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The energy slowly poured into the orb while the lady giddy laughed. ”Getting one makes this trip worthwhile; now, let’s see if I can get double the prizes today.”

She began to turn around to the next person in the crowd.

Stab

Flying cleanly through the air, a sword aimed directly at the lady’s heart.

Within moments of being hit, her body shifted to the side, and the sword pierced a non-vital area of the body. Immediately the lady flew up higher and removed the sword from her body.

[The explosion didn’t activate.] (Syrus)

[Oh no…] (Eva)

[That’s fine, we just have to do this the hard way.] (Luna)

Syrus waved her now-free hand in the air. “Sup, villain.” Taunting her adversary. She stood on the nearby building across from the city hall’s fenced-off area.

The lady turned around on her floating platform. She looked down on Syrus, “I prefer Witch. it has a nice ring to it.” She removed the blade that had pierced her cloak and body and did something out of Syrus’s sight to the wound.

“Considering what you are currently doing, I guess that fits.” Syrus’ sword tip ignited with a little flame.

“Oh, I thought you were a coward who stayed away from the fighting, but it appears you had some skill.” That fact that Syrus’ was able to keep a small flame attached to the furthest point on her blade was a sign of her fire control.

“I guess you weren’t paying much attention as I came into town.”

“No, I was not.” The lady shrugged.

[Are we sure we should be chatting with the enemy?] (Eva)

[It’s just a form of distraction.] (Syrus)

[I am here to deal with surprises, Lilly, don’t worry.] (Luna)

“Well, do you have any friends in the audience?” The lady chuckled. “Come on, raise your hand if you are friends with the girl I mentioned earlier.”

In the multiple crowds of people that she had sorted into groups, not a single one raised their hand.

[Eva, do you think you will be able to grab her hand or ankle with your wire?] (Syrus)

[Forty-percent chance if we got within ten metres.] (Eva)

[Good enough odds. I’ll give the signal to try.] (Syrus)

Syrus asked, “Wouldn't you have gotten the answer earlier?”

“No, I only asked the people who were useless to me last time.” The lady shook her head. “Can’t say I expected to deal with a loner. Sigh, just my luck.”

“What? Did you want to try and kill a friend of mine?”

“Of course, maybe I would bring their consciousness back first so you can hear them scream.”

“I see. Well, if that’s the case, do you mind if I torch our surroundings? So difficult to fight when there are crowds below you.”

[What?!] Eva knew Syrus wouldn’t actually murder these people, but it still felt like it came out of nowhere.

The witch gripped her staff, “If you want to, be my guest.”

Syrus’ whispered, “Gladly.” The flame intensified, and she shot a blast of fire at one of the ‘useless’ crowds. It looked deadly, but it was basically an illusion: the fire had no heat and wouldn’t burn anything. Upon impact, it would dissolve into nothing.

The witch flew into the path of the attack, and her door surfboard turned to block the attack; in the process, she realised the flames were ineffective.

Syrus smiled. “Thanks for confirming that theory, but I am curious. What would happen if I killed a few?”

“Well, you seem smarter than how you look–”

“I’d say I look pretty smart.”

The witch’s grip tightened as the ominous light around the orb intensified. “How about you go to sleep, then you answer my question?”

[I… don’t like the feeling that the orb is emitting…] (Luna)

Luna didn’t know what about it made her feel off, but something about it her soul rejected. This feeling was shared between the three of them; Syrus and Eva ignored it to focus on the fight. Anlesa didn’t feel anything immediately, but once the witch killed the first person, their soul felt repulsive and attracted force from the orb.

At her command, a wave of energy collided with Anlesa.

[I got this!] (Syrus)

Syrus' presence forced Luna and Eva out of the body for a moment as she became the single focus target of the onslaught.

A wave of fog blanketed her mind, and her thoughts weakened and quieted down; then they slowly grew weaker, and weaker, and weaker, as even the voices around, the wind’s breeze, and even the sound of breathing faded away as her mind became disinterested in everything.

“Now there little sheep, behave–”

Flames raged out into the sky, hungry for flesh to burn.

“Ah!” The witch’s board turned upward to block the flame; she hung on by holding the top as her feet rested in a hole made for this angle. The tips of her fingers were caught in the flames, causing her pain.

[So that was her control…] (Eva)

Eva and Luna jumped back in immediately. Syrus couldn’t ever keep them out, and the one reason she was able to push them out in the first place was because they weren’t ready for it.

[How did you do that, Syrus?] (Luna)

The flames stopped, and she spun the door back into a surfing position. She yelled from above, furious, “How dare you! How did you resist it!?”

“I’m far too angry to have my emotions doused out like that.”

“Anger? Bullshit! It’s not perfect, but it has far advanced to the point that mere emotions can stop my spell!”

[She is just... revealing information now?] (Eva)

[Cockyness, pride, all that. Don’t worry.] (Syrus)

Click

The witch clicked her fingers, and the crowd of people fainted beside two that walked out of the building. Two large figures covered head to toe in armour and wielding two swords each. Unlike the others, they weren’t wobbling with their walk but something about them didn’t seem human.

[Puppets?] (Eva)

[No…] Syrus focused on the movement, breathing, everything. “They are alive, that’s for sure.”

“After I cut your limbs off, maybe then you will feel like listening.” The witch commanded her two subjects. “Go, capture that woman.”

The two individuals had their weapons out, ready to kill.

[Two people to dodge; that shouldn’t be too hard.] (Syrus)

[And attacking someone in the sky..?] (Eva)

[Don’t worry, still the same plan; I will give the signal.] (Syrus)

[Do you think brute force will wake those two up?] (Luna)

Syrus looked down on the two people; she didn’t recognise either of them, but she felt disgust at what she was looking at.

[No.] (Syrus)

The guards ran forward from the guard and jumped. In strength that was not possible for the average man, they leapt over the fence and onto the building's roof in a single jump.

Once the first man landed, he immediately rushed at Anlesa.

Syrus swung the sword off her back, breaking free of the sheath in a blaze of fire.

The swing cancelled the attack, but she was being overpowered even when she pressed the second blade onto the first.

[This might get messy.] (Syrus)