It was like the moment that Val saw her, everything else was completely tuned out.
She froze, an almost primal fear overtaking her. It was an instinct, something that no matter how long it had been since she was in Veronica's grasp, she would never really get over. Her hands shook as she became completely oblivious to the violence around her. Vaguely, she could hear Nia yelling for her to snap out of it and that they needed to keep moving. She could also hear Hyunwoo calling back to her but her eyes were still locked on Veronica Wendrew.
There was the feeling of someone's hand landing on her shoulder lightly and out of the corner of her eye, she could see Hyunwoo looking at her, concerned as he started to ask her what was wrong before he turned to look in the direction that he looked in.
That was what snapped her out of her trance. It was the way Hyunwoo froze up next to her when his eyes landed on Veronica.
She was practically shaking with anger, and Hyunwoo seemed to notice this, "Val, are you—" His eyes widened as he realized what Val was about to do, "Val, no!"
She took off, her eyes locked on her target.
Hyunwoo was yelling behind her but at that moment, she did not care. With what Veronica had said to Hyunwoo as they were escaping Ryoshigarh, there was absolutely no way she was sparing her.
She didn't even think about the people that were moving in front of her, she just notched her arrows and shot them, or stabbed them with the arrows in her hand. As long as it was an enemy, she didn't care. There was no hesitation as she sunk an arrow straight into a man's chest as he stood only two feet away from her.
Veronica's back was faced towards her when she finally reached the woman. She picked up a sword from a fallen soldier on the ground as she slowly stepped towards her, "You should be dead."
The woman turned around before smirking, "And yet, I'm still here. Isn't it time you give up, child?"
Val barked out a laugh, "How ironic that you call me a child after what you did to me. You're absolutely sick."
"Then what do I call you?"
"My name. Valon Solaris," She swung the sword up into her hand and traced the edge of it with her finger, "Remember my name, it's the name of the person that is going to kill you."
Veronica scoffed, "You can try—" She cut herself off as she ducked when Val swung the broadsword. Taken by surprise, she managed to nick Veronica, but Val immediately realized she had made a mistake picking up the broadsword.
While Val was strong, she wasn't trained in fighting with something that bulky and large for so long. If it were someone like Owen or Risále, who had trained to use large and heavy weapons despite their stature, they'd probably be able to wield a broadsword without as much issue, but Val was trained in long-distance combat.
It seemed that Veronica had realized that as well, seeing as the moment Val lost her balance from the swing, the older woman was rushing at her, knocking the sword out of her hand and grabbing it. Just from the grip, it was clear that Veronica was much handier with a broadsword than Val was.
That didn't matter. Val would kill her with her bare hands if it came to it.
She picked up her bow and notched an arrow, aiming it at Veronica and letting it fly. Of course, Val's reputation spoke for her, and the arrow sank into Veronica's shoulder. The woman let out a muted scream of pain but it didn't slow her down as much as Val expected it to. Veronica lunged forward, swinging the sword. Due to her surprise, Val didn't dodge till the last minute, and the sword nicked her abdomen. She hissed, her hand instinctively moving to clutch at the wound.
It wasn't too deep but when she moved her hand away, she could see the blood soaking into her shirt.
"He's coming to save you, as he always does," Veronica said, looking over Val's shoulder at something—No, someone, "He's such a pretty one. It seems like he's only gotten more beautiful since he got away. You know, if I hadn't met Jiali before him…It would have been him."
Val understood exactly what Veronica meant by that.
There was no hesitation as she lunged forward, using her entire body weight to knock the woman down and punching her in the face, "Shut up," She growled, "Shut the fuck up or I'll kill you, I'll really kill you."
"If you could, you already would have," Veronica said, almost boredly, before Val's fist connected with her face again and there was a loud crack. Veronica let out a scream as her nose started bleeding.
"Still think I can't kill you?" Val asked, before digging her knee into the woman's abdomen, where she had stabbed her months prior, "How did you heal up so fast? The injuries I left on you aren't ones that just heal this quickly."
Veronica groaned, "You're….Still thinking of it like I'm the same as you lot," She spat out weakly, "You forget that I have an advantage that you all don't."
