Chapter Text
Her muscles burn with each movement. Sweat beaded on her forehead. She couldn't keep this up much longer. This was only supposed to be a quick contain and damage control. They hadn't expected the entity to have conjured its own army. There was no time to deal with this, and this was why she didn't bother taking anyone other than necessary. Now, with only Adrien and Sabrina to help her, this fight was quickly becoming a losing battle.
“Yfirup eseht swodahs”
A glance to her side saw Adrien clearly struggling with the shadow, as it started or overpower him, Sabrina finished the purification spell.
“Eetf eseht stirips morf live” echoed through the warehouse. Shadows suddenly started to scream and writhe, smoke seemingly dissipating off of them. After a few seconds, the screams silenced.
Turning to it, Marinette started dealing consecutive hits to the entity. Grabbing its conjured weapon, she leaped over its head, using her momentum to throw it off balance.
A hot flash of pain started rapidly growing on her side. The warm sticky feeling of fresh blood flowing down her pant leg.
Swiftly, she got up, hitting the entity one more time to try and distract him momentarily. Looking down, she saw a deep gash in her right abdomen, that's all she had time for before she was thrown across the room.
Even with the entity's help now dissipated, Sabrina’s magicks weren’t enough to banish the entity. Alya was still injured after the last fight, and Nathaniel was in a different timeline with Alix. This just left Marinette, but this fight was taking significantly longer than she had, even with her extra guardian magick reserves she was already running low.
Calling on clout, the blunette hit the entity, knocking it across the warehouse. It got up, clearly deciding that Sabrina would be a better target, charging towards her. Adrien quickly sprinted over, using his baton to deflect its attack from the tired girl.
Panting, Mari noticed the entity conjuring a blade in Adrien's blindspot. She hurried into action, running up to Sabrina to take her to the drop zone, where Max would be.
“Shell-ter!” Marinette whispered. A translucent green shield appeared by Adrien, right before the entity struck him with his blade. A dull thud echoed around them.
“Max will be here to pick you up in 5 minutes. Stay awake until then, okay?” a nod was her only answer.
Panting, she knew she shouldn’t have stayed up all night the previous night working, but she needed to know where the justice league was in tracking her and her team's location.
“Max! Take them all back to the lab! I ca-“
Her shout was cut off by Adrien's pained scream. His green eyes were wide, face contorted, blood dripping from his impaled shoulder. He twisted in agony, wincing as the entity started to twist the blade.
“Cataclysm” he grumbled, the blade glowing then turning to dust. He slumped to the ground, the entity smirking among its victory.
As it leaned down to try and find his ring, Sabrina uttered a spell, turning her and Adrien invisible. It swiped at air when it reached where Adrien once sat, rage overturning it’s mind.
This made it turn to Marinette, she was the only one left. Injured, she knew she had at least one broken rib and her side was on fire, but she had to push on. Getting up off the ground, she held her one injured arm.
As it charged, she took all her energy and screamed
“Lightning dragon!” The magical lightning surrounded it, preventing it from getting to Adrien and Sabrina.
“Max. Now!” Marinette didn’t register her voice until a few seconds after she said it.
A blue portal opened under Adrien and Sabrina after they appeared in the far corner, dropping them to safety.
“Are you sure you can handle this boss? My data from your Kantech says your magiks are only at 15% efficiency, and your vitals are dropping quickly. I can still get you out of there. Let's just let the league handle this”
“But if I leave now, it’ll escape. We’re the only ones who can track it. I’m not risking this. It’s now or never.”
“Marinette. I’m not talking to you as a part of your team but as your friend. If you don’t get out of there now, you could die.”
She chose to ignore that. Marinette wanted to keep her mind off that for as long as possible, as it would distract her. She dodged a flying blade, careful to keep even footing.
“Water Dragon!”
Water began to swirl around the room, she concentrated them into razor-thin cutters, flinging them in the direction of the entity. It simply dodged them. Moving with speed she hasn't seen in a long time, it stabbed its weapon into her leg, pulling her up to its face.
“You are not powerful enough to beat me, Guardian. I suggest you just accept defeat so I can put you out of your misery”
“I will never yield to something as twisted as you. It's my job to fix the balance, and I will,” she spat through gritted teeth, spitting blood into its deformed face.
“Your kind, always the slow aging ones who scream the loude-”
The warehouse wall exploded, the force throwing it away from her, but instead of landing on the ground, she was grabbed by strong arms, seeing the telltale blue suit with the red ‘s’ and deep blue eyes before the darkness took over her vision.