While Rhea and Row race down the hill to save Lucerna, the Kotka is still engaged in battle with Fujiko. At this moment, with her exhaustion rising, muscles straining, and heavy breathing, Lucerna is fighting for her life. She is down to one knife and can barely dodge the incoming attacks against an angry Fujiko. Despite her provocation from Lucerna, her fury did not muddle her skill, and it appeared that she was performing better than before.

WOOSH! WOOSH! WOOF! THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!

Her attacks sped up, and her strikes felt fiercer. When Lucerna barely dodges Fujiko’s stabs, she can hear her rapier cutting through the wind, the speed of the strike, etching a bit of fear into her heart. It didn’t take long for Lucerna’s parrying to devolve into strictly dodging. As she dodges, she can see Fujiko’s eyes are somehow blended with both intensity and concentration. Lucerna began to worry. 

This is bad… This is really bad! Fujiko’s really pissed off! I was surprised I was able to stand toe-to-toe with her earlier, but the moment she gets mad, it feels like she’s a totally different person! I’m starting to feel outclassed! I need to find a way to break the distance and flee for a moment!

Fujiko reels her arm back and strikes with lightning speed, almost catching Lucerna off guard. To the surrounding spectators, it looked as though Fujiko landed a clean blow. Both women freeze in place, thinking they’ve made contact with one another. Fujiko’s henchmen pumped their fists in the air and cheered. 

“Got her!” 

However, upon closer inspection, it was clear that the attack barely grazed her. The rapier skimmed across Lucerna’s white crop top, grazing her dark skin, the wound trickling a bit of blood. The henchmen’s morale dropped significantly, their bodies slumping with disappointment. 

“We should stop getting so excited…”

“Indeed,” another henchman nods, still observing the battle. “Besides, it’s been some time since we’ve seen Fujiko move like this. She’s really taking this Kotka seriously. It’s only a matter of time before her opponent falls…”  

Lucerna and Fujiko notice the killing blow failed to land, and immediately Fujiko goes for a horizontal slash, but Lucerna instantly drops to the ground in a bridge position, dodging the attack, then kicking up Fujiko’s rapier. The sword flies vertically in the air, and without a weapon, Lucerna goes on the offensive. 

The Kotka dealt what she could with a single knife, but without two daggers, she was unable to match the speed that kept the two at a relative stalemate, making Lucerna’s attacks quite predictable. During Fujiko’s easy dance of dodges, her fury began to subside, and she began laughing maniacally. 

“HAHAHAHA! I knew it! You proved to be a decent challenge, Kotka, but I knew you never held a candle to me! You’ve all but lost!”

“I’ve lost?!” Lucerna questions between breaths and slashes. “Yeah, right! You’re the one who doesn’t have a weapon anymore, from where I’m looking, it’s only a matter of time before your life is in my hands.”

“I beg to differ my dear, sweet, feline! You should try and broaden your perspective!”

Woosh-woosh-woosh-woosh-woosh.

As the women were bantering the flying rapier began to plummet back to the ground. Fujiko waits patiently, goading Lucerna with superficial taunts that manage to irk the young Kotka. The woman waits patiently for the weapon to fall closer, until eventually…

Twitch

Her body senses the approaching danger of a falling sharp object. She times the moment well. Time felt as though it went to a crawl, as Fujiko times the falling weapon elegantly with Lucerna’s coinciding strike. At just the right time, Fujiko dodges Lucerna’s thrust with a spin, catches her weapon cleanly in her hand, and delivers a vital blow. 

STAB

Game set. Fujiko lands a clean thrust near the lower part of Lucerna’s stomach. The pain surges through the Kotka's body and drives her to a screeching halt. In utter shock, her body violently shakes when she takes a step back, and Lucerna involuntarily drops her knife. Her quivering eyes aim from Fujiko’s weapon piercing her body to the distorted, wicked grin, uttering her victory in a sing-song voice. 

“Got yoooou!”  

Shwick!

Fujiko pulls her rapier back, and Lucerna stumbles backward before falling to the ground. The cheers of her henchmen were heard through Lucerna’s muffled ears as her hazy eyes shifted toward her wound oozing blood. Darkness looms over her body in the form of Fujiko. She holds her rapier vertically downward, ready to pierce Lucerna once more while offering a wicked smile. Still offering a vile smile. 

“I’ll give you credit where credit is due. I broke a sweat or two fighting you, Kotka. And for that, you could barely muster a shred of my respect. Consider it one of the highest regards in Ziemia. Too bad you couldn’t be a part of my crew, I could always use a woman of your skill. But, if you cross the Fujiko Gang, then you’re not smart enough to be left alive.”

