“Enough of this. Kill her-” he ordered the flying insect.

A crackle of noise escape the creature which then began to hover forward. Elise whipped her sword around. Her right foot out and her right arm extended, her left arm pulled back with sword in hand. In some capacity it was as if holding a bow with her right and a large arrow with her left.

Her left foot jumped and forward she shot, thrusting with her rapier. The insect stung; though she shifted to the side as her thrust slammed into the creature’s abdomen. The jab did nothing but as she swung up she clipped through the wing nearest her, dropping the wasp creature. It crashed while she charged ahead.

The masked man readied his dagger again and dove in. A brief exchange, their weapons smacking against each other. His obsidian blade held while her rapier weaved. The flick of her wrist, the swing of his arms wide.

She thrust at him. His right hand swung out for the blade.

Clap

His hand wrapped round, not the cold metal of her blade, but instead the soft flesh of her wrist. He blinked, vaguely visible behind the mask. Her right hand had swung out, arm extended. Her left had pulled back.

He blinked again, staring… thrust.

The splash of blood, his grip on her wrist releasing. The obsidian dagger swung down right into Elise’s shoulder, her own blood spilling out; though she back pedaled at once. The rapier ripped from the masked man’s gut and his dagger carved through her shoulder without going deep. He stumbled, free hand moving to his abdomen.

“I see- I see child,” he growled, “Excellent work indeed!”

His attention shifted slightly, out beyond Elise in that moment. His eyes with a bit of a faint glow to them. The unseen smirk likely present, given the gleam of those eyes. The amusement behind his saunter.

The obsidian dagger dropped to the ground, his right hand reaching up as his left continued to hold his wound. The loud buzzing of an insect filled the space, the wasp flashing passed Elise. His hand grabbed hold of one of its long legs, whisking him away. He flew, carried really, looking back at her as the bug cleared off over the tree line.

She stared up with a hint of shock. Behind her the Scorupi Mamba cleared way, while she herself stared as he vanished beyond sight. Blood dripped from her shoulder as it did her rapier. From there her eyes drifted down.

The unmoving bodies of both of her pupils, blood still trickling from the gut wound delivered to Thomas… and a very faint leakage from Destiny’s throat. She staggered forward a few paces, dropping to her knees not a moment later and slumped. The winds around them warped with ferocity for only a few moments. And from the forest around them the crackle of branches, breaking and passing aside as something moved through.