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[sub][@PigeonOfAstora][@HereComesTheSnow][@VitaVitaAR][@Rune_Alchemist][/sub][/center]

[b]“He.”[/b]

Serenity blinked, memories parsing sense now that she had time to think.

[b]“She’s a demon. Damon enabled her possession through an artifact he gave that man, and she left with him after.”[/b] Twisting allegiances, too dense to make sense of. No point in dwelling upon it now though, not when the sounds of battle rang so clear, not when that [i]sword[/i] gleamed with such vigor that even at a distance, it was recognizable.

House Cazt had risen into infamy due to the traitor who orchestrated the War of the Red Flags, but before then, they were granted power upon the deeds of their forebearer. The Demonbreaker, a knight of supreme capability whom had once done through sheer will what all the sages of the kingdom had given up upon.

Beyond that shadow of a hero laid the barrier of the sinner who chained him to their servitude. Outside, a caster of lightning contended with Cecilia’s storm bow. And the hostage herself, the sister of that nem assassin? Still breathing. Still alive. Damon didn’t lie. But that only made it all the more troublesome. It would have been [i]better[/i] if the hostage was dead.

Serenity’s fingers drummed against her mace’s grip. The decision that she came to was made quickly.

[b]“Lein, aim for the necromancer. Wait for the opportunity.”[/b]

And she was off.

The tides of the undead had already been churned up and cleaved through. Their Knight-Captain had found some of her footing after all, even if she seemed to perpetually be on the back foot. She had some amount of technique then. Just lacked in environmental awareness, if she kept getting taken by surprise with the appearance of such resplendently armored blasphemies. Gerard should have taken the hit for her anyways though. What was the point of a shield if it wasn’t used to let the one with two hands on her sword to focus on strikes?

But this positioning was useful regardless.

And there certainly was a bit of irony in what she was about to do next.

[b]“Gerard! Shield overhead!”[/b]

With one powerful stomp, Serenity was airborne, her knee cracking off the skull of the undead that impeded her path, her mace of common steel brandished over her shoulder.

In the next, her feet found the surface of a shield scored with cuts and stained with desiccated flesh, and that became her platform for rising higher still. A second jump, propelling up and up. Like the griffin that tried to leap over her three days and three nights past. Like the beast that had begged to be disemboweled in its pride and stupidity.

But she flew higher still, trusting that Dame Fanilly and Sir Gerard would see the opening if the Demonbreaker raised his weapon that high up. Trusted that if not to strike at her, the Demonbreaker would raise his shield against her, to thwart off the aerial helmbreaker she was about to deliver.

And yet, at the pinnacle of her ascent, the flaxen-haired lioness had already [i]passed[/i] him. At the pinnacle of her jump, she was already twisting her body, curling it inwards, reversing her orientation so that her feet touched the ceiling.

Legs coiling like springs once more.

The third jump!

Gravity, might, and mass unified, dust sifting off the ceiling as Serenity descended. A sword could cleave, a spear could pierce, but when structural destruction was the intent of a warrior, there was only one weapon that could claim the name ‘meteor’ even when craft only of mundane materials.

At the very edge of the barrier, she delivered a blow to shatter the earth itself. Stone fractured, slabs cratered, spiderweb cracks bursting out from the epicenter of the meteoric strike. Racing out, to sever the lines of chalk that declared to this world that a barrier ought to stand.

Now, the question remained.

Did Lein trust [i]this[/i] gambit enough to fire his shot, through hordes of undead, through the defenses of an undead champion, past the body of an innocent child, into the vile flesh of a necromancer who desecrated the glory that belonged to this tomb?

If he didn’t, Serenity didn’t mind.

Her legs, after all, were coiled once more, ready to send her into the [i]fourth[/i] jump, right into close-quarters with this bastard-mage.