Leah and Ibbi circled one another, eyes sharp and unblinking. Every twitch, every shift of weight was read like a silent language between predators.

  As Leah passed through a spot where the sun filtered through the clouds, the light hit her face. Her eyes flinched just slightly. That moment was enough.

  Ibbi’s smile twisted into something terrifying and she exploded forward.

  Leah heard her boots crush the snow and reacted in an instant, leaping backward just as Ibbi reached her. Her eyes flew open as she saw the goblin’s axe already raised above her head, crashing down toward her with lethal force. Leah barely got her sword up in time to block it.

  But when the weapons clashed, Leah blinked in confusion.

  The strike wasn’t nearly as strong as she’d braced for. She’d seen Ibbi go all out before, tearing through enemies like a living tempest. But now? The blow only made her buckle slightly at the knees.

  Leah shoved against Ibbi and sprang back, creating space.

  Their eyes met.

  Ibbi looked just as surprised. Her brows furrowed as if she, too, couldn’t understand what had just happened. But she shook it off and lunged again, sweeping her axe in a horizontal arc.

  Leah ducked beneath it, snow flying. She brought her sword up in a rising arc, clipping Ibbi beneath the chin. The goblin snarled, her teeth gritting as she retaliated with a savage swing. Their weapons collided, the axe scraping along Leah’s blade with a sound like tearing steel, sending sparks in every direction.

  Leah twisted, slashing low across Ibbi’s middle and tearing through the fur of her tunic. Ibbi staggered back, her frustration now plain on her face.

  "Why are you holding back?" Leah asked.

  Ibbi growled, eyes burning. "I can’t help it. I can’t use my full strength against you. My loyalty… it’s stopping me."

  Then, locking eyes with her, Ibbi added, "Order me. Tell me to go all out."

  Leah paused. For a moment, she thought to end it here. But then her grip on her sword tightened.

  "I order you," she said firmly, "to fight me with everything you’ve got."

  Ibbi froze. Her breath stilled. Then, it was as if something inside her unlatched.

  Her eyes, for a flicker, turned glassy, and then cleared.

  She stretched her arms wide and looked to the sky, laughing. "It feels like my mind’s free." she said, voice strange with elation.

  Leah’s brows pulled together. Unease crawled up her spine.

  Ibbi looked back down. Her eyes were wild, unchained, and locked onto Leah’s. And then she moved.

  Leah saw her fist tighten, and she instinctively raised her blade.

  Too late.

  Ibbi’s axe slammed forward with terrifying force. The clash rattled Leah’s bones, and she was launched.

  The ground vanished beneath her boots as she soared backwards, crashing through a wooden post and flying through the air outside the training field.

  Leah’s body smashed into the barracks wall with a dull thud, snow and splinters exploding around her. She dropped into the snow below, gasping as the air returned to her lungs in ragged bursts. Her chest heaved as she blinked through the haze.

  A looming shadow fell over her.

  She looked up.

  Ibbi stood above her, axe already lifted high overhead, her expression somewhere between unhinged joy and feral thrill.

  Leah’s instincts surged. From her side, a thick blood tendril erupted, whipping straight towards Ibbi. The goblin vanished in a blur and reappeared farther off, just as the tendril tore through where she’d been.

  But the tendril still surged after her like a whip possessed. As Ibbi darted to the side, the tendril curved, pursuing her like a snake that refused to let go of its prey.

  Ibbi spun out of its path once more, but Leah’s tendril split mid-air, fracturing into smaller blood tendrils that lashed after her from multiple angles.

  Ibbi grinned wildly as she dodged each one with terrifying agility. She dodged, ducked, slid, flipped. The tendrils chased but couldn’t catch her.

  When she leapt backwards again to gain distance, the tendrils suddenly stopped.

  They slithered back toward Leah, who now stood with her sword in hand, her breath steaming in the cold. The tendrils coiled around her, forming thick, pulsating armour that writhed like it was alive.

  Two thick tendrils pressed against the wall behind her, and she launched forward like a crimson missile, with snow exploding beneath her feet.

  Ibbi didn’t flinch.

  She stepped into Leah’s charge and, before the sword could fall, her hand lashed out like lightning, gripping Leah by the throat mid-swing.

  Leah choked as her momentum died instantly.

  With a cackle, Ibbi lifted her off the ground, her fingers digging into the blood armour. And then with ease, she slammed Leah into the frozen ground.

  The snow detonated outwards from the crater she left.

  Leah gasped, dazed. Her limbs refused to respond in time. She was only half-aware as Ibbi grabbed her by the ankle next.

  Leah’s world spun violently as she was hurled overhead like a ragdoll.

