Juliette walked cautiously down what appeared to be the main street of the city. It was one of the only ones that she could fit down without shuffling her feet as well, but it had all the makings of a trap.
Her main disadvantage was her height in this case. It was impossible to see people hiding at ground level under rooftops and awnings. Her sword was drawn, ready to strike or defend in a heartbeat, but she wasn't entirely sure anyone was actually there.


The last city had been completely abandoned, although it was left perfectly intact. To anyone who found the remains of the town she had massacred a few weeks earlier, it would have been painfully obvious why nobody was there. Here though. . . It was unclear.
Juliette had seen a man on a horse pass her at the last city as she searched and cleared it, but it wasn't her mission to chase every human she came across. She knew he came this way, but there was no evidence of him here now. There was evidence of someone else though.
For a brief moment, she felt a little tingle on her soul. It was the presence of a god or goddess she wasn't familiar with. A second later, a human man stepped out of the alley and just stood in her path. She looked him over as she walked and saw that while he had a sword, it wasn't drawn. Other than that, the fact that the man wasn't Antony meant that he was of no concern to her and so she continued on.


Two steps later, there was the unremarkable sound of flesh and bone being compacted into the street and that was the end of it. She never found out what he was doing there or why he had come. It didnt matter. She was on a mission.


Juliette had barely stepped off of the flattened remains of the man, when suddenly the silence was shattered by an attack ripping through the building to her right. She spun on her heel and had to put all of her strength into the swing of her sword to deflect the attack. The energy shot to the right, clipping a nearby building.
To block that attack, Juliette had to leave an opening in her defense, and an unseen slayer took advantage. A horizontal red slash shot from a rooftop, aimed at her chest.


Juliette didn't miss a beat, dropping into the splits as the slash passed just over her head.
Immediately after dodging that, another strike from the building right in front of her burst out, aiming at her face. Her only option was to lay flat on her back, crushing 2 buildings in the process. Even though she was on the defensive, her mind was always working though and she raised her right foot up, smashing it down on what remained of the building where the last attack had just come from.


It exploded in a cloud of dust and brick, so she couldn't be sure if she had crushed the slayer, but it gave her the time she needed to scramble back to her feet and get some distance between them. Juliette utterly hated fighting in human cities with their visibility limitations. The enemy could be anywhere and attack her at the last second.


Again she moved cautiously, only this time she didn't try to avoid any buildings. They didn't offer enough resistance to trip her up, and the flatter the city was, the more even the playing field. She scanned the buildings and out of the corner of her eye she saw movement within the reach of her sword. Without hesitation, she swung it down, obliterating the entire building, but again no confirmation of hitting her target.


Cautiously, Juliette crept up on the ruins of the building and peered inside the crater her sword had made. . .


There was nothing directly in it, but there was man laying several yards away in the street. He looked dazed and was having trouble getting to his feet. Juliette had to double take. . .


It was the leader from that city Haliday . . . . Only. . . He had a sword on him now. . . And the fact that he was still breathing and fairly unscathed meant that he was no human. . . .


He lied to her.


They all had.


As angry as this made her. . . She had other things to worry about at the moment. She would visit that city again later.
Juliette walked over to the man, and was about to snatch him up, when another attack blistered down the street towards her. It was a towering blue beam, and unlike before, Juliette had seen who the attacker was.
Antony.


This time she had plenty of warning though, and she swung her own sword to meet it full strength. A massive explosion of energy and debris bellowed out, clouding over everything in dust.


Juliette stood at the ready, expecting a sneak attack to come out of the chaos, but when it cleared, she was the only one in the street. The man at her feet had made his escape and Antony was gone too.


Even though he was gone, it gave her new energy to know that her hunch was right. To know that he had been the one behind Anastasia's death. Here and now, she was going to make him pay. . .


She began to walk down the rubble filled street, easily crushing the bricks to powder as she stepped on them. She made it to where the attack came from, judging by the gouge in the street that Antony's attacks seemed to make. She looked around, but there was no sign of him now.
Everything was still now.