Fujiko raises her weapon, causing the fallen woman to wince, preparing for the worst. 

“Goodbye.”

“FUJIKOOOOOOOOO!!!”

A blood-curdling cry breaks the bunny woman’s concentration. She turns her head and sees Row in a frenzy, rushing down the hill with staff in hand. Rhea followed quickly behind him, but his blind fury carried him into battle with great speed, nearly giving him tunnel vision against the seven-foot-tall woman. 

“Who the hell is that?” Fujiko murmured. 

Not minding the Kotka, she squints to get a clearer picture of the woman behind him. 

A Kotka and… a Human…?

Rhea examines the battleground, and she sees the dead army of henchmen and Kotka scattered about. Immediately, she got cold feet, as fear encapsulated her body, sticking her straight to the ground. However, she instantly breaks free from her petrification, as she sees Fujiko standing before Lucerna.

“LU!” 

Rhea calls out to her. Lucerna turns her head, barely able to make out the figures in the distance. 

“R-... Rhea…? R-... Row…?” 

 Rhea gains the courage to assist her friend and dives headlong into the danger. The woman sees Row continuously running forward, and to his right, Fujiko’s men are drawing their weapons. 

“ROW! TO YOUR RIGHT! WATCH OUT!”

Rhea’s call suddenly breaks his concentration. He turns his head to the right and sees a small mob fast approaching.

Row takes the Shifting Arm and crashes the bottom of it into the ground. Through some method or another, the staff begins to charge. He held it tightly in her hand and could feel it getting hotter, dangerously hotter. So much so, that he could feel his skin starting to burn. 

“Grrghk…! Rrrrgh!” 

He grinds his sharp teeth, trying to hold onto the staff, but it is too hot for the crafter and he suddenly drops the staff on the ground. 

“ARGH!” 

Row pulls back his hand and the staff crashes onto the floor, aiming at the incoming henchmen.  

POOM

Out of nowhere, the moment the staff collides with the ground, a spell spills from the tip of the weapon. It travels swiftly across the ground in the form of fire. It moves so fast, that Fujiko’s men are unable to react, and are suddenly engulfed in flames. 

“AAAAH! AAAAAH! GAAAAAH!”

Their bodies are being cooked alive, and in that chaos, they either burn up, or some of them have the sudden idea to run to the pier, jumping into the sea. Rhea is shaken in her boots, looking at the staff, then back at the dying men. Fujiko, too, witnesses the act from afar and is shocked. 

A-A Shifting Arm?! Where did they get that?!

Fujiko lowered her head and ground her teeth. 

This could get pretty bad. Never mind how they even ran into a weapon like that, if I don’t know how that weapon functions and what it does, then I’m in deep trouble. What do I do? Do I stand my ground? Or retreat…?

Lucerna can see the growing trepidation blossoming on Fujiko’s weapon. She holds her wound while laughing weakly. 

“Hahaha… What's wrong, Fuji…? Getting cold feet? If you think you’re so skilled, then you can fight those two no problem… right?”

Fujiko easily falls into the pitfall of Lucerna’s goading. She looks over at the wounded Kotka and scoffs. 

“Quiet, Kotka. I’ll soon have them lying on the floor just like you.”  

Rhea shakes herself out of her nervous trance and runs over to Row’s aid, placing a hand on his shoulder. 

“Are you alright, Row?”

“I-I’m fine… I thought the staff was supposed to shoot out lightning. Why is it shooting fire?” 

Rhea stammers. 

“I… I don’t know.” 

Rhea reaches for the staff, but Row warns her. 

“Don’t pick it up! It’s hot!”

It’s too late, Rhea grabs the staff, she can feel the heat across the rod. Albeit a bit uncomfortable, she can wield the staff.

Woooah… Row was right. This thing is pretty hot. I’ve touched a lot of hot things when I used to be in the kitchen, and this feels close to forty-four degrees Celsius. Luckily my body is used to higher temperatures like these. Any hotter and I may end up burning myself. 

Row is looking at Rhea, surprised. 

“Y-you’re holding it!”

“Y-yeah…”

“Try using the staff, then. Our target…” 

Row stares daggers at the tall dark woman at the pier. He utters her name with such disdain. 

“...Fujiko Yuuma…” 

Rhea raises her head. Fujiko has shifted priorities, eyeing down the woman and Kotka standing atop the steep hill. 

“Let’s go save, Lu.”

Row pops out his claws and takes a stance. 

“Fujiko’s goin’ down!”