Darquesse got up and Valkyrie hit her with a chair that smashed on impact. She grabbed one of the legs as they fell and plunged it through Darquesse’s throat, then punched her as she gagged. Darquesse spun, staggered, but spun again with a back fist that sent Valkyrie crashing into the hall. Darquesse pulled the chair leg out and dropped it, healed herself and spat blood. She was grinning. Valkyrie ran at her, but Darquesse flew upwards through the ceiling.

Valkyrie hurried out into the street, looking up.

She saw Darquesse as a speck in the sky, swooping around, coming back down at an alarming speed. Power crackled in Valkyrie’s hands while she waited for her to get near, and then she let loose, and the lightning hit Darquesse, making her veer off course and crash into the ground.

Valkyrie sprinted over just as Darquesse was getting to her hands and knees. She lashed a kick into her side, kicked her again while she rolled. Darquesse caught the third kick, tried to twist Valkyrie’s leg off, but Valkyrie just blasted her at close range.

They clung to each other, and there were hair pulls and eye gouges and headbutts and bites, and then they were lifting off the ground, rising high above the city, still scrapping, still fighting, still snarling. And then Darquesse let go, and Valkyrie fell.

And oh, how she fell.

Straight down, with the wind rushing in her ears and her hair whipping about her face. She was glad she didn’t have her stick with her. It probably wouldn’t have survived what came next.

She hit the ground.

It was painful.

Valkyrie rolled on to her back and lay there, panting.

Darquesse flew down to the ornate concrete fountain beside her and stood on the edge. “Is that it? Is this the full extent of your plan? Please, Valkyrie, tell me you have something more up your sleeve. It was a good tussle, it was, but let’s face it – all I have to do is keep hitting you until whatever is boosting your power wears off. I can’t imagine that’ll be very much longer.”

Something moved in the shadows behind Darquesse. Valkyrie said nothing.

“If you were as smart as you like to think you are,” Darquesse continued, “you’d be trying to hide from me right now. I mean, it’s you I’m after. You get that, right? I came here so that we can be whole again.”

“Is that your way of surrendering?” Valkyrie asked.