  Across the camp, legion members watched, stunned, as their leader flipped wildly through the air before crashing violently into the side of the fortress with bone-rattling force.

  But her blood armour had surged to the impact point, absorbing the blow in a thick, pulsing mass.

  She slid down the wall, peeling off like melted wax, and landed with a thump in the snow.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  She groaned, motionless for a moment.

  Leah knew Ibbi was powerful, but this was absurd. Did she really have to go this hard?

  Her arms trembled as she crawled to her hands and knees, eyes lifting with effort.

  In the distance, stomping towards her like a red-skinned juggernaut, was Ibbi.

  She trudged closer. Her smirk never faded. "You could end this, you know," she said, almost sweetly. "Just admit I’m stronger than you."

  She stopped a few feet away, voice suddenly tinged with bitterness. "Or... you could just command me to stop."

  Leah slowly rose to her feet, the weight of pain dragging her limbs like lead. Her breath trembled in the cold air. "Are you... aware?" she asked quietly.

  Ibbi didn’t say a word, only tilting her head to look at Leah.

  Leah’s fingers curled tight around her hilt. Her teeth clenched. She activated her blood empowerment skill.

  White light flared from beneath her armour as her black tattoos blazed into brightness. Then in an instant, she vanished.

  A sharp slash tore across Ibbi’s side, as Leah appeared behind her. Ibbi twirled around from the hit, as Leah lifted her sword again. The two clashed violently, weapons dancing in a whirlwind of speed and fury. Sparks flew from every blow, blood and breath bursting between them with each strike.

  Both pulled their weapons back and they lashed forward. The moment their weapons collided, a jagged crack rippled across the head of Ibbi’s axe.

  Then it shattered.

  Leah’s sword surged through, slashing a burning line across Ibbi’s cheek.

  Before Leah could follow through with another strike, Ibbi launched a powerful kick into Leah’s chest.

  The air was knocked out of her lungs as she let go of her sword and was sent flying backwards.

  She barely hit the ground before Ibbi was there again. Ibbi’s fist flew forward. Leah desperately threw her own in response, but her reach was too short.

  Ibbi’s punch smashed the side of her head, exploding her blood helmet.

  Leah reeled, blinking in a daze, fear suddenly swimming behind her eyes. She saw Ibbi raise her foot. She didn’t move in time as her face took the full force of the kick.

  Leah flew backward, smashing through the outer wall of the workshop building. Planks and crimson wood splintered around her. Inside, startled goblins and blood fairies stumbled out of the way as Leah ploughed through a workbench, bounced off a crate of armour, and finally crashed into a towering rack of weapons. Steel rained down all around her.

  She rolled across the floor, leaving a smear of blood behind her until she came to a broken stop in the centre of the room. A heavy glob of blood spilled from her mouth like vomit.

  Her blood armour peeled away, sludging uselessly to the ground. Goblins and fairies rushed over, lifting her head, trying to help. But through the hole she’d made, the silhouette of Ibbi emerged.

  Leah’s eyes flicked towards it, a shiver of terror fluttering through her chest.

  Ibbi stepped through calmly, her expression unchanged. "Now I can really see your true face, master." she said with a smile.

  Leah’s voice cracked. "Are you... trying to kill me?"

  Ibbi tilted her head, blinking almost innocently. "I told you. You can command me to stop."

  She stepped closer.

  The goblins and fairies stood up between her and Leah.

  Ibbi's smirk widened as she looked over their heads. "Do you really think they protect you because they want to?" she asked Leah directly.

  Leah’s breath caught.

  Ibbi’s eyes narrowed. "Maybe... when you ordered me to go all out... maybe I started to really think. And I realized something."

  Her voice turned cold.

  "You don’t have any allies here. You only have slaves."

  Leah lowered her head.

  Ibbi stepped forward.

  The goblins and fairies reached to stop her.

  "Small fry need to stay out of the way." Ibbi growled.

  Her fist smashed into the first goblin’s skull, flattening it into red mush. She ripped the head off the closest blood fairy in a blink. Another goblin was slapped aside like a fly, skidding across the floor.

  When she was through them all, she stood tall over Leah.

  "Do you want me to stop?" she asked.

  Leah didn’t respond. But slowly, her hand began to tighten, and her head lifted.

  Her eyes were no longer filled with fear, but a subtle fury.

  "Stopping here…" Leah growled, "means I’ve lost."

  Ibbi’s smirk returned. "Alright then."

  Her foot launched forward, slamming into Leah’s stomach and launching her clean through the other side of the workshop, out into the open snow.

  Leah tumbled across the ground a couple of times before coming to a stop. She gritted her teeth as her hand clawed desperately at the snow, blood soaking into the frost beneath her fingers. She raised her head just enough to see shapes moving. Her legion members were gathering, their red eyes glowing in the grey light of day. They slowly formed a wide circle around the front of the workshop, their gazes locked, silent and almost expectant.

