The Daughter of Cursed Steel Chapter 28: Chapter 28: The Shadow's Edge

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Chapter 28: The Shadow's Edge Rachel reached the throne room, leaving a blood trail behind her. She moved toward the center, where the giant windows let in light from all directions, illuminating the room with natural sunlight. As she stood there knowing the Hero was not far behind, she quickly formed magic in her right hand. Green light flickered around her fingers as she prepared to cast a small healing spell upon herself to stop the bleeding. "Light Heal." She touched her chest as the green magic spread across her body. The burning from her mana veins became more painful. Her smaller wounds slowly closed while the bleeding stopped from most of her cuts. The larger wounds remained open, but they looked slightly better than before. Rachel then opened the pouch at her side and pulled out one of the small healing potions Elyndra had given her. She knew it would not do much due to her curse, but at this moment, anything, no matter how small, would help. She did not have much time, and the hero could arrive here any moment. She uncorked the bottle and quickly chugged it. The potion slightly healed her wounds. She tossed the empty bottle aside as she started to rotate her arms, trying to loosen them up a bit from all the fighting she had been through today. "Ahh, that's better." But not for long. A moment later, she noticed fresh blood dripping toward the floor. Rachel raised a hand to her face and touched her cheek, only to see blood on her fingers. Her blood curse had activated. Blood slowly seeped from her nose, ears, mouth and eyes. "Dammit," Rachel thought. "I've already lost quite a bit of blood from that fight earlier. This is the last thing I need." A few moments later, one of the shadows in the throne room flickered. The Hero of Shadows stepped out from the darkness. This time, he was not trying to hide himself. He spun his blades in his hands as he took a few steps forward. His gaze swept across Rachel's battered body as he noticed that some of her wounds had started to close while others remained wide open. He smirked. "You played a dirty little trick on me back there, but we'll end this here. With all the wounds covering your body, there's no way you'll get away from me this time." Instead of retreating back into the shadows like before, the hero charged forward. Both of his blades were already raised, ready to slice Rachel into pieces. Rachel easily blocked his strikes with her axes as they pushed against each other before stepping away moments later. The Hero charged forward, swinging a flurry of attacks toward Rachel. She continued to step back, blocking each strike aimed at her. Then she caught him off guard. Rachel hooked his arm with the beard of her axe and pulled him forward, causing the hero to fall off balance. She immediately kneed him as hard as she could in the stomach. The hero stumbled backward, trying to catch his breath after the air was knocked out of him. But Rachel didn't stop. She pressed forward, swinging her axe down upon the hero. Due to his broken stance, he was unable to block the strike properly, causing Rachel to knock one of the blades from his hand. Her follow-up attack with the axe in her other hand sliced straight down his arm, opening a huge gash. Blood sprayed from the wound and ran down his hand onto the floor. Rachel didn't want to give him a chance to recover. She swung once more. This time, however, her attack didn't connect. The hero dropped into a nearby shadow and vanished. A moment later, he appeared from a shadow behind her. Rachel turned to strike him, but she heard him call out the name of a spell. "Shadow Bind." Magic gathered in his good hand and formed into a shadow dagger. He threw it forward. The shadow dagger instantly pierced Rachel's shadow. Rachel tried to move, but the moment the dagger struck her shadow, the spell took effect. She couldn't take another step. The spell bound her shadow in place, preventing her from moving away from her shadow and trapping her just