Val hummed before swinging her fist again, knocking Veronica's head to face the side, "Your face is annoying. Still, you're saying that people like you can heal faster, huh? That's annoying as hell. But at least you can't come back from dying."
At this, though, Veronica let out a laugh, "You…Really think that, huh?" She coughed, spitting out blood.
"...What the fuck do you mean by that?" Val asked, staring at her, "You can't…There's no way you can come back from dying. You're still human."
"Maybe," Veronica croaked out, still keeping a smug look on her face, "But dying is not the same for us as it is for you all."
Val blinked a few times before gripping Veronica by the shoulders and slamming her down against the ground, causing the woman to cry out, "Tell me. What does that mean?" She said, her tone dark.
"Never," Veronica hissed, "Death may not be the same to me as it is to you, but it still fucking hurts. You think I'm going to risk talking about it?"
"So, it affects you as well," Val said, "Good to know. Talk or I'll slit your throat."
Veronica shook her head, glaring back at Val, "Go ahead and kill me. You can't force me to talk if I'm not afraid of dying."
"Fine. If you won't talk, I'll just have to—"
"Val!"
Oh no. Oh, dear Hyunwoo. Why couldn't he just stay back?
"Hyunwoo Kang," Veronica's voice somehow still managed to sound annoyingly smug, "We didn't really have a chance to talk before."
Val turned to see Hyunwoo standing behind her, one hand on his gun while his eyes were glued on Veronica, "You shouldn't have followed me, Hyunwoo," Val said, her voice not showing any emotion.
Hyunwoo scoffed, "And leave you to deal with her? Alone? As if," He looked down at Veronica, "I have nothing to say to you," His expression was flat and slightly disgusted.
Veronica tried to laugh but ended up coughing blood, "Well, even if you won't talk to me, maybe you'll talk to your old friends," She held up a remote that she had gripped in her hand, "All six of them are very excited to see you again."
"Tell them I'm excited to see them again as well and that I'm going to repay their actions tenfold. I hope they don't regret all of the abuse and torture they inflicted on me," Hyunwoo tilted his head as if thinking about his words, "Actually, never mind, I hope they do."
Veronica seemed frustrated that Hyuwnoo wasn't being affected by her bait and glared at him, "All you are is a pretty face and pretty body, aren't you? Don't think I haven't heard of what you've been up to since you escaped from me. Being the 'head of undercover missions' is just a cover-up for the fact that you're a whore, you seduce people to get information out of them—"
The woman was cut off as Val stood up and stomped on Veronica's throat, causing the woman to let out an ugly, strangled noise, "Keep your fucking mouth shut, you piece of shit," She said angrily.
Suddenly, a man came running up to them, "Miss Veronica, you called for us—" He froze completely, noticing that Veronica was on the ground. His eyes seemed to widen as he saw Hyunwoo, "You—"
Hyunwoo didn't acknowledge the man, simply turning to Val, "You need to go."
"What?" Val felt a slight annoyance at this, "I can take care of her, I can take care of all of them, don't you see—"
"I know," Hyunwoo interrupted, "I know you're perfectly capable of it. But right now, Nia needs you. Risá is down for the count, Apocalypse is barely managing to hold the soldiers off. She basically put herself in danger to help Nia escape but right now, Nia is completely alone. She has no idea where the rest of us are."
Val hesitated at this, "...I didn't realize…" She reached up to her earpiece, realizing that she hadn't heard anything from it the whole time, "...It must have broken at some point."
"Mine as well. I can hear her but I can't respond. She needs someone right now and…" He gave Val a pointed look, "Someone needs to get her out of here safely. For all of our sakes, Val."
Oh. Nia had the Wings, didn't she?
Val let out a shaky breath, "...Okay. Okay, I'll leave you to handle this. I'm going to go find Nia. Just…Be careful, alright?"
"I will," Hyunwoo gave her a reassuring smile, "Now, go."
She took one last glance at him before running off.
Hyunwoo turned back to the woman lying on the ground, groaning, and the man that he was unfortunately familiar with.
"Now, I hope you're all prepared. I've been waiting a long time for this."