For the briefest of moments, Juliette was able to appreciate how calm and serene the human realm had the potential to be. She closed her eyes and took a breath. Tuned her senses. It was then that she could hear the movement. . .


Juliette opened her eyes, and lifted her sword high above her head. She locked on to the building she had felt the presence, and was just about to obliterate it, when another attack beamed towards her. This wasn't the usually tall and narrow strikes that she had become accustomed to.

No. . . This was a pin point in comparison. . . And aimed straight for her forehead.
Again she was able to dodge, but just barely and the attack chopped off one of her braids in the process. The slayer whose attack it was ducked behind a wall, but he wasn't fast enough to avoid being seen. In the blink of an eye, the building was in pieces beneath her blade and she followed up with a downward stab, her blade crashing down through the roof of her original target.
Cautiously, Juliette sifted through the debris with her foot, bought ultimately she found nothing. Walking around the corner, she came up empty as well. . .
She was trying to stay calm and think her actions through, but she was beginning to lose patience. It seemed that all these tiny cowards wanted to do was play games.
Juliette continued up the street, only this time, she crushed every building she passed, giving her enemies less and less places to hide. A couple minutes later, the entire street was flattened.


The slayers must have realized what she was doing, because as she began down the next street, one was waiting for her, out in the open. Just standing in the middle of the road. He was noticeably taller than Antony and the others she had seen, and that seemed to line up with the report the human man had given them.


This man had been in direct contact with Anastasia either at the time of her death. . .


Wasting no time, Juliette raised her sword above her head, and smashed it down harder than she felt necessary,hoping to disintegrate the man, but she felt the familiar clang of sword on sword.


She looked down her blade to see the man, blocking it with his own sword. Juliette's eyes got wide. She had crumpled countless giant men with that attack and yet. . . . This slayer had blocked it like it was nothing.
But it wasn't only this that unsettled her.
The man. . . . He was grinning!


He seemed to be enjoying himself.
With a quick push of his sword, Juliette's blade was repelled back toward her. She barely managed to keep it under control, taking a step back and that was when the man struck. He sprinted at the wall of a nearby building and ran up and along it.


He gained altitude as he closed the gap between them, and attacked with a plain old physical attack. Although she blocked it with ease, being off balance already caused her to be shoved back. Dropping to the ground, he immediately launched another attack, this time a prayer.
The jagged horizontal slash rose up from the ground with a scream.


Juliette made a last second decision to withstand it, bracing her shoulder against her sword. The brutal attack smashed into her, forcing her back even though she had planted her feet.


This man's strength was ridiculous.
Before she could recover, he attacked again and again. Juliette was forced to change stances, giving up on straight up absorbing the blows and resorting to swinging to match the strikes but even that seemed to be a losing battle as she was still driven back.


It wasn't that his attacks were hard to defend skill-wise, it was the brutal strength behind them. Something had to give and she knew she couldn't continue to go toe to toe with him on brute force alone. She had to find an opening, but the trouble with fighting prayers were that her direct actions had no effect on the slayer.


As Juliette fought to deflect him, her heel touched something. She quickly glanced back to see that she had been backed up against the outer wall. The slayer continued to advance. She knew it was now or never.
She waited until the next vertical strike, side stepping, and countering with a thrust. Although the man blocked, Juliette noticed that he gave up ground this time, his feet sliding as he held her back. Deciding to follow up, she thrust again and again, gaining ground with every attack. The man must have been exhausting his strength trying push his attack. . .


Putting all of her strength into a final thrust, an opening was earned as she shoved the slayer off balance and to his back on the street. Juliette glared down at him, the tip of her sword poised to end him but what she saw, surprised and infuriated her.
The man still wore his wide grin! Even as she had him bested, ready to deliver the killing blow.
With sword in hand, the man tried scuttling backward to create some distance, but Juliette kept her blade trained on him, taking the one necessary step it took to keep him in check.


