Serena's lightning arrow was aimed right in front of the mother's face—and then she fired.
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion echoed as a wave of smoke engulfed the area.
Serena calmly shifted her arrow element and stood still, waiting for the mother and daughter to emerge.
Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blasted toward Serena, clearing the smoke in an instant.
The mother reappeared—wounded.
Blood was trickling down her forehead.
"You really are a kind of a bitch, aren't you?" the mother growled.
Serena smirked and replied with a taunt,
"Who knows?"
The battlefield had become a scarred and chaotic landscape of torn soil and shattered stones. The air crackled with raw energy as the wind howled through the open plain, whispering promises of devastation. Serena stood at a distance, her golden longbow gleaming under the overcast sky, her cloak fluttering behind her like the wings of a predator preparing to strike. Her breath was steady, her legs planted firm, though fatigue had begun to weigh her body.
Across from her, the cloaked mother and daughter stood side by side—an unshakable wall of superhuman strength. Though their hoods still cast shadows over their faces, their power was undeniable. The aura of brute force rolled off them like heat from a furnace. Despite Serena's earlier strikes and their own injuries, they looked ready—determined—to rip her apart.
Serena gritted her teeth and notched her first Ice Arrow.
She pulled the string, the mana in her core twisting, channeling, molding into a jagged crystal-tipped projectile that shimmered with cold fury. The bow thrummed violently as she released it. The arrow zipped through the air with a sonic hiss, targeting the daughter. The girl dodged, but the arrow curved mid-flight—guided by Serena's will—and grazed her left side. A trail of ice instantly bloomed across her cloak and ribcage, locking part of her movement.
No pause.
The second Ice Arrow was already conjured and fired. This time, it struck the mother dead-on in the shoulder. The impact sent her stumbling back, frost crackling over her armorless upper chest and part of her neck. She growled in pain, the sound inhuman, guttural—but she remained standing.
Before the third Ice Arrow could be prepared, the daughter shot forward with terrifying speed. Her leap left a crater where she once stood. Serena barely managed to twist sideways as the girl's leg swept across the air like a steel rod. The force of the kick caught Serena's hip, throwing her several meters away, her body slamming into the ground and rolling.
Pain screamed across Serena's side, but she refused to stay down.
She coughed, spat dirt and bile, then forced herself to one knee. Her third Ice Arrow shimmered into being, and she drew it with a growl of effort. The moment the daughter charged again, Serena loosed it—not at her, but at the ground between them.
The arrow struck, exploding into a frozen shockwave.
Crystalline shards erupted in every direction, biting deep into the legs and feet of both mother and daughter. Their motion halted completely—partially frozen, their mobility restrained. Serena took that precious second to rise.
Sweat poured down her face. Her mana reserves were burning away fast. Her arms trembled. But the setup was done.
Now came the storm.
She drew her first Lightning Arrow, pointing it toward the blackened sky. It shimmered with furious golden light, the electricity coiling up the shaft like a serpent. She fired it directly upward—far above the battlefield. The arrow shattered the sky as it flew, splitting the clouds and embedding itself among them.
A sharp hum filled the air. The heavens stirred.
Before the clouds could settle, Serena conjured her second Lightning Arrow—the last of her elemental limit. She fired it directly at the tip of the previous one.
The collision in the clouds above triggered a resonance that screamed across the battlefield.
The clouds turned black.
Electricity spiraled like a vortex.
And then—
BOOOOOOOOOOM
A blinding pillar of lightning surged down like a divine judgment from the sky. It struck the earth with titanic force, right on top of the cloaked mother and daughter. The entire ground trembled, a deep thunder echoing through the valley. The light consumed them. Their screams, though muffled, echoed faintly before silence returned.
When the smoke cleared, only two smoldering skeletons remained, blackened and fused into the earth—charred bone and cloth, unmoving.
Serena stumbled back a step. Her vision blurred. She gasped for air. Her body was nearly spent.
The attack had worked—but at a cost.
Her hands were blistered from the mana surge. Her knees gave out, dropping her to the dirt. She leaned on her bow like a crutch, blinking through the spinning landscape. Her arms and legs were covered in burns from deflected shockwaves, her cloak now singed and torn. Every breath hurt, but there was no time to dwell on the pain.
She had won. But she had nothing left.
The sky crackled again, the last remnants of the lightning storm fading into grumbles. In the distant forest beyond the battlefield, faint tremors suggested that Julius and Saya's own clash was underway—or soon would be. Serena tried to rise, but a sharp pain in her ribs told her she was done. Not fatally wounded—yet—but any more exertion and she would risk blacking out.
She collapsed to one side, eyes locked on the sky, bow still clenched in her fist.
She had fulfilled her part in this war.
But the battle... was far from over.