Ira swallowed as the metallic taste of blood permeated her mouth. She wasn’t going to let this creature get any kind of satisfaction from seeing that she’d caused her to bleed.

“What’s wrong little Calerian, did that hurt?”

Her eyes narrowed as the being before her mocked her plight. This was her corruption, this was the creature she had to face and she had to face her alone. No Storm to help her anymore, he’d already done his part. From here on out the fate of both of them rested in her hands and with those two hands she had to tear this bitch to pieces.

Slowing coming to her feet, Ira formed her two Half Swallows in her hands, Uriahd and one blank one, one with no name.

The corruption smirked, twisting Ira’s own face into something grotesque and disfigured, something so evil and demented she knew she would never look like this.

She crossed the small distance between them in seconds, holding her weapons in front of her she made for a quick jab at the beings stomach. But as she extended one clawed hand to knock the attack away, Ira faked out of it, shifting her weight and stopping her forward momentum, she spun off to the side and sliced open the creature’s arm and then attempted to stick her like the animal she was.

Clang!

The blade of Uriahd bounced harmlessly off of the creatures armour.
Stunned by the fact that her attack hadn’t worked, Ira almost missed the attack that the corruption had coming her way. Noticing it just in time she raised Uriahd and blocked the sharpened claw only to have another one come in at her unprotected stomach. But the beings claw bounced harmlessly off of Ira’s armour as well. It seemed that neither of their weapons could damage each other’s armour.

“Calerian whore, I’m going to rip you to pieces!”

I didn’t know virgins could be whores…

Ira dodged the sloppy attack, five sharp and glistening metallic claws descending towards her face. The second one she didn’t notice and four of the digits sliced through cloth and easily cut through the tender flesh of her thigh. Pain exploded and Ira jumped back, nearly falling to one knee as she looked down to see the bright red liquid pooling out of the wounds and soaking into her clothing. It was at that moment she noticed the wound on her copy’s arm, it was bleeding yes, but it was bleeding black and the substance seemed too thick to be blood as if the corruption itself was seeping out of her.

The copy didn’t give her long to think about it though; she quickly leapt at Ira, claws at the ready. Ira brought up her half swallows and the creature’s claws landed on the rods, inches from her face and chest. But the force of her attack knocked Ira flat onto her back with the corruption on top of her. Reacting quickly, Ira wrapped one of her legs around the creature’s and then rolled the two of them over, Ira coming to rest on top. With a hand covered entirely in armour, Ira reared back her arm and punched her copy right in the face, then attempted to stab her through the throat.

Uriahd missed by centimetres and instead plunged into the soft wood by the woman’s head and Ira was thrown off the creature by a powerful kick to her stomach.

Landing on her back once again, Ira quickly scrambled onto her feet and formed Uriahd once more in her hand, the one buried in the wood having already disappeared. This was futile, in order to banish the corruption Ira would have to strike at her heart, but she couldn’t do that because the armour protected the creature. Her attacks bounced right off. And likewise that was probably the same area this creature needed to strike her at to overcome her soul and take full control of her physical body.

This seemed like a battle already lost and won at the same time, the corruption couldn’t win, but neither could Ira. Not unless she had armour piercing weaponry.

Ira froze for a brief second, a weapon that could pass through armour and directly attack the soul.

The blades of her Half Swallows began to glow a soft blue.

The corruption cocked her head slightly to the side as if wondering what she was up to, “What are you doing?”

Ira smirked and ignored her, instead of answering her with words she leapt at the creature. One blade passing horizontally in a swipe meant to behead. The creature ducked down below it and when she made to kick Ira’s legs out, she simply jumped over the attack, landed and kicked the creature in the face with her armoured foot. Rearing Uriahd back, Ira plunged the weapon towards the creature’s heart, who didn’t seem too worried about the blade until it passed through the very armour meant to protect her as if it wasn’t there.

The look of shock and pain was almost too much for Ira to watch. Even though this wasn’t a living person it was hard to see a look so reminiscent to what a human would do when stabbed. With the blade still stuck in the creature, black liquid began to slowly climb up Ira’s blade and slither over her hand. It felt like liquid ice and numbed every part of her flesh it touched. Her heart beat tripled as she tried to let go of the weapon only to find she couldn’t move and the black liquid finally crawled up her arm and then across her armour, where it buried through the Irenian crystal and into her chest.

And then darkness…