Carolina did her best, and she didn’t have a single chance.

Barely visible piano wires surrounded Nuan. Each of them was enhanced with Aura, capable of slicing steel. Without even bothering to pause, Nuan made her way past the barricade of razor sharp wires, evading with extreme skill and ease. Her footwork was barely noticeable. She artfully blitzed past Carolina’s best effort and landed a sucker-punch, sending the current Gold Leader flying down the street and into a café window.

Glass shattered and cashes flew as Carolina crashed into the cashier and smashed into the cakes being displayed.

Nuan cracked her knuckles and slowly walked to continue the fight.

Carolina tugged her finger to attack with her wires again.

Unlike the previous attempt, Nuan didn’t spend energy to dodge. She grabbed a strand of the coming string, and ran her Aura through that material, snuffing out Carolina's own enhancement.

Nuan grinned savagely and unleashed her Aura, causing the wire to explode to tiny filament. The kinetic explosion traveled down the wire and into the hand wielding it.

Carolina flinched from the biting pain as the wires around her finger exploded. She grimaced. Internal structure destruction was an advanced Aura technique. Utilizing that ability alone was a mark of a master, but breaking something as thin as a string? That was a batshit insane level of proficiency only belonging to the best of the best.

It was clear Nuan could snap her wire from the beginning. She was toying with Carolina, displaying how she outstripped her in every technique. The footwork was mocking her, and the exploding wire was an illustration of how outmatched she was.

Carolina’s hand appeared with several NecroBalls. There was no way she could survive taking on Nuan one-on-one with no back-up.

One NecroBall flew, exploding into a swarm of bats. It was the same old trick Carolina used against Hikari. However, Nuan wasn’t deterred. Instead, she waited for the bats to engulf her.

“Die!” Carolina pulled the trigger, exploding the bats.

The detonation was terrific. A massive fireball bloomed, towering over Eleanor, and vaporizing the entire block. The citizens, already vacating the area from the combination of Etaceh’s shelling and the riot, packed out of the area as the battle escalated. The only thought they had was survival.

The Gold Leader allowed herself to catch her breath. However, the universe took offense to that.

The flames swirled and dispersed, snapping at Carolina like a whip and sending her sprawling to the floor. Her sleeve even caught on fire. Carolina rolled in panic to snuff out the flames.

Walking out of the fire was Nuan, unharmed from the same attack which severely injured Hikari.

“Exploding bat zombies,” Carolina mused. “No wonder Hikari lost. Even for a seasoned Aura user, that trick would be hard to deal with.”

Coraline got up, coat in dust and dirt from her time rolling on the floor.

“How did you survive that?” Carolina said, slowly backing away. Her fist clenched tightly on her NecroBalls.

“Aura is quite a curious thing you know,” Nuan said. “The basics is to coat invisible armor around your weapon to amplify its power. But those are just that, the basics. A true Master can emit Aura outward. I simply do that and spin a little. You can call it an Aura Swirl.”

Nuan sniffed the air as she noticed something.

“And you even add in some poison as well,” Nuan said, gutting Carolina strategy in front of her. “Really? Poison? This is boring,” Nuan’s face sagged from raw disappointment. “It is not even exotic,” She complained. “Seriously, I’m expecting some fast-acting, lethal cocktail from Western Continent that would reduce a grown man into a bruise-color asphyxiating corpse with internal bleeding.” Nuan shook her head, trying her hardest to convey her disappointment. “Carolina, this isn’t fun. The last assassinations attempt on my life included a poison can turn people’s stomach into a slime, five — bloody five — Land Dragons the size of a building, and custom-made enchantment to trap me into a fortified barrier with high-explosive armed with cursed metal fragments.” Nuan sighed. “That is a murder attempt. This isn’t. Your bats are lacking effort. And poison? I already immunized myself against this dollar store chemical when I was thirteen. Come on, you can do better than this.”

Carolina froze. A quick glimpse in Nuan’s life was a little too shocking for her. Even the late Spade La Louve met nothing close to the attempt Nuan spoke about. She quickly dispelled her thought. If Nuan was sincere, and she trounced that absurd assassination, then a regular run-of-the-mill explosive and off-the-shelves poison wouldn’t do the trick.

Carolina popped her second NecroBall. She was quite doubtful about this one. It was something she rigged up as a side project, inspired by her hobby and a brief read about a new magical theory. Carolina was about thirty percent sure it might work. Those weren’t good odds, but a three-out-of-ten chance was the best she had.

