With Vitaliana trusting in her sisters and her mother, she could finally focus on the things she needed to do, grow. And it was a feeling of trust that her family could sense, just like how animals have an innate ability to feel others emotions, they too could feel it.
~ Skies over Ridgeline ~
The skies were a flurry with streams of fire, tornadoes, lightning and the sense of death. Combating these elements were trillions of blood spikes littering the air. However, occasionally the spikes would disappear when the 5 sisters passed through the air.
This was all thanks to Acialia's ability to manipulate water and other fluids. She knew that with her current strength, there was no way to fully restrict the enemy's blood weapons. But she could make the ones littered around the sky, rendered damage-less. Allowing her and her sisters to fly freely as if there were no obstacles. Even so, it wasn't easy to constantly manipulate millions of tiny blood spikes in real time. And she was clearly running low after an intense extended fight.
Aieria was second oldest and thus had the next longest time to develop her strength. There wasn't a huge difference between her and Acialia, however, even a small difference, at these levels can have substantial consequences. She primarily redirected attacks from the vampire, however, even with her command over the very air they flew in… It proved to be too much to redirect every attack. As a result she was the most bloodied one in the fight. At one point, part of her beak chipped and fell away from the rest of it. One of her wings was broken in 10 places and she had several indents in her body from where she had to take blunt force blows. If that wasn't enough there were thousands of cuts all across her body. All caused by fast moving blood weapons.
As bad as Aieria's Injuries were, they could have been far worse if not for the aid of Fernia's skills. Fernia would use her own health to restore some of the injuries Aieria received. It wasn't much, but that didn't change the fact it was helpful. It had to be activated through physical contact, while mid-air combat is a bird's specialty… It's not so easy to perform such a skill when the enemy does everything in their power to prevent it.
Fulgiana was the least worse for wear of all the sisters. This was due to her sheer ludicrous speed making it next to impossible to hit her if one was distracted. Eternia would also have to give a little bit of effort to land an attack, though she wouldn't have to try too hard. Even so, Fulgiana's speed wasn't going to be enough to overcome the gap between her and the opponent, every single attack that hit her did a lot of damage, losing several feathers with each one. One of them hit her tail feathers which made it even more difficult to fly, causing her to slam into the ground and other structures from time to time.
The middle sister Flairiana on the other hand, while she suffered damage from attacks, being surrounded by her mother's flames instantly healed her wounds and strengthened her own fire elemental attacks to the point whenever she landed a fiery attack, the damage wasn't ignorable by the Vampire. As such, she was the only one capable of doing any real damage to the Vampire and it was based purely on the luck of her elemental affinity. An advantage that she was rather thankful for, but not arrogant about. After all, even with this advantage, the damage she did wasn't much, it was just enough to cause the Vampire Noble enough damage to grab his attention, thus limiting his ability to dish out attacks.
The five sisters were working in a near perfect harmony with each other. The butler, on the other hand, was handling the five of them with a little bit of difficulty. Though, teamwork and type advantages just simply aren't enough to bridge the gap between the sisters fighting power and the Noble Vampire, the butler.
"AHAHA! You're all working together against a single opponent and this is the best you can do!" The Vampire laughed maliciously, just as he landed an attack sending Aieria down to the ground. "You're not bad. I'll give you that. Had I really been a Baron like you seem to be thinking… You would likely have defeated me long ago. However, the difference between the ranks is just not something a little bit of teamwork and hope could possibly bridge. I'm a Count. Two whole ranks above a pitiful Baron. Not quite as good as an Earl, but not too far beneath. You were doomed from the start. Ever since the order to kill your little family of birds." He sneered, releasing the remaining constraints he had set upon himself.
The butler cracked and rolled his neck as a heavy suppressive aura of death erupted out from within him. The pressure this aura emitted was nothing to scoff at, as was clear to see when all five sisters fell from the sky each creating a large crater where they landed. The impacts shook the ground and sent debris flying everywhere. If anyone had been alive, there's no way there now. Including the City Lord and his son.
"AK!" The sisters spit up blood while more flowed out of their belly wounds, causing nausea and faintness.
"You're just a puppet for an evil god. Ak! A corrupted dealer of death." Acialia coughed up and out, managing as much just before she seemingly lost the ability to speak.
"Oh? Well, at least you managed to finish your goals. The City has fallen, and so have all of the phoenix. This world will soon die." The Vampire Count snickered. "Though I do suppose that Eternia is still alive. Oh well, I'm sure the Dukes will deal with her ugly face… A shame this is, the children dying before the parents. I just love my job!" He continued, basking in the sensation he felt. An overwhelming sense of euphoria filled his being as a blood dart flew towards each of the sister's heads. "Farewell, you monstrous freaks." He sneered evilly.
Solaria tightened her grip on Vitaliana preparing to enter and end the fight right there in an instant. But, a couple of things… Caused her to relax.