Wraith casually draws two serpentine daggers and holds them pointing outward. I activate my perception construct to lion's leap at him and stomp down to launch a heavy lion's slash that he blocks by crossing both weapons.

His barrier construct activates over his daggers, causing me to deactivate the sundering construct before it drains me of energy. I immediately follow up with a thin air-blade enhanced by kinetic force while preparing to front-kick with my back leg.

Wraith nimbly slithers to the right, avoiding both my attacks, and launches a rapid counter at my left thigh. I forcefully hack down at his forearm while the point of his dagger somehow sneaks past my stubbed leather skirt to impact my hard leather armor before he pulls back to barely avoid being hit.

The runic defenses of my armor block the armor-piercing construct he activated but the brief moment of contact drained ten whole portions from it. His speed matches Vikiana's when they fought in Meria, and he didn't come close to it back then.

Either he hid his strength or he's improved impossibly fast, or he's drugged. It could be that he's straining his body by pushing the lion constructs to the limit. I shape three air-needles behind him while swinging at his mid-section.

He blocks my weapon with both daggers again, which I feel is odd, but is surprised by the projectiles his barrier construct blocks so I manage to land a knee to his belly which I enhance with unstructured energy.

The thin layer of golden energy protects him once more but it fails to negate the entire strength behind the blow. The barrier flickers and Wraith's body is thrown a few centimeters off the ground.

I draw my leg in and throw a side-kick that impacts his lower-stomach before the barrier reactivates. As the killer flies at the back wall, I gather thirty portions to create an air-javelin construct that should shatter his defenses.

I gather blood in my palm for the point and harden air into the proper shape and instantly launch the projectile as Wraith slams into the wall. The air-javelin splits the distance within moments but a golden glow appears in the center of the room and my construct loses stability.

I use my knowledge of unstructured energy to fight the effect of this disruption construct and barely manage to keep it coherent thanks to the absolute control I have over my blood.

Unfortunately, Wraith isn't inside the disruption zone so his barrier construct reactivates. The javelin's tip pierces through his leather armor but the rest of the construct is blocked and shatters along with the golden shield.

Crack. A fissure appears in the wooden wall he impacted. I try to send the pin of blood into the man's heart but it is assaulted by Wraith's flow and obliterated. It is clear this lowlife engineered this moment to make me waste energy but he lost much more in the attempt than I did.

“How wrathful, here I was thinking we would enjoy a friendly bout and go our separate ways.” Wraith laughs as he recovers his aggressive stance.

“You're changing your story, getting nervous?” I question.

“Not at all, but this scene proves unsuitable to our fight.” He responds.

This kind of speech, he is most definitely not a common thug who rose under Roskal. Perhaps some bastard or high born even Nobility cannot tolerate. It matters not, they all die the same in the end.

Wraith extends his left arm out and moves in with a lion step to thrust with his right dagger. I pull back my blade to launch a hacking blow but notice a hazy veil of golden energy creeping up on the sharp weapons.

I decide to switch to a defensive construct on my broadsword and block. As soon as my weapon touches his right dagger, both serpentine blades burst into crackling blue flames.

Wraith's stance switches, warning me of an incoming thrust from his left so I pressure his right to take advantage of the switch. His arm gives out almost immediately, his resistance far weaker than it should be even if he expected me to focus on the incoming blow.

Before the point of his left dagger even reaches my torso, he has to draw back to slam it into my broadsword's guard to protect himself which shows he is wary of relying too much on the barrier construct.

He leaps back in retreat with his chin lowered in dejection. This reaction leads me to recall that this lowlife was injured by Vikiana so I lion's leap after him to strike out towards his right shoulder to confirm.

He pulls back to protect it and then the flames on his weapons grow weaker. I've seen his other torch constructs and know they can last much longer and know he doesn't lack flow so I conclude Wraith's weapons can't sustain this heat.

I thus pressure him more, forcing him to keep using them to threaten me in kind or risk allowing me to use another construct than the defensive one of my weapon.

It takes a dozen furious exchanges but I manage to land a blow on his left knee which the barrier construct easily blocks. Wraith's head makes small movements to the right and left, instinctively looking for a way to escape.

He likely realizes he is outmatched against me as he was against Vikiana. I raise my guard for a trick as I parry another two swipes of his blazing daggers with a single swipe of my own.

When our blades impact, a dozen tiny droplets of crackling red flames separate from the blue blazes to rain down on me. Surprised, I pull back my arm to protect myself even though my armor would block most.

The molten metal hits the back of my hand, arm-guard, and cuirass, causing me to let out a painful groan. Wraith makes use of the opening to swipe at my legs. His foot hits the back of my knee and I drop down as his left dagger pierces down towards the very base of my shoulder while the flames covering it intensify.

