Bianca limped for a while before straightening up and "Whoo-hoo!"She whooped. A sharp, aching pain assaulted her innards and meridians but she masked it very well.
Under Zoe's scrutinizing gaze, Bianca stretched a couple of times before facing her "Wow, just... Wow! That hits so hard I thought I'd die..."Bianca said before starting to bring out a crossbow with four barrels, loaded with bolts.
Then she took out a dagger which had a long, silver cylindrical hilt and ring pommel with sharp, sheeny blade with a spear point. It gave an ominous sense of sharpness.
"I think I'm done playing too..."
She dashed toward the stunned Zoe at a speed greater than Zoe could imagine— not after receiving that punch—but not faster than what she could react to.
It just felt like the impression she had of mortals had changed. She thought all mortals were weak, but it turned out she was wrong, just as Conan had warned.
Bianca fired the crossbow at Zoe on getting closer forcing her to evade the multiple bolts that were fired at her in rapid succession. The barrels on the crossbow revolved as they spat out terrifyingly sharp and poison-tipped bolts.
As Zoe focused on defending against the bolts, she didn't realize that Bianca had closed in on her, and only realized when the bolts ceased to come at her.
Bianca kicked the defenseless Zoe in the stomach, making her gasp and hunch over. She was hurled from the force behind the woman's leg towards a wall.
Her body hit the wall but that part of the wall surrendered to the force and broke, the shape of the broken part taking her outline. She stood and looked around only to realize that she was now in a changing room, with clothes and curtains hung all around.
She looked at herself and felt stupid, her form-shifting armor was still in the form of a luxurious gown. Immediately after realizing this, she changed its form back to the tight-fitting body armor with "The empress" on the sleeve.
The dust from the debris of the broken wall cleared and Bianca came through the hole into the changing room. Her brows furrowed a bit on seeing Zoe's change but disregarded it.
She kept her crossbow and advanced toward Zoe with a dagger in hand. Her hand blitzed with the dagger, with the intent to kill.
Her handling skills were so fast that Zoe got confused and her defense slacked. the dagger came towards her neck, threatening to cut it clean but she reacted in time and defended against it with her arm, just for the blade to make a little graze.
The woman added more strength to her arm and pushed the dagger against Zoe's neck, making blood trickle, and also pushed her backward till Zoe's back hit the wall.
The woman continued to pressure Zoe, who clenched her jaws and resisted, her posture however gave the woman advantage.
Her amber eyes abruptly narrowed and she changed her posture, forcefully removing the dagger held by her neck and stabbing the wall with it, then switched positions to her back and slammed Bianca's face against the wall.
Bianca gruntled as the wall cracked and caved in. She pushed herself off the wall with her hands but Zoe's hand was still pressing her against the wall.
While the woman was busy resisting Zoe's strength, to Zoe's surprise, she was barely suppressing her. Therefore, she looked around the changing room and saw a piece of clothing hung by an arm reach to her.
She pulled the clothing off the hanger in haste and wrapped it around Bianca's neck, then used her leg to push the woman against the cracking wall and her hands she used to pull the cloth against her neck, thus choking the woman.
Zoe strained and pulled as Bianca seemed to have more strength in her than she thought. She had expected Bianca to die easily but yet again she turned out to be mistaken.
The woman not only choked with her eyes rolling to the back of her head but also resisted by grabbing the clothing on her neck to relieve the pressure.
But Zoe's strength was greater, she threw her head back and put more strength into her hands and leg. The wall cracked, but the woman also started to suffocate.
The woman's face reddened, needy for breath. She seemed to be in a pitiful state giving Zoe the pleasure to see. She sadistically smiled and pulled, even more, listening to the guttural sounds made by the woman like a melody to her ears.
But that melody turned to something else when she felt a terrible pain assault her shoulder, coupled with the feeling of something sharp cutting through.
Bennitte had arrived to save her mother and just like Kitty had predicted, her mother was really about to die at the hands of a white and brown-haired girl.
Her eyes reflected tiredness, her legs were wobbling, and her posture looked incredibly sloppy, but she endured and continued to fight through sheer will.
On her hand is a cord connecting to the knife stabbing Zoe's shoulder. She was aiming for the heart, but her steps faltered on stepping on a hard-looking rock that crumbled under her feet, therefore, she missed.
