Jaclyn took her potshot and boosted herself a distance away from Perseus making sure that Chione’s holder followed her. “Alright ice witch, time to burn you out.” The woman launched ice spikes at Jaclyn. “Don't forget you needed help to beat me last time. Not only are you alone but thanks to that stunt I know unlike me you can't perform Unity. When opposing forces clash, it's the one with more power that wins. Unfortunately for you, that's me.” Jaclyn fired more balls of black fire at the woman only for her to smash them away with her hammer.

  The woman then rushed at Jaclyn at high speed with a spin to strike at her but Jaclyn was ready and conjured a wall of intense black flames to force the woman back. The two went back and forth like this with Jaclyn playing keep away and sticking to ranged attacks. “I know your tactics now witch, as a melee type you do best in close range where as a caster I'm better at a distance. So long as I keep you away from me you stand no chance.”

  The woman tightly gripped her weapon and her eyes started to glow as the amount of energy around her increased. “Unison Armorment, Vale of Winter.” Snow emanated from the woman blinding Jaclyn for a moment before she saw the blizzard suddenly disturbed as the hammer broke through it and slammed Jaclyn into a wall. Jaclyn only caught a split second view of her opponent who seemed to be wearing armor made of ice causing the small scale blizzard before getting the wind knocked out of her twice. She struggled up when suddenly the fire alarm started blaring and the sprinklers turned on, taking the floating snow down with it and giving Jaclyn clear line of sight again.

  The woman roared out in frustration. “Really?! You aimed for the sprinklers?! You know this is a detriment to you as well right?” Jaclyn laughed. “I didn't turn them on, and they weren't turned on for my benefit.” The woman looked over to try and spot the other battles but was hit by a large fireball from Jaclyn. “Hey ice witch, focus on your own fight!” The woman grunted in frustration as her armor took the hit as she turned her attention fully on Jaclyn.

  Her glowing eyes held only rage as she changed at Jaclyn with full speed and it took everything Jaclyn had just to keep her at bay. Creating projectiles, streams of fire, and walls of flame all while doing her best to dodge the aggressive assault from the ice witch. Clearly she was outmatched and the water from the sprinklers wasn't exactly helping her fight. Swing after deadly swing, dodge after careful dodge, and any direct hit seemed to have little to no effect. Jaclyn started feeling desperate.

  “Any ideas Nyx?” a woman in a purple bell dress like what you'd see in a princess movie with black hair tied up into a slight bun with a ponytail and in the bun knot was a large purple flower. There was a black veil over her face and she looked almost like someone in the eighteen hundreds that had dressed for a funeral. “Just keep this up, but don't use too much energy. She'll defeat herself at this rate.” Jaclyn wasn't sure how that worked but decided to trust Nyx. She continued to play keep away using only small projectiles or flamethrower like bursts to keep the ice witch away as the sprinklers continued to rain.

  The woman kept getting more and more frustrated as she started to slow. Or at least it seemed to Jaclyn that her opponent started to slow as it started getting easier to dodge. She then realized what was going on. The melted armor and the sprinkler water was freezing the joints of the armor because of the massive amount of cold energy coming off the ice witch. Her own power was impeding her own movement.

  With dodging getting easier over time, Jaclyn could finally focus more on attacking. Able to concentrate more before an attack she could now make stronger attacks. Jacklyn could go all out however as doing so would fully melt the armor or at least give way that the ice witch’s own power was what was slowing her down. Jacklyn made one last big fireball attack as her opponent rushed in for a big swing. However, before the hammer could make contact there was a cracking and creaking noise as the witch suddenly stopped, unable to move.

  Jaclyn chuckled. “Looks like you're all jammed up. Here, allow me to help you.” She took her time gathering up a bunch of energy. “Nocturne Moon.” She then sent a massive ball of black fire at her opponent. There was a massive explosion sending the witch to the ground impacting into it. The witch crawled out of the hole with her armor fully melted and her kimono slightly singed, her eyes still glowing and looking angrier than ever. “You insignificant speck!! You can't even perform Unity and you really think you have a hope in hell of challenging me?? I've just been playing around with you before now. You are about to see what it's like, when hell itself freezes over!”

  A wave of cold pulsed off of the woman, causing the sprinklers to freeze and create spiky shapes near them in the area around the two. The walls and shelves in the area had frost creeping over them. “Breath of winter.” Jaclyn felt her entire body chill and the flames of her candelabra dimmed. “This doesn't look good.” Her heart started to race, and Nix put her own hand on the candelabra causing the flames to flicker up again. “It's not yet time for night to fall, my young holder. Burn brightly.” Jaclyn gripped her weapon tighter and increased the flow of energy. “It's always darkest before the dawn. Twilight Serenade.” Tiny flame balls came off the candles and started floating around the room like dandelion fluff.