If this worked, it would look impressive, and might — emphasis on might — defeat Nuan Yulong. If not, well, she would look very idiotic and very dead.

The undead creature emerged from the ball was a giant eye-monster—a species of Oculthorax.

“Oh,” Nuan felt a faint interest in seeing Carolina’s newest weapon. “Is that a type of Evil Eye beast from the Western Continent? A rare catch, but I doubt a mental attack would work against…”

The pupil of the eye-monster glowed red. Energy rose from within the creature. Air warped. The zombified Oculthorax spasmed and unleashed a scorching purple beam.

Nuan bent backward to dodge the light of death. From her upside down position, she saw the beam cut apart the prized tourist attractions of Eleanor, mowing down marble structures, burning glasses, and doodling the burning path of destruction on the street and walls.

Nuan rose back to a standing position. Behind her screams rose and the buildings — casinos, entertainment facilities, and restaurants —  folded to the street like falling limbers.

The Dragon Maiden begrudgingly gave Carolina a thumb-up, “Okay, I will admit I have never seen that one before.”

“Of course, that is my proudest work so far!” Carolina boasted like she always knew she would succeed. Deep inside, the chibi-version of her danced, celebrating the lucky happenstance that her experiment didn’t fizzle out or blow-up in her face. It was a gamble to modify the Evil Eye into an energy beam projector. This was her second attempt trying to etch runes inside a corner and Retina. The first turned the product into mush.

Nuan didn’t care about Carolina’s fake evil genius credential. She wagged her finger, egging Carolina to make a second shot.

Carolina obliged, “Get her, Binky.”

The newly dubbed ‘Binky’ charged up with energy and unleashed the purple death beam.

Nuan’s hand warped as her Aura pulsed and concentrated in her palm, rising in energy. Energy she unleashed in a spinning ball of Aura.

The two forces clashed. The mystic wind of the collision ripped tiles of road and pulled apart buildings. However, the nature of the attack decided the outcome. Nuan’s spherical ball of rotating Aura, dissipated the death-ray like a drill through the earth. The ball rocketed into the zombie, cutting a path across the destruction into the purple beam, engulfing the zombie, and detonating near Carolina at point-blank.

Nuan’s attack exploded in the scale similar to Carolina’s bats, detonating the Gold Leader into the air like a kite.

Carolina landed on her head and flopped face-down on the ground. Blood trickled down her head. She rolled herself to look at the sky. There she saw it. The image of Nuan’s Yulong about to land on her.

Carolina unleashed her NecroBall in a blind bid for survival.

A giant turtle emerged in the call to darkness. The massive land turtle was Carolina’s foray into defensive zombies after her failure at Hecate and near loss to Hikari. Not only did its shell was lined with exotic metal, the runes inscribed on the shell enhanced the zombie energy deflection property, forming the all-around tight defense Carolina was proud of.

Nuan formed her hand into a knife and shaped the emission of Aura into a blade. She landed on the giant turtle, stabbing the Aura sword through the turtle’s shell, cutting through its protection and impaling right through the zombie.

Beneath the turtle, Carolina screamed as the semi-transparent blade protruded from her zombie’s belly and stabbed into the ground. Nuan’s attack missed her face by mere centimeters. Carolina gulped at how close she was to being skewered.

But Nuan wasn’t finished.

“Ignite,” the Dragon Maiden said, delivering a pulse of energy through her Aura Blade. The force of power traveled down her Aura. It burst the turtle like a balloon as it rippled through the zombies, splitting the earth. Nuan’s attack was so powerful it scarred the ground, forming a neat cut across the road.

Carolina was spared from death, but she couldn’t avoid the gore from her zombies exploding in her face. Gruesome amount of blood splashed on her as an extra humiliation.

“If you have any zombie left, now is the time to pull it out,” Nuan pointed the semi-transparent Aura Blade at Carolina’s throat.

Still on the ground, Carolina pondered for a second and decided she had enough.

“Well, I have nothing left,” Carolina said. “The bats took me too much time, and three more composite zombies are all I could squeeze out.” She regrettably accepted her fate. “I can start throwing Black Magic at you, but I will only delay the inevitable. Go on. Do it.” Carolina looked at Nuan in the eyes with quiet resignation. “I won’t resist. You win.”

