I was frozen in place as her fearsome gaze pierced me. The Lunar Knight raised her glowing sword above her head before swinging the blade in a wide arc.

“Halbmond Schrägstrich!”

A shining crescent flew through the air towards me. Renă shoved me at the last second and I landed hard on the concrete rooftop. Behind me I heard the explosive impact of the magic attack as it collided with the stairwell. I hardly noticed the ache in my side from landing on the ground. What had this guy done to Scarlett? I clenched my fist as I got back to my feet.

The Lunar Knight rushed at me, her movements a blur. Renă leapt in front of me, her twin blades at the ready. She caught the knight’s sword between her own weapons, holding her opponent back with her arms in a defensive ‘x’. With a grunt of effort, the cloaked figure managed to push Scarlett away.

A Scarlett stumbled back a couple of paces but quickly steadied herself. A sound almost like a growl came from Renă. Scarlett swung again. I could practically feel the weight of her blade from where I stood as it came down hard at Renă. The masked girl jumped to one side and the green sword smashed into the concrete. Cracks ran like a web across the rooftop and chunks flew in every direction around the point on impact.

My legs felt weak. My own pitiful blade wouldn’t be any match against the power of the Lunar Knight. Scarlett turned towards me. I gulped as her glowing eyes stared me down. Why had Renă even brought me along? Shit, I couldn’t do anything here. With a scrape she withdrew her blade for the concrete and began walking rapidly towards me.

I backed away, but there was nowhere to run. Scarlett was getting close now. Her mouth twisted into a snarl as she raised her blade to strike me. But before she could, out of nowhere, Renă got in her way once again, flying into the knight with a hard uppercut elbow to the chin. Scarlett’s head jolted back but her body stood firm. A moment later she turned to face her opponent. Renă tried to escape, but she couldn’t get out of the way of Scarlett’s sweeping attack in time.

The masked girl was sent flying by a powerful blow of the sword to her chest. She crashed into the substation and her body fell into a heap at its base. Damn I knew Scarlett was strong but, this strong? I looked at Renă. She wasn’t moving. That was bad. Just then though, she lifted her head, just enough for it to face me. I’m not sure why, since I couldn’t actually see her face under her iron mask, but I imagined she must have been smirking in that moment.

Seconds later I was thrown backwards by an explosion. I wasn’t sure how far I’d flown. I couldn’t see anything but blinding light. As it dissipated, I looked around for Scarlett. I could just make out her silhouette through the smoke. It didn’t look as if she’d moved. As the air cleared, however, I could see definite black marks on her normally glistening armour. Renă must have planted an explosive before Scarlett had knocked her away, but it didn’t seem to have hurt the Lunar Knight in the slightest.

“Enough fooling around, Scarlett,” came Stefan’s voice. “Finish them already.”

Scarlett nodded and raised her blade above her head. Her sword’s glow brightened as she held it up to the stars. The energy around it grew stronger and stronger with each passing second. The air between us hummed and I could almost see the pulsating waves of power emanating from the Lunar Knight. Shit, I knew where this was going. I got shakily to my feet and tried to stumble away. I winced at an ache in my side. Renă’s explosion had done more damage to me than it had to Scarlett. Heh, I chuckled silently at the irony of it.

Scarlett’s sword fired a beam of light into the sky. The green line shot up into the blackness, then disappeared. What was she…? I’d never seen this attack before. Then, she pointed her the tip of her sword towards me.

“STERNENFEURREGEN!”

What looked like a firework of galactic proportions shone distantly in space. It grew brighter. It was definitely coming towards me, fast. I was in bad shape. It was closing in rapidly and I wouldn’t make the stairwell before it hit. The air around me grew bright.

“Sander!” I heard.

Just as I heard something like the whir of an incoming missile, the world around me turned into a swirl of colours and my stomach did a summersault. I could feel massive g-force blasting me backwards but there was no ground. No seat. Nothing around me as I tumbled through space except –

“Renă?”

“Don’t speak now,” she replied, her grip tight on my arm.

Moments later I felt the ground beneath me once again. Unable to control myself, I vomited on the concrete.

“Wha- what the hell was that?” I managed between gasping coughs.

“I teleported you. You’re lucky it was only a short distance, or your body would look worse than your puke.”

My head was swimming. I gritted my teeth as my whole body burned in pain.

“Shit, where is she? Scarlett, where’d she go?”

“She’s back over there. Those comets of hers are pulverising the roof. If this keeps up, I won’t be surprised if the whole building comes down under us.”

This had gotten really out of hand. Somehow this side-quest of ours had turned into a whole saga by itself.

“Listen, Sander. I said before that I’d been sent to retrieve something Stefan stole, right? Well he’s using that object to control your friend right now. I thought I could quickly incapacitate her and then deal with him afterwards, but she’s much more powerful than I anticipated. We’re going to have to break his control over her.”

“Huh, and how are we supposed to do that?”

“The Molniya Crystal. We need to get it away from him. If I can get my hands on it, I can break the seal.”

“What can I –”

I was cut off by a loud thud. We turned in unison to find Scarlett staring down at us from atop the stairwell. Her sword looked ready to unleash another magic attack. Renă hoisted me up from the ground and pulled me along behind her.

“Mondpfeil Salve!”

Like a machine gun, Scarlett’s sword showered us with glowing blast attacks. We ran, narrowly avoiding the pelting fire as it peppered the rooftop.

“Can’t you transform?” Renă shouted over the sound of Scarlett’s relentless assault.

“Huh?”

I heard a frustrated grunt from Renă. “You really don’t remember do you?”

The constant fire of moonlight attacks ceased as Scarlett leapt into the night air. Renă stopped and faced me, placing her hands on my shoulders.

“Sander, focus. Let out your third eye. I’ve seen you do it, I know you can. We need that power right now if we want to defeat them.”

As the Lunar Knight flew towards us, I tried to calm myself and follow Renă’s instructions. Let out my third eye. Open it. I heard her voice as my mind entered a trance.

“Ochiul, nu mâna, deține puterea.”

My head tilted up as Scarlett descended upon us, and for the second time that day, my third eye was opened.