She pulled the cord and dislodged the knife— which surprisingly pierced through the form-shifting armor— from Zoe's shoulder.
Zoe gruntled in pain, she subconsciously reduced her strength on the woman's body due to the sudden stab in her shoulder which caused her pain and even made her vision spin due to the poison.
The woman used this opportunity to remove the clothing from her neck and turned around. She grabbed Zoe's leg that was pushing her into the wall and raked the other leg, sending Zoe's back down to the ground.
With her vision spinning, she strained and tried to get you but the woman was faster. Bianca grabbed Zoe's leg and added strength to her knees, she struck Zoe's knee with hers, positioning it at a suitable angle, and with a terrifying crackle, Zoe's leg was dislocated.
"Arrrrghhhh!!!!"For the first time in thousands of years of which she had existed, Zoe screamed out in agony. She crawled on the ground with her left leg motionless and supported herself against the wall, taking sharp breaths.
"Heh~ That's for almost choking me to death, I guess we're at a stalemate now..."The woman laughed and rubbed her knees from the pain she received and took out her crossbow fluidly and aimed at Zoe's head and fired.
Zoe quickly used her hand to block the bolt that was shot at her. The bolt pierced her palm and the blade threatened to pierce her eyes if not that it had been stuck.
Her pain only intensified as she grunted loudly, and she hated to. Her anger rose in huge proportions and turned into fury. Her amber eyes glowed on seeing the mother and daughter duo who looked like a replica of one another, with one being mature and the other being a teenager.
Bianca seeing the state of her daughter quickly supported her "Let's leave daughtie, the Enforcers would be here in three minutes after being alarmed by the Arrays. We need to be fast."She ushered the girl, Benitte to walk faster and held her by the armpit to support her but that only made the girl wince loudly.
"Arrgh! Mom! S-stop!"Benitte grunted and continued "You're k-killing me, I can walk on my own."Then, she released herself from her mother's hold and walked on her own, albeit, limping.
The two felt Zoe's furious amber eyes poking them as they walked away and looked back. Seeing them look back, Zoe yelled "We'll meet again!"
"Yeah! It was really fun breaking your leg, HaHa!"Bianca mocked while the younger girl just glared at her and looked away. The two turned to a corner and left, evading Zoe's furious gaze.
As soon as they left, Zoe's face scrunched up and she surrendered to the pain and humiliation. Her immortal self was beaten and almost killed by a mere mortal?
"Damnation! This Mortal form is so weak! Is this the experience father was talking about?"She took deep breaths and breathily muttered. For the first time since she was sealed in her mortal form.
If she hadn't held back, then the result would have been different, but she could also tell that Bianca and her daughter were doing the same.
In a way, they had turned this little squabble into a contest of willpower.
Her back against the wall, she waited for kitty to come and help her, the sensation of pain was new to her. And then, her mind wandered around and she started imagining her next fight with the woman.
"Empress, why didn't you warn me about that rude girl? You saw her coming didn't you?"She asked Empress what bothered her the most.
If it wasn't for the girl who stabbed her with a poison-tipped knife that caused her mild vertigo, she wouldn't have been in this state.
"Hey! Hey! Don't blame it on me, will you? You didn't program to tell you when you are in danger."The empress's face appeared on the cuirass. She spoke in a whiny voice which made Zoe refuse to believe that she once used to sound like that.
"So you saw her coming?"Zoe asked, her fury even increasing towards the suit.
"Of course! I see everywhere around you. And why are you taking this out on me, you were beaten down to such a state because you're just too full of yourself!"The Empress said, as a matter of fact, further infuriating Zoe.
"What do you mean!?"Zoe asked, her voice trembling due to the fury she was bottling.
"Didn't father tell you not to just focus on your opponent but to also pay attention to your surroundings? That any subtle change can bring about life-threatening dangers?"Empress spoke and reminded Zoe of Conan's teachings.
"You need to be fixed..."She softly said to The Empress, who in turn merged back with the suit, but not before saying;
"... Whatever."In a lifeless tone.
....
In the Kitchen...
Loki and Beni were now done eating. Loki's indifferent crimson eyes lingered on Beni for a moment before he stood up and turned to leave, but on turning, he found the young man in front of him.
"Who gave you permission to leave?"Beni said with a threatening smile.
Loki was confused and clueless, wondering if he took permission to come in, to begin with.