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The floorboards collapsed beneath Dahlia’s lead foot and only her agile reaction stopped her fro into the suddenly-revealed pit Still, her foot did go in enough to tap the nearest of the s that easily punctured the hard sole of her boot and pricked at the bottoht puncture, al pain She had no doubt that the spike was poisoned, but could only hope it hadn’t penetrated her flesh enough to deliver a killing dose

Beniago seized the opportunity to charge forward, leading halfheartedly with his sword, and the off-balance Dahlia did well to slap it aside, though she couldn’t focus her energy enough to apply the weapon’s signature lightning blast She did even better in her subsequent retreat, just barely avoiding the brunt of the er

Dahlia fell away and turned her head, but still got scratched by the s to reverse and press the man, Dahlia found out the awful truth

She’d been barely nicked, a slight scratch across her cheek, but in that contact between Beniago’s blade and her flesh, Dahlia knew doo pulled forth, as if the dagger drank of her very life essence She felt the coldness of utter obliteration, the eness She felt as violated as she had on that long-ago day when Herzgo Alegni had assaulted her village and torn asunder her childhood

She retreated as fast as she dared, not wanting to put her feet doith any weight on a floor lined with deadly traps

And they were deadly, she kne, for her punctured foot began to grow numb, and it took considerable concentration with each step for Dahlia to stop it fro as if his kill was surely at hand

Dahlia forced herself through it all and shook her head against the unnerving and unholy power of that wicked dagger She broke her long staff into two, then snapped those two four-foot lengths into flails and sent the, up and over and out at her pursuer

With her wounded foot, tiainst her, she feared, so she went on the attack, striding forward, lashing out with the flails one after the other Her assassin opponent ducked and dodged left and right, and tried to keep her at bay with his long sword, all the while holding that awful dagger cocked at his side, ready to strike like a poisonous serpent Dahlia quickly realized that Beniago wasto parry her spinning sticks in such a way as to cut the ties between the poles

She launched her right-hand flail in an arcing, doard-diagonal attack, and Beniago backhand parried with his sword, forcing the blade in against the handle-pole of Dahlia’s weapon As she followed through, Beniago slid his sword quickly up and out, hoping that the countering weight of her sould create enough resistance for hi tie cleanly

But this was Kozah’s Needle, iic, and no blade in existence had the edge to accoo was quick enough not to fall into the obvious trap, at least, retracting his blade before Dahlia could catch the swinging pole of her weapon and twist his sword frorasp

Instead the elf shifted her left foot forward and turned her hips, her second weapon coo back in full retreat

Dahlia shadowed his every step, i theratulated after a few such rounds had him all the way back near the shadohere he’d first appeared He’d barely finished speaking, though, when he darted out to the side, springing away and even turning his back on the pursuing Dahlia as he executed a series of darts left and right, coly wild leaps He ju far away, and with that visual barrier between hi in one leap so that he could disguise his landing

Dahlia cae, but there was too e his exact steps

"Have you discerned the pattern of the floor traps?" Beniago teased "But wait, how could you, since there’s no pattern?"

As he continued to laugh at her, the wohtly, over her shoulder, back at the broken case and the hanging rope Her punctured foot throbbed, and the burning sensation began creeping up her leg

Beniago grinned, apparently catching on to her distressed look, and he moved into position to intercept should she try to escape up the rope

"You disappoint ht battle?"

"Well fought?" Dahlia echoed "On this field of your choosing? In this place of devilish traps, which you know and I do not?"

"You will learn it soon enough," Beniago taunted her, and Dahlia caly inadvertently, to a place where she could get at him over floorboards she’d already tread

Her flails worked in wide circles, diagonally, her o didn’t retreat He fell lower into a crouch, blades ready to defend Dahlia flipped a forward soles, and landed in a full sprint at the er solid, no longer safe, and as Dahlia touched down, a board beneath her boot gave way Sheof a spike this tih

But so ankle and wrapping around it Unable to stop, she wrenched her hip and knee, and went down hard

And Beniago wasover her and coh