The battle raged on. The battlefield boiled even hotter as the reinforcements led by Arnaud began targeting the Mercure clan's mortars and gunners, slowly tipping the balance between the two sides.

And amidst this chaos, two particular clashes stood out as decisive.

On one side, Sasha was facing the makeshift trio of Arnaud, Elizir, and Fidri.

On the other, Gracia and Lucy were struggling just to survive against Stone-Heart's relentless onslaught, their attacks useless against his stone armor.

---

A whip cracked wildly in every direction while three men flailed about like birds trapped in a net.

"Move, you're in my way!"

"This is a duel, don't interfere!"

"Damn it, will you stop already?!"

The trio was sabotaging itself. Elizir, brimming with misplaced confidence and eager to prove himself; Arnaud, stubbornly bound by his knightly code; and poor Fidri, desperately trying to keep them alive the situation was slowly turning into farce.

And meanwhile, Sasha was starting to get a headache.

"You're all going to die in the end..."

Even if her resonance wasn't particularly suited for battle, she was still an Intermediate. Her physical abilities, whip techniques, and coating should have been more than enough to deal with these three idiots.

So...

"Why? Why? Stop running around and just die already!"

She looked utterly exasperated not just at the failure of her attacks, but at the fact that they weren't even taking her seriously.

With a flick of her whip, she swatted away yet another barrage of cards, followed by a flutter of paper butterflies.

"I've had enough, I've had enough!" she screamed.

Running her hands through her hair in frustration, she only ended up messing it up further leaving herself open.

<< Light Cannon >>

<< Cut >>

From afar, Elizir fired off his "Light Cannon," while Arnaud had gotten close enough to bring his sword down on Sasha.

Yet, even distracted, Sasha dodged to the side, letting the beam of light shoot straight toward Arnaud.

Fidri reacted instantly, shoving Arnaud away with the tip of his staff otherwise, he wouldn't have had time to dodge.

"Watch where you're aiming!"

"You're the one who got in my way!"

"For God's sake, will you two stop already?!" Fidri complained.

Though their lives were on the line, from the outside it was starting to look like a circus.

Sasha couldn't stand the mockery any longer.

"Hey, guys, shoot them already! Turn them into Swiss cheese!"

She tried calling on her allies to finish the job.

Her voice had taken on a hysterical pitch as she called for reinforcements. But alas, only corpses surrounded her.

All her nearby allies had been slaughtered by Orion's people. Caught off guard and being mere humans, they hadn't stood a chance.

"Hey, guys!" she shouted again.

But only Fidri and the others heard her. Defeated, she began tearing at her hair, screaming as though she were slipping into madness.

("This is it...") Fidri thought.

---

Red and black cards littered the ground.

To the untrained eye, their placement looked random, yet none were there by chance. Every card had been carefully positioned by Fidri for a unique trick one of his own creation.

It went back to his childhood, when he had first started as a magician. He had been only five years old, from a modest background, unable to afford proper props. All he had were two decks of differently colored cards.

Through countless failed attempts to reproduce the tricks he saw on TV, he stumbled on a simple truth: people only see what they want to see. The rest, the brain fills in.

For example, when walking, one doesn't notice each grain of sand. And yet, the brain records everything, performing hundreds, even thousands of calculations every instant so naturally that no one notices.

But what if a sequence broke that natural flow? What if there were patterns the brain wasn't used to processing?

The answer had come to Fidri in the middle of his repeated failures.

"All sorts of weird, fun stuff a great magician like me couldn't ask for more!"

And the trick he had just used on Sasha was none other than "The Game of Senses."

---

Taking advantage of Sasha's hysteria, Fidri approached, twisted his staff, and a small hidden blade snapped out from its end.

"It's over..." he whispered, as the blade pierced Sasha.

But Sasha wasn't about to give in. She grabbed the staff at the last second, deflecting the blade from her heart.

"You're going to die!"

She instinctively activated her " coating" forcing Fidri to retreat as fast as he could though not fast enough to avoid being struck by his own staff when Sasha used it against him.

He was sent flying several meters, bouncing harshly against the ground.

Elizir and Arnaud charged at Sasha, but she spun her whip around her like a barrier, forcing them back.

"Die, die, die" Sasha shrieked, her sanity slipping.

In her frenzy, she remembered a vial she kept on her.

A tiny container, the size of a pill, filled with black particles like charcoal , the same substance Iko produced with his resonance.

It was an experimental drug Iko had been trying to refine, removing its deadly side effects while preserving its power boost. Yet it was still highly dangerous.

But Sasha, in her madness, didn't care. All that mattered was the strength it would grant her.

The moment she swallowed it, the drug took hold.

Her eyes turned crimson, her skin darkened, her nails lengthened. She growled like a beast as the pain from her wound vanished.

"I'll kill you... I'll kill you all " she snarled, dropping to all fours before leaping at the unconscious Fidri.

"I won't let you!"

Elizir stepped in. Clasping his hands together, light began to gather.

But before he could finish his spell, Sasha smacked him aside with a casual slap.

"You shall not pass!"

This time, Arnaud stepped up, sword in hand, standing over Fidri.

"Die, die, die!"

Sasha lunged, her claws piercing his shoulder, while her teeth now beastlike clamped down on his blade.

"I won't hold out long..." Arnaud groaned, collapsing to one knee under Sasha's brute strength.

But before he could give in, Fidri's eyes snapped open.

Without hesitation, he pulled off his hat, planted a foot on Arnaud's back, and launched himself upward. Midair, he spun and landed on Sasha's back, straddling her.

She barely had time to react before he slammed his hat down over her head, then leapt back.

"Hit her with everything you've got!" he shouted.

For some reason, Sasha froze again, distracted.

Feeling the pressure ease, Arnaud poured all his strength into one last strike.

"Aaah!" he roared as his blade carved a deep slash from her chest to her head, accidentally slicing through Fidri's hat.

As the hat fell away, Sasha came to her senses just in time to notice the gash running through her body. But she ignored it, swinging her claws down at the exhausted Arnaud, who collapsed, unable to dodge.

"Elizir"

Fidri cried out his name.

But he didn't need to Elizir was already back on his feet, attack prepared.

<< Grand Light Cannon >>

An ultra-concentrated beam of light burst from his hands, streaking forward at absurd speed decapitating Sasha in one clean shot.

Her headless body twitched one last time before collapsing to the ground.

The fight was over.

And against all odds, the ragtag trio had won.

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