Stathis dropped downwards, through the darkness, towards the clamour of combat, somewhere beneath her. It looked like the walls had been breached, with undead inside, combat chaotic, although no-one had yet broken and fled. There was a fight happening in the centre, everyone staying clear, too desperate with their own struggles. A blur of lightning streaked around a black-armoured figure, Stathis barely able to perceive it as Semari, twisting and spinning around in a blur of violence.

As she dropped downwards, she could hear the clanging clamour of fists and feet hammering against metal, the blows striking together into a single, ongoing peal. Semari had managed to hold out! Stathis moved as quickly as she could, her wings blazing brightly, shedding light beneath. Some of the soldiers glanced up, seeing her, sounds of shocked awe coming up. She winced, but this had been the only way!

Semari slowed, then staggered as she was punched, grabbing them back and grappling hold of their arm. He started to punch her, powerful and brutal, Semari unable to dodge. Air whipped and whistled past Stathis’ face, making her turn her head to avoid getting anything into her eyes. Not much longer! Her blade slid from it’s sheath, the metal shining brightly.

‘Get down!’ She wasn’t far above everyone now, their eyes wide, her glow shining off their armour and weapons. Semari dropped to the floor, far too heavily, her clothing burned, bloody and ragged.

She attacked, the full force of her drop behind the attack, her own power flashing brightly from the sword, cutting deep into metal, through and into flesh. Light flared, blinding even here for a moment, as she flapped her wings to prevent from crashing into the ground.

A cheer ran out as she landed, pulling her blade back towards herself, slicing through metal with a slight screech, something that looked far darker than blood coating her blade for a moment, before it evaporated into mist. He tried to step forward, sword coming up over his head, but stumbled – Stathis looked down, to see bloody, burned arms grabbed around his leg, Semari still holding on.

Stathis took advantage of his moment of confusion and attacked again. She forced as much power as she could into her blade, slamming it against the side of his breastplate, another metallic clamour sounding out. She felt the resistance against the strike alter as the metal bent under the force of the hit.

‘Where’s the necromancer in charge of this lot!? Is it Peresperan?’ If she could deal with him, then that would settle things a lot faster! With the light being shed from her body, she could see that the armour was battered and cracked, Semari having done a lot of work to dent and damage it. An enchanted Warhammer would make this a lot easier!

‘He is a safe distance away.’

Stathis jumped backwards, using her wings to carry her upwards, out of reach of a swing, the huge blade cutting through the air. As he raised a foot to stamp down onto Semari, Stathis swooping back in, dropping back to ground level and attacking again. Her blade hammered against his chest-plate, keeping him off-balance. She tried to glance down, not wanting to take her eyes of his body movements in case he attacked, but needing to check on Semari. She looked bad, her skin covered with burns and wounds, her eyes shut, arms still tightly gripped around one leg.

Stathis smacked him with her shield, before swinging for his helm, forcing him to raise an arm in defence, her sword ringing off his bracer.

‘Semari! Get up!’ Was she even still alive? She needed to get him away from her! Or, even better, dead. The once clean and polished armour was now covered with dents and dings, cracks and rents forced into the stiff planes of metal.

‘The line of the dawn against the night, the first cut of light, where the darkness ends!’ Stathis heard Brina shout, jumping up on a crate. ‘We face down the dark, and do not yield!’ The shout distracted him, letting Stathis land another blow, angling around so that she was on the side closest to Semari.

‘You’re not going to surrender, so just die already!’

He managed to regain his balance enough to attack her, and she braced herself, taking the impact on both her sword and shield, throwing herself forward to lessen the assault. She still felt it rattle and jar her bones, their blades clashing together. They were close enough that he couldn’t properly put his own weight behind it, making it more even, as they jostled together.

‘You are persistent! How many times have you cheated death?’ He sounded partway between irritated and excited, their swords scraping together. He was strong, even when unable to use his full strength, and Stathis tried to shift her feet, to make her own stance more secure.

