The newly arrived warrior swung her dagger upwards, but was quickly met with Edward's sword, slashing horizontally in her way. She bent her body backwards with inhuman flexibility, smiling as the blade passed just above her face. She swung towards Ed with her other knife. He tried to block with his shield, but the woman was too fast, slashing deep across his shoulder.

Edward grimaced, feeling the cold metal split his muscle fibers, but still used the shield to bash the woman back. Hit off balance, she took a step back. Ed followed up by thrusting his blade towards her chest. The woman ducked under the weapon, and quickly brought up her daggers, leaving numerous wounds on the young warrior’s forearm. The young man pulled back his wounded arm, focusing on keeping his grip on the sword. He hid behind his shield, hearing multiple sounds of metal banging against its surface, he was about to announce the situation to his earpiece, only to find it gone, probably dropped during the confrontation. Keeping his arm close to the body, he waited for his healing to kick in, hoping it would be quick enough.

“Oh, does your arm hurt? You have to be careful where you try to put your hands boy, women don’t like that…”

Edward gritted his teeth, not amused by his opponents antics.

Finally his team made a move, under Julia’s lead they started firing at the woman. She squinted covering her face with her left hand, pausing the flurry of attacks for a moment. While her vision was reduced, Edward suddenly swung his sword from the woman’s blind side. His wounds already partially recovered allowed him to use his full strength, surprising the woman.

She barely managed to react, taking the blow onto the edge of her shoulder, a small stream of blood soaking the tight black bodysuit. Quickly recovering her stance, she started moving in a much more dynamic way, making it impossible to aim for her easily. The female warrior dashed from Edward’s right side to his left, staying low to the ground like an agile feline.

“I see you have some tricks as well… I thought I cut you pretty deep, how can you keep swinging that sword?”

She started circling Edward, looking for his blind spot.

“Hmm, a shield ability? Or some kind of recovery effect? Well I just have to make you bleed some more to find out!”

Ed tightened his body, ready for the assault, but suddenly, the woman leaned back, and as her feet slid on the ground, she changed her direction completely, lunging towards where Edward’s soldiers crouched on the ground.

“I got you bitch! You shouldn’t have meddled in my fun time!” The warrior thrust her dagger towards Julia’s throat. Edward immediately rushed behind her, but he seemed to be a couple steps too short.

Just as the blade approached Julia’s face, reflecting her eyes, wide open in fear, a larger figure jumped in front of the weapon. The rugged man received the cold dagger straight into his chest, the weapon submerging up to its hilt.

“No! Joseph!” a desperate scream filled the air.

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The soldier gasped for air, trying desperately to grab onto the opponent.

The woman simply kicked him to the ground, with a low grunt, recovering her curved blade from his body. She was about to swing once again, but that’s when Ed smacked into her, shield-first. The impact threw her off her feet, making her fall to the ground with Edward on top. Dropping his sword, he pinned down one of her hands to the ground, and covered the other with his shield, temporarily safe from the two daggers.

Team Echo rushed to administer aid to the wounded comrade, who desperately clung to life, struggling to breath, as blood filled his lungs.

The female warrior smiled sadistically, looking up straight into Edward’s blue eyes.

“Oh? If you wanted to lie down with me, you should’ve just asked…”

She swept the young man’s legs, rolling on the dirt with him, fighting for the position on the top. She managed to gain an upper hand for a moment, flashing a sly grin, only to get smacked by Edward’s tightened fist in response. She stumbled back, supporting herself on the ground with one hand, and wiping the blood from her nose with the other. Her chest started rising and falling in a hastened tempo. The woman looked at Edward, who calmly picked up his sword from a pile of leaves, and showing no signs of exhaustion, positioned himself between her and his team.

“You even have the stamina to keep up! That makes me even more excited…”

Edward grimaced at her expression, the blood flowing down her face made it seem more creepy than seductive.

She clearly didn’t like that reaction, jumping furiously with the daggers on both sides. The attacks came from the left, sometimes from the top, the pattern was too unpredictable. Ed blocked most of the strikes with his shield, and deflected others with his silver blade. Some attacks managed to get through, but the wounds weren’t serious enough to make him stop fighting. The damage would heal eventually, but his opponent was getting more and more tired.

Some of the slashes started getting sloppy and less precise. When the young warrior felt the opponents focus waning, he raised his shield seemingly a bit too high.

The woman fell right for it, quickly thrusting the dagger into his side, embedding the blade deep into his ribs. Ed grunted slightly, but grabbed her arm before she could pull out the dagger. He brought her closer, making her lose her balance, and for the first time flashed a smile of his own.

Before the slim warrior had the time to strike with her other arm, Edward’s glistening blade flashed through the air, piercing the woman’s chest straight through to the other side. In a desperate last effort, she stabbed her blade into his thigh, slipping down to the ground.

The young warrior fell to one knee, bending over the slender, dying body of his opponent. A quiet whimper of pain escaped his lips, and he rolled onto the ground, taking deep breaths.

It was difficult to inflict him a fatal wound, but these last two would definitely take a while to heal.

‘No, the battle’s not over yet. Marcus and Layla are still fighting…’

He struggled to get up from the ground, pulling out the dagger from his ribs, and then the other one from his thigh. A sharp pain pierced his body, the nervous system reacting to the stimulus.

Edward swept the ground, carefully looking for his lost earpiece, and when the reflection of light, from a polished black metal caught his eyes, he brought it to his ear.

*Edward? Ed? You there? What’s happening over there?*

He was just about to respond, when he heard his opponent take her last breath, and suddenly a familiar but unexpected voice echoed in his head.

[You’ve slain a powerful foe, and proved your legend superior…]

[Valhalla recognizes your feat…]