Skulduggery hurled two fireballs that exploded against Lethe’s chest. They didn’t catch, but they forced him back a step and Valkyrie’s hands lit up. Her lightning caught Lethe on the shoulder, spinning him as Skulduggery ran and jumped, his knee crashing into Lethe’s sternum. Lethe ducked under Skulduggery’s next attack and grabbed him, but Valkyrie wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him away.

Lethe turned, reached for her and she rammed an elbow into his mask and dodged back before his fist could find her.

Skulduggery lashed a kick into the back of Lethe’s leg and Lethe grunted, looked like he might go down for the briefest of moments … but he straightened up again.

“Ah, teamwork,” he said as they continued to circle him. “It won’t help you, you know.”

Valkyrie looked around, expecting a battalion of Cleavers to teleport in at any moment.

Lethe picked up a fallen scythe, twirling it expertly before locking it in place by his side.

“I’m waiting,” he said.

Another scythe rose into Skulduggery’s hands. He didn’t bother twirling it.

“When you see an opening,” he said to Valkyrie, “blast him.”

China’s squad of Cleavers still hadn’t teleported in, so Valkyrie picked up a scythe of her own, started casually twirling it as she circled. She twirled it one-handed, then two-handed, then finished the twirl one-handed again. Skulduggery and Lethe observed her silently and she raised an eyebrow at them both.

Lethe attacked Skulduggery so suddenly that he barely had time to block, barely had time to sidestep and parry and twist away. But that’s how fights like these were fought – with barely enough time. Valkyrie took three quick steps and swiped low, then brought the scythe blade up high. Lethe dodged the first and blocked the second, responded with a swipe of his own like she knew he would. She countered, cracked her staff into his knee, rammed her shoulder into his chest and slashed at his head. The tip of her blade scraped a line in his mask, but didn’t puncture through.

“Unusual style,” Lethe said, backing away. His head turned fractionally to Skulduggery. “You didn’t teach her.”

“No, I didn’t,” Skulduggery said. “As ever, Valkyrie is full of surprises.”

He used the air to nudge Lethe off balance and swung his scythe. The instant Lethe blocked, Skulduggery moved, changing up his angles, going low then high then low again. Staffs cracked and blades scraped. Valkyrie came in, tried a broad slash to mess with Lethe’s rhythm, but he kept his tempo as well as any Cleaver she’d ever seen.