[h1][center][color=9e0b0f]Lavinia[/color][/center][/h1]
Grabbing Gwen off Marduk, Lavinia quickly fled the scene and hid behind a chunk of smashed-up building. [color=9e0b0f][i]Shit shit shit shit shit!![/i][/color] A Wizard Saint was here, and there could only be one reason: the Magic Council had finally figured out Lavinia’s plans, and was sending one of its top personnel to eliminate her.

Squeezing the unconscious Gwen tight for comfort, she peeked out from behind her cover, sweating profusely. The Wizard Saint didn’t seem to have spotted her since he was approaching the S-Class mages instead… Oh no, they weren’t going to rat her out, were they? Surely they wouldn’t do something like that? Lavinia might have been evil, but it wasn’t like she’d been [i]that[/i] nasty to them, right?

Then the Saint marched away, and she breathed a long sigh of relief. [color=9e0b0f]”Fufufu… Stupid Magic Council goon didn’t even see me. I am stealthy as a shadow, slinking in the night beneath a new moon. Isn’t that right, Gwen?”[/color]

The unconscious Gwen didn’t reply, but Lavinia thought that she’d definitely agree if she could.

[color=9e0b0f]”Let’s get you fixed up. We can’t have you passing away before I get to torment you properly, can we?”[/color] She held up her grimoire, and a wave of blood poured out, coursing over Gwen and gathering around her until she was half-submerged in a shallow pool. The process might not wake her, but the [color=9e0b0f][b]Bathory[/b][/color] spell would heal up any external injuries within a couple of minutes, leaving her healthy and refreshed once she did finally rouse. Lavinia used [color=9e0b0f][b]Carmilla[/b][/color] to check her heartbeat and make sure it was steady, and then, without really thinking about it, gently patted her on the head.

The blood mage would have been happy to simply wait by Gwen’s side until she recovered, but alas, it was not to be. No sooner had she gotten started with the healing than she heard a start, and stood up to see Holly standing on the dragon’s head and hogging the spotlight. 

[color=9e0b0f][i]What?![/i][/color] The cameras started flashing. Everyone was focused on Holly, on her fancy acrobatics and big brave declarations. But that couldn’t be right. Holly hadn’t killed the dragon, that had been Lavinia!

She stood up, flapping her arms and yelling. [color=9e0b0f]”You dolts! I’m over here! [i]I’m[/i] the one who took it down!”[/color]

None of the reporters seemed to hear her. They were too enthralled with the striking image of an armored figure standing tall astride a fallen monster’s head, regardless of the fact that said head was still full of Lavinia’s own bloody spears. No one was going to pay attention to some loud, bedraggled mage complaining from the sidelines, especially not when- let’s face it -her heavily berobed appearance made for a far less attractive figure than Holly’s tight-fitting armor.

So the blood mage shouted, and waved, and no one from the press so much as looked at her. After a minute she simply gave up and slumped down beside Gwen, her head in her hands.

[color=9e0b0f]”You saw it… right Gwen? You saw me kill it. D-didn’t even need the help of those stupid bigshots. Stupid stupid stupid.”[/color] It would have been so easy to just murder all those asshole photographers on the spot, but she couldn’t afford to risk anything like that with a Wizard Saint nearby. All she could do was sulk, and cry a little, and complain to someone who couldn’t even hear her.