"You're beat slayer! Lay down your sword and surrender!" Juliette said, with royal authority in her voice. "If you cooperate, I assure you, your crimes against the crown will be absolved and your death quick and painless!"


"What a. . . Generous offer, YOUR HIGHNESS!" The man replied, sarcastically, as he continued to scramble back. "But I don't think you realize just how deep in over your head you really are, little girl!" He finished, chuckling.


Juliette's face turned instantly red at the man's disrespect. There weren't many things in the world one could say to her to make her upset, but regarding her as a child along with the accompanying condescension was the most surefire way to accomplish it.


She let out a scream of rage before raising her sword, tip down and plunging it down on the man. She could tell by the feel that he had blocked again, but still the energy had been transferred, smashing the street beneath him and leaving him in a sizable crater. Though she would have liked to have finished him off, she knew one or two more blows and he would be at her mercy. . .


She went to strike again, but found that she couldn't withdraw her sword. She gave it a tug but she couldn't budge it. The man with the grin had dropped his sword, and was now clutching her blade with his bare hands. This must have been the same antic he had used on Anastasia, and if so, Juliette had already decided how she would handle such a tactic.


Juliette pulled slightly, giving the illusion of trying to recover her blade, and when she was sure that the man was fully committed to holding on, she made her move.
Quicker than lighting, her foot shot out, and connected with the slayer. Juliette kicked him as hard as she could and the man blasted through every building he contacted, until he collided with the wall, shoving it out and back in a pile of rubble and dust. Cautiously, Juliette walked towards where the slayer had smashed through the buildings.


To her surprise, no one else tried to attack her and she successfully found the man laying partially covered in rubble but otherwise unscathed. He was just climbing out of the pile of brick and dirt when Juliette appeared above him. She took the opportunity before he could react and raised her foot.
She stomped down with what she knew was more than enough force to crush any slayer she had ever fought, burying him beneath her sole but just to be sure, she twisted her foot back and forth before stepping off of him. . .


Expecting to see a dusty, crumpled corpse, her jaw dropped when she saw that not only was the slayer still alive, but he was still conscious even. His body looked worse for wear and a bit flattened but no bones appeared broken. Juliette couldn't believe this man. . . .


Ever since Juliette had crested around 120-125 feet tall, she had been able to crush a fresh slayer with one step (a feat that her older sisters had always bragged about) but here was this man, already well passed fresh, and although it didn't appear he could move, he was still alive. . . .


And that wasn't the most incredible thing about him.
This slayer. . . . Was laughing at her!


Juliette was unsure if this was intentional, or if he had gone mad and this was just some coping mechanism of his body and brain having been crushed well beyond what should have been his breaking point. Either way, she was infinitely intrigued, as this might be actually be the strongest or at least the most resilient slayer on earth. If this had been strictly a one on one battle, she would have loved to have a conversation with him and hear his tales.


Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, and she knew out there somewhere, somebody was ready to attack her, so she just lifted her foot and prepared to finish him off, but that is when the inevitable happened.


Juliette reacted just in time, but a light pink, nearly invisible slash cut through the air just where her ankle was supposed to be if she hadn't held back. She had no choice but to step off to the side to avoid having her foot cut off, and she looked in the direction of the attack to see a woman standing on the wall next to the smashed section.


She had a vibe about her. . .

Juliette couldn't explain it. She wasn't sure why but her desire to kill this particular slayer was through the roof. The woman only stared at her with a cocky smirk.


"As much as I'm sure that Malakai here would love to continue to fight. . . . I'm afraid I must insist on you not doing that again!" The woman said, with a raspy voice.


"Malakai" Juliette thought to herself.


"And who might you be?" Juliette asked, raising her sword.


"It doesn't matter. . . . You aren't going to leave here alive! I see you found your friends sword as well. . . Tell me. . . Was that hard for you?" The woman rasped.



Immediately Juliette's face turned red, and she gripped her sword tighter. She knew that fighting with her anger would be a mistake, but this woman was spitting on the memory of Anastasia.

Juliette would make her suffer. . .


