Anita
Chapter 3

Chaos ensued the second the protection spell was down. Herects and Guardians surged forward, each desperate to kill as many of their opponents as possible. The Betas reached them first, the blubbering cannonballs of rage trampled several unprepared Guardians under their feet.

Anita skid to the side, tugging Layette along with her and bringing a cage of ice around them while Layette crumbled the earth under their enemies feet and caged them in. Another, Diaxel, incinerated them from above. The red guardian landed nimbly on top of Anita’s ice cage, cheering loudly at the destruction of their enemies. They complimented each other perfectly. The crystals on their fingers glowed brightly in sync with the use of their powers.

“Nice timing!” Anita called, shattering the ice around them and sending the shards flying into the hearts of the closest Herects.

“Have I ever let you down girly?” Diaxel sunk gracefully from his perch and slapped them goodnaturedly on the back. Anita winced at the contact, still sore from her wounds and Layette knocked his feet from under him in annoyance.

“Ow,” Diaxel groaned, rubbing the back of his skull. A glare from Layette had him back on his feet and bowing in mock humility before them. “My apologies fair ladies! Let me make it up to you!” He shot them a wicked grin and pulled off a rather impressive backflip onto the back of a nearby Gamma. The beast bucked under his sudden weight, snarling with rage and attempted to sink its teeth into his wrist. The Guardian merely jerked to the side, knocking the animal off its feet and snapping its neck between his hands.

A sickening crack emanated from its broken body but Diaxel wasn’t finished. He snapped the crystal studs on his fingers together and reached down, cleanly severing the head of the Gamma from its body and incinerating it with a gesture.

He clapped his hands together gleefully, spraying thick, black blood in all directions. Anita snorted at his dramatic display of destruction and returned to the fight. The Alpha she’d set her eyes on earlier had made its way across the field, heading straight for one of the newest Guardians. The kid didn’t know what to do, shooting panicked glances back and forth as the zombie made a slow walk towards him. Anita guessed it was his first time in the field and took pity on his weakness, creating a sword of ice in each hand and sprinting towards the two.

“Just stay back kid!” she shouted, drawing the attention of a new wave of Gammas who leapt at her back. Anita paid them no mind, trusting Layette to take them out before they could lay one twisted claw on her. She wasn’t disappointed and grinned in satisfaction at the pained yelps beside her head.

In a matter of seconds she had reached the kid, indicating he should remain behind her as she faced off with the Alpha, a sword drawn on either side. She waited patiently for the Herect to get closer, waiting until he was a mere five feet from where she stood before lashing out with a sword and burying it in the soft flesh of its arm. She dragged the sword down its arm and jumped back immediately as toxic blood squirted from the wound.

The Alpha paused its advancements and twitchingly curled its head to the side, a motion perfect for any horror movie. “Kid get the hell back,” Anita snapped, not sparing him a glance to see if he obeyed. If he wanted to live he would, she expected that he knew at least enough to realise that and refused to take her eyes from the creature, tensed to attack the second it made its move. The delay was always different, every Alpha took a different amount of time to react and Anita waited with baited breath for what she knew was coming.

Almost a minute passed, the two locked in a staring match and Anita cursed that she hadn’t finished it before. They couldn’t take the risk, some Alphas took less than a second to change and if you were in range when it happened you were dead. She took a single, minute step forward and the Alpha screamed, diving forward lightning fast before she could even raise her weapon. The lunge barely missed her throat, connecting squarely with the flesh on her shoulder and she grit her teeth against the resulting agony. She could feel the corruption seeping into her crystals but if she stopped now she would die.

Thankfully it wasn’t her first time brushing with an Alpha and she fought through the pain. Dropping the sword from her wounded side and blocking with the other. She gave it her full attention, magic flowing through her veins, helping her to predict its every attack. The twitch of its left wrist, the slight raising of the right leg, one twisted eyeball flicking downwards for a fraction of a second, in this heightened state she noticed them all. Magic coursed through her body and she would not be defeated like this.

They continued on for what seemed like ages, lunge, block, twitch, duck, until both creatures were panting with exhaustion. Anita had only managed the smallest of advances on the beast, one single slice across the palm of a hand. If it dragged on much longer she would lose and she couldn’t let that happen. Where the hell is Layette? She leaped backwards, putting enough distance between them that she could search for the girl, noticing her grappling with a pack of Betas and Gammas with Diaxel at her side. Anita was on her own for this one.

The second her feet touched the ground the Alpha was there, they never changed their target if the Guardian that wounded them was still alive. It would hunt her relentlessly until she killed it or it her. She ducked immediately to the ground, narrowly avoiding a hit to her chest and took the opportunity to drag her sword across its leg, effectively severing the right from its body.

The Alpha screamed again, a deafening sound that left her ears ringing as she reared up from behind. Digging her sword into its now defenseless back and slamming the beast into the ground. Flecks of its blood landed on her arm and she hissed with renewed pain as the poison soaked into her flesh. The Alpha twitched beneath her blade and she pinned it with a foot. Curling the fingers of her wounded arm around another blade she drove it through the Alpha’s skull. Unable to avoid the spraying black liquid she resigned herself to several more stinging burns on her chest. Finally, the beast stopped its movements and she severed the head, leaving her sword embedded in the flesh as she crumpled to the ground.

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