--- Lily ---

They had a plan now and it honestly wasn’t a particularly good one. The issue was that while Appoline had built up a decent stockpile of useful potions... the variety was kind of lacking from Lily’s perspective. Oh sure, Appoline would happily explain how each of her twenty-four different poisons were all unique and interesting... but factually it was more like three varieties of poison and most of them weren’t going to be all that useful here. At least the rest of the stockpile was mostly healing potions so most injuries could be shrugged off if Appoline got to them quickly.

See, the thing with the poisons was that she had some that could disperse into a cloud, some that were for coating weapons, and lastly, some that were made for adding to food and drinks. Some were more lethal than others... but Lily didn’t have weapons to put that poison on, and wasn’t immune to the ones that aerosolized. The food ones were basically just useless.

That being said... she was somewhat resistant to some of the weaker ones that weren’t really meant to kill you. They were planning to flood the area Brook was held up in with a couple of them, and then Lily would go in using her shadows to block, and her real teeth and claws to do some actual damage. It probably meant that she’d receive some injuries in the process... but that was considered an acceptable price. Lily wasn’t happy with the idea, Kat wasn’t happy with the idea...

But Appoline had a lot of healing potions and even if she lost something more vital Thyme could fix her up afterwards. It would probably mean Kat remained trapped in that box if she had to go straight to Thyme... but that was a six hour delay instead of a permanent problem. Brook needed to go down, and this seemed like the best way to go about it. Appoline did have some combat capability of her own to rely on, but nothing amazing.

So the pair got ready. Lily slipped back up into the ceiling while Appoline slipped out through the hole next to the door. Lily quietly slipped her way towards the other massive hole... and she could see what Brook had set up. The other corridor was filled with metal wire, and both Vanilla and Maryland had some extra for their trouble. A wire was around their necks, and a potion was suspended above the pair. Standing about hallway down the hall was Brook.

She was glancing between the hole and the proper entrance, seemingly not spotting Lily just yet. The hole itself wasn’t completely covered in metal wire, but the gaps were small. It looked almost like a spiderweb of thin wire, much thinner than the stuff in the rest of the hallway. Clearly trying to make it seem like she’d forgotten about it. Lily’s eyes were simply too good for that.

On the other hand, the entrance was much sturdier in its defences. Wires twice as thick as normal blocked the way, crossing over dozens of times leaving almost no gaps to see through. The only exception was the left corner at about head height for Brook. It allowed her a chance to see people coming... but from the extra wires surrounding the hole Lily was certain it could be closed up quickly without opening holes elsewhere.

Lily took a step back to suck in a deep breath. Her ears twitching as she waited for the signal. Appoline’s stepped echoed loudly across the rooms. Brook tensed up a bit before relaxing. "Now now, I’d be careful if I was you. Getting too close to me... might mean my finger slips. You can’t see it yet, but I have your friends a moment away from death. Just a twitch... will be enough."

Lily didn’t believe it. Vanilla would certainly be fine and Maryland probably would be as well. If killing someone at Rank 2 was as easy as wrapping a bit of wire around their neck there wasn’t a reason to add the potion in. The potion... a concern but one she trusted Appoline to deal with. It wasn’t nice... but they had a plan. Minor, hopefully temporary losses were acceptable. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Appoline clearly still agreed because the breaking of glass signalled Lily’s time to start. She burst forward, burning away the mana she’d regenerated during this break as well as another few percent to slice through the wires protected the hole. Lily continued to fly straight for Brook, the crisscrossing lines too far apart to stop someone else small as her.

Brook yanked on the wires with one hand while a set of two slipped from one of her fingers. A moment later, Lily heard more glass shattering. No time to look. The wires around her started to shift and wiggle like snakes ready to lash out. The gaps she could see changed size by the second... but that was fine.

Shadows sliced out at the wire, cutting through them and burning more mana away. Brook seemed surprised by this, more wires snaked in. Sigils appeared around her as some of the wires started to glow. Metal shot from the wires at odd intervals all trying to stab into Lily to stop her. Shadows met metal where they’d stop her progress. Grinding sounds rang out and more and more mana was spent to keep her moving.

Brook appeared slightly panicked, throwing an arm up as metal exploded from under her lab coat to further block Lily’s approach. The last gasp. Lily sighed and sent her shadows forward, letting the tips of her shadow fingers slither in between the gaps in the wire and then PULL. The clashing mana cost was painful. Lily knew she wouldn’t get much more from her pool after that.

Sliding through the gap she’d created was difficult, Lily had to bring her wings in completely and focus a slight transformation on her horns to get them to vanish. Just that moment of reprieve took a huge amount of mental energy and the steel she was holding back seemed to shudder. Even still, Lily managed to slip through the gap and acted immediately.

Lily’s jaws opened wide before biting down hard on the nearest bit of flesh she could find. Brook’s shoulder. A barrier stopped her for a moment, but Lily had no desire to stop. The barrier shattered as her jaw crunched down. For Lily it was a large bit of flesh... for Brook it was a moderate wound. As deadly as Lily’s teeth were... she was tiny, and the damage reflected that.

Brook reacted by twisting the metal shield into spikes and sending them straight towards Lily. She let herself drop, claws trying to dig into Brook’s back as she ’fell’ but some sort of hidden armour caught against her claws. Metal screeched and cried as Lily’s descent was halted.

Brook was ready. A set of steel jaws broke though the shredded lab coat and tried to clamp around Lily. Lily’s mana was mostly spent, her physical abilities strong but perhaps not up to the defence. She’d need to figure something out... but the sound of breaking glass clued her in to the fact that it didn’t need to be forever. Just a bit longer. It would have to be enough.

Lily used most of her remaining mana to launch herself from Brook’s back. Lily flipped, hitting the wall just as the metal jaws clamped shut on her previous location and Lily lunged for Brook’s leg. Brook tried to shift away, but stumbled. The poisons were working. Lily bit down hard on Brook’s tendon and ripped away at it. At the same time, Brook managed to kick her away. Not particularly hard, but out of immediate follow up range.

Lily slid across the ground as Brook threw out several grenades in her direction. Lily grimaced... but accepted it. She had no more mana for defence and Lily simply had to curl up as best she could. Light exploded around her, pain racked her body... but she also heard someone else collapse at the same time before the sound from the light grenade properly defend her. Lily had no choice but to remain and simply endure, hoping that it was all over.

It was hard to know exactly how much time had passed before she felt something cool hitting her back. It didn’t completely fix the pain, but it diminished it greatly, along with a familiar itch. Lily groaned, but wasn’t really able to move yet. She couldn’t hear anything else... and what seemed like a few seconds passed without Appoline helping her further. Lily was worried about why that might be before she remembered the other two people that were certainly injured at the end of the hall. She just hoped Appoline would get to them in time. Sure she was in pain... but she wasn’t dead. Probably. The lack of hearing and constant burning sensations made it a bit hard to be certain.