The ice wall in front of Andrea evaporated before her eyes, and her arms sprung up in defense. The steam was pushed into the home by the storm, flowed past Andrea in a large cloud of hot mist, and traveled down the hallway, before finally disappearing under Echo’s bedroom door. Lazarus steps forth through the demolished front wall. The wooden structure creaks as the house struggles to stay upright in the intense wind.

Andrea and Lazarus stood only a few meters apart from each other, hate and contempt for one another boiling in their eyes. Andrea stood her ground in a defensive stance and waited for Lazarus to make the first move. She was outmatched on her own, and she knew it. All she could do for now is hold off the Skera for enough time, so her family could escape to the train.

Lazarus stood still for a moment and studied his opponent. A smile spread across his face when he noticed how weak Andrea looked. Her knees buckled and shook. The droplet of red ice on her chin had finally melted and dropped to the floor. In one hand Andrea wielded a dagger of blue ice and in the other was a dagger of blood ice, created from the wound she inadvertently inflicted on Vikta’s shoulder. Her hands trembled as she struggled to remain still. She stood up feebly and straightened her legs, stopping them from shaking. Solidifying her resolve, she gritted her teeth and waited for the attack.

Without speaking, Lazarus began undoing his collar and dropped the cape to the floor. The cape flew into the home and took a sharp turn down the hallway. Lazarus’ smile grew ever larger upon seeing this. Andrea flinched for a moment and glanced down the hallway. Growling at Lazarus, she returned to her defensive stance. Reaching down, Lazarus began unbuckling his weapons belt. Grabbing it with his claws, he slung the sword and pistol to the side, and they hit the floor with a heavy thud. Lazarus mirrored Andrea’s defensive stance and dug his clawed feet into the wooden floor, creating deep grooves upon its surface.

Lazarus spoke while putting up his guard to protect his abdomen and face, “I’m going to assume they’ve escaped through the window and are making their way to the train as I speak. They can go ahead and run if they want to.”

Andrea asked inquisitively through gritted teeth, “You’re awfully content with the fact that they are getting away. What is it that you want? The thrill of the hunt? Or do you just like being a sadistic bastard?”

Lazarus chuckled, “You’re overlooking the obvious. I’m exactly where I need to be. I’ve got orders to bring you in. Not Vikta. He’s nothing more than a nuisance to me and completely useless to our organization. I was going to toy with him a bit more before crushing every bone in his body. As for your son, he’s nothing more than a passing scientific interest. His genetics could be useful to us. However, we don’t really have much of a use for him either. You’re a high-value target with some interesting capabilities, Andrea. The BMT Council would be keenly interested to hear about how you were able to cast unaugmented magic.”

Andrea’s face drained of color as she responded, “You will never take me back to that hellhole alive. I’d rather die than to let you do experiments on me again.”

Lazarus returned to a neutral expression before continuing, “Oh, really? We can’t afford for our precious experiment to become irreparably damaged. I’m not going to kill you. I’m just going to crush your body until you stop fighting back. Drop your weapons. It’s over. You’re coming with me back to base whether you want to or not.”

There was no warning when the house finally fell apart. The roof peeled away from the walls and flew upwards like a sail in the wind. The walls buckled and cracked as the storm ripped the house to shreds. The wall in the back caved and fell over into the backyard, bringing the rest of the house with it. When the rest of the walls caved and took flight in the hurricane, there was nothing left but the wooden floorboards attached to the foundation. The storm had reached a crescendo as it ripped the house apart piece by piece. The wind raged ever harder as the lightning blazed brightly all around them. Lazarus and Andrea struggled to stand upright in the intense hurricane force winds.

Andrea’s faced scrunched up in anger as the Skera seemed to grow impatient with every passing moment. Lashing out, Andrea rushed the Skera while swinging the ice daggers up over her head. Stepping to one side, Lazarus dodged the ice daggers as they came down towards his head. Pivoting on one foot and twisting his hips, Lazarus delivered a devastating knee strike to Andrea’s stomach. Sparks flew forth from his armored kneecap as it struck Andrea and the crystal in the center of his armored backplate blazed to life with a deep purple.

