Blanchette dashed forward like a crimson storm, her hoodie flaring behind her like the cloak of a war goddess. She launched a flying knee straight at Sawyl's head, but he twisted just in time, narrowly dodging the attack. He retaliated with a downward elbow aimed for her face, but Blanchette stepped back smoothly, avoiding the strike with feline grace.
Before he could recover, she pivoted and unleashed a thunderous right side kick into Sawyl's stomach, the impact blasting him backward with enough force to make his boots screech across the cobblestone alleyway.
Sawyl: (This girl… she's powerful. Fast. Her strikes are heavy… and those damn knuckle busters, one hit from them and it's over.)
He gritted his teeth and reset into a Muay Thai stance, eyes glowing blue like two embers burning in the night.
Blanchette didn't give him time to breathe. She charged again, feinting a low left kick. Sawyl raised his shin to block, but it was a trap, Blanchette suddenly shifted into a high axe kick. Her heel came down like a guillotine, slamming into his face. Blood sprayed from Sawyl's mouth as he stumbled, dazed.
Merlin, watching from the rooftop above, widened her glowing purple eyes. (I never knew she was this strong… Why didn't she do this when Jack attacked? She could've ended it all back then.)
Sawyl roared, his pride and pain fusing into blind fury. He charged at Blanchette with wild punches, but she slipped past each one effortlessly. A left hook from her pierced his ribs, blood sprayed as the spikes of her knuckle busters tore into him. Then she spun with a flawless 360 kick, connecting with his jaw. Sawyl's eyes rolled white as he dropped to his knees, coughing blood.
Blanchette stood over him, her bright blue eyes blazing with raw hatred.
"You're supposed to be one of the 36 heroes? What a joke. You're going to die slowly… for what you did to Joshua," she growled.
Sawyl spat blood at the ground and laughed, unphased. "Joshua? That little bitch who cried while I broke him? I enjoyed watching his bones snap."
Rage exploded inside Blanchette. She charged with a barrage of punches, a storm of calculated fury. Sawyl barely blocked, each hit carving open his skin from the knuckle spikes.
Sawyl: (Almost there... I just need to bait her.)
"I also killed James, you know. Joshua's little buddy. His face when I gutted him… it was priceless!" he jeered.
It worked. Blanchette threw a wild right straight, fully open.
Sawyl: (Gotcha.)
He caught her wrist mid-punch and slammed her to the ground with brutal force. She hit the alley floor hard, coughing blood as her knuckle busters clattered away.
"Now die, whore!" Sawyl yelled, raising his leg and slamming down a crushing axe kick meant to cave in her skull.
But before it landed, a shimmering purple barrier appeared over Blanchette's head, the blow cracked it, but the shield held. Merlin, floating on the rooftop with glowing eyes, frowned in grim focus.
She dropped a barrier wall between Blanchette and Sawyl, separating them.
"You almost died," Merlin called down. "I'm helping whether you like it or not."
Sawyl: (Shit. I can't take both of them… I'm screwed.)
Blanchette stood slowly, her face smeared with blood and rage.
"Don't interfere," she told Merlin flatly. "I'll show you how focused I am."
Then she grabbed the purple barrier separating her from Sawyl… and crushed it with her bare hand.
Both Sawyl and Merlin stared, stunned.
Blanchette lunged at Sawyl, throwing a lightning-fast right straight, then, at the last second, changed her mind. She thought of Joshua's sad eyes when he looked at her injured hands. She turned the punch into a front kick instead, knocking Sawyl backward.
Sawyl blinked, confused. (Why didn't she punch me?)
They clashed again, Blanchette using only kicks, Sawyl throwing everything he had. The fight descended into a brutal stalemate. Blood painted the ground, their bodies battered and barely holding on.
Blanchette managed to land a roundhouse to his temple. Sawyl staggered, but returned fire with a vicious uppercut to her jaw. The back-and-forth raged, blow for blow, like two beasts in a cage match of vengeance and hatred.
Then Blanchette leaped with a flying knee, but Sawyl speared her mid-air and tackled her to the ground. They rolled, fighting for dominance, until she landed in full mount on top of him. She raised her fists, then stopped.
She thought of Joshua again. His worried face. His gentle hands on hers.
She hesitated.
Sawyl grinned wickedly. "What's the matter? Gonna cry now? You stupid bitch!" He lunged and wrapped his hands around her throat, strangling her.
Blanchette thrashed, gasping, her face turning purple.
On the rooftop, Merlin watched, frozen. Then her eyes narrowed with resolve.
(You don't want to hurt your hands. Because you love him… and you don't want to make him sad. You're really willing to die for that?)
She raised her hand. "Forgive me, Blanchette…"
Merlin dissolved the barrier field and poured her magic into a new construct, twin barrier gauntlets with jagged purple spikes. They formed around Blanchette's hands like ghostly armor.
Sawyl noticed them too late.
Blanchette looked at her new hands. Then at him.
Then she began to punch.
Once.
Twice.
A third time.
The alley echoed with the thunder of rage and love as she pounded Sawyl's face into mush. Blood sprayed. Flesh tore. His skull cracked, then crumbled. Pieces of brain scattered across the stones.
Merlin leapt down silently and approached. Blanchette didn't stop.
"Blanchette," Merlin said gently, touching her shoulder. "He's dead."
The fists stopped. The purple glow faded.
Blanchette stood up slowly, breathing hard. She walked to her steel knuckle busters, picked them up without a word, and returned to Merlin.
"Let's go home," Merlin said softly, placing a hand on Blanchette's shoulder and two fingers on her own forehead.
A flash of purple light lit the alley.
When the city guards arrived moments later, all they found was a mangled corpse, a crater in the ground, and blood, everywhere. In the distance, two shadows vanished into the night, one with glowing purple eyes, the other burning blue.