Not wasting another moment, Juliette attacked with a powerful sideways downward slash. The woman's eyes got wide and her smirk disappeared as she realized that she couldn't block an attack of that magnitude. She jumped and flipped, narrowly avoiding being wiped from existence as the giant sword passed beneath her.


The force of the shockwave from the blade itself leveled an entire city block and the sword itself crushed another half a block but Juliette wasn't finished. She spun on her toes, keeping the moment up and turning the horizontal motion into a vertical overhead swing that smashed into the ground where the woman had landed.
The resulting damage was catastrophic.


The blast from the impact flattened the city for 2 blocks in every direction. The tip of her sword created a massive crater and completely powdered all the cobblestone in the area, not to mention the deep crack leading away from the hole in the direction she had swung. It took around 5 minutes for the dust to settle and she could actually see what she'd done.


Juliette couldn't actually tell if she had hit the slayer or not. The entire area was in ruins but there was no sign of the woman, although Juliette had completely disintegrated slayers before with similar attacks. Seeing nothing, Juliette was just about to turn and walk away, when she heard something to her right.


She looked down, to see the woman emerging from a pile of rubble. She shoved a large chunk of building aside and stood, dusting herself off.


"Huh. . ." She said, looking around at the carnage.


"You've got quite the swing, don't you?" Henrietta commented with her smirk returning.


Juliette didn't reply, just staring at her.


"I think it's my turn!" She said, lifting her sword.


Henrietta charged Juliette, but without any buildings still standing, she couldn't elevate to attack her but still she launched a prayer, her signature thin, light pink slash.


Juliette was unphased. Although it was difficult for her to see the attack in the light, it's thin, weak nature meant that Juliette would be able to block it easily and likely just over-power this slayer. She raised her sword and just let the attack deflect, but her arrogance allowed her to be caught off guard.


Instead of ricochet, the energy bent around her sword and it was too late to dodge. Juliette winced as the attack lashed her shoulder like a whip, drawing blood. Juliette touched her arm and saw that it had a deep gash now. She was a little shocked by it.


Juliette had never seen an attack like this. To the best of her knowledge, prayer attacks were basically just amplified sword strikes that were scaled up to kill giants, but this. . . This was something completely different. .


"What's the matter? You've never been cut before?" The slayer rasped with a grin.


"I'm fine. . . You should really keep your guard up." Juliette replied, calmly.


"Ha! You may be strongest giant I've ever faced, and definitely more agile, but I wouldn't exactly call you fast, darling!" Henrietta laughed, before she bolted forward.


Juliette focused on her movements as she darted back and forth, closing the gap. The slayer lifted her sword, and snapped her wrist downward as she swung another prayer.
The light glinted off the attack as it twirled through the air. Juliette knew it could curve around her sword if she just blocked but it was coming too fast to counter it. Knowing that she would take damage, Juliette stood tough, and blocked the attack anyway. It hit her sword as expected, but the spin made it unpredictable and as a result, her hands, stomach and thighs were all ripped into.


Although it hurt, Juliette saw the opening she was trying to create and she caught the woman with a kick from her left leg. Henrietta tried to block, having no other choice but the difference in strength was insurmountable. She was sent flying the same as Malakai, smashing through buildings, the wall, and finally stopping as she splintered a tree.


Henrietta fell to her knees, coughing up blood. She was still in the fight, but she was beginning to seriously reconsider going toe to toe with this woman. She was cast into the shadow of her opponent as Juliette stepped up to loom over her.


Henrietta craned her neck to look up at her.


"On your feet! As deplorable an individual as you seem to be, you still deserve to die an honourable death. ." Juliette said, pointing the tip of her sword at Henrietta.
Henrietta only chuckled, spitting out more blood.


"Huh. . . You think a little kick is enough to put me down?. . . Think again!" She replied, shakily standing up.


"Fuck you!" She finished, defiantly.


Juliette gritted her teeth as she struggled to keep her composer. She wanted to scream at this disrespectful little scrub, but killing her would have to be satisfying enough. She didn't wait for her to run her mouth anymore and thrust forward.


