Claudine slapped away the blades as Mara sliced at her with her knives. The wolf grabbed Mara around the neck, lifting her up off the ground. Mara twisted and wrapped her legs around the were’s arm and tried to wrench her way out but could find no leverage. The long wiry arm was all whip cord muscle that was missing patches of skin, making it slippery and difficult to get purchase on. She threw one of the blades into the shoulder that was holding her aloft, kicking the hilt in deeper as the creature screamed into the cave, dropping Mara.

Mara rolled forward between Claudine’s legs and slashed at the back of her legs. The feral wolf dropped down to all fours and kicked out, sending Mara reeling towards the spiked wall, she stopped her momentum and turned back to the fight just as the wolf’s claws tore matching cuts across her chest, knocking her back into the spikes. One of the silver blades burst its way out of her shoulder, nearly severing her arm.

Claudine went back to stalking her way around the small enclosure that trapped them both. One leg was dragging behind her and the knife in her shoulder was certainly going to limit her ability to attack. Mara pried herself off the wall, blackness from the silver and blood loss threatening to send her into a sleep she may not wake from. Claudia looked at her differently now, less as an annoyance to kill and actually acknowledging that she could hurt her.

Mara began circling with the wolf, she was bleeding too badly to let this fight go on any longer, she needed to end it if she were to have any chance of surviving. Claudia snarled and barked at her, trying to intimidate but Mara smiled widely back, bloody teeth gleaming in the shadows. They both charged together with a shout.

Claudia swiped her claws through the air as Mara dropped to the dirt skidding underneath the attacks. She stabbed her remaining blade between the bones in her leg just beneath her knee and twisted, popping the bones apart in the leg and shattering the knee. The feral were dropped to what was left of its knees as Mara stood tearing the other blade from where it had lodged in the shoulder taking the arm off as she did and spun, cutting the head of the feral off in one clean motion.

Mara stood up on shaky legs, tears in her eyes though she knew not if from her wounds or sorrow, and said the final words Fenris taught her to send a fellow warrior into the dark. She staggered towards the walls, knowing every second she took meant more of her blood left behind. She stripped off her body armor, draping it over one of the spikes, hoping it would protect her against the metal. She looked up at the twenty-foot climb in front of her and as she raised her head she fell backwards onto the ground. Her eyes closed, just needing a minute or two to compose herself before making the climb.

“Just hold on, we’ll get you out of here.” Mara opened her eyes again and saw Raphael standing over her. “You’re going to be fine, we just have to get you patched up and you’ll be good to go.” Mara’s vision swam and the officer standing over her wasn’t Raphael, wasn’t anyone she knew offhand but he was carrying a rope that led to the rim of the pit she was trapped in. It took the men a few minutes to hoist her out of the pit, being very careful to avoid any more contact with the silver spikes.

Tony and the remains of his squad awaited her at the top. Of the six men who set off with them, four remained and they looked as if they had walked through a war zone and came out the other side.

“Is she going to make it?” One of the men asked from where Mara couldn’t see.

“As long as the silver exited cleanly and didn’t leave any traces inside her she could conceivably heal. We need to get her bandaged and out to a medic if she’s even going to have a chance.”

“She’ll be fine.” Tony’s gruff voice sounded as he walked over to where they were bandaging her. “She’s tough enough to survive this far she won’t give it up now. Detective Sato, where is Hunter and my niece?”

“Got separated… the vampires were ready for us. Set a trap.”

“That fits; nothing in this trip went the way we planned.” He checked his weapon, a huge AA-12 with a full 32-round barrel, and frowned. “The rest of you get her out of here, I’m going after Hunter… toss me any shells you have left and get going. Hopefully, they’ve got an exit ready for us before the bloodsuckers regroup.”

~ * ~

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Lisa had activated every crystal she thought might have a chance of helping her against the insane shadow vampire. She had agate for strength, a cat’s eye making her faster, rhodonite for enhanced senses, and even alectorius for fighting but she just couldn’t match the vampire in sheer power. The weapon Nyx used was filled with bladed edges at seemingly random angles, allowing him to strike and change direction mid-swing to attack from a completely different angle.

