It was no good and she reached for the vulnerable part of her arm, grabbing onto the tonfa when Elizabeth blocked and threw herself over her. As Elizabeth moved to respond she felt the mass of the weapon increase ever so slightly.

(“Is this her magi-”)

The tonfa fired. She spun around and nearly got sent off her feet as she tried to correct herself. She managed to turn around in time to see the woman coming down like a sack of bricks, quickly blocking with the tonfa.

The blow was forceful; it left both women dropping their weapons, with Elizabeth immediately following up with a kick and the woman blocking with both hands. She reached her foot to one of the tonfas and kicked it up like it weighed nothing.

“Elizabeth!” Someone shouted. This distracted Elizabeth briefly, giving the woman an opportunity.

The woman had no time for distractions and kicked back Elizabeth before firing.

But the moment she fired she noticed something new in Elizabeth's hand. It was a sword and it was sturdy enough to withstand a blast from her cannonball. At least one, anyway.

The sword snapped in half after enduring that blast, with the cannonball ricocheted off to the ceiling.

Elizabeth threw it at the woman, and the woman was forced to block.

She grabbed a sword flung into the air and charged the woman.

“Where the fuck did she?” She looked off to the side and saw a short dark-skinned woman with a multitude of weapons around and in her hands.

“Oh fuck off, die you piece of shit!!” She shouted as she swung the tonfa down, like a jackhammer.

Elizabeth beautifully parried it, though not without the sword having an unsightly bend in it.

She slammed her other hand in her face, slapping her like she was a misbehaving child.

As she brought the sword up, the woman aimed both tonfas at Elizabeth. But she was forced to block when a sword was flung at her head.

She smacked it away with the Tonfa and managed to have a sword shoved into the other.

“Let's see what happens when you fire, don't we?” Elizabeth said as she let it go and backed away to grab another sword Vanessa had thrown.

And she did so with a new cannonball fired and alongside the sword. Elizabeth managed to block both and thankfully her current sword was up to the task before shattering, with some fragments of it embedding itself in her chest.

She dissipated most of the force but the blade's blunt side did slam into her stomach, leaving a visible bruise on her through her torn shirt.

She dodged to the side as the woman slammed down her weapon again, after jumping in the air, absolutely destroying the floor beneath.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Elizabeth grabbed another sword, got as close as she could to her, and began harassing her with her swordplay. The swords Vanessa had previously thrown at her weren't her type but this one would do finely.

The woman suddenly found herself forced on the defensive as Elizabeth slashed at her with a torrent of blows, ripping her shirt and bits of her skin to shreds as she blocked.

(“She's too fast!”) She complained as she tried to overpower Elizabeth. Or at the very least break her blade.

Her skills weren't enough. No matter how much she thought she saw an opening Elizabeth would punish her with another nick on her arm or face.

She quickly tried to back away but Elizabeth was relentless like a swarm of hornets. She found herself going up the stairs and the unfamiliar footing caused her to be slashed even more as they went up, with some wounds going as deep as a centimetre.

And she soon jumped over Elizabeth with increased height. And Elizabeth quickly grabbed her leg, pulling her back down and she attempted to aim at Elizabeth.

She fired off a shot aimed at the floor and sent both women flying a few feet, both losing their footing as they fell down the stairs, grabbing the other woman as they went down, Elizabeth stabbing into her leg and the woman responding with a tonfa to the face with an especially solid sounding blow.

The moment both of them hit the floor, the woman got up and started running towards the door.

Elizabeth got up and chased her.

The door was closed and the woman managed to run up it, kick herself off it and backflip into aiming both her tonfas at Elizabeth.

She managed to escape death but it was a tight squeeze. Both tonfas were aimed with Elizabeth dodging either direction in mind. And Elizabeth predicted their trajectories and stayed still instead. Each cannonball ripped a small amount of flesh from both her sides and tore her shirt further.

The woman fell to the ground as light as a father, with sweat pooling all over her.

Elizabeth looked to move but the woman raised her hand.

“I'll leave alright.” She said as she backed away to the door.

“Do you think I'll take the word of a woman who works with a cultist so easily?”

Elizabeth said as she walked over.

“Cultists?” the woman responded as she pointed the tonfa at her. “Fuck off, that old man was clean, he's one of you.” She quickly covered her mouth and broke the door down with one of the tonfas.

“One of us? Get back here and explain that!” Elizabeth shouted.

“Screw off, I'm going home, I've worked as much as that bastard's pay is worth.” She said before turning around and running off with a noticeable limp.

Elizabeth tried to chase after her but the adrenaline of battle had quickly worn off. She fell to a knee and clutched her head as she watched the woman rub off.

She looked to see blood in her hand and sighed.

(“I can't help but feel leaving such a woman alive will only cause us problems in the future.”) Elizabeth thought as she tried to maintain consciousness.

She could feel her vision blurring and her arms losing strength.

Vanessa ran over and lifted her over her shoulder.

“Liz! You okay?” She asked as she ran towards the stairs.

“I'll live. Now let me go, I have to go back up T-” She started breathing heavily and started to notice her vision darken.

“Come on Liz, answer me!”

“I'm fine. Tch, I suppose I'll need some first aid before I go to town. Stay with both of us in the meantime Vanessa, I'm not sure if she'll come back.”

“Dumbass, I'm not leaving your side until Merrill patches you up!” Vanessa responded as she quickly ran up the stairs.