[h1][center][color=9e0b0f]Lavinia[/color][/center][/h1][color=9e0b0f]”HA! HA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAH!”[/color]

Taking full advantage of the two S-Class mages’ efforts, Lavinia set about her murderous business. Blood poured from the dragon’s neck and shot off towards its mouth, forming long red spears that thrust themselves past Grasidia and up through the monster’s soft palate. Somehow even its brain was tough, but that didn’t matter if Lavinia just kept stabbing it faster than it could regenerate. Once she had enough of her spikes in, she started using them as injectors, flooding the cranium with fluid and putting an end to any last vestiges of conscious thought.

Even then, she did not stop. With her hands swaying like some kind of manic puppeteer, she kept on plunging her thorns into the dragon’s head, carrying on well after it had gone completely limp. It was only once the beast started dissolving into glowing dust that she finally stopped stabbing it and paused in her cackling long enough to take an actual breath.

[color=9e0b0f][i]I did iiiiit![/i][/color] Pumping her arms up and down, she did a little happy dance across the half-destroyed roof she’d been perched on, before suddenly remembering how an evil empress was supposed to act and freezing in her tracks. After a moment, she drew herself up to her full height, staring down at the battlefield and trying to come up with a clever one-liner.

[color=9e0b0f]”With this, the uppity lizard is finally… dra-GONE!”[/color]

No, wait, that was terrible! And it wasn’t like anyone was listening anyway. For the first time in a while, Lavinia decided to dispense with pointless theatrics and focus on something actually important, namely finding out if everyone was still alive.

A minute later, the rest of Fenixtear would see a dark silhouette looming out of the smoke and wreckage, growing larger and more menacing as it approached.

[color=9e0b0f]”That monster was the last thing standing in my way… And now you’ve helped me finish it off. With this, there is nobody left who can stop me.”[/color] A low, drawn-out chuckle punctuated the chilling statement. [color=9e0b0f]”What fortune that I should find you all here, battered, beaten, broken… A perfect opportunity for me to tie up some [i]inconvenient loose ends.”[/i][/color]

And then Lavinia stepped out into the open and rushed towards them, her sopping wet robes flapping around her like ungainly fins. [color=9e0b0f]”Ufufufufu, did you see me finish it off? I was so cool and scary, right?!”[/color] She threw out an arm, pointing dramatically at Grasidia. [color=9e0b0f]"Even you managed to be useful, you uncourteous trash! For this, I absolve you of your past transgressions… Be thankful for this gracious mercy, I shall not grant it again!"[/color]

Without even waiting for an answer, she swept past the plant mage, making her way towards the unconscious Gwen. [color=9e0b0f]”Give her here, you wrinkly bag of bones! A weakling like you should just bow down and make way for a superior mage.”[/color] She had plenty of enrgy left for healing spells, after all. And once Gwen was back on her feet, that would be all the loose ends done with, and they could all go back home and Lavinia could change clothes and curl up with a book and a blanket and possibly also Ria... 

Yes, she was only helping now for her own sake. Those so-called comrades of hers had better not start thinking she was trying to be [i]nice[/i] or anything.