  The ice witch laughed. “If you think those little flakes will slow me down let alone stop me, you're dreaming. Absolutely delusional.” Jaclyn closed her eyes tightly and opened them to show them glowing a dark purple. “I may not be able to keep this stable for long because my body hasn't adjusted to being a holder yet, and forcing Unity might prevent me from ever ascending, but in this moment the only thing that matters is victory.”

  The witch's smile faded, then she made another charge with the ice spikes from the sprinklers breaking off and launching at Jaclyn. The small flames blocked the projectiles and even impacted the witch as she attempted her approach, taking damage from the small orbs that were acting like a minefield. The witch didn't even slow down as she made another boosted heavy swing at Jaclyn. Jacklyn ducked under it and swung her own weapon at her opponent.

  The ice witch dodged backwards to avoid the impact on instinct, forgetting for a moment that Nix was not a melee type. Jaclyn took the opening to blast a stream of black flames at her opponent while there was an opening. The witch took the direct hit and was forced to retreat a bit with her kimono looking rather rough from the fight. She huffed and puffed. “I… I won't lose to a novice like you!” Jaclyn smirked. “You don't exactly have a day in the matter. Now, I'll end this. Nightfall!”

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  Jaclyn made a downward swing with her candelabra and all the little flames that had been floating like mines that were still left over suddenly flew at high speed at the witch from all directions. She tried creating ice spikes from the floor to block but there were too many projectiles to block and the woman was slammed with multiple small attacks. Jaclyn felt her temporary Unity end and waited for the smoke to clear. When it did her opponent was still standing and holding her hammer, with nothing left of her outfit minus some bandages as underwear.

  The ice witch huffed and puffed, seething with anger, the glow in her eyes dying down. “Damn you. Damn you! Damn you!!!!” She huffed a bit more. “I'll kill you… I'll kill you even if it's the last thing I do. You think this is over?! You think I'm done?!” She huffs more and takes a few steps forward. “This ain't over till the fat lady sings! You'll have to kill me for this to end!” Jaclyn sighed. “Then I guess this isn't going to end, because I have no plans to take your life.” Jaclyn slowly walked forward before raising up her weapon and slamming the bottom of the candelabra down on the ice witch's head knocking her out.

  Jaclyn looked over her own wounds, several cuts across her arms, legs, and midsection. She could see in her reflection in the water that her face was equally scratched up. “Good thing we have a healer with us, because I am spent. … Wait, Hector went to fight the holder of Serqet. I should back him up.” Jaclyn took a step with a small stumble. “...Fuck. I'm not going to be any help to anyone in this condition. Guess I'll just sit and use self recovery for a bit.”

  Hector body slammed the user of Serqet into the distance making sure they were far enough away from the other fights. Serqet was about to slash down on him so he let her go and she went flying into a wall. She picked herself and gave herself a light jab with the finger talon. “Well then, I didn't expect a fellow healer to fight so aggressively.” She spoke with a heavy accent, likely middle eastern. Hector twirled his staff. “That's not normally my play style, but I need to be absolutely sure you don't interfere with the other fights going on.”

  The woman cracked her neck. “Well that's unfortunate, because I'm built more like an assassin with healing abilities. Meanwhile it seems to me you're just built for speed and healing. A pure support. So starting a one on one fight wasn't exactly the smartest move there.” Hector chuckled. “Maybe not, but I've got faith in my friends. Faith that at the end of the day, we'll be victorious.” The woman flicked out her blades. “You and your friends could win every fight against us, and it wouldn't matter. You won't have enough energy to fight MacGonagall. You've signed your own death warrant.”

  Hector was done hearing his opponent talk and decided to make the first move, riding in only for her to use the two firearm mounted blades to block. “Speed means nothing if you don't have the strength or power to back it up.” The blades moved to recline, pushing Hector back a bit. The woman then dropped down and went for a leg sweep. Hector was tripped but he used his powers to flip all the way around and used his momentum to kick the woman in the head before landing on his feet. She took a few steps back and rubbed her head. “Ah, I guess that's fair game. This might not be boring after all.”

