The hundreds of portals which circled slowly around the masked assassin formed a dome over the three people on the rooftop. Renă readied her blades at her sides. Scarlett looked from left to right, she was completely surrounded by the things. The beastly Sander watched curiously from behind the knight.

“Sander, I’d suggest you get down,” Renă said with a flick of her white cloak.

Each second that passed the dome of portals shrank around Scarlett. She gritted her teeth, then looked to Renă.

“This can’t trap me, you know?”

Renă’s mask hid her grimace. Her ultimate skill had drained a lot of her energy. She doubted she’d be able to hold Stefan after this. She cursed his mind control and the damned Molniya Crystal he’d stolen from her queen.

“I’ll have to defeat you then.”

In a blur, Renă leapt through a newly opened portal. She emerged above Scarlett, her blades a flash as she struck. Before the blonde knight could respond, Renă rolled quickly through the air and back into another portal – only to reappear on Scarlett’s other side. From the outside it might be impossible to follow what was happening within. Renă came and went in seconds, slashing ferociously with her dual swords before disappearing again.

The technique was working. Scarlett grunted in pain with each attack. After enough pulverising, her armour was doing little to protect her. Pretty soon she was visibly worn – battered. She’d managed to deflect only a few of the attacks. She sank to one knee. Renă materialised outside her conjured dome of purple.

“Give up?”

Scarlett didn’t move. She was breathing heavily. There was no way she could still fight; was there? Then, the knight looked up at Renă with determination glaring in her eyes.

“LICHTSTRAHL RIESIGER ZERSTÖRENDER!”

A massive flash of green light. Renă covered her eyes. Shit, she didn’t think this bitch still had that much energy left in her. As the light faded, it was as the masked girl had feared. She dematerialised her portals, revealing a large hole in the rooftop surface where Scarlett had been just moments before.

Without a glimpse of hesitation Sander rushed over to the hole and jumped in after her. Renă sunk to the ground beside the cavity. Her muscles were screaming. Her stomach was churning. Her forehead was afire. As the tension of battle left her, she retched and collapsed onto her side, landing in her own sick. Her queen had warned against that technique. “It’s too dangerous”, she’d told Renă. And even after all that, it hadn’t been enough. Just who was this girl?

She rolled onto her back and gazed at the sky through bleary eyes. The clouds had all but cleared now, revealing the fading glimmer of the stars against the ever-lightening sky as the morning came.

Just as Renă thought she might pass out, out of the corner of one eye, she spied a red glint against the charred surface of the roof. It couldn’t be. Practically dragging herself, she made her way over to the object. Her eyes widened. It was the Molniya Crystal. She quickly snatched it up and hugged tightly to her chest. It must have been knocked from wherever Scarlett had been keeping it when she’d relentlessly attacked her. Renă grinned weakly. Her attack had been good for something after all.

---

I awoke in darkness, the smoky air rushing past me. In that moment, the world did not slow. As I later came to realise, I was falling headfirst down the moonlight carved shaft that Scarlett had blasted down the centre of the skyscraper. I was still in my third eye form. How was I conscious? Normally I had no recollection of what happened after I transformed until I awoke in my normal state again. Perhaps I’d gained some control over it. Either way, the regular me didn’t like the situation I had found myself in.

I braced myself. The impact with the ground was hard. I heard a crunch as I landed. The air in my lungs was punched from me. I gasped; then coughed; and a mix of spittle of blood spewed into the air from my mouth before landing in a gooey clump on my cheek. I almost wished I hadn’t regained consciousness. I reckon the other me would have landed more gracefully. At least this form seemed to absorb some of the force – I’m sure I would be dead, otherwise.

After some time, lying in pain on the concrete floor, I managed to sit upright. Around me it looked like a warzone – piles of rubble and jutting steel beams everywhere. My eyes slowly moved upward until I saw the pink of the sky far above me, many stories up. A perfectly circular hole had been carved all the way from the rooftop to the ground floor. The pale shards of light that meandered their way down to the bottom of the chasm made me realise that morning was approaching.

As my eyes descended, they fell upon a figure, lying atop some rubble a short distance away. Her eyes, still aglow a deep crimson, were fixed on me, but she didn’t look in any state to attack.

“Scarlett,” I said, rising to my feet with a grunt of effort.

I heard a low growl from her. It really pained me to see the Lunar Knight like this. I stumbled my way over to her side, the collapsed on the rubble beside her. I lay still. I could hear the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed – a bit softer than my own heavy breath. I was exhausted, physically and mentally.

“Scarlett, can you hear me?”

I got only an angry murmur in response. I sighed. It seemed she was still under the sandman’s control. I guess Renă hadn’t managed to pull off whatever plan she’d had.

“Look I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I’m glad –”

Suddenly, a purple glow appeared beside me. By the time I turned my head, the light had already dissipated. I pushed myself up into a sitting position and stared at her. She looked like she’d fallen asleep. Slowly, as the girl stirred back to consciousness, I noticed immediately that her eyes had returned to their usual piercing blue.

“Scarlett!”

I must have had an especially stupid grin just then, because as her eyes opened fully and she saw me staring down at her; Scarlett’s expression transformed into the, “What, are you an idiot or something?” face.