Chapter 12 - Experience

Pain radiated through her body as she shuffled her body.

"Ow" Lucina groaned. She'd didn't exactly know what happened, but she knew one thing it hurt. A lot. A loud alarm brought her back to her senses and she opened her eyes to see the inside of a warehouse.

Oh yeah it all started to come back to her, they'd just confronted Mr blade and she'd got into a fight with his two bodyguards or whoever the cloaked people were. It was a lot darker than the room she was in before the only light coming in from somewhere infront of her. She reached out and grabbed the closest leverage she could find. Her hands wrapped around broken crates, and she pulled herself out of her crash site. Once back on flat ground she tired to stretch the pain away which was followed with a series of satisfying cracks. However, she was quickly reminded of her current situation. Through the hole in the shutter door she'd made, a cloaked man and women could be seen charging towards her. 'Damn. How did I forget about them?'. She quickly readied herself and went to grab her whip. She didn't have it. Her eyes scanned the warehouse it was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly sparkling red smoke poured through the shutter door hole.

"Shit" Lucina muttered she quickly coated her body in mana and retreated to behind what was left of the crates she'd crashed into. Sensing the smoke was beginning to disperse throughout the entire room she crashed through the back wall of the warehouse. As she rolled across the gravel outside there was the sharp sound of a spark and suddenly the warehouse exploded and was engulfed in crimson flames. Lucina kept low to the ground, the debris of the warehouse passing straight over her head and smashing into neighbouring structures. Glancing up she could see the warehouse had been completely blown apart, now just a mix of rubble, crimson flames, and smoke. The silhouettes of two figures wandered across the wreckage and emerged from the smoke in front of her. They came to a stop at where the warehouse floor ended.

"Are you really Athra's sister?" the woman asked snarky.

"Yeah and you are?" Lucina asked while matching her attitude.

"Venli and this Mor" she gestured to the man next to her.

"Alright Venli and Mor what do you have against my brother?" Lucina questioned "He kick your ass?".

"You could say that" Mor growled.

"And you came to me to get another one? Are you trying to get one from each member of the family? … Oh you must be collectors" Lucina provoked, "Weird things to collect though in my opinion".

"You're a lot cockier than your brother".

"It'd be boring if we were the same" Lucina shrugged. An unpleasant smile arose on her face, and she spread her arms wide. A familiar red glow rose through her fore arms and travelled to her hands. Lucina wasted no time, increasing her augmentations she dashed in front of Venli and forced her arms into the air. A chain of explosions was violently unleashed into the sky, reacting against every atom they touched. The women cursed and tried to free herself from Lucina's grasp, but Lucina was stronger. Lucina swiftly slammed her forearm into the Venli's jaw sending her stumbling before switching her focus to Mor. He rammed into her with mana infused strength, forcing her back. Lucina increased the mana flowing through her own body and forced the man's charge to a halt. His face contorted in confusion as a girl nowhere his size began to overpower him. Lucina didn't miss a beat she dragged him off balance, and quickly accessed her subspace drawing a silver sword. In a smooth arc, her blade cut across his right leg. Not as deep as she'd have liked, but it was enough. Blood began to flow freely from his wound. The man's body collapsed in on the leg and his face contorted in pain as his brain realised what had happened. Turning away from the Mor, she was just in time to see the Venli getting to her feet. Lucina calmly approached her enemy, her sword dancing in her hand. Venli was at least able to use crimson, Lucina had never fought an experienced crimson user before however, Lewis had taught her the stronger the spell they used the longer they had to recharge before being able to use crimson again. Rage filled Venli's eyes, and she pounced at Lucina with newfound speed, a dagger suddenly in hand aimed at Lucina's chest. However, unfortunately for her, Lucina had expected the speed increase, now she had no crimson to infuse mana into she'd obviously focus on augmentation. Lucina swatted the knife from the women's hand, instantly following up by thrusting the sword's hilt into the criminal's jaw. Venli went spinning into the ground, Lucina advanced to finish the fight but suddenly she sensed a build of up mana behind her. Instincts kicked in and she leapt to the side just in time to avoid a stream of flames. She turned to see Mor sweating and hunched over however, on both feet. Flames flowing around his hands.

