[Center][color=#C70039][h3]~Isabella~[/h3][/color][/center] [hr] The blade struck true. The head of the cumbersome weapon slammed into the ceiling, immediately cracking the old ceiling. The rocks splintered and cracked, chunks of stone falling from the ceiling and falling to the floor. Success, then! Isabella only had a moment to take in her success as she felt something...change, inside of her. The sheer strength of the blow felt like it was sapping something...something important from inside of her. She had no idea what it was, but in the next instant all she could feel was pain. [color=#C70039]"Ah..."[/color] As the roof of the hallway began to collapse, the redhead swayed subtly where she stood. [color=#C70039]"Seems I've over exerted myself...heh..."[/color] She didn't even get to see the satisfaction of those cursed things be crushed by her actions. It used the rest of her strength merely to keep herself standing, legs shaking and breath ragged from the exertion as her entire world was engulfed with nothing but pain. Her vision blurred as the black corruption creeped down her arm like some sort of itch that wouldn't go away, mixing evenly with intense, mind numbing pain threatening to knock her unconscious. Her lugs felt like they were filled with something, something that forced the very breath out of her as though she were drowning. When the blade recoiled, the heavy thing returning to its master, she couldn't keep herself upright. She was knocked flat off her feet from the recoil, hands locked tightly around the weapons hilt as if it was the only thing keeping her alive at the moment. Isabella fell onto her side, barely able to move as she breathed, sweating from the exertion of merely attempting to be able to stay conscious. She could hear it though - the path began to crumble. Rocks fell, there were shouts from the blighted - the wails of the damned souls were like music to her ears. A small comfort in her current delirium. It sounded like some sort of sweet siren song as she focused on it, trying to at least keep herself conscious, even doing the smallest thing she could do to crawl out of the passages crumbling area but she couldn't force herself to keep moving. Whatever strength she summoned, came at a great price and she wasn't so foolish enough to attempt something like this again in her current condition. [i]"No! Catch them! Don't let the mark-bearers escap-"[/i] Isabella smirked, a pained grimace overcoming her features quickly as her entire body trembled lightly in pain. The pain itself, was intoxicating in a way, though. It at least let her know she was still indeed, alive and conscious. Heh, at least, in the end, she'd get the last laugh on these guys, if she was crushed. She laid there for a second - feeling something crawling on her leg as the ceiling collapsed...but passed it off as nothing more than pained delirium for now. It seemed though, fate once again deemed she would cheat death again. One of her comrades actually had half a mind to pull her out of this. In the back of her pain-wracked mind, she was incredibly grateful. Whoever it was, Isabella had determined to be the best one of the lot so far. All she could see, was a bright red light as she felt an arm slip around her waist, pull her to her shaking feet. She let herself be dragged by whoever this person was, doing her best to try and help them. Once she was finally released, and allowed to rest. She rolled over onto her back, pained, ragged breaths still coming from her lungs, though her vision had started to clear and she turned her eyes to look at whoever it was that had the decency to at least be more than half competent. [color=#C70039]"I...don't know who you are,"[/color] She wheezed out. The redhead didn't recognize this one. No matter she supposed. [color=#C70039]"Heh, but...thanks."[/color] She coughed, the creeping feeling on her arm causing her no small amount of discomfort. Now all that was left was for the others to deal with the other two...and they could finally get a move on. Maybe they would finally have [i]some[/i] respect for her opinion after this. Fools. The weighty sword in her hand was still being clung too as her body still shivered with pain. For a moment, she closed her eyes and just tried to steady her breathing.