hua cshed with Kant, her internal energy cyg. She knew what she was dealing with skill-wise now. Kant had held back just as much as she had during their initial exge, both of them testing the waters. She let me catch my breath, she thought as she pushed Kant’s bde to the side, letting it slide down the length of her own on before snapping out a kick. Kant threw herself bad nded on her hand, flipping once before sliding to a stop. hua was already moving when she caught herself, her bde turning into a blur of sparkling pials.

  One Hundred-Eighty Petals!

  Kant seemed to sehe ining attack, her eyes widening with a mixture of fury and delight. She took swaggering steps backwards, flig her sword left and right to deflect blows that came too close. “That’s more like it!” she shouted, “I want you at your best! If you’re the strohen no one stop yht?” she bellowed as hua’s attack dissipated. hua scowled and dove down before rising up in an uppercut. Kant brought her sword up and down, blog hua’s stroke. She stared wildly into hua’s eyes, dark mist billowing from her mouth.

  hua flinched when she smelled it and pulled back, breaking the lock as Kant released a gout of caustic mist from her lips. Kant ughed, “Liberty has it right! The strong survive, the weak serve! Heroes go against the natural order of things!” She bellowed and started striding towards hua while pointing at the surviving cultists. “They’re here because they want to be! Because they know they serve a higher purpose. Us!” She roared, “Don’t you get it? We mythics are the future of mankind!”

  hua glowered at the woman from where she stood. Her vision wobbled from just the slightest touch of that mist. She frowned. “You’re wrong. We have a responsibility.” She thought as she gowards Ewen and Ellis who were hanging out as if having a goddamn piic, watg their fight from the side. They’re trying to wear me down. Even if I beat her, they’ll just hop ba. This is endless. I arguably get away with using my powers up to heroic-tier but if I push my luy harder… She bit her lip. She looked the woman in the eyes as she got even closer.

  “Screw the rules, am I right?” Kant ughed and made an invitiure, “e on, I want to see it all.”

  Rules. hua thought and looked down at her knees. Do I even deserve to call myself a hero? She thought about Sonya. About that day in her office. About what she’d done. About how much Sonya had given to a world that would never five her for saving it. About how every single day she struggled to promise her feelings, her respect, and her desire to do what she o do and stop Ishtar, regardless of her iions. Rules. The World’s Stro? She looked back at the bodies ying in front of the on building. What a joke.

  Her shoulders sank as she held her oppo's gaze. What am I supposed to be? She thought. Who am I supposed to be?

  A crackle sounded in her ear, Amos? An update?

  <”That’s not all you’ve got, is it, Little Hero?”>

  Ishtar! Her eyes went wide, Sonya!

  <”Heroes do whatever it takes, they put everything on the line. Are you a hero, Bck Lotus? Or are you still a soldier?”> Ishtar’s mog voice said. A message, a challenge. Kant raised her on and snorted as hua’s heart pounded in her chest. <”You’ve already toed the line, using your powers this much. What’s a little more?”>

  You aren’t going to tempt me either, Monster. hua snarled back even as she felt a twinge of relief from hearing that voice. A relief that turned into fire in her veins. I’ll be there. I’ll fight you every step of the way. I’ll be there for her and I’ll fight you. I’ll beat you. Somehow I’ll make it work. Because that’s what a hero does. They make the impossible possible.

  hua kicked off the ground with all the strength she could muster while limiting herself to heroic output. She was in Kant’s fa an instant. Her foe leaped back, surprised as hua swung, “And that is exactly why I follow the rules!” She shouted, “Because if I’m the stro, if I do whatever I want, and I make that choice, then everyone behind me will know it’s okay to do the same! That it’s the right thing to do!” She bellowed, “So I’ll follow those rules, even to my dying breath!” She shouted and marched forward, on at her side, “e, vilin! Because that’s all you are, and all you will ever be!”

  Kant bore her teeth and stalked forward in response, a sneer on her face, “Have it your way!”

  <”Well said, Little Hero, I have a present I’ve arranged for you, I hope you like it.”>

  BRRZZZT!

  Both of them froze, hua looked up, The inter?

  “Attention invading force. My name is Car Mint of the Pandora ittee. I am asking you to y your arms down immediately and surrehis is noiable,” That small woman said in a hard voice, “Respond at once.”

  Kant snorted and raised her voice, “No!” She ughed and looked back to hua.

  “Very well,” Miss Mint said, “Then as ag Chairwoman of the Pandora ittee…” She began and Kant’s head whipped towards the building, her eyes going wide before looking back at hua, “I hereby temporarily reinstate Lian hua, Bck Lotus, and end her suspension until the time that all existing threats are dealt with. All as taken thusfar by the hero will be sidered uhe emergency cuse of the Hero Act,” there was a heavy pause, “Bck Lotus!” she snapped with a anding tone.

  hua felt something fall off her shoulders she didn’t even know was there, she stood up straight and tall, her lips pressed into a thin line. “Yes Ma’am!” she barked with all the strength in her lungs.

