While Quint was heading towards Lucas, Shay continued her battle against Joan. Ariel is standing there, watching this battle unfold. Simone is slowly heading to the site of the battle.
Joan and Shay stood in the middle of a street. Joan had her shield up while Shay grabbed her injured arm. They both stand there, staring at each other, waiting for an opening. Shay looked away towards Ariel for a split second. Joan then appeared in front of Shay and said "Never take your eyes off of your opponent!" as she bashed Shay against the face with the shield.
Shay went flying across the street and knocked into a restaurant where some people were hiding. They screamed as Shay's body crashes into the counter.
Shay stood up and ran towards Joan, as she ran, she noticed people with their smart phones recording what had happened. Joan tossed more rocks at Shay, but Shay dodged them as they began exploding.
"You can't get me with the same trick twice!" stated Shay as she moved about the exploding rocks.
"That's why did this…" whispered Joan into Shay's ear. Joan had ran behind Shay without her noticing and punched her in the ribs, causing a massive explosion upon impact.
Ariel looked on with concern as she waited for the first to clear. "Please be ok!" thought Ariel as she clasped her hands.
The dust had finally cleared and there Shay was, down to a knee in a glowing sphere of water. Joan stood 5 feet away, breathing heavily and holding the shield up as if she had to block an attack.
"How was she able to counter me so quickly?! She couldn't have known that I can use my Explosion power on my own body!" thought Joan as she slowly backed away from the sphere.
Shay gathered water from the air and placed it all on her wounds. In a matter of seconds, her wounds were healed.
"Since you revealed one of your abilities, I'll tell you mine. I can manipulate water and use it to heal. As you can see, I'm fine now, but you, you don't look so hot. I purposely left an opening for you to exploit and timed your attack perfectly so I can counter. You're attacks are too straight forward, you were easy to predict. After I knew where you were aiming for, all I had to do was use my water blade to lop off one of your limbs." said Shay while standing up and pointing at Joan.
As Shay was saying that, Joan had lowered her shield, revealing that her arm had been cut off just below the elbow. Blood dripped from the wound. The expression on Joan's face changed. She was so angry, that she no longer had control of herself. Her body was surrounded with a red-orange demonic energy swirling around her. Her muscles bulged, her fangs grew, and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. She just charged at the sphere and started bashing it with the shield. The sphere began to waiver and fall apart as the demonic energy brimming from Joan overcame it.
"Aaahhhh!" screamed Shay as she was whacked in the face with the shield and sent flying backwards and landing in some grass.
"Rrrggghhh!!!" shouted Joan as she continued her charge at Shay.
Shay stood back up immediately and thought "She's blown her shit, I didn't think it would be this way to upset her, but now I have the advantage!"
Joan caught up to Shay and brandished the shield, bringing forth an enormous force, hitting Shay with it. Shay attempted to dodge the attack, but she couldn't and was blown into another building. Shay laid motionless in the building, barely holding onto conscientiousness.
Joan walked over to Shay, stood above her and said, "Stupid girl! I must admit! I did underestimate you, but you seemed to have thought that since you removed my arm that I would have been weakened. You thought I was weak like that slime ball Tupp. My power exceeds his and I am the leader of the Imperials. You never stood a chance, but congrats, you've earned my respect so I'll finish you quickly!"
"Flame Dragon!" yelled Quint from a distance.
Joan quickly turned around as she heard Quint say those words. She saw a fiery energy blast shaped like a dragon heading towards her! Joan attempted to run, but noticed that her legs wouldn't move. She looked up and saw Simone standing there, hands surrounded by a purple energy. "Damned Humans!!" shouted Joan as the Flame Dragon attack grabbed her and carried her into the air and then exploded! The explosion created shockwaves that made windows on the top levels of buildings shatter. Fire rained down as a result of the explosion. Joan's body fell from the sky and hit the ground hard.
Shay started to chuckle and said, "You still underestimated us. You paid no attention to the death of your comrades and who was coming around you."
Joan stood back up and laughed out loud uncontrollably! "I didn't think that I would be facing such opponents here in this city!" After she spoke, everyone felt a huge pressure fall upon them. Joan's energy could be felt all around them. Joan walked over and grabbed her arm. "I'll be seeing you again! Next time, fight me without your friends! A portal to our castle will open up here in one week. Enter it if you want your Astral weapons back." said Joan as she ascended into the air and into a portal.
"Come back here!" yelled Quint as his feet ignited with flames and flew towards Joan. He attempted to catch her, but she entered the portal before he could.
"Fuck! We couldn't get the shield from her." thought Quint.
Simone and Ariel ran up to Shay and cleared the rubble off of her.
"Are you ok?!" asked Simone with concern.
"No, my ribs are broken and I'm pretty sure my arm is pretty broken as well," stated Shay
"I'm just happy that you're alive!" said Ariel as she hugged Shay.
Quint had finally flown down to check on Shay. "Good job distracting her!" said Quint.
"Is that all that you have to say?!" said Simone hurriedly.
"What? Did I do something?" asked Quint.
"You're not going to ask if she's ok?" asked Simone while getting in Quint's face.
"I know that she's ok though. There's no point in asking," explained Quint, oblivious to the point that's being made.
"You don't understand," said Simone, "Let's get Shay to a hospital."
"We can go check on Lucas while we're there." responded Quint.