Chapter 39: Isle of The Skye Pt. 3

"I love that expression, it is quite refreshing seeing my enemies so serious and ready to die even though they're scared..." Aife said as he looked at her with his fearful expression, complimented by a cocky smile.

"Monologue is inevitable in some cases... Bring me to Scathach, and I'm not asking," Theriault said, rushing forward and punching at the woman's face, gritting his teeth as she dodged, kneeing him in the face.

Theriault's vision blurred slightly as blood trickled down his lip.

He staggered backward, letting Shen Yi's sword come down towards Aife.

Aife blocked it effortlessly, her smile widening as she held her own blade up and slashed Shen Yi across the chest before stepping back, spinning and kicking Shen Yi right in the stomach, sending her flying out of the Celtic exhibit and crashing into a bench.

Several people screamed, seeing the bloodied girl and looking over at the exhibit, seeing the altercation.

"Security Security!" People cried as Shen Yi got up, outstretching her hand and letting her blade reappear while she rushed back toward where Hunter and Theriault fought the woman.

Theriault ducked under a slice from the switchblade, tripping Hunter as it went for the boy's throat.

Hunter landed hard, ignoring it and sending two streams of white-hot fire at the woman, which she blocked by kicking out with her leg in a wide arc, using the strong air coming from the kick to put the fire out.

Theriault squatted and jumped at her, catching her by her ankle and rolling while tightening his grip. He let his dagger fall to the ground, kicking it up to his face and twisting his body to where he could kick it again at the off-balance woman, sending it straight toward her face.

Aife, instead of struggling like most people would in that situation, allowed herself to fall, bringing Theriault with her by balling up and sending her switchblade straight into his hand, not even wincing as she felt the blade stab into her ankle.

Theriault didn't let up, jumping on top of the downed woman and smashing her face with his fist, going once, twice, three times before she trusted her hips up, sending him flying forward into her waiting blade as she snorted.

He quickly stopped himself by placing his hands on her chest, ignoring the squishiness he felt, and crossing his hands, grabbing the fabric of her clothes and pulling her back tightly.

Aife gurgled, feeling the choke immediately as it cut off the blood flow of the veins in her neck. She brought her legs ups, bending her body inhumanly and wrapping her thighs around the boy's face, rolling forward and ending up on top of Theriault.

Before she could attack he raised his knee, stopping her from stabbing down as her chest hit his knee. Quickly he twisted his hips to the left, keeping his grip on her collar as he spun, bringing her around with him, pushing her against the stone floor, and bringing his knee up to her solar plexus, pressing down slightly.

"Quite good, however," Aife, brought her knee to Theriault's elbow, which was holding him up. It collapsed, causing him to drop on top of the woman without any power in his knee, making the attack useless as she stabbed her switchblade into his back

"Hahaha, you won't be able to do much more with that broken arm," Aife laughed, kneeing him in the ribs as she stabbed him in the back again, then one more time.

Theriault rolled to the side, on his knees as he used his hands to pull his knife free, gasping in pain but still managing to stand, taking a step back. "Hah..." He breathed out.

Hunter rushed in, his fists covered in flames as he lashed out at the woman, his anger rising as she easily dodged his attacks, stepping back as he charged in mindlessly.

Her back hit the Scathach sculpture just as Hunter sent a straight punch to her face, which she dodged easily and spun around him, slashing her switchblade along his arm and kicking the back of his knee, making him buckle just as his flame punch hit her sisters sculpture.

He stumbled back, falling on his ass and groaning in pain as he reached up, trying to grab her foot. Aife scoffed and raised her leg, stomping it down on his outstretched arm and snapping the bone.

"You are not nearly as exciting as your friend here..." She muttered unkindly as she turned back just in time to dodge the shiny silver blade coming to take her head off.

Shen Yi, seeing Aife duck, changed the trajectory of her sword in an instant, using her momentum to thrust the sword around and turn her straight slash into a curved upper slash.

Aife widened her eyes a bit as she twisted and dodged the blade, a piece of her hair being sliced as Shen Yi thrust her hips down to the right, using the momentum to bring her blade around again, flowing with the woman as the tourists yelling grew louder outside the exhibit.

Theriault watched Shen Yi fight with his eyes wide. His mouth hung open slightly as the woman's movements were so fluid and fast. He hadn't expected Shen Yi to be so skilled. She never showed this much skill when they trained.

Theriault rushed in, seeing an opportunity as Aife barely dodged Shen Yi's blade again. He slammed his foot into the woman's knee, breaking her balance as Shen Yi's blade whistled down, begging to connect with Aife's pale flesh.

The woman let herself fall, stopping her impact with her hand, watching the silver blade fly past her eyes.

"Now Fenghuang!" Hunter yelled, his fist appearing in front of Aife as she widened her eyes, the three around her making it impossible for her to dodge the huge flame fist that slammed into her chest, forcing her into the ground, cracking it easily as she got the wind knocked out of her, feeling a crack.

Aife coughed, blood slipping out of her mouth as she rolled to the side and jumped up, staggering backward, her body burning as she looked up at the trio.

"Hah... I... I warned you three, I've reached my limit for now, this is not your win... Win's end in death..." Aife said weakly as she fell to her knees, plopping on the ground as the three all sighed simultaneously, relieved to see the powerful opponent go down.

"Seems like my lessons paid off?" Theriault joked weakly, ignoring the pain all throughout his body, not bothering to look at the skeleton to the right of him.

"What happened here!" A security guard said, looking at the battered trio and the woman on the ground, trying to asses the situation.

But before any of them could explain, something unprecedented happened.

The trio dissapeared, leaving the woman as the growing crowd gasped in shock.

***

Theriault, Hunter, and Shen Yi all dropped onto a hard surface, groaning as they felt sick from their sudden switch.

"The fuck was that?" Theriault said, gritting his teeth as he looked around at their dark surroundings.

His vision was already blurred from the pain, but the dark made it that much worse as he tried to get his bearings.

"How... Peculiar..." A voice said, the room lighting up with purple torches lined against the walls.

Theriault looked to the source of the voice, a strongly built, freckled woman with red hair, looking at the three from a throne, not a single emotion written on her blank face.

"So... Enemy? Or what?" Shen Yi asked, summoning her sword to her hand, only for it to fly out toward the woman, who caught it by the hilt.

"Excellent craftmanship... I knew the creator, he was quite the lively man, he and his wife made many wonderful blades... Are you from Asia?" The woman asked, keeping all emotion out of her voice as she looked at Shen Yi.

She seemed to be waiting for someone to say something, and so, Theriault did.

"I am Theriault," he introduced himself, standing up slowly as Shen Yi did the same, following behind Hunter. "Yeah, she's straight out of Beijing, but be careful mentioning that, last time she was there her entire family was massacred," Theriault said, smiling as friendly as he could as the woman eyed his chest, no doubt searching for a key imprint.

"I was asking the girl..." The woman said, raising her hand and flicking her wrist ever so slighty, sending Theriault flying back into the stone wall, suspended in the air as she looked at Shen Yi.

"Hey! Let him down!" Shen Yi said, waving her hand and making her sword appear in her hand once again. The woman, even though she still had her blank expression, seemed somewhat shocked.

"All he did was introduce himself, have some manners bitch..." Shen Yi said, sliding her foot back and readying herself for a fight as Theriault dropped to the ground.

Hunter let little bursts of flame float around him, ready just in case Shen Yi decided to attack.

"Hmm... I suppose you are right... Then, I am..." The woman stood up, stepping out of the dark and allowing her facial features to be illuminated by the purple light. "Scathach."