Nyx came at her straight on, stabbing out at her midsection just to change directions and slice at her face. She bent backward away from the cut falling into a reverse somersault. He stabbed downwardly again at the floor where she lay, she twisted out of the way and shot the weapon with her diamond, freezing it to the wet ground before springing back to her feet. Nyx shifted behind her and swiped across at her neck but Lisa tucked herself into a roll out of his range. He was waiting for her when she came to her feet and scored a cut across her ribs, she took the hit with a grunt driving her fist into his neck with enough force not only to crush his trachea but likely snap his neck. Nyx only laughed off the hit as she took a few steps back.

A quick examination and Lisa was sure the wound was little more than superficial but pushing her body past human limits was beginning to take its toll on her body. She kicked the ice of Nyx’s weapon where it was frozen to the floor and lifted it, feeling the balance of the odd weapon. The shadow-vamp watched her with a look of anticipation.

“I designed the weapon myself, no one but me knows how to truly wield it.” He attacked her again, his movements looking like a broken marionette in their disjointed way. He cut, shifted his weight, and reversed direction into a sweeping arc but much to his surprise Lisa’s weapon rose to meet it. She advanced on him, boulder leading as she twisted into a near-perfect replication of his own move used against him. Nyx dodged messily out of the way as Lisa swapped the weapon to her other hand and followed his movement easily. This time Nyx blocked, his eyes wide in surprise as their strength was put in direct contest to each other.

“How… how are you doing this?” He stammered, pushing Lisa back with his superior strength. Lisa gave way and reversed her grip turning the motion into a swiping cut at his chin. Nyx vanished in an explosion of smoke, reappearing off to her side visibly shaken.

“I traveled the world ever since I was eleven. Wherever I went I seemed to know… almost by instinct how to use any weapon when I set my hands on it.” She rolled the blades around her body in an intricate maneuver, every motion she made gaining confidence with the weapon, refining her stance with every passing second.

“When I traveled the Philippines and learned to use their knives in escrima, they called me Kali’s daughter. In Ireland, they whispered of me as being one of the attributes of the Morrigan, in Japan, my swordmaster called me the consort of Bishamoten. Spawn of Xipe-Totec, Oracle of Ares, Battlemaiden of Freyja, Perun’s Chosen, as I learned I was named all of these but my personal favorite…” Lisa attacked with renewed fervor, driving past Nyx’s defenses and disarming him in seconds. He fled with his shadow magic but only could gain a second of breath before she was flying at him once more. Finally, she trapped him in with ice once more and Nyx closed his eyes tightly, fearing his own immanent end.

Lisa put her lips right next to his ear and whispered. “I… am blessed… by war.” Nyx felt the stabbing motion into his shoulder and opened his eyes. Instead of killing him, she had plunged what looked like a finger-sized stone into his shoulder. She then dropped the weapon she had stolen from him and walked away as if the fight was over.

Nyx snatched up the weapon she had discarded and raised it to swing but before he could complete the motion his chest filled with pain… pain like he had ever encountered before even when he had been alive.

“That gem in your arm is a bloodstone… it is mostly used as medicine since its properties cleanse the blood.” The pain spread out to Nyx’s entire body, the weapon fell from his numb fingers as he dropped to the ground clutching his knees to his chest in pain. “I always somewhat wondered what it would do to a vampire since you all claim vampirism as a disease… my first hope was that it would simply revoke you to your true age, turning to bone and dust to be scattered on the wind.”

“W-What have you done to me you little bitch?!” Nyx gasped, a loud thunk sounding in his ears, followed by another.

“That obviously isn’t what is happening. My guess now…” She looked at him with a small grin. “Is that it is ridding your body of the disease as we speak. Those pains in your chest… a heart and lungs trying to work again for the first time in ages, pumping blood through vessels that have done nothing much except gather dust for centuries.”

“You made me human?” The wounds Nyx had gained in the fight began bleeding actual blood, the magic keeping his body in a state of suspended animation so long vanishing as he spoke.

“Cured you, you mean, yes. If my guess is right, you could become a vampire once again… if you convinced the same sire to sire you once more, and spent the centuries gaining power again identically you still will not likely manifest the same powers over shadow you had.”

“Your Hunter killed my sire…” Nyx tried to get himself back to his feet, his eyes wide in panic. “You’ve destroyed me… why not just kill me?”

“Life fer a life makes sense… you tried to end thousands.” Lisa smiled to herself, feeling better as the adrenaline of the fight wore off. “Der’s no way ta balance that. Maybe this will at least balance the scales a little bit. Party on, Baldie!” Lisa flashed him a victory sign and went running off at full speed down the corridors, not even knowing where she was going.