Pain radiated through all of Lucina as she shuffled her body.
"Ow," Lucina groaned. She'd didn't exactly know what happened, but she knew one thing it hurt. A lot.
A loud alarm brought her back to her senses and she opened her eyes to see the inside of a warehouse.
Oh yeah, she was thrown across the depot. It all started to come back to her.
It was a lot darker here than the warehouse she was in before, the only light weakly shining down from somewhere in front of her. Lucina reached out and grabbed the closest leverage she could find. Her hands wrapped around broken crates, and she pulled herself out of her crash site. Once back on flat ground she tried to stretch the pain away which was followed with a series of satisfying cracks.
The approaching sound of crunching gravel, quickly reminded of her situation. Through the hole in the shutter door she'd made, her two cloaked assailants could be seen charging towards her.
'Damn. How did I forget about them?'
She quickly readied herself and went to grab her whip. She didn't have it. How the hell did she not have it?
Her eyes scanned the warehouse, it was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly a sparkling red cloudy mist began pouring through the shutter door hole.
"That's not good," Lucina muttered.
Panicked, she quickly coated her body in mana and retreated to behind what was left of the crates she'd crashed into. Sensing the smoke was beginning to disperse throughout the entire room she crashed through the back wall of the warehouse. As she rolled across the gravel outside there was the sharp sound of a spark and suddenly the entire warehouse exploded, becoming completely engulfed in crimson flames.
Lucina kept low to the ground, the debris of the warehouse passing straight over her head and smashing into neighbouring structures. Glancing up she could see the warehouse had been completely blown apart, now just a burnt ruin of rubble, crimson flames and smoke.
The silhouettes of two figures wandered across the wreckage and emerged from the smoke in front of her. They came to a stop at where the warehouse floor ended.
"Are you really Athra's sister?" the woman asked, her tone snarky.
"Yeah," Lucina said, while matching her attitude. "Should I know you or something?"
"Venli and this Mor," she gestured to the man next to her.
"Alright Venli and Mor, what do you have against my brother?" Lucina questioned. "He kick your ass?"
"We've fought," Mor growled.
"And you came to me to get another one? Are you trying to get one from each member of my family or something?" She snapped her fingers, "Oh, you must be collectors," Lucina provoked, "weird things to collect though in my opinion."
"You're a lot cockier than your brother."
"It'd be boring if we were the same," Lucina shrugged.
An unpleasant smile arose on Venli's face, she spread her arms wide. A familiar red glow rose through her fore arms and travelled to her hands.
Lucina wasted no time, increasing her augmentations she dashed into Venli, in an instant, and forced her arms into the air. A chain of crimson explosions was violently unleashed into the sky, reacting against every atom they touched. The women cursed and tried to free herself from Lucina's grasp, but with her augments Lucina was stronger. The summoner swiftly slammed her forearm into the Venli's jaw sending her stumbling before switching her focus to the annoying brute that was Mor.
He rammed into her with mana infused strength, forcing her back. Lucina increased the mana flowing through her own body and forced the man's charge to a halt. His face contorted in confusion as a girl half his size began to overpower him. Lucina didn't miss a beat refusing to waste the opening, she dragged him off balance and quickly accessed her subspace drawing a silver sword. In a smooth arc, her blade cut across his right leg. Not as deep as she'd have liked, but it was enough to be effective. Blood began to flow freely from Mor's wound. The man's body collapsed in on the compromised leg and his face contorted in pain as his brain realised what had happened.
Turning away from Mor, she was just in time to see the Venli getting to her feet. Lucina calmly approached her enemy, her sword dancing and twirling in her hand. Venli was at least able to use crimson, Lucina noted. She had never fought an experienced crimson user before however, Lewis had taught her the stronger the spell they used the longer they had to recharge before being able to use crimson again. Rage filled Venli's eyes, and she pounced at Lucina with newfound speed, a dagger suddenly in hand aimed at Lucina's chest. However, unfortunately for her, Lucina had expected the speed increase, now she had no crimson to infuse mana into she'd obviously focus on augmentation. Lucina swatted the knife from the women's hand, instantly following up by thrusting the sword's hilt into the criminal's jaw. Venli went spinning into the ground, Lucina advanced to finish the fight but suddenly she sensed a build of up mana behind her. Her instincts kicked in, she leapt to the side just in time to avoid a roaring stream of flames. Lucina turned to see Mor sweating and hunched over however, on both feet. Flames flowing around his hands.
'How is he not passed out?' By now he should have lost more than enough blood to have collapsed. She glanced down to tear in his pants but there was no open wound. 'Bastard cauterized it.'
