Sixty-Two: Bad sport, aren’t you?

A blade parted flesh with a wet rasp, the sound knifing into Lilith’s ears.

The Little White Dragon’s keen edge sank into the black Demon before her. The upward cut ripped Eve’s hem and etched a bright wound along her waist.

Frustration flared first; she wouldn’t settle for one strike. Lilith lifted her blade again, swinging as Eve still grappled with the Black Knight.

Her Broken Sword’s vicious design failed her. It couldn’t thrust straight like a proper longsword, only chop, and close-in chops waste space. With a black phantom locked around them, even Lilith’s slight frame couldn’t make a wide move.

Her second strike missed. The pitch-black Demoness snapped the Black Knight’s rusty blade aside, then caught Lilith’s Shattered Ark on her long knife and reached for Lilith’s arm with her free hand.

Lilith’s slim tail lashed behind her. It cracked like a leather whip across Eve’s wrist.

The tail left a red mark, but it didn’t stop Eve’s grasp. The Demon’s fingers clamped Lilith’s soft arm.

“Ugh!” The ground dropped away. Her body jolted upward. Her vision smeared, then weightlessness surged like a wave tearing her from shore.

It took the Little White Dragon a breath to grasp it—Eve had her by the hand and simply hurled her into the sky.

Panic first, then instinct. Lilith twisted midair. She started to flare her wings—only to feel a deadly, crushing attack rushing up at her.

She recalled the Black Swordsman without thinking. The phantom beside her swelled into a towering knight. The knight-commander raised his heavy shield across her, a wall of iron in the blue.

Lilith brought her Broken Sword crosswise, sealing herself in steel and bone.

Thud!

The shock buried itself in the commander’s shield. Suspended, she couldn’t bleed off the force. She flew backward like a fired shell, then streaked upward, a meteor clawing for the heights.

She refused to go limp. Her twin wings snapped open. Bone-white pinions lifted her blue-and-white cloak, beating thin air until her surge slowed and she hung still.

No relief came. She didn’t know what had hit her—Eve’s spell, or something else—but the next blow, the Little White Dragon knew.

She raised the Broken Sword on reflex and caught a downstroke from Eve, who had appeared above her like a falling moon.

Eve outmuscled her, and had the height. Even with wings, Lilith slipped under that pressure, her altitude leaking away. She drifted like a feather. The earth tugged.

Cold truth first—she couldn’t win a direct contest of strength. Grounded grappling had gone Eve’s way. Her only edge left was up here: wings and motion, pecking and harrying from the air.

If Eve slammed her back down, Lilith knew she’d be dragged into the Demon’s rhythm. And then she’d never turn the tide.

“Damn it—Star Energy Burst.” She chose to break the tempo.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t real magic. It was an Astrologer’s Star Energy surging outward, indiscriminate and raw. Most books filed it under common lab accidents.

Lilith loved this little trick. Low cost. Big swing.

Sure enough, the moment she flared magic, Eve reflexively pulled a dark-purple vortex between them. Lilith used the Star Energy Burst’s kickback to slide away, then spread those white wings and arrowed into the clouds, widening the gap.

Good news: a breath to reset. Bad news: with distance, the Demon would start throwing heavy spells again.

“Fireball!”

No surprise. Lilith had barely steadied when Eve’s attack bit her calf like a hunting dog and lunged for the hovering dragon.

Inside the massive fireball, she saw a wrapped dark-purple vortex. So her read had been right—Eve wanted to bait her into throwing more magic, then feed it to that vortex behind her.

Lilith had gotten burned once. She wouldn’t offer another bite. She wasn’t ground-bound now. Wings on her back, constellations at her side—ordinary fireballs couldn’t catch her if the sky itself begged them to.

And this wasn’t ordinary. Eve’s fireball was twice the size and seemed to track like a hawk.

Lilith didn’t wait to be swallowed. She dropped her wings and dove straight at Eve, dragging the fireball in her wake.

She raised her blade. The knight-commander at her flank hefted his warhammer. Together they swung, two storms breaking from opposite sides toward Eve.

The Demoness conjured a dark-purple vortex to eat the commander’s hammer. Her own long knife met Lilith’s cut with a ringing bite.

Lilith hadn’t expected to win the clash. What shocked her were the cracks that spidered across the vortex that took the hammer.

So it can be broken.

She didn’t linger. The instant her strike failed, she beat her wings and shot upward. Her vacated space filled, naturally, with the fireball that had been chasing her.

“Heh-heh—how about a big one?”

She grinned, savoring the sight of Eve taking the hit dead-on.

The smile evaporated halfway.

When the smoke peeled back, Eve was untouched. Two new lines had etched themselves onto the vortex floating behind her. Sigils had crawled over half its face. It looked minutes from waking.

Lilith wanted to cuss. She can absorb even my magic?

How are we supposed to fight that?