“Welp, there goes that plan,” Bea muttered to herself as she hovered above the enemy squad.

 

“Orders, my lady?” Dahlia asked from her left.

 

“I’m thinking,” Bea replied quietly.

 

The plan had been to throw the entire enemy team into disarray with the centaur charge, and while they were distracted, have her squad swoop in and take advantage of the chaos. It was a simple but effective plan. The centaurs had a habit of trampling any adventurers who didn’t give them enough respect, so there was little chance that someone would be foolhardy enough to stand up to their charge.

 

At least, that’s what she thought before she and her team had swooped over the low walls of the arena and found the pair stopped dead in their tracks by a squad of heavily armored warriors.

 

They would have caused a lot of damage if they’d managed to catch the enemy team distracted and disorganized, as they’d planned, but the vast majority of them were standing there, completely unfazed.

 

“If we engage here, we’ll be outnumbered nearly two to one,” she finally said.

 

“And if we don’t, they’ll have free rein right up to Sullivan,” Lily, on her right, replied.

 

Bea bit her lip. They could fall back to the boss area and back up Sullivan, but the thick miasma seeping out from beneath the mage gave her pause. If they let that spread unchecked, there was a good chance it would be flowing into Sullivan’s area long before the enemy actually arrived, and who knew what sort of detrimental effect it would have on the Dullihan.

 

“Skirmish formation,” she finally ordered. “Harass with your bows until we find an opening!”

 

The rest of the girls shouldered their heavy shields and drew their long bows. They broke out into teams and started buzzing around the arena, peppering their opponents with arrows.

 

Unfortunately, the heavily armored knights just shrugged the attacks off, even the precise shots that seemed to penetrate the weaker armor at their joints, while the sword wielders parried anything aimed their way.

 

Things seemed to be going fine; the enemy didn’t have any ranged attacks, so as long as her sisters kept up the pressure, they should have been able to sneak a shot through eventually. No defense is perfect after all, but before they could, the situation changed.

 

The miasma shifted, swirling nearly imperceptively in several places, before shooting long, ropy tendrils high into the air. They were so fast that most of the girls didn’t even have a chance to dodge as the grasping vines of dark magic closed in.

 

Bea snatched her blade from its scabbard and brought it down through one particularly aggressive tentacle just as it closed in on her ankle before quickly climbing out of the range of the other vines.

 

Many of her sisters weren’t so lucky. The thick miasma had coiled around them, draining their vitality and steadily dragging them towards the floor.

 

“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” Jyssa laughed. “The miasma isn’t just for show, it’s an extension of my power, it obeys my every whim!”

 

“How nice for you,” Bea growled as she dove back down towards the writhing mass of dark energy. The miasma rose to meet her, grasped at her, tried to bring her down, but Bea would not be deterred. She darted between them, flicking her rapier at whatever came close as she closed in on her objective.

 

Violet had been the closest to the ground, and after being pulled by the miasma, she was nearly in range of the knight’s polearms. Before they could strike, Bea swooped down, below her sister, and quickly severed the bindings with a sweep of her blade, before dragging the girl back out of range.

 

“Thank you… my lady…” Violet managed to get out between ragged breaths. She was pale, and the miasma had left long, dark bruises on her skin wherever it had touched, but she was still able to keep herself aloft.

 

“Enough with the ‘my lady’ stuff. We came here to get away from the rigid hierarchy of the hive, and on top of that, we’re family. Knock it off,” Bea huffed.

 

Violet gave her a lopsided smile. “Alright, sis. In that case, what’s the plan?”

 

“Do you still have your bow?” Bea asked. Violet managed to half-lift the weapon in her shaky hands before Bea stopped her. “Good. You’re not in any shape to help engage the enemy directly, so what I want you to do is stay here and try to avoid bringing attention to yourself.”

 

“While I appreciate your worry, you are aware that I can take care of myself now, right? We don’t have to rely entirely upon your strength anymore,” Violet growled.

