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As if trying to get ahead of her windingaround her faster now, like a tornado, hoping to twist and disorient her, upset the huht made her body shudder She felt their desire to take her She was a creature with Darkness within her, one they could use and overpower
She put the final twist in the braid, and then thrust out with both hands, a sharp, blunt ht and Dark energy slashed through the set The Dark held theht burned they free, taking Underworld flesh with it, then ith a dual overhand strike like she ielding two single tail whips Slashing down, across, bisecting their energy, snapping her wrists so the tails didn’t co off as they spentdistractions She saw their skeletal bodies, the long talons and burning eyes They belonged to hie, the truth of it was even uard, sent to test the periainst The desire to protect and reinforce disappeared beneath the weight of her need to obliterate, destroy, cause pain
They were circling, trying to dodge that weapon, but she was ht One of theer, round hard, plowing up the dirt with her shoulder She thought she heard a screa on now that the beasts were rabbing at Ruby’s aret her back into it
"Miriam, no!" Linda’s cry, but it was too late In that blink, one of the soul-eaters had grabbed the young wo theer Pulling at her hair, her flesh, her clothes It would take them fewer than two seconds to rip her li back to her feet, Ruby lashed out full force, no doubt or restraint
The explosion illury expressions, Linda’s white, determined face, and Miria, braided weapon cut deep, deep enough to truncate The recoil sang back up Ruby’s arh her body, but they dropped Miria her with her own shields Then Christine was there, shouting "Back Back, you bastards"
She was using the strength of fe that shield in front of theht her But they needed h Christine couldn’t hold it alone Not forat Ruby Ruby shoved Miria them back toward the circle Miriam’s blood was on her arirl was hurt, but at least all lied her back over the perimeter
"Go, Christine, she’s in Back to the circle Hold the circle"
Christine obeyed, though her expression, a quick flick toward Ruby, suggested she thought she’d lost herout here She probably had, but the demons were still not contained
She wasn’t sure whose blood hose, but she’d use it Bringing her hands together, she screamed out another chant The braided line of power coiled back up in her hands like an obedient serpent, then h, she kneaded and spread it, a quick alteration of the ic As she did that, she called out the words to reinforce her shields and recharge the energy, using her blood and the darkness, the scattered shards of Light sparking off the circle A potluck of things like a ical dirty bomb, many different unpredictable elements combined Unpredictable was exactly what she needed here
She flung it outward, like a h As it left her hands, it beca line of Dark and Light fires, a deadly white squall line Reinforced by the circle’s strength behind her, shethe soul-eaters back toward their rift point
They snarled, lunged Then screae and pain as that line tore shreds out of them, as if they’d stepped into athem back like a lion taed, and she parried, ducked shots of flame back at her, thrown punches They were at close quarters now, less than two or three feet between the ot to that hole She tasted her own blood on her lips, knew they were getting in some strikes as well It didn’t matter
Pain slashed across her back A cry broke froer She was trapped beneath the suffocating weight of a fourth soul-eater, one who’d gotten past her guard How had she missed him in the smoke? Maybe he’d come out behind them More ier tethered to it at all, the chains broken Corporeal