‘This would be a lot easier if you surrendered!’ The undead were tough, but a rabble, their strength coming from their numbers. If she could defeat him, then she could probably cut through the rest of them, but she didn’t dare break away to give him the chance to attack her directly, or anyone else. And she needed to heal Semari as well. She shifted her balance, looking at the damage she had done to his armour, one of the shoulders damaged and broken.

‘I think you will be defeated here. Sent to a true and final death!’ He pushed, making Stathis take a half-step backwards and breaking the lock, bringing his blade around into a swing. Stathis swung at it, putting her own weight behind the swing to try and batter the blade away in a sloppy parry, the impact jarring her arms, the metals slamming together. ‘It would be easier if you had died long since, but it falls to me to rectify that mistake.’

Stathis punched with her shield, trying to push him back and away from Semari – the ground beneath her was worryingly dark and sticky, hopefully water rather than blood.

‘You want to rule a world of darkness? Empty and broken?’

‘Better to rule than serve!’ He took the blow from the shield without budging, metal clanging from the strike, still close enough that he couldn’t properly use his own blade. Stathis struck with her sword, trying to target the crack in his armour. He shifted slightly, one of the attacks sparking off a pauldron, but the other crunched against the already-damaged metal, and she could feel it snag in the crack, and her blade ignited with the light of the sun. She twisted her blade, feeling the metal start to crack and fragment – how thick was the metal?

He growled, and she couldn’t tell if it was pain or frustration, or both, red eyes flaring within his helm. ‘You truly do live up to the promise of your blood.’

His bladed whistled through the air, and she couldn’t block it so stepped forward, lessening the space it had to build up speed. It slammed into her side, the impact making her stagger sideways, off-balance and barely able to block a follow-up attack, slamming her shield forward. His blade bit into the wood, shearing half-way through it before stopping.

While his blade was wedged into the wood, she attacked again. His sword was long enough that he was at the limit of her own attacking range, but she wrenched her shield free, part of the wood breaking away and trying to cleave him again. She just needed to get him away from Semari! Her blade clanged off her breastplate – the thing was definitely enchanted, far tougher than any normal steel!

‘All this, just for conquest? All the strife and bloodshed?’ She kept attacking, wanting to force him back and away from Semari. She just needed a second to heal her! Metal chimed and rang, loud enough to drown out all the surrounding sounds of strife. ‘Why!?’ Anger and frustration leant her strength, as she kept attacking, trying to force him back with multiple attacks. ‘So much pain and violence, for nothing!’ The brightness of her sword intensified, the red eyes narrowing, and he moved to block.

This time, when their blades met, her own sword sang, the chime clear and perfect. He seemed taken aback by the sudden rush, moving into a clumsy block, his weapon not made for close-in work. Her blade slammed against his sword and she stepped in close, slapping at him with her shield, taking care not to kick Semari. He took a step back and Stathis took her chance, swinging at his eyes to make him lean backwards, before ducking down, fumbling at touch Semari. With her gauntlet on, she couldn’t feel if Semari had a pulse, or even be sure if she was breathing, but she channeled healing powers, the bright and golden light of the dawn bursting in a corona around her hand.

A blow hammered against her armour, making her own armour crunch and screech in protest, knocking the air from her lungs. Part of the metal had broken, poking painfully through her padding, but Semari coughed and spluttered, lightning sparking fitfully around her body.

Another strike slammed into her back, enough force conducting itself through her armour that she could feel her ribcage protesting, something instead of her breaking. Semari groaned, still woozy.

‘One more push – ready?’

‘Eughhhh….’ Lightning crackled as Semari opened her eyes more fully, somehow flashing away, suddenly on her feet. Stathis rolled aside, feeling her armour scrape and prickle her skin, trying to ignore the wetness she could feel, hoping the damage wasn’t too bad.

The red eyes were brighter now, and then Semari attacked, lightning-steaks flaring out. Her limbs were hanging strangely, not entirely healed, but she was moving, a blur of violence, fists and feet ringing against armour. He couldn’t move fast enough to block her, and Stathis moved in close, wanting to stop her getting any momentum behind that blade. A partial strike hit her arm, crumpling more of her armour, and making it hard to move her shield-arm properly, the joint snarled up.

