Liliane<br/><br/>â€œThere was a war?â€ Liliane asked, her eyes wide with astonishment and fear, that particular bit of knowledge overshadowed the rest of their speech.  â€œHere?  I didnâ€™t hear anything about a recent warâ€¦does that sort of thing happenâ€¦happen often around here?â€  She looked around- some of the kids were calm, though one or two were crying.<br/><br/><br/>Alais<br/><br/>It was almost too easy to slip back into the mindset sheâ€™d held so many years ago.  The driving need to fight, to kill- though sheâ€™d been hunting serpentile for the past ten years, it was almost always a single one, or a small group.  Nothing like thisâ€¦this all-out battle.  And the added complexity of not knowing who her allies were made the fight hard.<br/><br/>A reaper- she didnâ€™t recognize the prescence, though it wasnâ€™t totally unfamiliar, fell from the sky and immediately started killing serpentile.  She could feel the searing heat of flames blasting from him, so she stayed well back, not wanting to get in the way of one of his attacks.  Her entire being was focusing on her own fight, on the next enemy, her sword dripping blood and reflecting the burning red of the flames.  It was a scene that would plague anyoneâ€™s nightmares.<br/><br/>She heard a womanâ€™s screams, a cry for help, and Alais sprinted towards the sound, senses alert, sword ready.  It was a reaper attacking them, not a serpentile, and Alais prayed she wasnâ€™t about to do something sheâ€™d regret later.  She remembered Zane yelling to cut their heads off, and she guessed that he had been speaking of the reapers, but she didnâ€™t want to chance it yet.  Whirling her blade up and around, a move that seemed impossible to pull off with the giant sword, she smacked her opponentâ€™s side with the flat of the blade, an injury that would hurt like anything, but wouldnâ€™t seriously injure the man- yes, he was male, she could hear it in his wheezes as he stumbled back up, attacking her only seconds later.  She defended herself easily, before doing as Zane had said, severing the manâ€™s head from his body.<br/><br/>As she turned, a blow caught her across her side, opening up a shallow cut- another reaper was attacking her, having snuck up on her from behind.  She hadnâ€™t heard him, and it was so hard to use her shadow powers in this blazing inferno of light, and keep fighting.  Stepping out of the way of the reaperâ€™s next slice, she felt the earth rumble beneath her- an earth user.  Face impassive, she gestured with one hand, and shadows billowed out from her, surrounding both her and her opponent in a bubble of blackness.  While the other man couldnâ€™t see, she had no trouble navigating, and she killed him in less than a minute.  The shadows disappearing from around her, she swung her head back and forth, searching for Zane, taking advantage of the brief reprieve reinforcements had given her.  But all the new fighters made it more dangerous, too- she couldnâ€™t tell friend from foe, unless they were actively attacking her.  Pressing a hand to the cut on her side, she grimaced- it was worse than she had thought.  Sheâ€™d need to bandage it, and soon, before blood loss made her woozy.  She wasnâ€™t in the center of the fighting anymore, luckily, but she still stood in a balanced stance, ready to defend herself.