As the smoke rose from behind the castle walls, Bette could do nothing else but watch.

*****

Shane let out a groan as she struggled to get to her feet.

She had been kicked, punched, sliced and tossed around like a rag doll. The woman she was fighting was much stronger than she had appeared. She was quicker than anything Shane had seen and fighting her seemed useless. Shane picked her head up to look at the laughing enemy in front of her, the bitch didn’t even have a scratch on her.

"Don’t tell me you’re giving up already, I’m having so much fun"

Shane ran her tongue all over her teeth and touched the inside of her cheeks. The tangy taste of blood covered her tongue as she spit onto the floor, covering the ground in a dark crimson. She pushed off the ground and rose to shaky feet, holding up her clenched fists to fight again. She lost her sword a while back, part of it anyway. The other part was impaled in her lower back.

The woman started to walk toward Shane, clasping her hands together in excitement, "Looks like you’re up for another round. I won’t go easy on you this time"

Shane took a deep breath and swallowed, a trace of blood made its way down her throat. With the corner of her eye, she tried to see if Tina had gotten to safety. It was hard to tell because of the big gash she had just under her eye. The skin swelled up making it nearly impossible to see.

While she was distracted with looking for Tina, the woman charged Shane and landed a clean punch to her stomach. Shane felt all the air leave her lungs as she coughed, more blood spilled out onto the floor. Before the woman could react however, Shane pulled out a hidden blade from her side and swung her arm. The woman pulled back in time to avoid a kill shot but the blade did manage to leave a nice thick gash just below her neck.

She looked down to the blood trickling down her chest and into her armor before bringing her hand to the line and touching it. She looked at the residue left on her gloved hand before looking up to Shane with anger in her eyes.