[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/D9OBI9j.png[/img][/center]

MacKensie skidded to a halt and dropped to her knees next to James and Zell, her panic subsiding as the light of James' healing spell glowed over her Zell's body.  She asked James if the other man would be okay and he appeared confident, so she put a hand on each of her two friend's shoulders and nodded briskly, about to head back into battle, but paused after a step to throw her own answer into Zell's dumb joke.

"So, bossman...?" he asked.  "Rushing an opponent roughly twice your strength like a wild caveman.... how would you rate my strategy out of ten?"

[Colour=Pink]"Maybe try not to take the 'Mindless gorilla' thing so far next time, yes?"[/colour] she said angrily.

James verbalized his agreement, although with appropriately increased intensity and language, making her smile, albeit through a stern reprimanding expression for Zell.  Aside from Zell's outburst of stupidity, she knew James' tone well enough to know that the swordsman would be fine.  And then there was Fenna and Barracker's teamwork that had been effective enough to injure Zigmund.  Even her own brief clash with him at the very beginning of battle had been world's apart in difference to her last showdown with the ninja.  They were all stronger and she was confident that they could kill this agent of evil.

She saw the water javelins and Zell warned James in time for all of them to escape direct hits.  MacKensie herself had pulled off a a corkscrew flip that saw her spin horizontally over the javelin, it flying past her harmlessly.  As she landed, she saw James had blocked most of the damage with his anchor, a little blood trickling down the side of his face from a minor cut.  And Adam, who'd taken up a position to cover the battlefield, had saved Zell by throwing a tree into the javelins path.

This really [i]was[/i] a different party than the inexperienced, unascended one Zigmund had faced last time.  And she was sure that [i]he[/i] knew it too.

And then, as she watched the beautiful chemistry of assault from their resident Spear and Greatsword, that confidence she had was ripped from her at the sight of the ice explosion.  She gasped, her sharp eyes catching the details of Zigmund's counterattack.  The damage was apparent.  Adam had once again showed his effectiveness with his magic - his root system somehow mitigating damage, but while Fenna had escaped with minor injuries, Barracker was hurt badly.

[Colour=Pink]"Oh no.  Barracker."[/colour]

Once again, she went to help her friends but was paused mid-step by unexpected noise.  Hoofbeats.  She looked towards where the horseman appeared, but with glow of the rising sun behind him, horse and rider were almost a silouette.  Almost.  Her mouth opened, her brow furrowed as her mind told her that she could not really be seeing what her eyes were telling her.

[Colour=Pink][i]I saw him...[/i][/colour] die.  With her own eyes, she'd watched him drop lifelessly to the floor.  With her own hands, she'd helped dig his grave, with the farm man's own broken shovel.  Her and Joji had given him his own funeral on the hilltop overlooking Valhiem.  [Colour=Pink][i]How could this be?[/i][/colour]

"[color=F1B338]Life is getting up one more time than you’ve been knocked down. An' I came back to be sure you never did.[/color]"

[Colour=Pink]"Lord in heaven, it is [i]him[/i],"[/colour] she confirmed by his thick accent.  She didn't even realise she was crying. [Colour=Pink]"Clive."[/colour]

Clive Michel was back - riding a ghostly, glowing horse.  And he entered battle with a mighty mega-punch that sent Zigmund across the dirt.  It was enough to break her from her pause, and while tears still rolled down her cheeks, Second Chance's leader's command was enough to re-engage her mind.

[b]"He is vulnerable, attack!"[/b]

MacKensie rushed in, blue flames dancing into existence along her hands and arms, her maximum foot-speed a sight to behold.  Knowing James was hoisting up the anchor as she left him, she jumped high and out of the way, to one side, then started her [i]Deadly Flurry[/i] in sync with the results of the anchor flying towards Zigmund, aiming for the cracks in his armour.  Mid air, she would fire her grapplehook at the ground next to her enemy and speed in like an air-to-ground missile, activating a second [i]Deadly Flurry[/i] and baseball sliding right by the metal ninja while letting off 4 bolts-per-second until her blue flames disappeared.