Andrea hunched forward and dropped to her knees. She was forced to use her hands to keep from falling to the floor. The air had been knocked out of her, and she struggled to take in any breaths. All she could do is gasp and try, but no air would go into her lungs. As Andrea was still trying to breathe, Lazarus backed up slightly and stomped hard on each dagger, shattering them like brittle glass. All she was left with was simple splinters of wood in her cold hands.

Lazarus backed up before yelling through the howling wind, “Give it up, Andrea! You have no chance of defeating me. You’re only going to be hurting yourself at this point.”

Andrea finally regained some air and looked up from the ground and into the eyes of her assailant. Her eyes showed that she was dangerously close to losing her sanity. The pure unadulterated fury was pouring through every inch of her being. Without saying a single word, she flew up from the ground at the Skera. She spun on her heels and swung one of the wooden splinters in a wide arc at Lazarus’ head. Lazarus leans backward on his clawed feet, and she narrowly misses him.

Andrea follows up with a flurry of lethal punches aimed at slicing the Skera open with the splinters. Each time she strikes out, he narrowly dodges the blow. Left hook. Right hook. Left jab. Right uppercut. Nothing connects. No matter how fast she is, Lazarus is faster. The Skera’s head bobs up and down, side to side as he dodges the killing blows. Finally one of the blows connects, and a large streak of red blood seeps out from Lazarus’ right cheek.

Lazarus shrieks in rage and catches Andrea’s wrist as she throws her next punch. Surprised, but not backing down, Andrea throws a punch with her other free hand. Lazarus promptly grabs her other wrist mid-punch. He squeezes hard on Andrea’s arms, attempting to break them. Her wrists pop as the pressure on them grows larger by the second. Finally, the small bones in her wrists snap and break. Andrea cries and screams in pain as the remains of the ice daggers fall to the floor. The wooden splinters are caught by the wind and are sent flying away into the darkness. Without wasting another moment, Lazarus headbutts the disarmed Andrea on her chin, sending her head whirling backward from the force of the blow.

Still dazed from the shock of being headbutted, Andrea blearily looks through her drooping eyelids to notice one final attack. Lazarus let’s go of her busted wrists and places one of his massive legs behind her ankles. With a single uppercut to the stomach, Lazarus lands another solid hit that sends sparks flying from his body and into hers. Andrea coughs once as her body goes limp. The force of the punch sends her flying over Lazarus’ leg, and she falls to the floor, unconscious and motionless.

Lazarus turns his head to check his surroundings and notices Lieutenant Hellhound standing still behind him. Lazarus growls, “What are you doing just standing there? Are the injured soldiers taken care of?”

The lone soldier responds while walking past the Skera commander, “Yes, sir. Many of the soldiers are already aboard the Valkyries. All of them are seriously injured and most will never recover. Is the high-value target still alive?”

Lazarus sighs as he replies loudly to talk over the wind, “She is, but not for long if we don’t get her on board the ship soon. She’s a tough customer. She’ll live. Restrain her, now. I don’t want her getting loose aboard the ship. That would be bad for all of us. She is to be designated as an extremely dangerous prisoner. A minimum of two soldiers are to be watching her at all times, and she is to be placed in full-body restraints. We can’t afford to have another incident like this.”

Hellhound turns around and walks over to Andrea’s limp body. Reaching to the side, Hellhound then grabs a large bundle of metal out of the backpack that the soldier was wearing. The soldier then gets to work unfolding the pieces and snapping them together. Lazarus smirks as he watches the new Lieutenant wrap Andrea’s legs and arms in the metallic restraints. The cuffs clip around her hands and ankles and binds them together like an animal that has been subdued. The restraints are not designed like your typical prison cuffs for they do not allow any movement for the prisoner. A solid bar of metal connects her hands while another restrains her feet. Between them is another, long bar that joins the other two bars together.

Hellhound asks as he stands up, “What will we do about the other fugitives, sir?”

As Hellhound picks up the limp woman by her restraints, Lazarus responds, “The fugitives are escaping by train and are heading for Launch Central. We’ll have to chase them down in the Valkyrie. Let’s get this prisoner on board the ship as soon as we can. We still have work to do.”