.

Cristina just smiled and once again ran towards Berta. The large woman braced for another attack like before, but instead of swinging her sword the Vampire went for a kick. Her foot hooked itself underneath the woman's halberd as she kicked upwards, sending her flying through the opening above them. She jumped after her flying through the opening and onto the surface.

she looked around, she was in the front yard of the three-story estate. Not too far away she can see Berta standing there, other than looking a little dusty and bruised, she was relatively unharmed. But she was no longer underground, and her allies weren't nearby she could let loose a bit more. She still couldn't destroy the city, but Cathrendor estate should be fair game.

Circling around Berta so the estate would be the only one to get damaged, Cristina worked on programming a spell. "Let's see how you fair against this you bitch!" She said as she raised her sword high in the sky. A massive back blaze erupted from the blade, the heat coming from it scorching the air itself as it flew high into the sky, startling the harpy Ialiana.

The dark flame transformed into a massive bird as it circled around in the sky. The black flame transformed into the shape of one of this world's many Mythical beasts, the Fire Phoenix. The flaming black bird flew around above them, its massive frame intimidating any who set their eyes on it. With a smirk Cristina swung her sword down, pointing it in Berta's direction.

"!!!!!!" With an alarmed look Berta began running from the magical recreation of a Phoenix.

The fire bird swooped down low to the ground, anything its fire touched burned and dissolved at the same time. It came in fast, and the large woman did get far before being engulfed inside the spell entirely. Along with a good portion of the yard.

"AAAHHHHHHGGGGGGGggggg...." Her death throws were short lived but was clearly heard loud and clear through the night before trailing off into silence. With her death the spell dissipated, revealing a desolated area, either burned or revenged by the dark magic.

"I hope the others are doing alright." Cristina said, wiping the non-existent sweat of her brow. "Man was she annoying to fight."

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---Lucilla POV---

After Cristina Jumped through the new hole in the ceiling with Berta Lucilla refocused her attention back on J. Lucilla wasn't much of a magic user, but she started to think she'll have to learn how to combine magic and melee fighting on the fly. She needed a larger edge in this fight if they wanted to win quickly.

"Cover me." She said to Morella before charging forward. The ground around her - except for the path directly in front of her - froze over in an instant. Large ice spikes emerged from the icy ground anywhere the two enemies stood. They were forced to split from one another to keep themselves from harm.

Lucilla leaped towards J, aiming for her head taking advantage of the woman's limited vision thanks to the dust cloud acting as a smoke screen and her uneven footing on the icy ground. Realizing this the woman tried moving out of the way as she saw a shadow approaching her through the dust, but Lucilla's reach was much further than expected. Lucilla had wrapped her hand in wind Chi, extending her reach, allowing her to maim J's face, causing the woman to lose her right eye.

"GAAAH!" She cried, "You damned monster!" She swung her sword up in retaliation. Lucilla used her right arm to block the attack, but she forgot J was using a Mithral weapon. Instead of blocking, her hand was cut clean off instead along with her gauntlet. The severed limb flew through the air, splashing the surroundings in blood.

"Grrrr." Lucilla quickly backed off with a grow.

-- -- --

Meanwhile Seth and Aliaa were double teaming Rupert. Morella had managed to corner the man and opened a direct path in his direction for both of them. Realizing he wouldn't have time to cast a spell on his attack, he threw his weapon aside and drew a large knife.

Seth was the first person upon him. He used a blade made from shadow to swing at the man, who in turn used his Mithral knife to block the attack. Aliaa used that advantage to circle around behind him and stabbed him in the back with her own knife.

"Blaugh!" Rupert spit up blood and his arms grew weaker allowing Seth to pull back his blade and thrust into his gut, receiving another pained cry from the man. "Damn, fine I'll just take you with me."

With those words Rupert dropped a reddish orange cracked Mana Crystal onto the ground.

"Run!" Seth yelled as he and Aliaa dived away. The moment Crystal hit the floor a fiery explosion erupted in the area, blasting the dreary Vampire and the cat woman across the room. Both of them rolled and skidded across the floor before crashing into a cluster of pods. Seth lost his left arm completely and Aliaa was bleeding from the head and part of her torso was burned.

-- -- --

"Rupert!"

Hearing the explosion J looked in Rupert's direction in a panic. She tried to head to his location but was cut off by three different wind blades flying in her direction that she had to avoid. Following the wind attack was her left foot stepped into a puddle of water made by Morella that quickly froze the sole of her boots, stopping her in her tracks for a moment. Allowing Lucilla to get in close, her left hand covered in flame.

"AAAAHHHHHH!" With a yell Lucilla grabbed hold of J's face as the flames roared and grew in size and heat. J raised her weapon in a futile attempt to block the attack, but an ice spear knocked the trajectory of her blade off course allowing Lucilla to have full access to her prey.

"MMMMPPPPHHHHH!!!" J let out a muffled scream as her she felt her face boiled from the heat, and her good eye popping from boiling liquid exploding under the pressure. Lucilla's fingers dug themselves into her skull, securing her hand. J tried prying Lucilla's hand off her face with her good arm but was unable to release herself from her death grip.

"Just die already." Lucilla growled quietly as her prey's struggle slowly weakened.

Eventually J stopped moving all together. Unlike Rupert she did not carry an exploding fire Crystals with her. There was no last-minute surprise waiting for Lucilla as she removed her hand from the melted flesh of her victim. J's body dropped to the floor with a heavy thud as the Silver haired woman backed away.

"Huff, Huff." She breathed heavily. Her right hand was missing, and it even destroyed her gauntlet in the process. Luckily it was only her hand that was missing, that would grow back in no time. The real problem was the missing gauntlet, she was down a weapon. 'I'll deal with that later.' She thought. She didn't have the energy to worry about something like that.

"Looks like the Cathrendor man has escaped." Morella said walking over to Lucilla. "Well, our goal wasn't to capture him, so I guess it's fine. More importantly you're injured, hurry over to Judieth and get healed. I'll handle the other two."

Lucilla nodded and headed over to Judieth to get healed and check on Yuki. Morella watch her go with a pained expression. She had managed to get through this fight completely fine, yet her two younger sisters both got injured in the process. Yuki was even on deaths door for a while there.

"I won't let something like this happen again." She promised herself.