  The woman lowered her body to an almost crawling stance before charging at Hector from down low. Her blades still retracted, they shot back out to full length as she slashed her weapon aiming for Hector's shin. He easily jumped over it and sent himself behind her before swinging his staff down at her back only for her to spin and roll out of the way and shift back to a standing position. Hector smiled. “It's a lot harder to sneak up on someone when you're fighting one on one in an open area.”

  The woman made several attempts to charge at Hector; zig zagging, circling to his back, leaping into the air to try and attack from above. Each time Hector was easily able to either dodge or block thanks to his speed. “Why aren't you fighting back?! Don't you want to win?” Hector laughed. “Weren't you listening? My goal here isn't to beat you or even to fight you. My goal is to keep you occupied. I know I can't win in a fight with you, but what I can do is keep you away from the other fights. You can't heal your allies or run sneak attacks on mine if you're busy fighting me.”

  The woman paused for a moment before looking over to try and see the progress of another fight. Then the fire alarm went off and the sprinkler system activated. “What the?” Hector chuckled as he looked over to see Victor setting off the sprinklers. The alarm stopped sounding but the lights kept flashing and the water kept pouring. “Looks like it's over for your allies soon. The sprinklers are going to give our strongest fighter an advantage.” The woman let out a short laugh. “Hah, but it also serves as a detriment to the caster in your group who's fighting the holder of Chione.”

  Hector hadn't really thought about that, but considering Chione was encountered before it's likely something Perseus considered. That means he wasn't worried about it. Hector smiled again. “Yeah, my friend is really smart, so he probably considered that pairing. Meaning he had full confidence in my sister winning a fight with Chione's user with the sprinklers on.” The woman scowled and looked at her now wet outfit. “Well I guess I should continue, this outfit is designed for use in water anyway.”

  The woman put her hand into the water on the floor from the sprinklers. The water started to become discolored as her poison spread. Not wanting to take chances Hector jumped to a crate that was sitting in the warehouse. “So you're poisoning the water and forcing me to play “the floor is lava”? I guess there are shelves and crates and I can use my powers to sort of fly. Nothing I can't handle.” The woman smiled. “Is that right? Okay then. Polluted rain.” The sprinklers in the area themselves started producing poison droplets.

  The woman ran her hand through the poisoned rain. “Now this war of attrition is on my side. Bet your friend didn't account for that.” Hector started using some of his energy to heal after creating a windflow to prevent new droplets from landing on him. “That move would have been a lot more effective on someone else.” The woman shrugged. “Whether you get poisoned or have to burn up more energy to avoid it is fine. Either way you'll run out of steam long before I do. Then when you're too tired to fight I'll gladly run my sword through you.”

  Hector sped at his opponent swinging at her head only to get blocked. He used his energy to hover off of the ground while being pushed back by the block. He then went for a kick and although this one was dodged the movement naturally sent him away from his target. He managed to cling to a shelf. “I don't have to outlast you, just your allies. Then I can make you someone else's problem.”

  Hector looked over to see Perseus actually going toe to toe with two people at the same time by using the water from the sprinklers to his advantage. He smiled as he looked back at his opponent. “Looks like I don't have to wait much longer.” The woman once again sent herself at Hector who dodges, kicking off the shelf and grabbing the guardrail for the upper catwalk area. Hector climbed up onto the guardrail before launching himself off it at a higher speed than he had ever previously achieved.

  Hector slammed his staff right into his opponent's gut at deviating speed sending her into a wall. Unfortunately this attack killed Hector's momentum and he was forced to step in the poisoned water. He quickly jumped onto a crate and put energy into healing himself. The woman picked herself off of the ground and looked at Hector with seething anger. However, she saw the holder of Hades running out of the building and passed a man dressed in a strange outfit that she didn't recognize. She couldn't tell if this person was an Armatus holder from this distance and decided to play it safe. “You win this one, but you haven't seen the last of me.” She ran off causing her power to stop affecting the area.

  Hector looked over at Victor who pointed to the door. “Was I supposed to stop that person that ran out?” Hector shook his head. “I think that was the holder for Hades so honestly I wouldn't have tried it.” The two then go to regroup with the others. Once everyone is regrouped Hector starts tending to the wounds of everyone for a while. Then two more people come out from the back, both people Perseus recognized. The holders of Apollo and Jord. The holder of Apollo, Nathaniel, didn't have his trademark cocky smirk. “I'd really rather not have a rematch with you, holder of the trident, but I have a significant debt that needs paying or my family is at risk.” Mariah cracked her knuckles. “Sorry, hot stuff, but it's business before pleasure.”