Chapter 3: A Weakness

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Hana arrives outside the gates of Iron city, the second largest city in the Imperial territory and the largest manufacturer of the resource of which it has been named after. This city, particularly because of its large iron content and the fact that it is the largest distributor of all the silver in the empire it is an extremely unpopular place for most magic-folk.

Additionally, the citizens of the city fancy themselves to be innovative as well as modern due to their ability to industrialise on a massive scale. Equally, the empire gives the city much autonomy on how it may run itself.  As a result, most, if not all of its constituents have become a rather unreligious bunch, critical of those who believe in the existence of gods or attribute magical properties to anything that isn't verifiable empirically.

Having this knowledge compels Hana to smile smugly at the irony as the marks on her arm and forehead had started to glow brightly once she had arrived at the silver-gates that connect a large and circular brick wall which encloses the city.

She walks till she is inches away and hesitates, bracing herself for the coming pain then grabs two bars and starts to pull.

Her skin sizzles on contact which causes her to wince and groan as she tugs at the structure. A nearby guard hears the sound and shouts in her direction then runs towards her only to discover not only that she is pulling the city gates off its hinges, but that her skin has disintegrated completely, leaving just a skeleton with hair as well as glowing marks on its bones.

He stops dead in his tracks and watches her as she rips one of the gates off. Shocked, as well as terrified his knees go weak and he starts to stumble backwards but can't help but to observe as her skin grows back in place. The glowing marks don't stop however and Hana notices the man's presence and tightens her grip around her scythe. She examines him for a second more then begins to charge in his direction. On seeing the incoming assault he begins to run from her but is unfortunately not even close to being fast enough, therefore, allowing her to catch up with him, swing hard and impale him with the weapon.

Hana then shuts her eyes and waits but nothing happens, so she smiles, spins around and looks up at the rest of the guards on top of the wall who had just witnessed the first attack. They all just stand there afraid and clearly unwilling to engage yet poised and prepared for an attack. This causes her to smile coyly as she enjoyed the feeling of being feared. She prepares to launch an assault on them and starts to run in their direction but is stopped by the sound of a voice behind her.

"Get out of my city" The voice commands prompting Hana to turn around and see an arrow with a marked silver head pulled on her and behind it a woman, just a little older than she is. Once Hana turns to face the woman completely she feels the heat of the glow on her forehead fade and c***s her head happily.

"Well, lucky you," She chuckles.

The woman smirks then tugs at the bow, "Do not make me repeat myself."

Hana gives the head of the arrow a sly grin, "I see you covered your bases." In response, the woman releases the arrow and it flies past Hana's face, leaving behind a sizzling scratch on the unmarked side of Hana's face. As a result, Hana flinches, however, the smile on her face remains and she says.

"See it hurts, but not really."

"That's just an appetizer" The woman replies.

Hana raises her eyebrow comically and sneers at the archer in front of her as she responds, "And what's the main meal?"

As if to answer her question an iron harpoon plunges through her stomach and pulls Hana back against a different and quickly shutting silver gate sliding from the inside of the walls. Hana screams from the pain of being run through as well as the burning sensation coming from the iron. She cries even more once her body connects with the silver surface then growls at the woman who is now slowly approaching her.

"Ooh, I'm impressed," Hana says between yelps. "How long have you been waiting to use that."

"A while," The woman responds as guards begin to flock around her.

"Release me!" Hana commands causing the woman as well as her guards to laugh, some more confidently than others.

"Did you really think that an attack on a city and the murder of a prince would go unnoticed?" The woman speaks, "I personally will see that you meet an especially painful end."

Hana snarls for a moment then begins to cackle quietly, then with more volume to the point where it is loud enough for everyone to hear

"You think you've caught me" She sneers, "You think it's all over." She says in between giggles and flinches.

The guards nervously look at each other but the woman doesn't hesitate, "I don't see how you're getting out of this" She responds causing Hana to laugh even more.

"I was not going to kill you," Hana declares, ignoring the woman's last statement. "But now I have no choice. You've irritated me and put me in pain" Hana spits out. "I will eat you, slowly, so you can watch." She growls.

The woman stands firmly in front of Hana's elevated body and blinks away the expression of momentary fright. Then she inspects her prisoner carefully, watching as Hana's skin depletes and regrows as well as how the mark on her forehead - which lit up the moment she was pulled to the gate - manages to remain visible regardless. Then the woman's focus then switches to Hana's left hand which still holds her scythe causing her to frown with intrigue.

"You're in agony, but you won't let it go" She comments provoking Hana to become more alert and grip the weapon tighter.

The archer notices this and smiles slyly, "You need it for the hunt don't you?" She adds. Hana glowers at her and bares her teeth at the woman.

"Touch it, I dare you," She bids at the archer.

The woman watches Hana for a second longer before she lets the bow and arrow in her hands fall to the ground below her. Then she takes a few steps back, smirks at the Reaper and runs towards the gate where on arrival she jumps on and kicks at the nearest walls which get her close enough to grab the weapon.

