Nobody had time to celebrate it. Alice didn't give them the chance.
She stopped swinging wide and started taking the raid apart one piece at a time, and every cut she used was different from the last, deliberate, surgical.
A shallow line opened across Marcus's thigh, and his next step buckled under him before he could catch it. The flat of her blade caught Finn square in the chest hard enough to break the rhythm Redline needed to keep his body moving past its own limits, and he staggered, gasping. A low kick swept Saoirse's already-hurt leg out from under her entirely — not even the sword this time, just the bare economy of violence.
Maeve tried to heal through it anyway. The circlet's light came out uneven now, guttering, reaching Finn just long enough to let him drag one full breath back into his lungs before it died out again. She wiped a streak of blood from under her nose with the back of one shaking hand and didn't stop standing.
