The request seemed to startle Dinah and gave her significant pause. But Dinah eventually forced a smirk. "How foolish," she said. "You want to fight an immortal like –"
"My condition is not to kill you," Alicia cut her off. "It's for you to defeat me," she added, her gaze at Dinah was unwavering and fierce.
It was a staring contest Dinah eventually lost. Her serpent eyes turned to a slit before she finally agreed. "Fine. I shall let you taste the –"
Before Dinah could even complete her statement, Alicia used both of her swords to pull Dinah's blade sharply to the left, throwing her off balance and sending the woman a few steps back.
Dinah's eyes widened in shocked surprise. She hadn't expected this witch to attack her while she was talking and she was surprised at the sneak attack. Her eyes blazed in anger and she suddenly lunged at Alicia like a madwoman. Alicia didn't let that opportunity slip and she slashed one of her blades against the incoming weapon and stabbed the other sword straight through Dinah's stomach.
The silver blade pierced through Dinah, causing the woman to halt and look down at her stomach. There was almost no blood dripping from the wound but the pain seemed to be there, twisting Dinah's corpse-like face into an expression of fury. A silence filled the room for one short second before a bone-chilling scream echoed inside the large cavern, as if a monster burst out from Dinah's insides. And then a maniacal laugh followed. Dinah was definitely riled up and she had a crazy look in her eyes as she walked forward, pushing Alicia's blade deeper into her stomach.
Alicia knew what this madwoman was planning - to trap her between Zeres and herself in order to kill her.
So before Dinah could proceed with her plans, Alicia pulled her blade out of Dinah's body and she swung it again towards Dinah with all her might, pushing the madwoman back once again. Zeres' hold on her loosened with her movements and she found an opening from his hold. She immediately left Zeres' shield, leaping towards the staggering Dinah and landing before the woman with her blades crossed in front of her. Her stance was perfect and graceful, more than ready to attack.
Zeres staggered backward from her launch and his back hit the wall. He looked up to see the witch queen surrounded by a silver glow of light, giving off a calm aura, like delicate snow circling around her. Zeres' mind was still jumbled from the pain. He had instinctively moved to shield her from that vampire's attack but he couldn't protect her from Dinah's attack.
Alicia's gaze never left Dinah in her crouched position. "Is that all you've got, Dinah?" Alicia asked, her tone condescending and mocking, trying to anger this woman even more. Her plan was to make this woman lash out at her violently without thinking about what she was doing and that way, she would have the upper hand. This also meant that Dinah's attention would be focused solely on her.
The woman who was consumed by her anger cracked her head and for the very first time, Alicia saw Dinah's eyes turn golden. The atmosphere turned darker as pure bloodlust enveloped the entire cavern.
Alicia's grip on the hilt of her blade tightened. It seemed they were initially wrong when they thought that this woman was a mere immortal who was powerless. Damn! This woman definitely had something up her sleeve that she'd been hiding from them all. What power was she hiding from them?
"I've lost my patience. Well, never mind. Now it's time for me to teach you a lesson about respecting your elders, bitch queen!" Dinah said as she laughed and one hand began to turn black. Unlike Zeres and Alexander, Dinah didn't groan in pain. She looked like she was in full control of herself. How? Why? How could she freely control herself like that when even Alexander couldn't?
Her left hand transformed in the way as Zeres' arms did. Black metal-like scales enveloped her arm, becoming larger in size, and her nails grew into sharpened claws.
Holding her blade with her other hand, Dinah's sardonic laugh died and she looked at Alicia with a triumphant expression.
"Move!" she ordered her minions and the circle expanded, giving them enough space for an all-out battle. Alicia was glad that this Dinah was now taking her seriously. She had actually been dreading the moment when this woman decided that she couldn't be bothered with this anymore and just signal her minions instead to attack her while she was busy fighting Dinah. She was glad that this woman seemed to really hate her and that she was easily aggravated by her. She needed this woman to fight her so she could buy time for her comrades to arrive. She believed that Abi and Alexander were getting close. She just needed to hang in there a bit longer.
She was not afraid of this woman. Even if this woman was much more powerful than she had expected - more than anyone of them had expected - she would show them all what she was capable of. Even if her opponent was unkillable, she would defeat her many times over, to buy time for her comrades and to give herself the strongest chance of survival. She would cut this deranged woman countless times and make her feel all the pain and suffering she caused on others - all the pain she inflicted to her queen, Zeres, and everyone else who suffered because of her. Alicia swore that she would give this woman a taste of her own medicine, a taste of how it feels to be cut over and over and over again without mercy.
"Now come at me, witch," Dinah challenged, smiling evilly.
The delicate and calm snow-like particles that were floating around Alicia began to move faster and in a blink of an eye, a deafening clunk echoed.