Too tired to dodge, Henrietta braced herself to block. She immediately felt Juliette's brute strength as she was smashed backward and pinned up against the tree. She strained, pushing back against the massive blade but it was a losing battle as her own sword was pressed into her skin, causing her to bleed and still Juliette was advancing.


Henrietta didn't know if Juliette possessed the strength, but if she did, soon her sword would bent from the pressure or snap all together. Without some type of intervention, she would die here. .


As if on key, a prayer ripped from Juliette's right and she was forced to withdraw.
Again she spun on her toes and her sword deflected the attack up into the sky. Henrietta saw her opportunity and instead of retreat, she threw a slash of her own but with the limited strength she had left, it only reached Juliette's thigh.


The attack hit and wrapped around her thigh, leaving a bloody ring. Juliette cried out in pain and dropped to her knee. It looked as though they finally had the upper hand but Juliette proved to be tougher than Henrietta thought when she braced her shoulder against her sword and blocked another prayer that looked to be Jacob.
Seeing another opening, Henrietta went to strike again, but Juliette saw it coming.


She reached down and grabbed a large chunk of a building and hurled it at Henrietta. The piece exploded into pieces as Henrietta put her fist through it. Purely out of spite, Henrietta reached down and picked up a tiny remain and heaved it at Juliette's forehead. The piece of brick struck home, doing nothing more than just crumbling and leaving a dirt spot on her face.


This woman was honestly working Juliette's last nerve. It was to the point where Juliette would kill her no matter the cost but first she had to deal with these other slayers that were dead set on continuing their offensive.


With a moment of relief she was able to stand and get sight of one slayer about 250 yards to her right. Another. . Ant. . . Was about 500 yards dead ahead. The woman was still about 30 beside her. Juliette knew to work closest to furthest so she turned her sword broad and took a swing the woman.


With the blade on it's side, there was more area to block, and surprisingly the woman wasn't blown away but instead, deflected it over her head and it continued on its way, but again Juliette spun, picking up speed in a multiple turn pirouette before smashing it to the ground in the next closest slayer.


The swords reach on top of Juliette's raw strength meant that all 3 slayers were in the blast range. She was already standing in the wake of her previous attack and when the dust settled, the carnage was spread out half way across the city. At this point, only about a quarter of the buildings on the far side of the city were still standing and only just.


The two male slayers were nowhere to be found. The initial crater was about 20 feet deep and had a radius of about 300 yards. The first male slayer would definitely have been swallowed up by the blast and as such, there was no trace of him. Ant on the other hand, could have escaped if he had reacted quick enough. The problem was, there would be no place for him to hide now. Anyone in the immediate vicinity would have been buried under the rubble.


Everyone except for Henrietta.


She knew she was in trouble now. That last attack had been so violent that even though she had been yards away from the attack, but the brute force had washed over her and everything else just the same. Now she lay, have covered in bricks and cobblestone 60 yards from Juliette. She tried to stand, but her legs refused.


Her heart sank as she felt the tremors signaling Juliette's approach. She struggled again as the giantess appeared in the sunlight above her head but still, her body wouldn't respond.


Juliette only stood, looking down and studying the slayer. Thoughts of just stomping her flat crossed Juliette's mind but she decided this needed to be done right. Not just any death would be suitable to avenge her sister.


"What? Are you just gonna stand there and stare at me?! Just get it over with already!" Henrietta spat at her.


"I'm afraid I can't let you off that easily. Fortunately, I have the perfect way to send you off. . " Juliette replied solemnly, as she jammed the tip of her sword into the ground, freeing up her hands.


"Fuck you!" Henrietta said, angrily.


Juliette said nothing, but knelt down and reached for her. Henrietta struggled widely against her giant fingers, but between their natural strength difference and her exhaustion, Henrietta was easily overpowered as Juliette wrapped her fingers around her head and lifted her from the debris.