The fire around his hands began to converge and shape itself into burning spheres which he then launched at Lucina. Coating her blade in mana she ripped through the fire, he instantly followed up his attack by spreading flames into the air that quickly grew vicious and shaped themselves into bolts of fire. Mor thrusted his arms forward rocketing the bolts towards Lucina.
She retreated back, dodging and slashing at any projectile that threatened to strike her, before quickly dodging under a red flash that tried to off her head.
Venli was up again. She had coated her fist's in crackling crimson flames. Lucina danced between the fire bolts and punches of crimson, slashing towards her attackers if they came in range. However, strangely Venli extinguished her crimson flames. Green orbs abruptly crystalized from green mana in her palms. They instantly shot out at Lucina at rapid speeds.
'Jade!? Shit, she's not just a crimson.'
Lucina raised her blade which impacted against the two orbs. The spells suddenly shattered releasing a wave of green mana that sent Lucina recoiling back off her feet. By the time she recovered both her attackers where on top of her, their hands ablaze with their respective flames.
"Not again," Lucina grumbled, before tightening her grip on her sword and reinforcing her body.
Their hands pushed against Lucina's chest and the air around them combusted, a blast of red and orange consumed her body and sent her flying across the destroyed warehouse. Her body bounced against gravel and then scraped against the stoney ground until she skidded to a stop.
"Really need to stop getting hit by those," she grunted. Her body agreed by sending painful jolts up and down her spine. "But hey, at least I didn't drop my weapon this time."
Her hands stung as she pushed herself up off the ground. It was only then she saw something that lifted her heart. Next to her on the ground, was her whip. In an instant she was back on her feet, whip, and blade in hand.
Fire balls abruptly soared across the depot towards her. Lucina's whip cracked against the air, extinguishing the flames, and clearing the battlefield just in time to see Venli charging towards her. Crimson strikes flew towards Lucina however, she just weaved in between the punches and brutally headbutted Venli's nose. After a gruesome crunch, blood spurted from her nostrils and tears could be seen welling in her eyes. Venli attempted to push Lucina away, but it was no use, Lucina wrapped her whip around the woman's arm and pulled. With a grunt of pain Venli was sent crashing to the ground. Lucina released the arm and stomped her head into the gravel before lashing out against incoming fire bolts on her flank. Mor emerged from the field of smoke limping however, his walk became stronger every second the more mana he reinforced into his leg. His arms were suddenly set ablaze, and he swung them forward, sending arcs of flames towards Lucina. She easily jumped out the way however, had to release Venli who instantly recovered to her feet. She spat out the blood welling inside her mouth and suddenly mana surged through her veins.
"Enough!" Venli roared.
Her left hand began to glow green while her right was covered by an ominous, flaming crimson aura. Fiery crimson knives and jade orbs formed in the air around her, like some kind of demonic halo. Simultaneously Mor summoned an array of fire bolts behind him. Lucina quickly attached her whip to the hilt of her sword and flooded the hybrid weapon with mana.
Her two attackers unleashed their onslaught of spells that tore through the air at unreal speeds. Lucina took a deep breath and advanced forward swinging her whip and sword around her like an orbiting shield, it tore apart any spell that came close. Clearly panicked by Lucina's charge, Venli put all her mana into a new spell and a familiar red smoke spread through the air. Before Lucina could back away an orange glow surrounded her. She quickly discovered she was enclosed by a ring of fire, with crimson mist flooding into her flaming cage. There was no way out.
'Damn.'
A spark was lit, and the ring of fire erupted. As the smoke cleared the Venli and Mor, eager to see the remains of Lucina after being blown to smithereens, satisfied smiles on their faces. However, those smiles quickly vanished.
A giant, masked raven could been seen sheltering Lucina, both clearly unharmed.
Lucina sighed. "I wanted to see how I'd fair without summoning. Go Cali."
Purple lightning emitted from the bird, with an ear splitting screech the bird charged into Mor. Cali pinned him to the ground and paralyzed him with an electric shock. Venli's face was wide eyed and contorted in confusion on what was happening. Lucina gave her no time to understand, her whip striking against Venli's leg, causing it to buckle to the ground. Lucina was instantly on her, the woman's neck strained in her grip.
"Look at that, now you've had your asses kicked by both siblings," Lucina said, before slamming her head into the ground.
Lucina prepared to finally finish it. She paused. Something wasn't right. Lucina noticed Venli's shocked eyes where now gone, instead replaced with confidence.
"There's something you should know," Venli managed to cough out, with an unpleasant, bloodied smile. "There's not just two of us."
Suddenly new mana signatures spiked in the area. Lucina quickly attempted to react, but it was too late.