'How is he not passed out?'. She glanced to tear in his pants but there was no open wound. 'Bastard cauterized it'. The fire around his hands began to converge and form balls which he then launched at Lucina. Coating her blade in mana she ripped through the fire, he instantly followed up his attack by spreading flames into the air that quickly grew vicious and shaped themselves into bolts of fire. Mor thrusted his arms forward shooting the bolts towards Lucina. She backed away dodging and slashing at any flames that threatened to strike her, before quickly dodge under a red flash that tried to off her head. Venli was up again and had coated her fist's in crimson flames. Lucina danced between the fire bolts and punches of crimson, slashing towards the cloaked attackers if they came in range. However, suddenly Venli extinguished her crimson flames and green orbs crystalized from green mana in her palms. They instantly shot out at Lucina at a rapid speed. 'Jade. Shit she's not just a crimson'. Lucina raised her blade which impacted against the two orbs. The orbs suddenly shattered releasing a wave of green mana that sent Lucina flying back. By the time she recovered to her feet both her attackers where in front of her their hands ablaze with their respective flames.

"Not again" Lucina grumbled, before tightening her grip on her sword and reinforcing her body. Their hands pushed against Lucina's chest and the air around her combusted, a blast of red and orange consumed her body and sent her flying across the destroyed warehouse. Her body bounced against gravel and then scraped against small stones until she skidded to a stop.

"Really need to stop getting hit by those" she grunted "But hey, at least I didn't drop my weapon this time". Her hands stung as she pushed herself up. It was only then she saw something that lifted her heart. Next to her on the ground, was her whip. In an instant she was back on her feet, whip, and blade in hand. Fire balls abruptly flew across the depot towards her. Lucina's whip cracked against the air, extinguishing the flames, and clearing the air just in time to see the dark-haired woman charging towards her. Crimson strikes flew towards Lucina however, she just weaved in between the punches and headbutted Venli's nose. Blood spurted from her nostrils and tears could be seen welling in her eyes. Venli attempted to push Lucina away, but it was no use, Lucina wrapped her whip around the woman's arm and pulled. With a grunt of pain Venli was sent crashing to the ground. Lucina released the arm and stomped her head into the gravel before lashing out against incoming fire bolts on her flank. Mor emerged from the field of smoke limping however, his walk became stronger every second the more mana he reinforced into his leg. His arms were suddenly set ablaze, and he swung them through the air sending arcs of flames towards Lucina. She easily jumped out the way however, had to release Venli who instantly recovered to her feet. She spat out the blood trickling into her mouth and suddenly mana surged through her veins.

"Enough!" Venli growled. Her left hand began to glow green while her right was covered by ominous flaming crimson aura. Firey crimson knives and jade orbs formed in the air around her. Simultaneously Mor summoned an array of fire bolts behind him. Lucina quickly tied her whip around her the hilt of her sword and flooded the weapon with mana. Her two attackers unleashed their onslaught of spells that tore through the air at unreal speeds. Lucina took a deep breath and advanced forward swinging her whip and sword around her like a shield, that tore apart any spell that came close. Clearly panicked by Lucina's charge, Venli put all her mana into a new spell and a familiar red smoke spread through the air. Before she could back away an orange glow suddenly surrounded her. She quickly discovered she was enclosed by a ring of fire, with crimson smoke approaching her from the front. There was no way out.

"Damn". Suddenly a spark was lit, and the ring of fire erupted in a red and black explosion.

As the smoke cleared the two criminals approached where Lucina had been blown to smithereens, satisfied smiles on their faces. However, those smiles were quickly wiped away. A large black bird like creature could been seen sheltering Lucina, both clearly unharmed.

Lucina sighed "I wanted to try win without using summoning. Go Cali". Purple lightning instantly emitted from the bird and with a loud screech the bird charged into Mor. Cali pinned him to the ground and paralyzed him with an electric shock. Venli's face was wide eyed and contorted in confusion on what was happening. Lucina gave her no time to understand, whipping out at her leg, causing it to buckle to the ground. Lucina was instantly on her not giving her the chance to retaliate the woman's neck strained in her grip.

"Look at that, now you've had your ass's kicked by both siblings" Lucina stated before slamming her head into the ground. However, as she pinned the woman down Lucina noticed those shocked eyes where now gone instead replaced with confidence.

"There's something you should know" The woman managed to get out.

"What's that?" Lucina asked.

"There's not just -" the woman coughed through a grim smile "There's not just two of us".

Suddenly new mana signatures spiked in the area.

'Just my luck'. Lucina quickly attempted to react, but it was too late.