There is every chance it'll punch through the cuirass and cripple me if it hits so I focus my defensive construct entirely on the thicker steel of my helmet as I angle my head to block it.

The blaze fails to overwhelm my runic defensive construct but it breaks when the dagger itself comes into contact because the sheath of crackling blue flames is concealing an armor-piercing construct fueled by several dozen portions of flow.

I snap my head back as the point shears through the steel, saving my skull but allowing the serpentine blade to cut down towards my face. I feel it cut through the skin of my forehead with a scorching sensation and desperately make use of unstructured flow to redirect the kinetic force of his blow.

Wraith somehow manages to fight it with a burst of flow, likely making use of the kinetic segments integral to his torch construct. The sharp weapon cuts above and bellow my right eye before I manage to completely stop it.

Ironically, the twisted nature of the blade means it didn't stay in contact long enough to slice my eyeball even though it did touch my eyelid. Furious, I launch a backhanded blow with everything I have.

My blade, enhanced both by a sundering construct and kinetic force, slices towards the contemptible killer but he began dodging even as he struck me so the point of my weapon barely manages to touch and shatter his barrier once again without inflicting more than a light cut on his thighs.

I leap straight at him without bothering to get back on my feet but he nimbly dances away from me with his arms spread wide in provocation. Liz' temper flares from frustration and she tries to seize control to break the entire room.

I'm forced to stop chasing to retain prominence, fighting her with thoughts and no words. What settles it in the end are the feelings we hold for Yvonne and the fact that letting loose with the quantity of energy we have access to will likely result in her dying from collateral damage.

“So close.” Wraith laments provocatively. “My contract demands I take either eyes or fingers. We like to call this a mutilation clause in our work.”

“You stoop so low as provocations? Lost your confidence you could handle me, have you?” I return between grit teeth as a familiar burning pain makes the right side of my face tighten.

“Killing you would be simplicity itself but clients are fickle creatures.” He responds evenly.

“You care none for Roskal's aims. If you could kill me, you would, coward.” I absentmindedly return as I analyze how to reach this slippery foe and purge it from the world.

Just, let, me, break, his, knees. Liz pressures me to launch at the man so I do with a wide horizontal slash that he dodges by spinning away while his left dagger yanks out with a speed of a viper to strike towards my wrist.

I barely manage to twist my arm to avoid getting hit and decide to ignore my sister to reactivate my defensive construct. No wonder Vikiana chose an exchange of technique rather than relying on her speedy strikes to end him.

His reflexes, acute senses, and footwork make it difficult to pin-point his next move which means she could've died to one of these snap-counters if she misread him.

Yet, despite knowing this and my irregular heartbeat, I feel insanity creeping and begin considering taking a wound to slaughter the man. I gather most of my flow, a hundred portions, to spread it out in the room to crush the man with kinetic force.

“No, this is ugly! It is unworthy of us, Freepath!” Wraith explodes and I feel his energy pressure mine back.

“Afraid?” We taunt.

“Worthless!” He continues. “You've turned a fight for survival into a childish contest! See if I can't end it!”

His flow attacks and I feel it is twice as intensely concentrated as mine, forcing me to initiate a barrage of kinetic bursts that force him to defend his body rather than fight for control of the area.

I hear him grunt and groan from effort but no more than that when the force I used should have been enough to shatter the barriers he's so far used. It seems he's invested everything into maintaining it this time.

Since he cannot attack, I move in towards the vague but intense golden shape made by my flow battling his defenses. Wraith does his best but he is consuming far more energy than I am.

“Indeed, I am seeing that you cannot end it.” Liz chortles as we step forth.

“There will be a next time, be prepared for it!” Wraith responds with a scream.

Runes appear on the room's walls and trigger to create bright red flames that immediately start eating at the wood. I scowl but ignore them because revenge matters more to me than a fire right now.

Yet, Wraith's shape and energy fades before I reach him. I'm left stunned and alone in the burning room without a clue of what he did. I recover my energy but find no obvious path he could have used to escape.

I decide to break the wall he had his back to since it's the only thing I had no line of sight on when he disappeared. The wood cracks to reveal a second room with a door slowly closing on its hinges.

I launch at it but the hallway before me is deserted and on fire. I find no signs of Wraith or where he went, knowing I can't just pick a random direction in the hallway since he could have entered a room and jumped out the window.

“Rhaa!” We scream in anger as we jam our weapon back in its sheath because we have to deal with the fire before it eats the inn and kills Yvonne.

I deploy my energy and smother these flames before rushing back in the previous room to extinguish this fire. Then, I check the damage from the other fight but find that the fire didn't take on the lacquered wood.

I rush to one of the windows and kick the flaps open to check down the street only to find a squad of Hospitaliers approaching with Leomi in the lead. The golden jay on her shoulder makes my stomach twist because I had hoped it would be with Yvonne.

