Jack began her onslaught of slashes, but each one would miss and strike the ground instead. And when they would strike true, Anne or Nina would deflect them at opportune times. Meanwhile, Kira would try to throw more daggers across the fields.

Mary charged in to deal with Kira as she seemed to be the weakest of the three. She readied her claws, but as soon as she would get close, Nina would jump in and strike at her.

Jack continued to flail her machete at Anne, but her steel gauntlets, strength, and speed was barely on par with Jack's. Kira stood in between Nina and Anne in the tight alley. Mary tried to set her aims towards the girl with daggers, but Nina would majestically swing her katanas and strike. Mary used her own claws to defend herself if she failed to evade.

Yune looked for an opportunity to throw in her hook, and when the time was right, she took it. She spun her hook-chain around and thrown it to the side of the walls. It bounced back and forth until it would reach her destination. She began to weave a web of chains to surround the three.

The three girls noticed and just by looking at each other, they were able to come up with a plan. Kira stood her ground, and Yune took the bait. With the flick of her hand, the hook-chain bounced off of a wall and towards Kira. As the hook approached her, Nina kicked up one of Kira's daggers and in an instant, a giant tree sprouted from. The tree pushed against the chain and altered the hook's course.

Yune felt stunned at their teamwork, but she was still confident that she could use it to her advantage. She looked at the trajection of her hook and it seemed to be aimed towards Anne.

Yune began to grin behind her white and black mask. But right before the hook would wrap itself around it's target, Jack swung her machete down to where Anne was. She quickly jumped out of the way of the ferocious attack, and the hook and chain wrapped itself around Jack's arm.

"Shit," Yune muttered and tried to unravel her chain, but it was too late to do anything.

Without even noticing Yune's hook and chain around her arm, she continued to flail her blazing blade at Anne.

Yune was quickly pulled along with Jack's rage. Yune screamed as she was dragged past the Mary and Nina, and started being tossed around. She hit and bounced off the walls like a pinball.

"Oh, this isn't good," Mary commented. But with fortunate luck, Mary was able to get a scratch on Nina, and overconfidence got to her. She continued to slash her way at Anne, and it looked like she was winning. Mary was able to gain some ground during her battle, but as soon as she saw Anne smile, Mary knew that something was wrong. She saw the smile of someone who was winning.

Mary looked down and saw an assortment of knives laying around. She remembered that she saw one of those knives turn into a tree, and they both knew that she was trapped where she was.

Mary quickly dashed back with intense speed right as vines with thorns grew from below. As some vines grew towards her, she quickly cut them down.

Mary took a step back to analyze the fight.

Jack continued her onslaught against Anne with little regard to anything else. She roared as smoke and flame rose from her armor. Meanwhile, Yune flung around trying to free herself from her own chain. Anne was able to defend herself and not lose any ground. Kira's daggers underneath Jack grew to vines and sharp branches, but Jack's flames would burn them up before they could reach her. Kira continued to lay her daggers around the alleyway, both on the floor and on the sides. Nina waited with two swords in hand to defend against Mary.

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"This battle is lost," Mary whispered to herself in disappointment. She looked behind her and noticed that she could run away, but as she looked back at Jack and Yune. She felt some gratitude towards them, but not enough to actually try to save them. The real reason she stood her ground was because she knew that Jack and Yune were the only ones she could trust while they were dark beings. She couldn't abandon these allies just yet, she thought, but they were still going to lose this fight.

She looked around for anything that she could use to get them all out of this fight. Mary looked at a black coin on the ground. The trash can that it laid on fell over during the fight. The coin was behind Jack, but Mary knew that calling Jack to help would be useless. Her mind is already gone elsewhere, she thought. And Yune was stuck with her own 'flailing-around' problems.

"Well, I guess it's all up to me," Mary said as she faced down Nina.

She sharpened her claws and charged forward with a grin - although nobody could see it.

As soon as Mary walked into a batch of fallen daggers, spiked branches began to grow, but she anticipated this. She jumped up as the branches formed a prison where Mary was. She leapt up using the branches as ground. She quickly passed by Yune who was still being tossed around.

Mary quickly said to her, "Don't worry. I have a plan." And then she gave a thumbs-up that she learned from school and a smile that only Yune could see.

Yune was in utter pain and was about to throw up in any second, but she saw and heard Mary. She gave a weak thumbs-up in response right before being slammed into a wall.

Kira was stunned in awe, but Nina jumped up to face her. Mary started using the daggers stuck to the wall as foot space as she kept moving, while Anne tried to follow. However, Mary's speed far outmatched Nina's.

"Kira!" Nina yelled and Kira awoke. Sharp branches and vines grew from the daggers all around the walls. Mary continued to dodge and evade every single one, all while cutting down the ones in her way. Kira used some of the branches to create a small cage around her for protection as she thought that Mary was going after her, but she ran right past her. Kira and Nina were both confused, and then realized that Mary was going after Anne.

The both yelled a warning towards Anne, but she was too preoccupied with her own fight. When Mary came down to strike at Anne, she blocked it with her steel gauntlets.

"Well, that's too bad. Thought, I could get at least one of you," Mary said and then took off. She ran past Anne and towards the black coin. Anne didn't know what she was after, but couldn't think about it while Jack's heavy machete came down at her. Nina was able to get near Anne, but couldn't progress further as Jack blocked the path.

Mary grabbed the black coin and yelled, "Shopkeep, Shopkeep! Get over here, you sad piece of garbage!"

"As usual, you are very rude," the shopkeep said as he appeared right in front of Mary as she blinked.

"The shopkeep? What do they want with him? Are they planning to use the coin for something, now?" Nina said in confusion, but they could do nothing to stop whatever Mary was planning. Yune was able to untangle her hook-chain around Jack's arm and freed herself. She jumped down besides Mary, and felt a dizzying headache.

Mary handed the black coin and ordered, "Get me, Jack, and Yune outta here!"

"Where?" the shopkeep asked.

Without thinking, Yune shouted, "Anywhere! Get us anywhere but here!"

"Wait! No!" Mary shouted in a panic.

And in an instant, the three girls began to fade into a bright light. Mary, Yune, and Jack all vanished from the alleyway.

Kira's vines and branches broke and faded away as the battle seemed to end.

Anne tried to relax and catch her breath, while Nina was contemplating on who those three Light Guardians were. They were familiar with the one with the hook-chain and the one with the machete, but they felt different than any actual Light Guardian. They felt more like a Night Demon, but not enough to actually feel a strong enough chill.

"They ran away," Anne said with an upbeat tone.

"They retreated," Nina replied.

"I hope we don't see them, again," Kira said, "They weren't a difficult bunch, but they are strong."

"Right. They are strong, but together we're stronger," Nina said to uplift their spirits, "C'mon. Let's go eat some cake to celebrate."

Anne sighed. "It's too bad that they got the coin. Oh, well. Unfortunately, I'm sure more of these monsters will pop up."

Nina looked up to the cloudy sky and said, "Yeah."

They all walked away from the alleyway, but none of them were in high spirits. They knew they were going to have to fight those three again, someday. But for now, they needed time to think. Think about their next move and figure out who those three Light Guardians were.

And those three guardians will return. That, they knew.