Nuan stared at Carolina.

“You are quite interesting,” Nuan said. “After chasing for power above all else, you are too calm in the face of death.”

“Why should I be afraid? Death and taking is a part of life,” Carolina said. “I don’t make that rule, I simply live in it.” She shrugged. “It is simply my turn to go now.”

Nuan was far from satisfied. Carolina’s ease in accepting her defeat and execution robbed the satisfaction of the victory.

It was then Nuan Yulong struck on an idea to best maximize Carolina’s suffering.

The Aura Blade vanished and Nuan walked away.

Carolina was surprised, “What? Aren’t you going to kill me?”

“I consider it for a second,” Nuan said, stopping and turning back with a sinister smile. “But knowing your nature, and where it will lead, I change my mind. Letting you live to face ‘that fate’ will be a more fitting punishment.” Nuan’s wicked grin widened. “You don’t know what is waiting ahead of you. Chase after your little power, and let its price consume you.”

Carolina watched her opponent walked away. She didn’t understand what Nuan was hinting at. She only knew Nuan let her go because she was certain a worst fate await for her

…

Nuan walked away from Carolina, ignoring the panic and chaos being sowed across Eleanor. She knew she was being watched from the start of her battle. At first, she let this slight continue because she didn’t believe this meddler would be a threat.

But after sparing Carolina and sending her to fall on her own sword, Nuan wasn’t in such a charitable mood anymore.

“Come out,” Nuan said. “I know you are there.”

A figure walked out from the shadow. It was a one-armed, bearded man with a grizzled face. He was alert, readying himself for the fight he couldn’t win. Once upon the time, this man was the shadow protector of Curtis — a hero — but the rise of Etaceh costed him everything.

Nuan believed he had it coming. Afterall, the Commissioner of the Military Police — Hunter Westerna — assassinated Edward La Louve, the previous monarch of Curtis, providing the opportunity for Etaceh to accelerate her takeover of the nation. That action had a disastrous consequence for the Eastern Continent and threw the plan Yulong hatched with Edward into oblivion. Nuan herself was one of the few officials who was called to smooth the upheaval Hunter had caused.

As far as Nuan was concerned, losing an arm was too shallow a price to pay for the crime of Hunter Westerna.

“Come to watch your former adopted daughter fight?” Nuan taunted mockingly. “You must be so proud.”

“She is no longer mine after her insubordination,” the one-armed man — Hunter — replied.

“My what?” Nuan said. Her anger smoldered. “My tool? Say what you will about Carolina. That bitch is at least honest. As for you? You stink of self-righteousness and excuses.”

Hunter ignored Nuan’s criticism and got to the point, “What did Edward know about Etaceh?”

“He knew more than you,” Nuan replied, determined to be as unhelpful as possible. “Why don’t you ask him? Oh right, he is dead. You killed him.”

“Tell me,” Hunter growled.

“And what good would it do?” Nuan said. “You lost your chance when Etaceh put a rubber-stamp on Curtis’s throne. Wait a second,” she feigned surprise, “aren’t I supposed to call that country Intelligentsia now?”

That one hit Hunter in the nerve.

“Silence!” Hunter shouted. “Curtis won’t fall as long as we still fight for it.”

“We?” Nuan said. “Where is this ‘we’? Look around you, Westerna. You’re the only person who is still fighting for a nation that fell two years ago. People are already moving on.”

“I’ll never surrender to a pretender!” Hunter said.

“Say the kingslayer,” Nuan said. “You have the nerve to say that after killing Edward and finding out you are wrong? Unbelievable. You will be lucky to only get fired if you are my subordinate.”

“Just tell me how to defeat Etaceh,” Hunter finally got to the point.

“You can’t,” Nuan said. “Thanks to you, the deck is so stacked a direct attack on her is a suicide.”

“I know she is not human, Yulong,” Hunter said. “She is something like your immortal father, isn’t it? That is why Edward went to the Yulong Empire for help.”

“Congratulations for solving the world's easiest puzzle,” Nuan said. “And why should I…”

Nuan’s voice trailed off. An idea occurred to her.

Hunter was an obsessive, extreme, unstable, but extremely capable man with a link to any remnant forces of Curtis.

In other word, a perfect disposable bomb.

“You know,” Nuan said. “I think I will let you know how to beat her after all.”