 

“I may have pushed myself and evolved first, but please don’t sell yourself short. You never relied upon my strength. If anything, I relied upon you guys,” Bea replied. “And note, I never said to avoid getting involved, I said to try and avoid bringing attention to yourself… until the right moment.”

 

Violet cocked her head to the side. “And when might that be?”

 

“You’ll know it when you see it,” Bea replied. “I’ve gotta go. If we don’t act fast, Jyssa is going to rip everyone to pieces.”

 

“Wait!” Bea heard her sister yell as she dove once again into the roiling magic below. “Ugh… you could have at least given me a hint for what I’m supposed to be watching for.”

 

Bea let a hint of a smile pass her lips before focusing on the task at hand. Lyssa must have been focusing directly on her because the miasma struck out at her in a frenzy. Dozens of tendrils whipped at her wings and grabbed at her ankles. She swept the magic away as quickly as she could, but a few snuck through her guard, striking her in the side and legs.

 

Even those brief grazes were enough to chill her to the core and make her limbs go numb. Chances were, this was going to be her last dive.

 

Just as she was about to reach the surface of the miasma, she pulled up, skimmed just above the surface, and severed the tendrils holding Rose. She could hear her sister struggling to gain altitude, but instead of following Bea, she let her momentum carry her forward. She was only a few feet from the edge of the small stone area, so she flipped around, hit the low stone wall feet-first, and propelled herself back into the center of the arena.

 

Back towards Lyssa.

 

With Violet and Rose entangled, Dahlia, Lily, and Ivy had struggled to maintain their attacks on the Sanctum’s team, but they never completely let up. Both the spell blades and the heavily armored knight were still distracted by the rain of arrows, which gave Bea a very small window of opportunity. Or at least she hoped.

 

Lyssa let out a small cry of ‘What?’, which was about all the time she had time for, as Bea came rocketing across the floor of the arena.

 

Bea raised her blade, preparing to perform a single quick strike that would hopefully put an end to Lyssa, or at least disrupt her magic. Before she could, the ghoul that escorted Lyssa everywhere stepped out in front of her, intercepting the strike.

 

“Oh no, you don't!" Vaughn snarled as he deflected her rapier downwards. The blade almost immediately embedded itself in the ground, causing Bea to tumble as it was ripped from her grasp.

 

The miasma closed in upon Bea before she even hit the ground, tendrils grasped at her, pulling her downwards. She was quickly submerged under the roiling cloud of dark magic, pulling it into her lungs, drowning in its foulness.

 

“That was a close one. I heard this one was bold, but I never thought she’d try to slip through our lines to attack you directly. That’s not bold, it’s suicidal,” Vaughn laughed as he walked over and nudged Bea with his long, curved blade. A single touch was all it took to chill Bea to the core; it was getting hard to breathe.

 

“Desperate, not suicidal,” Lyssa declared. “She needed to disrupt my magic somehow, and this was the only way to do it.”

“Not… only… way…” Bea managed to choke out.

 

“Oh? And what, pray tell, was your other plan?” Lyssa asked as she slowly sauntered closer. “Beg me?”

“No…” Bea started, a moment before an arrow shot from the sky and embedded itself in Lyssa’s chest. “Distract… you.”

 

Vaughn instantly swept his blade through Bea’s neck before craning his head skyward, only to lock eyes with Violet. “It’s your fault for leaving an opening,” the Anthophilan girl coldly declared. “A life for a life.”

 

“The miasma’s clearing!” shouted from across the arena. “We should pull back. We’ll have better odds if we fight them with Sullivan now.”

 

The other girls almost immediately scattered, quickly disappearing beyond the walls of the tiny arena.

 

Only Violet remained, eyes locked on Vaughn. “See you soon,” she hissed before turning and following her sisters.

 

“Oh, believe me,” he growled at her retreating. “I’ll look forward to it.”