Despite the three people lunging for it, the body fell to the ground with a sickening crunch.  It rolled to the side before its movement was arrested by the arm still clinging to it.  Shaking fingers fumbled with the claws, trying to extract them from the white-haired Knight without causing further injury.  Seraphim had to be<span style="font-weight: bold">careful</span>. Careful.  Otherwise, the wound might tear more.<br/><br/>Seraphim had been in countless battles upon joining the Pristine Knights, but she could count on one hand the number of times she’d felt like this.  Her breathing was sounding faint to her ears.  And—no. No. She couldn’t lose her head.  (How could she not? Her sister was unconscious on the ground with a claw in her arm and covered in burns!)  Losing her head was bad.  She gasped for air and stopped when she realized there were no other claws for her to take out.  Valiar was already by her side, hands glowing with<span style="font-style: italic">Healing</span>.  Oh shit. Oh shit. Wait, she could do that too.  She tugged on her hair in frustration.  Why was her brain so slow right now?!  She was a Pristine Knight; she could heal as well.  The frazzled woman shakily invoked the spell, bringing her glowing hands to Lethe’s hips.  She didn’t have the skill to mess around with broken shoulder blades, but she could do burns.  Burns were okay.<br/><br/>Adair looked at his broken Captain in anguish, wanting to drop to the ground and help heal her as well.  The conflict he was feeling was evident on the faces of every other member of Team Blonde.  However, what he wanted and what duty demanded weren’t the same.  Lilith was battling the ungrateful team to the side; she would undoubtedly be a harder opponent than the Sin manifestation from District 8 if the stories were to be true.<br/><br/>“YunQiao. Stand guard over them and assist from the sidelines.  Cricket, Leon, let’s go.”  He ordered, noting that Deimos wasn’t even in sight.  Both men nodded, firmly turning away from the sight of their injured Captain just as he was doing.  If they kept watching her, cataloging all of her injuries, there was no way that they’d be able to force themselves to leave.  The three men ran towards the battle.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~~~~~~</div><br/>Deimos was furious: furious at Lilith, furious at the little brat, and mostly furious with himself.  He had promised himself that no one would injure his squad.  (The sound of her scream of pain echoed in his mind.)  He had promised and the most important member of his squad was injured.   He raced up the side of a tree, kicked off it, and landed a glancing blow on Lilith’s back.  The wound was too shallow to be more than a minor inconvenience.  Nonetheless, Lilith’s teeth were bared at all of them.<br/><br/><span style="color: red">“Filthy Knights! Light infested creatures!”</span>It screamed in rage.<span style="color: red"> “You think I can’t see the Sin within all of you?”</span>Black lightning sparked between the ground and the sky, connecting the two in a thread of darkness.  The lightning kept appearing with no warning, forcing the Knights on the ground to keep moving.  Deimos estimated the space between the floating creature and the ground.  Could he jump it?  Maybe.  Would there be much force behind the blow? Probably not.<br/><br/>Leon flew through his vision, followed quickly by Cricket.  The first Knight struck at Lilith with his<span style="font-style: italic">Banish</span>infused sword but it dodged to the side, swiping at him with its only good arm.  It grunted when Cricket, glowing with<span style="font-style: italic">Prayer</span>, body slammed into it.  The two scrambled at each other as Lilith tried to keep aloft and Cricket tried to force it to the ground.  Even with armor, the man just wasn’t heavy enough and got thrown to the ground instead.<br/><br/><span style="color: red">“Your sister was the most delightful morsel!”</span>Lilith screamed,<span style="color: red">“We feasted on her regret and fear!”</span>It grabbed the charging Vlad, almost wrenching the man’s arm out of his shoulder.  Black lightning danced over the two figures and its red eyes glowed white.  Its arm started to regenerate but stopped at the wrist.  With a hiss of disgust, it threw the now exhausted man to the ground.<span style="color: red"> “Pitiful! Weak! You bring <span style="font-style: italic">cadets</span> to fight me, boy?!”</span>It  demanded as its enraged gaze turned to Guilford.  A wave of its arm swept Vlad away from it with a gust of tainted wind.<br/><br/><span style="color: red"> “I ate that Knight’s heart and I will feast on each of yours.  Cadets have no chance against Lilith!”</span>Its crystalline hair whipped around it, one ponytail stabbing at the approaching Deimos and the other knocking aside a fire spell.  Red eyes assessed the assembled Knights and planned out its next move.  Its attention was caught by a pair of determined red eyes and it teleported forward, eyes lighting up at the girl’s surprised yelp.<span style="color: red">“Hello pretty.  You have my eyes.”</span>It cooed, reaching its claw out towards the girl.<span style="color: red"> “Shall we see if you have my blood too?”</span><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~~~~~~</div><br/>Lethe flinched away from the burning sensation, feverish blue eyes looking at the figures bent over her.  Her legs felt like hell.<span style="color: silver"> “Wha..?</span>She couldn’t even force a complete word out.  She hurt so much.  She was so<span style="font-style: italic">tired</span>.  Surely one all nighter couldn’t have exhausted her out like this so much?  Maybe she really was getting weak.<br/><br/>A sob caught her wandering thoughts and teardrops fell on her face.  A crying Seraphim was leaning over her, only the glow of healing at the other woman’s hands preventing the pink-haired Knight from moving.  “Captain!”  Relief was evident in YunQiao’s face as he glanced back.  He appeared to be in the middle of casting a spell; there was no other reason he’d have a glowing circle in front of him.  Why was he casting?  The sounds of battle filtered into her ears and she struggled to get up.  Whatever had knocked her out: her team would need help with it.  Seraphim shouldn’t be here.  Where was Leon?  Familiar hands tried to ease her back down but she kept struggling.<br/><br/><span style="color: silver">“Re-“</span>She coughed but forced the word out,<span style="color: silver">“Report.”</span><br/><br/>“You were knocked onto a Sin Crystal that turned out to be the container for the previously slain Lilith.  Lilith used your magic to help in its rebirth and is currently battling with Team Guilford, Deimos, Adair, Cricket, and Leon.”  YunQiao summarized, drawing gasps from Valiar and Seraphim.  They hadn’t realized Captain’s magic had been used for the rebirth.<br/><br/>“All the more reason for you to stay down.”  Valiar concluded, once again trying to force the stubborn woman to lie down.  “Between two purifications and then being drained for Lilith’s rebirth, you must be nearly empty of holy magic.  Lie down and let us heal you!”<br/><br/>Surprisingly, Lethe did stop her struggles with an expression of horror.  Her right hand knocked away the hovering Seraphim and immediately went to grasp her supply pouch.  “Wha--?” Seraphim didn’t even finish her words before all of Lethe’s keyblades whirled into existence.<br/><br/>“No captain! No holy--!” Valiar was also cut off when the keys shrunk and immediately circled Lethe’s hands.  Both fists were now grasping the two pouches by her hips (and coincidentally, where her worst burns were).<br/><br/>A curse drew Valiar’s and Seraphim’s attention upwards.  YunQiao was staring at their huddled captain in understanding: “The Sin crystals!  No! Don’t touch her!  If you destabilize her any further--”  They all fell quiet before Valiar got to his feet.  “Stand up, Seraphim.  Captain’s doing her best even now.  Master Guilford or Adair have the best chances of helping stabilize the crystals.  Hurry up and finish that thing.”  He spat the word out with a jerk of his head at the cackling redhead who now floated in front of the blonde girl whose name no one could remember.  Seraphim was off the ground in a flash running towards Lilith.  They had to end this fight fast.