Eve slowly backs up and then stands up. Her hand still clutched at her throat, her cough easing.
Cautiously, she bends down and hoists Nightfall in her hands. The other sword is left discarded on the ground.
The palm-eye tracks her movements like an apex predator ready to strike.
Eve readies her sword in an Ochs stance, the rough handle bites into her hands, leaving behind temporary marks.
The defilement's main arms flare out and rise just below her neck. The pale arm twitches and begins to bend. Loud cracking noises are heard through the arena.
Her eyes are gouged out, but she can definitely see through the new eye.
Then the eye blinks.
Nothing happens for a few moments, then...
Blood fills Eve's mouth, and suddenly, air can enter through Eve's mouth
while she has it closed. The teeth on her left side suddenly feel cold from the new air that passes through them.
The eye opens back up.
What the fuck happened?
Blood from the hole in her cheek starts pouring down her neck and staining her brown chestpiece.
The pain starts burning in her face.
Eve's mind goes through countless possibilities on what happened. But the only thing she understands is that something shot out of the eye and tore a streak across her cheek, almost hitting her carotid.
The pale hand begins to twitch.
Eve changes her stance; instead of using the Ochs stance, she changes into a long-point stance. The tip of Nightfall aimed straight at the defilement.
Eve pivots her right foot inwards.
The eye blinks, and for a moment, nothing happens.
Then a sharp sound is heard through Nightfall, and vibrations shake it violently.
Behind her, two half-circles appear in the arena's walls. There is almost a whole meter between them.
After the semi-circles appear, Eve dashes to the left and starts running to the opposite side of the arena.
The defilement does the same, they are both running in a straight line across the arena.
Their sights are only focused on each other.
The arm cracks and the eye blinks, but this time it does the motion much faster.
Right after the eye blinked, and before it launched the hit, Eve turned Nightfall sideways. The edges pointed outwards, effectively making a small vertical shield.
Then BANG.
Eve's sprint came to a stop because the hit landed against the fuller of Nightfall.
She is pushed back a few meters, and the woman gradually slows her sprint down.
I get it now, a two-phase attack, the arm has to bend, then the eye has to blink. After it released a straight beam of something, I took a damn huge gamble trying to cut the attack. But it was worth it-
An almost perfect circular hole appears in Eve's obliques.
Huh?
"Did you really think I would be so predictable? Get your head out of the gutter. I can shoot these beams wherever I want to. The blinking was just a thing to distract you." The defilement stares back at her without smiling.
But Eve doesn't hear what the woman tells her; her attention is fixed on Nightfall. Its whispers started again, but this time more demanding.
"Give me your ichor, lass. Bind yourself to me; you have no other choice if you want to live. I will give you what you desire, strength."
Whilst Eve is the wielder of Nightfall, she is not the master of it. Every time the sword whispered, it wanted her blood, but now, the sword needs it.
The defilement realises that Eve is not paying attention to her, even though she got a new hole in her.
"Foolish girl," she mutters under her breath.
Eve's attention is snapped back to the woman.
I don't need its strength; I will win with my STRENGTH.
The woman starts running towards her, the pale arm starts cracking, and the eye begins to blink rapidly.
Eve turned Nightfall again on its side, her vision obstructed by the sword.
But the beam never came; the defilement's body stopped right in front of Nightfall, and only the woman's hair is visible because Nightfall is right in front of the defilement.
While Eve's view was blocked, the woman readied her left leg, and then she delivered a devastating kick to Eve's oblique, where the new hole was opened.
Eve is momentarily pushed to her left, and Nightfall falls slightly to the side.
She is left wide open.
The woman crashes her left elbow right on top of Eve's head, nearly cracking it open.
The pale arm grabs Eve by the hair and holds her in place.
The defilement's right palm breaks Eve's nose, blood gushing out from her nose and dribbling down in her mouth.
Metal, she can taste only metal. Her mind is blank.
Then a side elbow connects with her chin, knocking her to the ground.
The defilement stands on top of her, looking down, a few pieces of Eve's hair in her pale arm.
"You disgust me! You showed such vigour, and now you are nothing more than a doll ready to be broken."
Eve didn't pay any attention to her words; her gaze focused only on Nightfall, which was right next to her.
The eyeball that's on the hilt of Nightfall stares blankly at her, waiting.
What's the point of relying on my power when my corpse will be filled with maggots?
Eve slowly touches the edge of Nightfall with her index finger, her eyes hollow.
The defilement readies her foot on top of Eve's face, to kill her by crushing her head.
Eve applies a bit of pressure on her sword, and a tiny bit of blood leaves the new wound on her finger.
"Welcome back... my Goddess of Hell," Nightfall whispered into her mind.
The defilement's foot crashes down on Eve's head, but to her surprise, her foot landed in sand. Eve is gone; in her place, only a small cloud of sand is left in her wake.
"Hmm, where did you go, butterfly?"
For a moment, nothing happens.
The defilement looks to her left and right with the pale arm, searching for her.
And just as the defilement is left wondering what happened, her head falls off her shoulders, and it lands in the sand. Her corpse landed right next to her head with a soft thud.
Eve was behind her; with unbelievable speed she managed to cut off her head.
She had successfully won the fight.
"What a surprise, everyone, we had a truly wonderful fight from the ladi-"
The crowd gasped.
The announcer's words are cut out when the body of the defilement rose back up, headless.
"What did I say, honey? I'm not so predictable. Come now, let mother hold you." The headless corpse bends down and picks up her head, cradling it in her arms like a gentle infant.
Eve's face is full of wrath, and now, her irises have turned from blue to red.
The pale arm moves and lands on the detached head.
The head smirks one last time.
"Since you proved worthy, I lied. I do have a name. It's Eva. But that doesn't matter; the wonder will consume me, whole, I might say. Sigh, this is the end for me. Yet it's your beginning, remain...vigilant, if you will. Don't let the flies taint your wings, butterfly."
A massive circular hole appears in the detached head. The headless corpse lets the remnants of the head fall to the ground.
Something begins to twist in the defilement's body, her bones crack and grind to dust, tendons snap, and muscles are torn open. The scapulae make way, and two holes appear. Two hands, pale arms begin to emerge. Both new pale arms float a bit, then turn around to face Eve.
Two more pairs of eyes appear in the new palms.
Three eyes are gazing back at Eve.
Nightfall whispers into Eve's mind.
"Memento mori"