Its tiny head is hung down and we can't help but think it looks depressed, leading us to think something terrible happened. We turn back and run downstairs to the first floor to hurriedly look for Yvonne.

I find the body of someone who could be the owner impaled onto a turned over table by a chair's foot that was sharpened on the spot, leaving chips of wood. His face is unrecognizable as it was cut into ribbons.

I've seen and done much worse horrors so I take this in stride but the fact Yvonne could have suffered the same fate makes me sick as I may have allowed her murderer to escape while she laid in a pool of her own blood.

I keep searching and searching but find naught on the ground floor. I decide to rush back upstairs when I hear the front-door be forced open, considering Leomi and her people can clear the spots I missed.

I sprint up to the third floor which I can't recall if I explored or not but am forced to stop and lay my hand on a wall to breathe because of stretching, pinching, pain in my chest.

After a moment, I begin throwing doors open and calling for Yvonne until I hear a weak groan coming from the attic. I hurriedly go up and find her lying semi-unconscious on her belly behind an old cupboard.

She was cut across her entire back and has several dozen scratches, deep and shallow, from spiked maces that barely missed her along with a huge collection of bruises all over her and a black eye.

It looks like she tumbled down a flight of stairs despite her having found a place to hide up here. I first apply healing constructs before picking her up and checking her front. Her dress was ripped up but she has no life-threatening injuries beyond the quantity of blood she lost.

“Up here!” I call for Lance.

The jay rises from the ground moments later and lands atop of my half-shoulder. I feel a tingle where it presses its small wing and beak on my cheek, seemingly looking for comfort.

“Get Lance.” I tell it.

It nods and immediately nosedives back down through the floorboards. It hits me that Wraith likely knew of her state despite losing her, it means he spoke to lead me to think she's dead or alive rather than realize her time was limited, and then he delayed me to ensure she bled out.

Leomi arrives within tens of seconds, flanked by Uhla and an elder man I've not seen before. They hurriedly push us two away to start patching Yvonne up. Lance notices the new wound across my right eye and drags me further away.

“How are you?” She questions with a tight expression.

“Fine, mostly, Wraith was slippery enough to engage. I never had an opportunity to fight as hard as I could.” I grunt. “Looks like you had the same premonition, what took you so long?” I question out of anxiety for Yvonne.

“I was called on a last-minute meeting with a Noble house's highest titled member.” She seethes with a furious expression that undermines the reproach I would otherwise make. “And I didn't have a premonition, I figured it out.”

“Explain.” I utter.

“Wraith was told of the contents of Mother and Yvonne's conversation in Izla Meria, his goal was to kill my sword-sworn they saw as a conciliator between me and Elizabeth Vil.” Leomi explains with paling cheeks that grow to match her hair. “It wasn't a big leap to realize they wanted to eliminate those that kept Elizabeth Vil tied to me, cause a schism within Izla Meria.”

“I don't get it, they spoke of me no?” I question. “Why would they...” I trail off.

“They spoke of Elizabeth Vil by name.” Leomi corrects. “But now that you've become a threat that looms on them as heavily as she did, they had double the reasons to eliminate her.”

“Hrm.” We growl. “Roskal must die.”

“...” Leomi opens her mouth but not a sound comes out. I narrow my eyes and reach for my broadsword's handle. “You intend to make me act out of emotion by acting emotionally?” She questions with a mean tone.

I freeze, stunned as I recall how I struck her from anger back at my room after she tried to blow off the servant that disturbed us. With what she told me, I don't even need to ask to know Leomi was subjected to schemes of disinformation to damage our relationship to her.

“I shouldn't have... I... I'm...” I stutter.

“Jess, do what Liz does and forget about it.” Leomi berates with a very slight corner smile.

“But...” I start.

“How about you hit me?” She cuts me off to offer.

“What? No.” I blink in confusion.

“Hit me! Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!” Lance presses.

“No!” I snap at her with a glare because I'm still worried for Yvonne.

“Why?” She asks.

“Because I don't want to.” I respond to put an end to this stupidity.

“Of course you don't.” Leomi repeats with a soft expression. “You're not me so stop brooding over it. How often have I mistreated you only to be forgiven with barely a thought on your part? Forget it.”

Her serenity over this makes me doubt my memory of what she was doing immediately after the fight in her room at the Imperia Hotel. Even with the discovery of the scheme directly aimed at our personal relationship, Leomi shouldn't be so even-minded about what I did.

“How many tables and chairs did you break?” I ask.

“All of them, including the cupboards, I had to change room because of the splinters.” Lance admits, looking away in embarrassment. “It looks like Yvonne is alright. Let's talk to her before we decide how we respond to this, okay?”

“Agreed.” I utter with a somber voice.

Leomi utters her next words with somber, blood-thirsty, expression.

“Trust me, our revenge will be comprehensive.”

– Arc 04 End –