  “Do not hold bader any circumstances, Full power. Heroes are being dispatched to suppress the dungeon. Bring them to their knees and show them exactly what the world's stro hero is capable of!” Car anded and cut the signal.

  To all the world around her, hua’s eyes started to glow. The ground shook. The clouds moved. The earth cracked. She gripped her sword tight as she took a thunderous step forward, “Hero Bck Lotus, on duty!” she rumbled as she raised her sword.

  Across from her, Dame Kant’s eyes went wide. She looked around for a moment, taking in the ge in atmosphere. hua cycled her power, letting it bze through her body as her wounds began to close. She felt her muscles flood with power. She raised her head high a out a roar, a craed in the earth between them, splitting open so wide that Kant had to dart away. She snapped her head down and charged, a fsh of movement bringing her bato Kant’s face.

  “Look at me,” she growled, “This is what you wanted. Here I am. And now I’m going to make you pay for the lives you’ve taken.”

  Kant took a step ba response as rage repced the moment of fear in her eyes. Frown crag into a mad smile. Off to the side, Ewen shouted her name. Kant pointed her sword at him, “Shut up!” She barked, “Don’t do a damn thing, this duel isn’t over!”

  hua raised her head and looked down at her over her nose, holding her gaze. She watched a rush of emotions pass over her oppo's face as she pleted cyg her power. All the momentum and tension she’d built up over the grueling fight ready to be unleashed. Kant seemed to be of the same mind, though.

  “I hate you,” Kant hissed, “I hate you and everything you represent,” she snarled. hua felt the other woman’s power rising, cyg, growing. She allowed it. She would crush her for what she’d done, her pride, her will to fight, all of it. “STRENGTH FROM LIBERTY!” Kant roared, “I am Dame Kant of the Round Table!” she bellowed and a e of coppery light smmed down from the sky. hua sighed and raised her on.

  She charged.

  hua whipped her on down in a slow stroke, holding it out to her side, her eyes unblinking, her face a stony calm. “First Whisper of Spring,” Was all she said in a voice so ge caused a moment of doubt to flicker on Kant’s face. A ripple of air passed over Kant in the sed it took her to cross the distance. Cuts formed across her arms and chest, nicks and scrapes that stretched into wounds from an invisible bde meters aers long. Kant’s eyes were wide with pain and fury as hua’s sword followed the path from the first swing and came up in an arc just as Kant reached her.

  “Sed Drop of Rain.”

  Their ons cshed, Kaing out a scream of effort into the strike that sent the ground shaking and cracks f around Bck Lotus in a ring. Kant’s on pushed down against hua’s. hua g the woman’s hands, they were shaking. She flicked her gaze up to Kant’s fad gave her an almost pitying look.

  Kant’s pupils shrank and she bore her teeth, “Don’t you dare!” She screamed, “Don’t you dare pity me!” She bellowed and broke the lock, spinning like a top and swinging into an uppercut that the hua blocked with a casual swipe down. The swing cut a divot in the earth just past Kant’s own on. Kant snapped her hand out, reag for the hero’s face. hua barely paid any mind to the bergy wreathing the woman’s fingers.

  WHOMP!

  hua drove a fist into Kant’s gut, she felt bone and cartige bend but not break beh the force. That strange glow saved her life just now, hua thought as Kant’s eyes bulged. She was sent flying back through the opening of the dojo. hua turned her eyes on Ewen and Ellis who looked about ready to make a move and dared them to strike. She turned back to the dojo and took a step, vanishing and appearing behind Kant as the ulled herself, blood p from her mouth, from the wreckage ihe building.

  Kant whirled, raising her on as hua brought her on down again with unfiving force. All the anger she’d held back during the fights brought down on the vilin in front of her. Kant was sent hurtling away again, right out the opening she’d e through and skipping across the ground like a stone over water. hua darted forward, taking oep, then another, past One Hundred-Eighty Petals and into the strike of that form. She swept her bde and a ribbon of visible light swept over Kant, over Ellis, over Ewen, and over all the remaining cultists.

  on Fl Branch.

  The fre of light dissipated and Kant remaianding, her on raised in a guard, her clothes and skin torn and smoking. Trees were devastated behind her. hua took in Ewen and Ellis who had dropped to dodge the attack as well as the scattered few cultists who had dohe same. Their number cut doathetidful. She looked at Kant, the mythic breathing hard. For all the potential of your ability, and this is all you muster. You learned sword teiques and that’s it, she thought cooly, It looks like my assessment was correct.

  hua took aep.

