Written by **EYRAM**
The next day Seraphina woke up during the early hours of the dawn, then looked for caves, there she found a group of elite ranked birds, she went towards them sword unsheathed and ready for action.
As soon as she was in their proximity, their creepy red eyes opened, making the whole cave look creepy, like something straight out of a nightmare.
Soon they charged at her, the flying speed rivaling hers, with her brandished sword she strokes at them, aiming for their wings and trying to rid them of flight.
Soon the fight became highly pressured, with every bat she made immobile another joined the fray, and she was getting tired, so soon more than she was killing were adding up and they started to leave small attacks over her skin.
And that was when she used her other trump card, she let out flame this time adding it to her swords sharp edge, bats had a weakness for heat, and with this she was killing them and not just making them immobile.
Soon when she thought all were gone, an earl ranked batty figure came out, it looked like a bat but was far larger, its eyes looked far more ominous than the elites and it was far more decisive.
Off the get go it went on the offensive and managed to scar her wrist, and her sword fell out of hand. Hence, with no other choice she began to spew out flames for sheer survival, surrounding herself in it to prevent the bat from coming close.
But unfortunately, the bat was not afraid of mutual destruction taking the risk to injure itself in order to leave a more fatal injury on her, this was the first time she was completely overwhelmed by an opponent of the same evolution stage as herself.
When all hope seemed lost, she began to think out of the box. If she could control flames, water, the earth and wind, what prevented her from doing so with lightning, darkness and light? She took a deep breath and tried to concentrate.
Then the bat began to aim for more fatal spots, she was bleeding profusely and her blood was at a critically low level, but the bat was also battered and bruised, burnt here and there, and it was clear both parties could not last much longer.
And that was when the bat crouched down and began to wail in pain, it was evolving into a baron, that explained the burst in power, and this time was best to kill it hence the way it fought.
She felt herself on the verge of a breakthrough and finally went through the final lap, shockwaves of low voltage lightning danced at her finger prints, she smiled mildly.
A loud, deafening sound reverberated across the cave, the sky parted and light was felt at every corner of the forest, then all that was left in the spot the bat used to be was nothing but a black scorch mark in a huge crater spanning across the landmass the lightning hit.
Even Seraphina was starstruck by such an overpowered ability, and moreover she felt over energized could fell the lightning coursing through her body and it was far stronger than was she was capable of controlling or even containing for that matter.
And hence she came to the conclusion that she would only use this overpowered ability when it was absolutely necessary, the toll it took on her body was beyond her capability at the moment but that was why she strived to get stronger.
She did not stop there, she went back to her resting spot near the lake and after a round of fishing ate up roasted fish.
Then she decided to focus on getting rid of the excess lightning element that remained in her body, knowing at the moment it felt great but if she used it her body might weaken, and in a fight that would be dangerous.
Being a glass cannon capable of extreme damage was useless because you could be easily destroyed.
…
While balancing work, life and plots Serena took approximately a week to formulate the final phase of her plan, during experimentation, unfortunately many lives were lost.
But she was finally able to acquire something she was sure would make her mother able to walk again, there were several factors involved, and all she could control were internal once, hence, despite being sure she also knew that anything could happen to ruin the whole deal.
Serene Technologies was finally in the green, after operating for half a year, they had finally paid all debts owed, and now she was raking in massive profits daily, and to grace this development their electronic toy was going to be released, and alongside it she had also developed massage shoes, generally geared towards older people, but younger people could also use it to boost health.
In light of the turn of events, she was welcomed to an award show, for breaking the Guinness world record, for the very first self-established company to be acknowledged world-wide in half a year, while the founder had exclusive ownership rights.
But the award show wasn't to be held until some nights forward, and she wanted her mom to be there, so that night Serena was going to infiltrate the Light Mansion.
She had to wear a prosthetic body suit to make her look like a man, she also put on neon color correction on the runes that decorated her skin, so when they turned yellow, they'll appear to be purple like most members of the keepers of light.
Then she boarded the black SUV she once drove from the body guards who chased her, knowing the race car would quickly point out her identity.
Then she changed the plate number to one she saw on another car belonging to the lights, and once everything was put in place she was ready to go.
She hid the vail containing melted energy core, with other additives to make it more suitable for human use and so on, in the bod suit, and made it out of silicon so it won't be detected, she also had a needle to inject it with, but that would be easily detectible hence the reason she kept the vial elsewhere, and the needle was practically hiding in plain sight.
She managed to smoothly enter the building under the alias of someone named Boe. Eventually Serena found herself in the wing of the building that the research was going on, not particularly in the research room but at where the soldiers were trained.
As soon as she finished her daily routine and others were doing extra workout, she swiftly escaped the room, but the place seemed to have been renovated, the walls were as thick as those big safes in banks, it was just too hard to navigate the building and there were no vents above and below, turns out Dhampirs can also live without oxygen.
All the facts led up to leaving her only one option, she had to make her way to the room through the hallways, and face the guards, she was obviously stronger than them, but if she wanted to escape unidentified, she had to be fast.
She went straight to the door, of the safe, the one she was to expect her mother behind; she gulped as she stared at the door, her blood rising and her oxygen levels hyperactive.
She knew not the condition her mom was in let alone if she would be able to save her, moreover, the risk of the energy core vial failing was not to be underestimated.
It all came down to this moment, where she had to do it, she analyzed her situation, the place was heavily guarded, the walls were made from a relatively sturdy metal, the door was shut tight and too thick to break in time, she needed to be as fast as the gale, not leaving a single detail they could trace back to her.
This was the moment, she thought bracing herself for what was behind those double doors.
She lunged at the doors at top speed, quickly hacking it and getting access while all spectators saw was her swiping a wrong access card, though they did not know it was wrong.
As soon as inside she locked it giving only her card rights to open it then turned to see her mother on the bed, asleep her chest moving up and down with her heartbeat.
She was far skinnier, than even those times at the hospital, it looked like it was a chore just being alive as though she was going to die at any moment, just that visage broke her apart did she hated herself so much for believing that clone was her mother, and all the bad things she thought about her.
But Serena did not have much time, she needed to quickly bust her out and went with the vial, she quickly placed it in the injection.
-BTW: Serena was not only a tech genius, she focused on tech in relation to anthropogeny, needs, heath and the environment at large. Hence technically she was qualified to give an injection- ^^/
After the injection, Serena was petrified seeing her heart rate drop, her oxygen levels drop and finally fall, her mom was dead.
She plunged into panic, not a clue what to do, fear taking front seat of her thoughts, she had to do something quick but she was emotionally mentally and cordially broken down, how could she live with the fact that she caused her own mothers' death.