After breaking her fall and pausing her attacks just so she could better coordinate with her brother, Triss was back on the move with herrge sword poised to stab through Gerald who reacted quickly enough to stand his ground and prepare to meet her attacks.


    "What—?" He yelled out suddenly when Stefan''s blood attack wrapped around him and forced his arms to his side to leave him very open to theing attack.


    Triss smirked,


    "Well done, Stefan," she said in a low voice, confident in her attack making contact.


    "Hmph!" Gerald let out and his upper body seemed to hulk out even further in disparity to his fairly normal lower half. He broke free of the Blood bounds.


    He hadn''t reacted fast enough to give himself the room to run out of the reach of Triss'' attack so he decided not to sidestep. He simply stood his ground and swung hisrge arm just in time to strike the de of Triss''rge sword with his ws, knocking it off course so he could step in closer and punch at her face with his other hand.


    Triss'' eyes widened but she reacted fast enough to let her heat swell in a st of infernal fireunched at Gerald whose first instinct was to leap away. The fire burned with a heat was sure he didn''t want to face at point-nk range.


    Before Triss could breathe a sigh of relief and attempt to use that moment to make another attack or put distance between herself and Gerald, she realized he had not leaped far at all. He just went low and swung his leg to sweep her off her feet.


    "Ah!" Triss yelled as her back hit the concrete with a bang and even as she winced, Gerald was already above her, and he brought down his massive fist toward her stomach.


    At the same, a blood spear came at him.


    The Spear aimed for his head in a stab that would have seen half the weapon puncture out the side of his head in a gory wound, but without even looking, Gerald snatched the Spear out of the air without stopping his move to punch Triss in the stomach.


    "Ack!" Triss groaned and cringed on the ground. But even as she felt as though her organs had been squished together inside her, she swung her sword with its pommel aimed to strike Gerald in the face.


    He caught her wrist but was unable to pay it due attention because the Blood spear he had snatched before it could pierce his head had changed shape. It liquified and began to slip around his arm, to his shoulder, and now it was around his neck and tightening.


    Gerald reached for it. He had a substantial threshold for strangtion, especially in this form but the blood bind was putting that threshold to the test.


    Just as Gerald managed to break the hold, Triss'' wrist that he was holding red up with infernal heat that quickly blossomed into infernal mes that fired directly at his face.


    *Boom!*


    It was almost explosive. The mes packed quite a punch that pushed Gerald back but he moved even further away because he tried to put distance between himself and the mes. He failed.


    The fire burned his ck fur and charred it to the point where raw, burned skin became visible.


    "Argh!" Gerald yelled but his pain did not encourage Triss to back off. She saw an opening and she took it.


    She brought her sword down in a powerful cleave and when Gerald managed to sidestep and dodge, she transitioned her move and struck the pommel of her sword into his stomach as hard as she possibly could.


    "Ack!" Gerald groaned as he doubled over. Presenting his burned face in the position for Triss to punch at it with her free hand.


    She showed mercy though. She didn''t coat her fist with infernal mes and thus, did not make the damage she had already caused any more worse.


    *BAM!*


    The impact was powerful and knocked Gerald off his feet. s, rather than hit the concrete with his back, he turned around in the air andnded on all fours.


    His back bunched strangely and his already hunched vertebrae hunched even further as he dug his ws into the ground.


    Triss knew she couldn''t allow him to move and was already bringing the t side of her sword down to clobber him in the head and possibly knock him out but Gerald was gone.


    A growl ripped out from deep within his chest and he ran on all fours with an animalistic aggression.


    His target was Stefan.


    The Blood Mage had called his magical blood back after the failed strangtion and his eyes widened when he saw Gerald charging at him. Well, ''saw'' is used liberally because he more urately felt the tremors in the ground a split second before arge wed hand was swinging at his face.


    Stefan congealed his magical blood into a shield that absorbed some of the impact packed by the punch but it was so powerful that it tore a hole through and mmed into his chest.


    *Bam!*


    As he was sent sliding away, Stefan spat out blood that didn''t fall to the ground but floated to join the blood that was now floating by his sides.


    Even as the pain made it difficult to think, Stefan managed to congeal the blood into multiple daggers that barraged Gerald who moved so fast, that they always stabbed into the ground at spots he had been seconds before they struck.


    The daggers left divots in the concrete floor but left Gerald uninjured and still on the hunt to inflict more pain on Stefan.


    Of the siblings, Stefan was the weakest physically but his constant interference had impacted Gerald''s decision-making which always let Triss take advantage. He would be easier to take out and once he was out of the fight, Gerald could focus his attention on Triss.


    "Get away from him!"


    The yell sounded so clearly that Gerald was sure Triss was right by his ear. But she wasn''t.


    Triss wasn''t fast enough to follow his movements to do so and before Gerald could think of how she had done it —talked to him like she was close when she wasn''t— a wall of infernal fire zed in the two feet of space still between Gerald and Stefan.


    Triss was indeed not fast enough to follow Gerald''s movements but she could follow Stefan''s so she aimed for his front and erred the attack she knew wasing for him.


    The wall of infernal fire got so close that it almost singed the hair off Gerald''s arms and as he quickly skidded to a stop, there was a moment when his speed slowed as he tried to change direction. That was when Triss struck. Or at least she wanted to.


    Her attack was intercepted by Gerald who snarled and wed at her wrists, drawing blood and causing her enough pain that she was forced to drop her sword.


    "Fuck—!" Triss yelled but she didn''t stop. Her fists became coated by Infernal fire that seared the w wounds on her wrists and stopped the bleeding.


    She brought them down on Gerald, packing violent heat. Gerald couldn''t run from the fire but he managed to dodge one of the fists so when hended a blow into Triss'' stomach, she alsonded a fire-coated fist on his shoulder.


    Her fire burned him but the force of his blow sent her to the ground in an impact that caused her to arch her back against the concrete while her punch hadn''t caused him to move a step.


    Stefan was alert again and his magical blood was starting to take shape in preparation to attack when Gerald raised a hand.


    "Alright. I think we''ve sparred enough," he said, "Any further and we''ll just get carried away."


    His back straightened and his ck fur sunk back into his skin. Back in his human form, he still had the burns on his face and shoulder but he looked like he''d survive them.


    Triss was breathing deeply but raised a hand in a thumbs-up,


    "If you say so…"


    Her sentence was interrupted when a deep thrumming sounded from deep within the ck Manor. It shook the ground with a tremor and all eyes instinctively searched for the source.


    They didn''t see the source but they knew the cause.


    After all, there was only one being in the Manor capable of enough power to shake the Manor''spound.


    Actually, there were two of them now, and from weeks of simr incidents, this tremor was probably caused by one of their many high-powered shes.