Sia shook her right hand to brush off the pain and then prepared for the next exchange. Without an artifact, she should avoid direct confrontation, but obviously Shane wouldn't make that easy. He swung another punch at her head and then her chest followed by an uppercut. In response to each blow, Sia used gentle hand movements to knock the attacks off target by subtly pushing his forearm. Her ability to divert his punches so easily proved that she was more skilled than him and was better able to read his moves, but Shane desperately restrained himself from raining down more ferocious blows. Soon enough, he would gain the advantage.
"Ahh!"
While she was completely focused on diverting Shane's attacks, Sia heard a scream from Ross. During the tiny moment where she was distracted, a punch was a mere instant away from landing. Sia was somehow able to dodge it and step back, but a faint red line was carved on her cheek.
"Do you really think you can afford to get distracted when you're fighting me?"
Sia clicked her tongue at his warning, but with the brief break that she got, Sia checked her brothers' situation.
'Damn those shameless brats!'
They would be fine if it was a fair fight, even if it was ten against two, but when the ten took out weapons, things changed. The weapons weren't at the level of artifacts, but they were hard and sharp enough to wound the brothers. The bo staffs and cudgels were one thing, but even the twins weren't tough enough to be impervious to blades.
"Ugh, don't worry about us, Sia. We can take care of this." Josh assured.
Against Shane's onslaught, Sia knew she couldn't go help her brothers despite seeing blood starting to wet their clothes. She normally acted distant from them, but everyone in their family knew that she would always be the first to help them when they were in trouble.
'I have to hurry up.'
She was confident that she could hold out until her brothers finished off their opponents, but now she would probably have to be the one to help them.
Usually she would only hit his forearm with the back of her hand to change the direction of his fist, but this time after deflecting his punch, she threw a jab at his chest but had to hastily pull back her hand.
"Ouch! That must have hurt." Shane snickered.
'Damn it! I should have seen that coming.'
The material her fist knocked against was definitely too hard to be his chest, so she knew he was wearing armour under his clothes. Considering the gauntlets on his arm this should have been easy to predict, but she attacked before checking. This was the second time her right fist received such a strong rebound so she could barely hold back from voicing her pain.
Since she found it hard to move her right hand, she had to dodge and deflect attacks only with her left hand. This obviously put her at disadvantage and also forced her to make a risky move.
'I'll only have one chance.'
Even with only one hand, Sia was still skillful enough to evade Shane's attacks without taking any damage. Shane felt as if he was being treated like a child by someone four years younger than him, so he put more force into his fists, which also decreased the amount of focus he put into his form. He was sure that he was the dominant one in this fight so as long as he kept up his onslaught, he would definitely defeat her.
Shane was convinced of his victory, and so the moment that Sia needed eventually came. She used her left hand to redirect his incoming right fist and then moved to his right. Next, she forced her right arm around his right elbow and knocked him off-balance with her left foot before taking her left hand to slam his head into a nearby tree. As the tree shook, and leaves fluttered down, a line of blood dripped from Shane's forehead to the brown earth below.
The twins wanted to cheer when they saw this, while the ten attacking them became worried. They had no confidence that they would be able to win if Sia joined against them. However, their reactions were soon switched as Sia got thrown back and had her back slammed into a different tree. While she spat blood twice, Shane stumbled off the tree and touched his forehead. When he saw the red liquid on his fingers, Shane erupted in rage and roared.
"Ahhh!!!!"
He impulsively charged at Sia while she was still struggling to stand up, unable to defend herself.
"Sia!"
The twins wanted to rush over to her, but the moment they turned to her they were met by a rush of attacks that had them stuck in place. They could only endure these attacks while watching Shane closing in on their little sister. She would be brutally defeated, probably left for dead, that was the unacceptable future they thought would happen. However, a few steps away from her, Shane tripped and landed face-first on the ground.
"Huh?"
Everyone but Sia was stunned by what they saw and while they were like this, Sia got back on her feet and went to where the ten were ganging up on her brothers.
When she slammed Shane's head into the tree, she had used her time to carefully inject her nature energy into him. Since he was only in the Mortal Realm, even if it was an artifact, it would only protect the area that it covered and in his reckless state, he couldn't stop her from intruding into his energy flow. It took some time before her technique worked, but when it did there was a sudden impact in his head that knocked his lights out. As for whether or not any other effects would come from it, she didn't know or care. All she cared about was that the technique that Shui taught her worked.
They didn't have time to question what happened or help their leader, so four of the ten boys left to attack Sia, hoping that she had gotten weak enough for them to defeat her with weapons.
'Naive.'
Sia might have been injured but the amount of energy she had was still rather high. Her energy control wasn't as good as Shui's, but it was still enough to allow her to force her body to move the way it normally could.
One of the boys twirled around a bo staff which he slammed down at her head. With such a straightforward attack, Sia found it easy to evade by sidestepping. Noticing her movement, the boy was about to change the direction of the bo staff when it was at the height of her chest, but she used her hand to push down at its tip and grab it. Then, a kick to his right temple was all it took to get him to let go and drop to the ground.
With a weapon in hand, Sia easily took care of the other three and went to help out her brothers. Within a short time, the tables were turned and the siblings achieved victory.
"Well that's that."
Sia dropped a weapon on the ground while watching the painful moans from the squirming bodies around them. Although they were trying to kill them, the siblings couldn't bring themselves to do the same. Not only had they never killed anyone before, they knew that killing these children would definitely bring trouble to their family.
"Let's go, I'm hungry." said Ross.
Josh nodded and Sia didn't mind getting a snack either so the three of them were about to leave the area.
"Why can't I move?"
Ross along with the other two, suddenly found himself locked in place. They weren't being pressured by an overwhelming pressure or frozen by fear, they simply felt as if they lost control over their own body.
*tap**tap**tap**tap**tap*
While they were stuck in place, they heard footsteps approaching. While no one else should have been here, a tall figure with a white mask walked before them. The moment she saw him, Sia wanted to use a talisman but without the ability to move, that wasn't an option. The three of them could do nothing but wait, even as the tall figure took out a sword that shone with a silver gleam. There wasn't a chill and their hearts didn't drop, the fear was stuck inside them without any way of being expressed.
As the blade came close enough to touch their necks, the siblings couldn't believe this was how they would die, but they couldn't resist either.
'Big sis, big bro, Shui, someone help!'
As the blade swung down, all they could do was hope.