The Devil

While Geralt was dashing towards the armored giant looking concerned, his dash transformed into a jump. 

Twisting his body mid-air and summoning an axe into his hand, Geralt delivered a heavy downward slash towards the unmoving black clothed man.

With a sound of flesh being dismembered followed by a heavy Thud, Geralt's axe cleaved right into the old man's flesh. 

Not being satisfied by the single slash, Geralt pulled back his axe and started to decapitate the old man even further. 

After ten no thirteen slashed Geralt finally stopped to breathe. 

While he took a deep breath the axe in his hand started glowing dark green, moments later a green blaze ignited out from the axe as it was lodged inside the body of the black saint.  

As Raian watched Geralt's onslaught finish, he drew closer to the armored giant but before he could touch the armor Geralt pulled him from behind, dragging Raian with his shirt's collar. 

"The armor is corrupted." G 

"Understood."  

Geralt seemed to know what had happened, but Raian did not ask about it. Not everything needed an explanation. Some information was best left unknown. 

'Maybe if I was stronger, I would have been told' thought Raian. 

With a silent agreement, both men started making their way towards Gemma and the saint of white. 

—----------- 

Moments before the black sphere revealed the variable. 

Gemma was at the end of her ropes. She couldn't contain the white saint properly anymore. 

Even when the white saint had his memory and aspect sealed away against his will and even though Gemma had the advantage in pure raw power. 

The saint of white had managed to turn things around in 3 moves. 

Sacrificing his arm to land a heavy punch on Gemma's face he performed a dual exchange.

Not letting go of the slight opening between them, he grabbed Gemma by the edge of her armor. The tough edges of the armor were bent inwards under the might of the white saint's full-blown will to grab ahold.  

Yanking Gemma towards himself, the saint delivered a heavy knee towards Gemma's abdomen seeking to incapacitate her with a single move. 

Gemma managed to defend barely in time by positioning her sword in the path of the knee. 

Even though the knee did not connect, the force behind the blow penetrated through the blade, which made Gemma lose balance.  

Before she could recover Gemma felt something descending towards her. Knowing she couldn't do much before the punch connected, she concentrated all the mist towards them both, seeking mutual destruction. 

By the time the mist started following Gemma's command the exchange between the two had already finished. 

One was standing tall while the other was on the ground a few meters apart.

Being knocked into the ground by the saint's heavy headbutt dealt considerable damage to Gemma's vision, while the surface damage was negligible the real brunt of the blow had penetrated deeper, shaking her brain. 

The mist stopped dead in its track and dispersed as Gemma's command was no longer there to guide it.

Her vision was spinning and the connection between the body and the mind was destabilized. 

Despite the confusion she could tell an attack was charging towards her. 

When Gemma tried to dash backward by kicking the ground with all her might, instead of jumping backward her feet kicked the ground and slid off into the air before she could gain momentum. 

'Shit' 

Landing on her rear Gemma had felt her end. 

Vision blurred and still spinning, whenever she tried to move the command of movement would be disturbed along the travel thus nullifying her order from being received properly. 

She needed a few more seconds to recover but those seconds were literally priceless in this situation. 

All she could do was look towards the one-armed saint charging up a heavy blow and walking towards her. 

With a devilish grin down across his face the saint of white was wholeheartedly ready to finish off Gemma. 

He had performed the headbutt himself, so he knew how heavy the damage was. It was just like an old saying between martial artists. 

'Strongest blow is the one you don't see coming.' 

Back when Gemma blocked his knee, he faked a punch towards the head, Gemma likely formed a defense for the punch, but the saint performed a headbutt, the movement of the head is much faster than the arm. 

Using that simple fact he was victorious.  

A fist full of killing intent was looming over Gemma. The saint was charging up a heavy downward blow aimed towards her heart. Following his earlier thought he dismissed the thought of aiming for the head as it was fastest in fear of missing the blow.

At the same time as he finally started to blow something inside of him broke with an unforgettable sound.  'He's dead' 

Instantly understanding the reason behind the sound, the saint of white ignored everything and focused solely on the punch.  

Gemma tried to dodge but she still couldn't move properly. 

Every muscle in the saint's body coiled and released like a tightly wound spring, unleashing a devastating force upon impact.  

The punch aimed at her heart was a punch of certain death and she wasn't going to die accepting death, with her all Gemma moved, at least she tried to move. 

The punch had landed on her body, but she was alive, something had weakened the punch.

Instead of crushing her heart, Gemma managed to move, redirecting the punch to land on her sternum. She could feel her chest bones being crushed alongside her lungs, the broken pieces of the bones digging into the flesh causing certain death.

Two equally lethal consequences but the latter did not cause guaranteed instant death. 

She tried to move again to dodge the follow-up attack, but the attack never came. 

There was some rumbling, but Gemma ignored it prepared to evade an upcoming attack.

Seconds pass. 

The pain of having internal organs crushed and ruptured was not a pleasant one but the pain of breathing had stopped her from losing consciousness, she couldn't breathe properly so she dug out a hole in her chest to let the blood out thus breathing somehow.

nevertheless, she was recovering more and more and could finally see clearly.

The saint of white on 3 limbs holding himself on the ground and puking blood. 

The bleeding on his left dismemberment had stopped but a different stream of blood was still flowing down, likely from his head. 

Knowing that the saint was critically injured Gemma tried to force herself up and finish the saint, but the pain followed by the fact that she didn't have a well working lung stopped her from getting up. She could barely breathe after all.

Deciding the next best source of action Gemma got down on the ground and summoned a memory to heal her. If an injury didn't kill you instantly or cut off your limbs there was still a high chance of recovering that injury. 

So, she chose to play the long game, the saint could still be faking the injury.

The sheer resilience of a saint still eluded her realm of what's possible, so she chose to back down and recuperate. 

Summoning a glass in the shape of a teapot filled to the brim with an orange liquid she raised her hand to drink from the teapot. 

With a whistle of the wind, an arrow flew towards her head, dodging the arrow Gemma looked towards the aggressor right as another arrow from behind shattered the teapot catching her in surprise before she could drink from the teapot. 

Right in that moment Geralt and Raian dropped beside Gemma to see the aggressor together.  

Raian looked towards the new enemy only to see a little girl in regal clothes brandishing a bow and illusory arrow aiming towards them. Not seeing the threat, Raian refocused his gaze toward the saint in question who was still kneeling on the ground bleeding from every orifice on his head. 

When he moved towards the saint to kill him, Raian hesitated. 

Geralt didn't follow him behind or lead him towards killing the saint. Sensing something was not right, Raian stopped his movement right where it started, turning his head to look at Geralt. 

They were frozen in place, the look of pure shock spread across their faces. Raian saw Geralt and Gemma just looking at the little girl in quiet silence. 

But before he could question an immense killing intent surged from the two master's towards the little girl. 

The girl in regal clothes flinched at the killing intent but still chose to aim and fire her arrows toward Geralt crying "Stop."

Geralt easily caught the arrow as veins on his head bulged, his face turning red along with a raging expression. Not only Geralt but the calm and stoic Gemma was filled with rage as well. 

"YOU DEVIL!!! "Geralt's words were full of rage directed towards the little girl. 

"The devil is that little girl?" Raian questioned Geralt's rage.