  Turning her attention to the open half of the workshop, Leah saw Ibbi emerging.

  In her hand, Ibbi dragged a massive blood-infused great axe, its heavy head clopping against the wooden boards. She slung the axe onto her shoulder casually and stepped out onto the snow.

  Leah rose slowly to her feet, blood tendrils writhing and trailing from her back like snakes.

  She locked eyes with Ibbi.

  For a fleeting moment, Leah remembered the first time she had stumbled across the snow ogre. She had the exact same feeling right now. She wasn’t standing before something human, but a dangerous monster.

  Ibbi’s mouth split into a wild cackle, her teeth gleaming. She dropped the axe’s head into the snow with a heavy thud, then broke into a sprint, dragging the weapon behind her like a butcher dragging a cleaver.

  Leah braced herself, forcing more blood into her tendrils and thickening them.

  Ibbi lifted the great axe overhead, then the weapon came down with monstrous force.

  It ripped through Leah’s blood tendrils, tearing them apart in a spray of gore, before cleaving into her left shoulder and tearing clean through her arm.

  Leah’s eyes went wide with agony, her mouth opening in a silent scream.

  Before she could recover, Ibbi’s free hand cracked across her face in a vicious backhand, whipping her head sideways.

  But even as she stumbled, Leah clenched her teeth so hard she thought they might break, and more blood tendrils erupted from her body.

  Ibbi was a monster. So Leah decided in that moment that she needed to become a true one herself.

  With a feral scream, Leah's tendrils bundled together and formed a new arm. She threw herself forward, activating blood empowerment once more.

  She clawed at Ibbi with wild, savage swings.

  Ibbi retaliated, swinging the great axe to knock Leah aside, but Leah crashed back in, again and again, like an unrelenting beast.

  Ibbi’s grin began to falter. Their battle slowly became an animalistic brawl, with no technique, no form, only violence.

  As the minutes dragged on, every strike Leah took chipped away at the remaining humanity she had buried deep within her.

  Every gash, every drop of blood shed, stripped more of it away.

  When Leah slashed at Ibbi’s arm, there was a wet snap.

  Ibbi stumbled backward, blinking down at her arm. It hung limp and was bent grotesquely inward.

  For the first time, a flash of unease crossed her face. She looked over at Leah and froze.

  Leah was crouched low, as her whole body shook with rage. From her mouth, her fangs visibly lengthened, protruding like those of a beast. Her white tattoos shifted, turning bright red and glowing like molten lava. And the entire part of her eyes had become a single, blazing scarlet colour.

  Leah growled, deep and low, a noise no human throat should ever make. She coiled lower into the snow. Then she launched forward with such force that a large wave of snow and dirt exploded backwards in her wake.

  Ibbi’s eyes widened. Suddenly, agony burst across the side of her face.

  Leah’s clawed hand sliced right through it, gouging out one of Ibbi’s eyes and shearing off part of her ear.

  Blood exploded from the wound as Ibbi stumbled.

  Before she could react, Leah twirled and carved another chunk out of her waist.

  Ibbi swung her axe blindly, but Leah snapped her jaws onto the weapon’s head, and with a savage twist of her neck, crushed it between her fangs.

  Splinters of blood-infused metal scattered across the snow.

  And Leah didn’t stop.

  She pounced, slashing, ripping, tearing.

  Ibbi tried to counter, but Leah’s monstrous strength overwhelmed her. She was losing, and she was terrified.

  When Leah finally tore Ibbi’s arm clean off, Ibbi collapsed onto her knees. She was bleeding out. Her remaining hand clutched at the snow, and her legs no longer obeyed her.

  Ibbi’s remaining eye looked up at Leah.

  Leah loomed over her, panting heavily, her glowing red tattoos beginning to fade back to black. Her eyes dimmed, and returned to their normal state. But her face stayed cold and emotionless.

  "I won." Leah said, voice cold as iron.

  Without another word, Leah seized Ibbi’s head and pressed it hard into the ground. Ibbi didn’t struggle.

  Leah leaned in. "I don’t care about your thoughts," she said lowly.

  "All I care about is that you serve me. Diligently. Without question. Otherwise..." Her fingers dug into Ibbi’s scalp.

  "You will be replaced."

  Ibbi, broken and defeated, whispered hoarsely, "Yes, master."

  Leah stood straight, pulling her hand away.

  She looked out across the field. All around her, the legion members had dropped to one knee. Hundreds of red eyes bowed in silence.

  She had no allies. Only slaves.

  And that was all she needed.