Renă hadn’t expected things to go the way they did. Sure, she knew Stefan would put up a fight when she caught up to him, but what she hadn’t counted on was him taking control of someone powerful enough to rival her. Her eyes narrowed. Just moments earlier a berserk Sander – the eye in the centre of his forehead wide and glistening – had leapt into the air to meet the encroaching Scarlett, his sword left behind on the ground below

As the two forces collided there was a resounding crash and their entangled bodies went careening off to one side and out of sight. Renă almost teleported after them but the masked assassin hesitated. Standing now on the rooftop, quiet but for the sounds of commotion in the city street far below her, she felt eyes on her neck. She turned and found herself face to face with her target.

“Seems like your plan to send him after me didn’t go so well, did it?” Stefan said.

Renă gritted her teeth. Something about this guy really infuriated her – always had. That thin, mocking smile set in his inhumanly pale face. She couldn’t stand the sight of it. Her grip on her blades tightened.

“Why so tense, blade of the queen? Does the sight of me strike a nerve? Does my existence bring your blood to the boil, ma chérie?”

“Shut it. I’m not here for your crap.” She approached him slowly, her weapons at her sides.

Stefan continued to smile. What was with him? Didn’t he realise in a mere matter of seconds she could teleport behind him and end his miserable life? Something was wrong. He was too confident. Surely, he knew he was no match for her?

“Ah, so you’ve realised,” he said.

Renă’s mind ticked over. “You don’t have it, do you?”

“Clever girl.”

Her eyes widened. She turned suddenly in the direction Scarlett and Sander had disappeared.

“You were never holding it on your person to keep control of her, were you?”

“How astute. You’d better hurry after them before your friend gets himself killed. Even I wouldn’t face that girl in a fair fight.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Renă replied with a flick of her hair, before rushing off without a glance back at him. Where the hell had they gone? She reached the roof’s edge and took a running jump off the edge. She didn’t look down, but she could hear some cries of astonishment from the street below. She landed gracefully on the next rooftop and didn’t waste a moment before dashing on.

Her eyes scanned the night-time horizon until her gaze fell upon a distant flash of green light. There. It was several blocks away. How had they gotten so far? Holding out one hand in front of herself she opened a portal and dove through it. The world around her became a spiral of colour for a few seconds before a rooftop battleground materialised around her.

The concrete underfoot was charred black by fire and cratered as though it had suffered the impact of a hundred small meteors. The two combatants stood several metres apart. They both looked worn out. Sander’s sleeves were torn, and the exposed flesh of his arms was marked with burns. He stood shakily, his pink eyes the only steady part of his figure as they remained fixed on the armoured girl before him.

The knight’s blonde locks clung to the skin of her forehead in sweaty clumps, casting a dark shadow that hid even her glowing eyes from view. Her armour was scuffed by what looked like animal claw marks and she rested on the hilt of her sword; the tip of her blade implanted in the ground.

Where was the Molniya Crystal hidden? It clearly wasn’t visible on her person. Damn, it might be under that armour. Renă snarled beneath her mask.

“Sorry Sander but your friend’s about to taste my blade.”

She rushed at the girl, her swords out to either side. Scarlett tensed and drew forth her blade. At the last possible moment, she raised it but Renă never had any intention of facing her opponent head on, she jumped to one side and opened a portal. In a fraction of a second, she emerged from the other side, right above her adversary’s head.

Gotcha. She bore down on Scarlett with both blades out in front of her. Just before she reached her target, however, the knight who looked like a sitting duck turned to face her with a malicious grin.

“Huh?” Renă hesitated.

Seizing the opportunity, Scarlett batted her with a broad sweep of her blade, sending Renă flying to one side. She tumbled backwards head over heel until she came to a skidding halt. Shit, she’d really felt that one. When she looked up Scarlett was running towards her. Seemingly she’d completely forgotten about Sander.

The knight was on her in seconds. She brought her blade down in a flash and Renă managed to dodge it by rolling out of the way by only a hair’s width. She brought it down again and again, a relentless attack that could only be fuelled by a person in a truly berserk state. As the sword came right at her face Renă open a portal on the ground beneath her and tumbled through it, landing hard on the other side of the rooftop.

Before Scarlett could pursue her, Sander was on her once again. Like a wild beast he tore at her armour with his bare hands. He was too close for Scarlett to use her sword, so she simply punched him in the face with a gauntleted fist.

Was there no beating this girl? She was truly a monster. They weren’t getting anywhere. And all the while as they were wearing themselves out, Stefan was simply watching from the side lines, laughing his vampiric ass off. The thought of it made Renă sick. She’d have to pull something drastic.

“Time for my special technique.” She put the ends of her two curves blades together, then pulled them apart, unveiling a shaft that turned the swords into a twin edged staff type weapon. She smirked beneath her mask.

“Hey, you blonde bitch!”

Scarlett and Sander turned their heads in unison towards her.

“How do you like this?” She thrust her staff into the air with one hand and cried, “SUTEDEUSI!”

All around the masked figure, her white cloak blowing out behind her in the night-time wind, there appeared an uncountable number of fuchsia portals.