  Kant looked down at her, as she appeared beh her, her on rising in a gleaming uppercut. She let out a shriek of i fury, swinging down to bloly to get thrown into the air. hua looked up into the sky, watg in silence. Kant drifted for a moment befhting herself. Her bloodied face twisted with rage. hua felt the woman’s internal energy explode inside of her, rage turning into power as a bck aura ed around her on. She raised it over her head while pointing her free hand at hua.

  “BLACK LOTUS!” Kant screamed. “Obelisk of One Hundred Eight Judgements!” she screamed as a pilr of dark light rained down towards hua. Atoms sizzled against it, the air screamed, the world darkened in that pbsp;

  hua lowered her on to her side and she sighed, taking in both hands. Her dark, pitying eyes met Kant’s. “Three Songs for the Fallen Heroes,” Bck Lotus intoned and mana surged towards her. She gathered it up and swung. For a moment, it felt as if the entire world turs eyes on hua. Like she would be subjected to another heavenly tribution. hua swung her on, owice, three times in a bisected x that remained before her, glowing with a blue-white light. She drew her on bad stabbed through it. “Let the petals e.”

  WHOOSH

  When the light faded, Kao the earth like a meteor. Her skin burned and cracked, her limbs twisted, her nose bleeding freely. hua took a slow step forward and stepped off the ground, hopping into the air and catg the vilin before she hit the ground. She hovered there, letting the woman hang in her grip. Kant slowly turn her head even as her eyes danced with the agony of the movement. She looked up at hua, her lips trembling.

  “I hate you,” she croaked.

  “I know,” hua said with a sigh as she wondered what kind of life could create a wretched person like this. She surreptitiously steadied the grip on her sword. It had taken more than she cared to admit to block it. That st attack owerful. So much potential, wasted. She started to turn, “I think you all should leave-” Pain exploded in her chest as fingers dug into her side. She looked down in surprise at Kant’s ruined hand coated with bck light. Something corrosive began to spread through her body. The girl sneered up at her. “You!” hua snarled.

  Kant’s twisted face broke into a manic smile, her broken toothed grin coated in blood, “Finally got you! BOYS! NOW!”

  hua snarled and threw the girl to the ground just as many things happe ohe sound of whistling filled her ears and a brilliant fsh of red light rose up from her fnk. She brought her sword up only for a thunderous crash to sound from the on building. She didn’t have time to pay attention to it, she turned as soon as she sensed Ellis’ ining attack, blog it even as her side screamed in protest. That strange corrosion sappirength. She was blown baly to feel herself get tugged by a hand grabbing the back of her robe.

  The hing she knew she was ba the ground, feet pnted, and standio a very familiar brown-haired woman in a maid outfit. Her eyes went wide.

  “Handmaiden,” she breathed only to wince as the pain from whatever Kant had doo her surged up again.

  “It’s fine,” Handmaiden said, knowing her , “We’ve got bigger problems.”

  hua narrowed her eyes, gng at her hand. My blood’s turning bck, she thought before cyg her power to suppress the poison and shore up her strength. She took her on in both hands. “What bigger problems?”

  She have asked.

  A presence so heavy it even made her knees buckle washed over the courtyard of the camp. A weight that sent a thrill of genuine fear up her spi felt almost like Ishtar had at Vegas but far, far more oppressive and tyrannical. It pushed the breath from her lungs. She shuddered, her breath catg ihroat as she locked eyes with Ellis who was standing opposite her, o Kant’s beaten form. His eyes were wide as well, and not with excitement. There was fear there as well. She turned her head slowly as she shifted a bit, getting back to back with Handmaiden.

  A cp of thunder annouhe new batants' arrival. A woman standing nearly seveall airely clothed in heavy armor. She held a broadsword in one hand and what looked like a withered human iher. Her blonde locks fluttered around her head, glowing blue eyes burning in the dim light cast by the few mps left lit during the fighting. Liberty cast the man she was holding down to the ground with a grunt and stepped forward.

  “Heroes,” she growled, “You have my attention.”

  –

  Hundreds of miles away, Sonya raised her hand to her head. Blue motes of light washing over her as her regalia encased her body. She stalked out of the room where she’d left an unscious Phillip. Rest up, Phillip, you o live so you call Liberty home when you wake up, I just need long enough to make a point, she thought as her helmet formed over her head. She let out a rexed breath as the sole guard who had been standing outside the room jumped in surprise. She turned her head slowly to look at him, You’re up, Ishtar, she thought and her shoulders went sck.-

  Ishtar snapped out her hand and grabbed the man by the throat, her cruel rasp rattling out from her helmet. “You, oher hand, aren’t so lucky,” she said and snapped his neck. She raised her right hand and ched it into a fist as she dropped the man’s body. Streaks of light f in the hallway that opened into the straes that gave birth tion. Marble skinned Legionepped out, their own glowing eyes turo face her.

  She gave them only one order.

  “Lay waste.”