Elizabeth removed the wire and sighed at the current state of her sword.

("Dammit, I'll have to wait until we return, to get this fixed!")

Her sword was in bad shape, but it still could kill someone, which was the important part.

Avis decided to initiate the battle this time and Elizabeth dodged and countered with a kick of her own which Avis blocked with one arm. She attempted to wrap the wire around her foot but Elizabeth had thrown her sword to her four-fingered hand and stabbed at her, causing Avis to back away.

Elizabeth kept up the pressure, went back into slashes once more, and hit with a particularly heavy blow that sent Avis's hand upwards.

She followed up by aiming for her abdomen. Avis managed to parry it with her other hand and sent it sideways before Avis brought down her hand like a hammer towards Elizabeth's head. Undaunted, she took the blow directly to her forehead, landed a nick on Avis' side and forced her to back away.

("Tch, I could have wrapped the wire around her but that would have only guaranteed both our demises. I have no doubt this girl would be the type to slice at me even if I took her head off.")

"It looks like we're both in hot water. Unless you don't use your poisoned wires as much as I hoped." Elizabeth commented as she pointed to one of Avis' hands.

After having a moment to calm down, she didn't have to look down to realise her body was in pain. Her knees felt weak and she staggered while staying on her feet.

("What the hell is this!?")

She looked down at the glove she was wearing. Notably, it was on the hand that Elizabeth swung hard at. Between the threads of wire she had wound over the glove, was a small cut between two threads of the wire. Although small, she could notice some blood. The gloves she had were durable but not durable enough for Elizabeth.

"So do you have an antidote or are we both screwed?" Elizabeth asked as she walked over.

She instinctively reached towards a pouch on her apron and realised too late what she had done. Elizabeth smiled when she did and Avis gritted her teeth.

"So you do have some. Why don't you call this here?" Elizabeth asked, seemingly no worse for wear with the poison.

Avis could feel a sweat run down her forehead. While this did have to do with exertion from their battle, the responsibility fell mostly on the pain she was experiencing. Her breathing had grown ragged due to the torment her body was and it left her with an appreciation for her opponent.

("How the hell has she been fighting through this!?")

She briefly thought about revealing the antidote but there was no way in hell she was going to give after doing all this.

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("Screw you, snot-nosed hussy. I just have to outlast her then Albus is going to be safe. Then we go back to how we usually are with him being an idiot and me having to look out for him. I rather go through this pain forever than ever allow this woman to meet him. If she finds out what we did, there's no doubt she'll kill him. I can't let him die because of my own weakness.")

She gritted her teeth before letting out a scream that sounded similar to a beast shrieking out before a hunt. She showed no hesitation in throwing herself towards Elizabeth and managed to feint Elizabeth out with a kick then turned into a punch. After the initial blow, Elizabeth got her bearing but was now the one on the defensive. This pain must have activated her fight or flight as she started to use the environment to her advantage. What Elizabeth thought was a missed punch was actually Avis throwing herself towards a wire and springboarding herself off it.

She kicked at her and managed to string her sword using the wires at her feet.

Elizabeth tried to deliver a blow to the still airborne Avis but she moved the wire to stop the sword and managed to cut most of her fingers. They weren't cut off but they managed to expose bone and Elizabeth forcefully pulled on her sword to drag it away as she stepped back. This left the blade of the sword blunt from the wire seemingly managing to cut thin strips of the blade from the sword.

Elizabeth clicked her tongue but didn't back down and continued having this test of wills with the now-grounded Avis.

In their exchange of blows and slashes Avis managed to consistently land punches here and there on Elizabeth but she would remain vigilant enough to realise her attempts at wrapping a wire around her and dodged accordingly.

("Just let me cut some more off you stupid bitch!!!")

But she wasn't unscathed in this trade. Although her limbs were at no risk (in her mind at least) her skin was a different story, receiving several nicks and slashes from the blonde in front of her.

("What? You think being able to cut me is more worth it to receive these punches? I'll have to teach this cunt some manners.")

She managed a land blow on Elizabeth's injured side and quickly moved and went to wrap the wire around her head the moment she reeled back in pain. Such a moment didn't come and she had to back away when Elizabeth's blade found itself a few inches into her abdomen. She backed away and punched it off course but found herself almost disgusted at the resolve she showed.

("You stupid bitch, I can see your wound bleeding more because of my blow. WHY DIDN'T YOU REACT!?")

Elizabeth allowed her no time to think on this and charged forward. Avis simply ran back to the ends of the room and found her back to the wall. She tried to escape but Elizabeth was not going to let this opportunity go away.

Elizabeth attacked more with the blade and Avis caught it, but Elizabeth caught the other fist she had thrown in retaliation.

They were in a stalemate and were stuck in a contest of strength.

She forced herself to throw Elizabeth to the side but Elizabeth didn't see the value in this. The time she spent in the air wouldn't be enough for Avis to escape the wall. As she didn't see any wires close to her when she reached Avis. Which is why it came as a shock when she had the side of her chest cut open after she was thrown. If it wasn't for the chestplate she had worn she might have been cut in two.

She fell to the floor and immediately coughed up blood. This was a deeper wound than the one to her side. She could feel her lung hurting but she could still breathe and assumed it had stopped just shy of her lung.

As she heard the footsteps of her opponent, she forced herself up and held her injured side, while staring her down. She now had a calm air around her.

("It's a good thing I had a few wires installed that I painted black. She was so used to the bare metal ones, that she didn't expect it. I planned to use this if the poison didn't kill her but she forced my hand. I was aiming for her hip to hit it but I suppose I didn't have enough strength left to throw her that high.")