When the spear’s shaft tapped against the ground after he leaned while trying to get up, he decided the benefits of trying to keep the blade in himself to prevent further damage was not worth it and pulled it out.

His head would have been squashed if was moments slower. Elizabeth's foot was firmly placed on his head and the pressure of it was unpleasant, to say the least.

He slid his head out between the ground and her foot and managed the first beneficial move he made during the fight.

He moved his blade up and slit her achilles tendon.

Before he could do any more danger to her leg, a kick to his back sent him flying though he managed to stop the assailant.

It was the weakest of the three that had kicked him away. Her claw only had a single blade left in it.

As he got up he heard footsteps approaching, which sounded far heavier than the other two.

(“The pink one.”) He loathed, internally.

He looked up to see her throw her chest plate at him. He stopped it instinctively.

(“What a waste.”) He thought as she threw her spear this time. He stopped it as well but only slowed it down. Both of them seemed to be taken aback by this.

It hit him but not hard to meaningfully damage him.

(“Why did it? Was she not using her magic the first few times she threw it?”)

He wasted more mana than he'd like to admit, trying to stop it and she now had free reign on him once more.

She grabbed his collar and flung him as hard as she could into the ground. She hammered his chest with a hammer-like blow afterwards, with an audible crack, loud enough to be heard and aimed a punch straight for his throat.

Enough time had not passed to use his new technique but he had more than enough for his old one.

He stopped her punch and lay on the floor. He continued using his old technique on her when the time was going to end and slowly reached for his scythe.

He looked to his side and all around when he noticed the weak woman hadn't returned to attack. He couldn't help but have a small smirk on his face as he looked back.

The weak woman was trying to help the blonde one stand up or maybe even bandage her wound. She only ran over when she noticed Daniel still moved after Tina's onslaught.

It seemed she had too much faith in her ally.

She threw the remaining blade on her claw at him and he gladly stopped it. He moved his hand to the closest thing to him, her leg, and slashed her tendon as well. He wouldn't have made it in time if he aimed higher.

Agatha rocked his body with another kick but she wasn't stopped this time. She assumed he was planning to single her out and do the same thing he had done to the others, but the real reason was he had been temporarily knocked unconscious by her blow.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

He did his best to try and turn his head around but the group had all disappeared back into the remaining darkness of the room. He saw two trails of blood leading towards it but trying to stop them based on proximity seemed too risky.

He didn't mind the momentary reprieve and slowly reached into his pocket.

(“I should have a few of these left.”)

----------------------------------------

“Nora, Lily where the fuck are you!” Tina said, trying her best not to give away their location.

“Over here-”

“Don't “over here” me bitch, what the fuck were you two doing over here, while we tried to get us out of this situation huh!? You're our cover right, so fucking act like it!”

“Sorry, I'm sorry.” Nora sounded distraught and seemed on the verge of tears over something.

“Nora? What's going.” Agatha asked.

“Come on, are you seriously crying over that? Just help us out more next time.” Tina added feeling somewhat guilty for this.

“No it's just that, well, I'm sure your eyes are gonna adjust so you'll see what I mean.”

(“What did that mean?”) Both Tina and Agatha thought.

“Dear Goddess, is that what happens when you don't have mana?” Elizabeth wondered as she looked forward.

Tina's eyes soon adjusted to the darkness and she found herself staring at a dumbfounded Elizabeth. She turned her eyes to what she was looking at.

It was Lily in a crouched pose.

“Huh? Lily what the hell are you-”

She reached out to grab her but she had an unnatural resistance when she pulled her. Stranger than that, she didn't even react to it and kept the pose.

Tina briefly wondered what had happened and the answer soon became apparent.

“N-no way.” Tina stated. Her breathing increased, as much as she tried to calm herself. Her eyes started tearing up as she realised what she was looking at.

“No way!” Her voice was louder than before. Elizabeth quickly put her hand over her mouth. Her muffled voice became louder as she held Lily in her arms, still keeping the same pose.

She had been stopped. And by the looks of things, this may be permanent.

She attempted to take Elizabeth's hand off her mouth. Elizabeth struggled to keep her hand in place and got more forceful.

“Listen to me, Tina.”

Tina continued to struggle but started kneeing her to get her to listen.

“Listen.”

Tina eased up and stopped struggling.

“I'll let you speak if you can stay quiet.” She began easing her hand up. “Can you do that?”

Tina nodded her head.

Elizabeth fully removed her hand. And she quickly hobbled towards Nora.

“She hasn't been like this the entire time right!?” Elizabeth placed a hand on her shoulder and she lowered her volume. “C-come on, Nora answer me here?”

“It's as you suspect, she has been like that since the boy managed to hit us with his attack.” She reluctantly answered, turning her face away.

Tina seemed like she needed some time to process this information but they were in the middle of a fight and Elizabeth couldn't let her be bogged down.

“Stop acting like she'll be like that forever.” Elizabeth quickly interjected, placing a hard on her shoulder.

Tina turned to her, clearly giving her full attention.

“We just have to kill that boy and she'll be able to move again.” She quickly added.

“R-right.” Tina responded looking back towards the visible light. Besides, it wasn't as if she was dead. She had been hit with that magic many times and it only stopped her from moving around. But just to give herself a piece of mind she leaned against her chest to listen to her heartbeat.

Badump ba---dump

She slumped to the floor and wore an almost euphoric expression.

“Okay, okay… she's still alive. S-sorry for overreacting.”