“Stena. I’m going to try something. Cover me and attack when you see the opening.”

It may not have been something she said - or even thought about - often, but Stena really did trust her older sister. Maybe not to the same level as their mothers, but she felt like she trusted Cierra more than just about anyone else outside of Emery, Avuri, and perhaps Vale.

When Cierra told her to guard her and watch for an opening, she did exactly that. She pulled her sword back and prepared to defend Cierra during whatever it was that she had planned.

She held back to defend when Cierra’s next attack clashed with Leon’s flames. She continued to watch, ready for anything when Cierra abandoned her attack in favor of building up a new one. And even still when Cierra - acting against her own previous instructions - charged in the wake of her attack.

Stena immediately followed her sister with her sword. It needed to be nearby to fend off any attacks at a moment's notice. When Cierra’s newest dragon opened its maw and simply devoured the flame that was sent to combat it, Stena hesitated; but when she saw Leon struggle to keep up his defense, she transitioned to watching for an opening rather than defending her sister.

She knew her choice was correct when Cierra’s technique fought through Leon’s flames and bit down on his arm, Signal Fire and all. The man screamed, and Stena poised her blade to strike. As soon as an opening presented itself -

When she saw Cierra step well within Leon’s guard, she knew what it meant. His Domain had fallen. They had no means to truly confine it, but for the moment, it was gone. Stena immediately pushed her blade forward as fast as she could make it travel, seeing the opening.

She didn’t stop, even when the solid crack of contact echoed around the area. It was a solid hit, and Leon spun backward. She couldn’t direct her sword nearly as precisely as her mother could, but she could still make sure she took advantage of the opening that Cierra gave her.

Stena’s wind Qi dispersed as it collided with Leon’s body - but her sword, moving at the speed it was, still struck home. Stena wasn’t close enough to hear it, but she could easily imagine the satisfying slicking sound of the blade sliding into flesh. She watched as it tore through Leon’s left thigh, digging through all the way to the hilt.

Leon stumbled and fell, driven backward by the force of Cierra’s slap. The left side of his face, which had been hit, was torn up and incredibly bloody. Cierra must’ve been feeling particularly mean to make the ice jagged like that. She had done it once during practice, and it had absolutely torn up Stena’s leg. It was incredibly painful because the ice wasn’t exactly sharp, so the cuts were uneven and more like rips.

Stena reached out with her wind Qi to quickly pull her blade back. Under her command, it tore free of his leg, leaving a pretty nasty wound where it struck. It probably wasn’t life-threatening, especially for a Cultivator, but it would hopefully at least be irritating if not debilitating.

As Stena was preparing for the continuation of the fight, she saw Cierra sag. She was still standing, and unharmed, but clearly not in fighting shape after the last attack. Stena nearly froze up in horror as Leon was recovering quickly enough that he could feasibly strike her sister. She managed to sweep Cierra completely off her feet with a huge burst of wind Qi, sending her flying back to land ungracefully beside Stena.

There was a huge blast of flame and scorched the area where Cierra had been standing. The blast was larger than most of the attacks so far, and it carved a swath through the trees, lighting a whole slew of them on fire. Bushes and other plants caught aflame, too. Stena could only be relieved that the attack hadn’t been aimed at any of her hidden siblings.

She swallowed thickly as she watched Leon stand. He was favoring his injured leg, but it didn’t seem to be as much of a hindrance as she had hoped. She knew that Cultivators could take wounds like that and still function so long as they didn’t hit anything vital. Evidently, slicing through thigh muscle and bone wasn’t enough to cause any real lasting damage.

Stena called her sword back to hover by her shoulder, not that it would do any good against another attack on the scale of the last one.

Leon held the left side of his face with one hand angrily, both eyes absolutely blazing with hate. Stena wanted to sigh; even Cierra’s blow to his face was pretty ineffective, despite causing a good amount of cosmetic damage. Unfortunately, it was just that - cosmetic. Leon was bleeding a lot, but not nearly enough to end this fight before he could roast the two of them alive.

Cierra struggled to her feet beside Stena as Leon recreated his flame whip in his right hand.

“How are you doing?”

“I’m hanging in there. I can’t do it again, but the one slap was worth it.” Cierra bit out.

“Well, good for you. Now what?” Stena said, a little heat making it into her words. “You were our best fighter, dumbass.”

“Not strictly true.” Cierra said, finally standing upright. “You’re better.”

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Leon’s whip struck out at the two of them, sweeping toward them horizontally. Both women ducked and spun backward, letting the searing whip pass overhead. The heat was close enough to still singe their hair. It smelled awful.

“I wanted to take at least one of you as a hostage!” Leon yelled. “But maybe it would be better to maim you both first. You just need to be alive, not unhurt.” What followed was the kind of laugh that Stena pictured coming from actual villains in picture books as a kid.

“Shit, Cierra.” Stena muttered. “Sure, I’m better. In close quarters combat. His Domain makes that a tad difficult.”