Juliette stood up to her full height and looked the woman in the eye. Henrietta punched at her fingers but failed to get her to release her grip. Henrietta looked around desperately for any possible way she could get out of this, but it seemed everyone from the team had been incapacitated. With no obvious options, she stopped struggling and accepted her fate.


Juliette turned away from her, and began sifting through the wreckage where she had found the slayer.


"What the hell are you waitin' for?! I don't have all day!" Henrietta screamed in frustration.


"Your sword. . . . Where is it?" Juliette asked, eerily calm.


"Ha! Like I'd seriously give you my sword!" Henrietta laughed.


"You don't have a choice in the matter. It just seems as though you are in a hurry to die, so the sooner you tell me, the sooner I can send you to the afterlife." Juliette replied politely, as she continued to search through the rubble.


Henrietta was about to respond, when she saw something out of the corner of her eye.
"H. . . How considerate of you! But to tell you the truth, I don't actually know what happened to it. . . Must have lost it in the blast!. . . "


"Well. . . It's necessary for this, so I guess I'll just keep lo-


Juliette was interuppted mid-sentence as she saw what Henrietta had seen. Peter was sprinting toward her, sword drawn, but there was something unexplainable going on. As he ran and jumped, the very earth and stone was heaving and falling to help him gain altitude.


Every time he lept, another pillar would rise, and the one behind him would crumble. Juliette had never seen this ability before, and she could distinctly feel another presence now, besides the two slayers. This being seemed to have a very similar soul signature to a god, albeit less strong.


Juliette was caught completely off-guard, and didn't have time to grab her sword before Peter had reached her. She swiped at him with her free hand, smashing the pillar and narrowly missing him as he jumped to the next one, circling around her.


She made another grab for him but again he dodged, leaping to another pillar. Getting frustrated, Juliette went to pull her sword, but suddenly the ground came to life, and a giant, sharp pointed pillar jutted up in her face, forcing her to retreat. She narrowly avoided it, but from behind her, Peter closed in and took a swing at her as well. With her superior reflexes, Juliette was able to dodge, but it was sloppy as the cuts all over her body began to make the muscles stiff. For the first time, she was aware of herself slowing down.


To make the situation worse, Peter persisted, continuing to come at her. Juliette used her hand to try to defend herself, smashing at the pillars as she stepped around, careful not to give him an angle she couldn't defend. Juliette was also aware that it seemed that the slayer was herding her away from her sword.


Meanwhile, in Juliette's fist, Henrietta was taken along for the ride. Without the strength to escape, she just had to wait until either Juliette dropped her, or she warded off Peter and returned to killing her. Either seemed just as plausible as the two went back and forth but Henrietta couldn't help but notice that Peter was refusing to use any prayers. Seeing as how this was to this point, the biggest challenge of their lives, it didn't make sense to be holding back. . .


Peter continued to press his attack, jumping around as pillar after pillar jutted up with seemingly no limitation to the power of the one controlling it. Somehow the pillars were able to aid Peter as well as make their own attacks. It seemed as though this would go on forever until finally somebody made a mistake. . . As Peter circled around Juliette, he made an attempt to slash her face but with a sudden burst of speed, Juliette reached out and snatched him out of mid air. It seemed the exchange was over, except for the look on Juliette's face.


She winced in pain and that is when Henrietta noticed the tip of Peter's sword poking cleanly out the backside of Juliette's hand. She gritted her teeth against the pain and poured her strength into squeezing the life out of Peter.


Henrietta could hear Peter's body creaking as the biggest giant she had ever seen crushed her comrade as she herself was stuck in a similar predicament. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she loosened her grip and let Peter's body fall the ground with a heavy thud. To Henrietta's relief, he began to couch as the wind was knocked out of him, but at least he was still alive.


Unfortunately, Juliette immediately went to remedy that. Peter could only look up as Juliette's sandal blocked his view. He closed his eyes as it began its unstoppable decent, but just then he felt the earth beneath him give way and he was engulfed and dragged down just as her foot smashed into the ground where he was laying.