Her movement is almost as quick as Hana's which shocks the Reaper for an instant. Then Hana snaps back in time to realise that she may lose her scythe so she shifts her weight quickly to apply just the right amount of pressure to the weapon to be able to hit the woman with its butt and send her flying a few feet away.

Immediately after, Hana swings the blade of the weapon through her middle, just above the extruding head of the harpoon and she cuts herself in half and causing both top and bottom parts to drop. The archer sees this and wretches in disgust however she starts to run towards Hana's divided body hoping to stop the Reaper from reconnecting but before the woman reaches the body parts,  Hana's body rejoins and the Reaper lunges at the archer with the intent to kill.

The woman dodges Hana's attack and hops a few steps back but Hana does not stop her charge. She runs till she gets close enough to the woman and pulls a dagger from one of the binds around her thigh while simultaneously locking her larger weapon into its holder on her back. When she arrives inches away from the waiting archer, Hana swings her knife at the woman's neck but just before weapon connects with skin, the archer spins and kicks Hana with the back of her heel which causes the Reaper to fall a few feet on her back.

"What the hell," Hana whispers to herself, but before she can process the fact that a physical attack from a human actually worked, she finds herself dodging a couple more equally threating attacks from the archer. 

While she evades the archer's assault, Hana tries again to lunge at her with the dagger but fails three times and loses confidence per attack. Then she tries to shift to her monstrous state, but the archer notices this in time and slams two more marked silver arrowheads into Hana's head. 

Hana shrieks in pain and throws herself at the archer but the woman manages to match every attack in speed as well as have the strength to par every lunge, punch and kick.

Eventually, Hana accepts how badly she is failing at killing the woman and so she waits till the archer attempts to rush her once more then kicks the woman hard enough to send her flying again. Once the archer is far enough away, Hana pulls out the arrows in her head and groans as she does. Then she looks in the direction where she threw the archer just to see the woman back on her feet and dashing Hana's way and ready to battle. Deciding against engaging the woman once more, Hana turns her back on the archer and runs to the guards nearest to her and begins to kill them all. On seeing this, the archer picks up her pace and tries to stop Hana but fails to match her speed and is only able to reach her guards after they had met with the end of Hana's scythe or blade. 

Once she completes assassinating every guard, Hana glances at the archer to see her distress but is only met with rage and bloodlust. The archer charges towards her after releasing her hold of one of her now dead soldiers causing Hana to experience, for the first time in a long time, fear. 

Again the Reaper decides against engaging with the woman and instead runs straight through the network of streets into the city with the woman on her tail still barely catching up. As she runs Hana's eyes shift from the map on her hand to the homes she invades and she starts to end the lives of all that cause her forehead mark to glow. Sometimes, during this deadly game of cat and mouse the archer would catch up with Hana and they would battle but regardless, Hana always seemed to find a way to evade the woman long enough to get on with the reason she came to the city. 

***

After continuously failing to stop Hana's assault on her people, the archer ceases from chasing after Hana and instead runs in the direction of the part of the city that is still untouched by the Reaper. In this area, many civilians are already evacuating their homes and heading to the nearest Temple for sanctuary and once the archer catches up with them, she encourages that they move with a quickness. 

The archer waits and stands guard as every member of the crowd enters the inside of the Temple, then she commands that every man woman and child is to gather in a circle and wait for Hana's arrival. She gives instructions to the men and women with silver and iron in their possession and tells them to stand around the crowd and to be prepared to defend themselves and the people behind them. Additionally, she asks that the priests shut the iron windows and that they drench their surfaces with spirit water.

"Make it difficult for her to enter from any place but the main doors," she tells them.  

"Should we not do the same to the main doors?" The head priest asks the archer.

"We can't stop her from coming, we can only control where she comes through." Is the archers reply. "Is there anyone in this crowd that is a water witch?" She adds but no one replies. "Is there no magic-folk that can control water here?"

"You know as well as we, Adaeze, magic-folk avoid this city" 

Adaeze sighs sadly, rooted in position in front of the large entryway, with her arrow aimed at the space before her.

However, within the ranks of the terrified group, a small voice calls out and a child pushes out of the crowd. 

"I'm part water-witch," She says quietly and to the surprise of a young man standing behind her.

"Nelly?" He says and she turns back and responds. "Mom was a water-witch" Then the child runs to Adaeze's side and the woman looks down at her from the corner of her eye.

"Can you control your powers?" She says.

"Yes"

"Who taught you?"

"The witches in the lake near to the city"

"Why didn't you tell me, Nelly?" The child's father calls from the crowd.

"We don't have time for that," Adaeze states firmly before the child can reply. "Go with the priests and bring with you as much spirit water as you can carry."

The child nods and runs to a doorway at the edge of the temple, by which three priests are gathered. The priests pull her along and all four of them descend to the underground praying chamber of the Temple.