“Leon’s powerful, but not well trained or disciplined. We can win this.”

Leon’s whip struck out at Stena this time. She managed to dance around it as it cracked loudly right beside her. She was sure if it had hit, she would’ve been out of the fight entirely. The air itself hissed as the whip ignited flames where it struck.

“He’s not good at maintaining his Domain. Obviously some pain was enough to shut him down before, but I think a good scare would even be enough.” Cierra continued. “Right before I struck him, he looked genuinely terrified of being hit. I’ve never seen that look on a Cultivator’s face before. He’s mentally weak.”

Another strike, this time aimed at Cierra. She sidestepped it while throwing out a short burst of Qi to force the attack a little further off course. She avoided the attack, but cursed under her breath. “Remind me to not use Qi for a bit.”

Stena let out a frustrated growl, and snatched her weapon out of the air. The grip felt so perfect in her hand that it actually calmed her. Her fingers tightened around it and she took a deep breath. “Fine. What do we do?”

“We use our trump cards and overwhelm him fast. After the initial strike, we don’t let up. And you’re going to ruin him.” Cierra said.

Stena turned to look at her sister for just a moment in disbelief. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope. Connect me with the others. We can actually do this.”

When Leon lashed out again, aiming to hit Cierra, she dodged the attack but stumbled. She fell squarely on her ass and needed to use her hands to catch herself. She shouted “Go!” as she landed and spun to face him. Leon immediately twisted his wrist and snapped the whip to make a follow up strike while she was clearly defenseless.

Stena darted forward, but Leon focused on Cierra for the moment. He wouldn’t let her escape this time. The whip coiled back on itself, following his wrist movements, before he cracked it out toward her again.

He knew that Cierra had mostly exhausted herself just to slap him earlier; he could feel that. And Stena was running toward him, utilizing her wind Qi for speed. Nothing so far had shown that she would be capable of splitting her concentration to deflect the blow for her sister. He had her.

When a huge stone slab shot up out of the ground to intercept the whip midway to its target, Leon was flummoxed. Not only did the stone stop the blow, but it had stopped the whip from cracking correctly, which killed the momentum and power of the attack, too.

And then Leon felt his footing move. Stone pillars rose beneath him, at different speeds, completely destroying his footing. He stumbled back, away from the suddenly moving ground while frantically casting out his senses for whoever or whatever was attacking. He was interrupted, however, when a pillar of stone erupted from the ground and surged toward his face.

The whip was less than useless at defending from close range attacks, and Leon knew that his Domain wouldn’t melt the stone fast enough to stop this attack in time - it was simply too much mass. Instead, he intercepted the bludgeon with his arm. The blow knocked him back, but it wasn’t strong enough to truly damage him, nor really cause too much trouble. It was clearly an Earth Realm technique.

“Ha! As if that’s enough!” He said, then kicked the pillar. It basically shattered. But as he lifted his leg to kick, the earth user lifted another pillar under his leg that was holding him up. His bad leg, no less. The force of the surging ground was enough to buckle his bad leg under him, and he toppled.

As he fell, he twisted to reorient himself so he could catch himself with his free hand and recover.

“Don’t stop! Keep pushing!” Cierra’s shouting cut through the din of the suddenly vicious exchange.

Leon caught himself and spun to get back to his feet only to see a wall falling at him - and quickly. It took him only a moment to realize that it was a huge mass of water coming toward him; he immediately pushed more Qi into his Domain and focused entirely on the water and heating it up.

The whole mass immediately evaporated into steam. There was a loud hissing sound as the huge amount of water was burned away.

Leon felt another pillar of stone impact his back. It didn’t hurt badly, but it was annoying. He immediately transitioned to focusing entirely on searching the nearby area for the damn earth Qi user.

That was when pain erupted from his right shoulder. Leon’s mind nearly shut down. Everything went momentarily white with the pain.

Stena moved in within that same instant when Leon’s Domain blinked out. She grasped the handle of her sword - which she had thrown as hard as she could from beyond Leon’s Domain - and ripped it from his shoulder. It wasn’t a clean draw, either; she ripped it out to the side, tearing Leon’s entire right arm free of his body.

He screamed as his techniques died. His fire whip clunked to the ground and puffed away to smoke alongside the detached appendage.

Stena didn’t stop there. Not giving the bastard any time to recover, she immediately drew the blade back over her head and swung in a matching slice against Leon’s other side. His left arm joined his right on the ground. Stena spun away, drawing the sword back, and kicked Leon square in the stomach to knock him on his back.

In the same motion, she knelt atop him, one knee pushing painfully into his chest, with her sword’s point directly above his heart. Just for good measure, she grabbed his neck with her off-hand and squeezed just enough to send a message.

“This is bullshit! I have a Domain!” Leon squeaked out, despite his still blurry vision thanks to the pain.

“Unfortunately for you,” Stena said angrily, “I guess we’re just better.”