Juliette seemed unphased by the oddity as she returned her attention to the sword currently sticking through the back of her hand. Using the hand currently holding Henrietta, she winced as she pulled the sword out of her hand. There was a brief moment of silence before, without warning, Juliette grasped Peter's sword with her wounded hand and plunged it into Henrietta's chest up to the handle. She watched as Henrietta's eyes got wide and she struggled to speak as blood began to drip from her mouth.

“That is for my sister!” Juliette declared passionately, before tossing the woman's body to the ground. She died on impact.

It was at that time that Juliette noticed the pain in her hand... pain beyond having the equivalent of a 4 inch needle shoved through her palm. She took off her leather gauntlet to examine her hand. The hole where the blade had gone through was bleeding but it was minor. What worried her was the fact that the skin around the wound had begun to discolor and turn purple. The pain was radiating out in burning waves.


Juliette tenderly pulled the gauntlet back on and cautiously grabbed her sword. She pulled it from the ground and was just about to put it away when suddenly an attack came from behind her. Juliette was slow to react, and because of it, while she was able to block the attack she was knocked off her feet and fell onto her back in the ruins of her previous attack.


She quickly recovered but as she stood, she was faced with her attackers. 200 yards in front of her stood 3 men. One was clearly Antony Lockwood. One was the man from the human city, and the last one she didn't recognize. They faced her, swords drawn. She held up her own but for the first time, she could feel it's weight. It pulled her arms down and made her sluggish. Juliette didn’t have time to complain as the slayers made their move.

Antony and the man from the city both began to pray and launched matching blue vertical strikes. As soon as they released them, the 3rd man began to glow with a green light. Before her eyes the prayers began to change. They too began to change. They went from waist height vertical pillars into circular rings of spinning energy. They burned the air as they picked up speed. Juliette gathered her strength to block the attack and it took all she had to hold them back. Unlike normal prayers, these didn’t dissipate with contact and continued to push forward against Juliette's sword, causing sparks to rain down on her. She had to dig her sandals in and still she was moved back. The level of power this magic was generating was beyond anything she had faced so far, but she kept her calm. Knowing that her energy was beginning to fade, Juliette counted to 3 in her head and rolled backward in a reverse summersault. The drop successfully countered the push of the prayers and sent them flying behind her.


Although she had dodged that peril, immediately the slayers were after her again. This time Ant closed the gap and attacked horizontally, his attack again amplified with this mysterious god's magic. With her entire left arm throbbing now and her legs cramping up, she only just managed to deflect it to the side of her, causing her to stumble with the weight of her sword. The other slayer gave her no time to recover and sent his own high speed vertical attack. It gathered speed and height to the point where Juliette opted not to block it at all and just dodged frantically.


It was starting to really sink in. . . She might actually die, here and now. It broke her heart that she wouldn’t be able to avenge Anastasia in full, but she had at least killed the slayer directly responsible. Antony Lockwood and the others would have to wait. . .


Another amplified attack. The jagged green beam fried the air as it slithered low and rose at the last second as though alive. Not having the strength to lift her sword in time, Juliette could only move, but it wasn’t enough and the attack cut deep into her left shoulder. Blood began to flow from the cut, staining her dress and soaking her gauntlet. She let out a cry that echoed through the valley. Clutching her arm, her body aching and the pain from the stab radiating through her chest and out into her other extremities, Juliette knew she had to get out of there if she wanted any hope of survival.


In a moment of inaction, she put her sword back in it's sheathe and drew Anastasia's blade instead. She had made it much lighter than her own to suit the weaker woman, so wielding it while down on strength made sense. With that out of the way, she was faced with the next issue. . . Namely the 3 slayers blocking her escape. With her agility severely limited, she would have to cause a distraction.
Holding Anastasia's sword tip down in her right hand, Juliette took one last deep, ragged breath. By now it was painfully, painfully clear that she had been poisoned as she began to sweat, and her vision went in and out of focus. She said a final prayer to whatever gods might be listening, before she charged ahead.