‘I don’t fight alone!’ She swung back, her blade cutting the darkness. ‘We face the darkness! While light shines, we do not yield! Not to darkness, not to death!’ She heard metal crack and splinter, Semari’s afterimages fading for a second as she stopped long enough to plant herself and deliver a strong blow to his back. It knocked him off-balance slightly, just long enough to let Stathis put all her weight behind an attack of her own, bringing her blade arcing down over her heard.

It cut into the already-weakened part of his armour, a brilliant sunburst erupting and dazzling her. Metal shrieked, before suddenly shattering, and she felt the blade cut through into softer padding and flesh, sticking into bone. Grim determination settled over her.

‘There is no place for such as you in this world! Return to the darkness you desire!’

Through the bright light, she had a dim impression of a lightning-wrapped fist slamming into an armoured helm, hard enough to dent the metal, before opening up into a rending claw, fingers ripping at metal, twisting it around. She didn’t hold back from attacking again, taking her sword into a two-handed grip, thrusting forward, letting instinct guide her towards the gap she’d already opened it. The flesh was melting away under her blade, the bone cracking and splintering. Anyone normal would be dead from that strike, but he was still moving, swinging his sword at Semari. She ducked underneath, the passage of the weapon stirring up the air and ruffling her hair, before she dove forward and wrapped herself around his body, her legs locking around his neck, her arms around her sword-arm. Her clothing was a mess, cut to pieces, stained dark with blood, her wounds still not closed, but lightning-burst eyes stared at her.

‘Finish it!’

Stathis didn’t hesitate, settling her feet and then stabbing forward in a clean thrust, skewering into flesh.

‘A judgement of death on you!’

He tried to move, but despite her wounds, Semari’s grip was too strong, keeping him from attacking or blocking. Where she had breached his armour, she could see blood, thick and black, more like oil, evaporating away to steam in the light from her blade.

‘Begone from this world, to your final judgement! May the light take you!’ Another strike, this time managing to penetrate through the breastplate, skewering into the organs beneath. He coughed and choked, the light of the eyes starting to dim. ‘Where this is darkness, I will be the light. To protect this world, I will never surrender. Now die!’ She drew her blade back, the blood on it vanishing as soon as she saw it, then made a final attack. ‘Semari, let him go.’

Now that he was wounded and dazed, he was easier to hit, Semari flipping away, as Stathis thrust again, up beneath his helmet. Her blade sparked off his gorget before finding a weak point and striking home, slicing into flesh.

The red eyes dimmed, the huge form tilting forward. Stathis kept slicing, feeling skin parting under the attack. Semari staggered away, before falling against a building, barely standing. Stathis partially withdrew her blade, slicing it to the side, hacking and sawing in brutal, ugly slices, until she felt a lack of resistance, the head falling away from the body.

The armoured body crashed to the ground, and Stathis raised her blade, the light making the undead flinch away. ‘Iristari! What are we?’

The reply back was ragged and weary. ‘The dawn against the night!’

‘Then push on!’ Her own weariness was creeping up on her as she kicked the helmet away from the body, just in case he could still regenerate. ‘We do not yield!’

‘We do not yield!’ The shout was stronger now, the soldiers starting to get their morale back. ‘Semari, you alive?’

‘Eugh, just about. Don’t think I’ve… got much more in me, though…’ She was swaying, one of her arms obviously broken, her knuckles masses of blood and bruises.

‘Fuck. Brina, can you look after her? Pajaran can probably patch her up, once she gets here.’ How long had the fight been going on for? Time always seemed to move strangely in combat – probably not long enough for the others to get here though.

A bolt of magic shot past Stathis, hitting a zombie that had been shambling towards her.

‘Sure, just don’t go gettin’ yourself killed!’ Brina moved towards Semari, just in time to catch Semari as she staggered. She yelped as a spark of lightning earthed itself through her. ‘Oww! Turn that off.’

‘Dunno how!’

Stathis shifted her shoulders, feeling her armour grate and pinch – that would need sorting afterwards, and she was having difficulty moving her shield-arm, but there was no time to fix it now. She ran towards one zombie and cut straight through it, throwing herself into the melee, despite the throbbing tiredness of her body.