Through Blood by Fate

In the Devils Grasp

Stepping into the tunnel to the right, Rosalina and Phantom trod gently across the stone for a minute before the first rooms came into sight. Of course, Jade gave her fair warning there would be vampires that wouldn't hesitate to attack her; honestly, she didn't expect to see several heads down the torch-lit hall pop out once they had picked up the sound of either their footsteps or Phantoms breathing. He gave a deep growl at the first one to fully step out to them; instinct surged a chill over her, and then the fighting began as the bearded man lunged. Dodging to the low left of his torso, she immediately jammed her elbow into his ribs and watched him slam into the wall.

Quickly, her senses spiked as things progressed, she saw and felt everything. The way her toes pressed through her shoes into the ground, exerting as much strength to change her direction as fluidly as possible. Dodging a few of her attackers only to tap off the walls and hit a clean shot. Tearing one after the other open, not stopping to see if they stayed down. Jade's shadow replica clotheslined, tripped, or smothered a few men, making it easier to take them down before passing through the stone wall and reappearing deeper into the mass of enemies; even more so, Phantom seemed to be handling the ones that stood back up with the pure force of his claws or jaw.

Covered in rubble and blood, Rosalina faced the last five, who had been smart enough to wait back but not wise enough to make a plan of attack. Taking a moment to see that Phantom was still close, she could see the ferocity they had paved so far. There must have been twenty men taken down, if not more, and four more men and a woman were in front of her. All five came at Rosalina; in a blur, she'd broken one's leg and another's arms, cracked a jaw, ripped open the stomach of one, and grabbed the woman by her head.

A hiss followed by a clawing at her hand made her lift her arm and smack the woman's skull down as hard as possible. They were all in unison, getting up and coming repeatedly; even with Phantom's help, there wasn't enough time to hit any of them with lethal blows. Just as Rosalina was sure she'd fail to clear the tunnel, the smokey figure in Jade's likeness slipped out from around the five like it had formed a plan to come up from behind them. Soundlessly, it came floating downward and quickly snapped the neck of the first man in its way. He'd been the most difficult snapping his arms back to normal when Rosalina thought she had twisted them enough to break them.

While distracted by the sudden attack, Rosalina didn't hesitate to pick up the one dangling his broken leg up slightly. She saw the others fighting off the shadow and Phantom but focused on the flailing struggle before her. She settled it by slamming her fist into him so hard she felt it collide with the wall. Her hand sank into the chest cavity.

Two more bodies fell behind her, making the woman clamor at her to have sense, to leave before this all got worse by attacking her master. After a hard yank, Rosalina freed her hand, knowing if she let this one flee or intervene in Jade's fight, she could be to blame if the whole plan failed. When she turned to face the woman and saw her already pinned by the shadow feet lifted off the floor, Rosalina added her own grip on her throat. The shadow fell like fog and then turned away, making its way up the hall and fading through the wall, evidently having somewhere else it needed to be.

"It's long overdue for your maker to meet his end," Rosalina said. With a crushing grip on the woman's neck, Rosalina could feel the desperate struggle of nails digging into her wrist as she fought to free herself and protect the man they had come to kill. At the audible snap, Rosalina's adrenaline-like haze staggered to halt as the woman in sheer clothes hovered just above the floor until Rosalina let her go and drew her shaking hand closer to her chest. Rosalina wasn't blinded with rage, but her actions were all in a quick response to any attempt to hurt, catch, or escape her. Immense feelings of growing power and lack of control began to battle within, but what really called out in her was what told her to keep moving, so she followed the slight incline of the hallway until it opened into a space with stone tables and benches.