Watch the the final fight.

Lynx performs a lewd gesture with two fingers sliding in a hole she makes with her other hand, and she looks to Niki with a coy smile. "Are you sure you don't want to... take care of that? I can see it on your face."

"Sh-Shut up!" Niki snaps back.

"Oh that's right. You can't." From a pouch at her side, she withdraws a key. "Would you like to?"

"Of course I wouldn't want to do that now... I'll take it from you when I knock your ass out!"

She drops the key back inside. "Oh I see. Good luck with that then."

Niki lunges forwards with her club, though it only opens her up for a counterattack. Lynx brushes bumps her hip into the front of her chainmail skirt, and pivots around as she draws both of her daggers. Niki lets out an embarrassing noise at the impact to her groin, but she turns around to meet her opponent nonetheless--face flustered, body burning with an unscratchable itch.

"She's strong, but that Falcon chick is fast," Bek mutters under his breath.

"Of course. You'll never be able to defeat her," Umi speaks up. "Strength isn't everything."

Crusher glances over, but then looks to the fight again. You imagine he knows that lesson quite well.

Zakira of all people speaks up next with her arms crossed beneath her bust. "Niki is more than physically strong, unfortunately."

The two begin to exchange blows. Lynx strikes with her daggers, though Niki smacks the attack away with the edge of her shield. Then, she turns said shield to point at her foe. That's when you see it.

It isn't just rope on her shield. It's holding something to the front--one of the red crystals you collected before.

Lynx widens her eyes. The sudden rush of arousal that fills her body catches her completely by surprise. However, the light emitting from that shard is barely contained. You can tell that some of it is affecting Niki as well, though at least behind her shield, it must not be as much as what's hitting her opponent right now. Lynx almost falls to the ground at the sensation. She retreats back and catches her breath.

"What did you do?" she mutters.

Niki grins. "You might need one of these collars too if you don't want to embarrass yourself."

No way. She ties one of those crystals to her shield? The ones that seem to stimulate women? At least, I assume that's what they do. It doesn't affect me at all. That's brilliant. I thought Niki was an idiot.

Lynx flips one of her daggers underhand and sprints towards her foe. "You don't have a third mark, and you aren't a mage. It must be that--Aahh~!" She comes to a stumbling halt as she nears the red glow of the crystal shard. She bites her lip, and then backs away again.

"Mmm. Did that feel good?" Niki taunts. Though, you can tell it's also taking most of her resolve to remain standing after so much denial.

"That's enough." Lynx growls. "You think you can embarrass me?"

"How about sometime after this, we have a fair fight? I'd love to knock your ass down without your tricks. You know, after I do it now."

"You will not!" She whips two shurikens straight at Niki's body, though they stick into her shield.

Meanwhile, Tom stands up and Hedi shuffles to the side. He sits beside you and opens the book to point towards a couple of the pages. "So, this is totally encrypted, but I figured some of it out. From what I can tell, these code words are just as they are, but they do something. I think if we link these words over to these ones, we'll actually have... some sort of commands?"

"Let me see," you reply. "We'll figure this out. Niki might have figured out a trick, but she's still not in peak fighting condition."

After a couple more shurikens, Niki laughs. "Are you trying to hit me?"

"Of course not," Lynx says.

The ropes are cut. Suddenly, the red shard falls to the ground with a clatter. Niki backs up as the effect starts hitting to hit her with the full **** of its effect. As she does, Lynx makes her way around, and the two girls keep their distance from the magical crystal.

"Nice try, but I'm tired of this!" Lynx shouts as she bolts up to Niki and slams out her palm. It slams up against the wooden shield, though then she unleashes the power of her mark.

Niki reels back in pain as the lid is obliterated into tiny shards.

To counter attack, she swings her bat horizontally towards her opponent's head. However, Lynx redirects the blow upwards, and then performs a quick slash across her midsection. Hurt, Niki leaps backwards and grabs the wound with one hand while her other continues to grip her crude weapon.

"I don't need tricks to win anyway," Niki says. "That's why you put this damn thing on my neck, isn't it? You were too scared to fight me."

"It isn't that," Lynx replies. "I just don't care. I only care about coming out victorious. Mission accomplished. There's no reason to do it one specific way. Take what you want! Isn't that why you have two marks as well?"

"I took this second mark to get stronger. To protect everyone."

"Boring!" She hurls her dagger, and it stabs right into the side of Niki's club. Then, a shuriken lands right into Niki's arm. The **** continues as Lynx sprints right up to her, and stabs forward with her other blade.

Although injured, Niki is resilient as hell. She dodges to the side and pulls the weapon out from her arm to toss aside without even a flinch. However, the crack from the dagger in her bat spreads. The wood splinters, and the weapon bursts into pieces. Once again, Niki is unarmed, and this time, there's no way to recover them.

Wait a minute. I get it! This is impossible. There's no way. The rest of the code... it's encrypted in a way Tom wouldn't have gotten. Right here, it talks about a man with spiked hair who hurls energy blasts from his hands. Over here, it mentions someone with stretchy arms and a straw hat. That thing before wasn't just a sketch. This thing is encoded with fucking anime references! I need to figure out why later. For now, I think I've got it. I understand.

"What's up, Kyle?" Tom asks.

Hedi turns as well. "You look focused on something."

These are commands, just like he said. Lynx is almost like a sleeper agent, but... awake, I guess. The point is she listens to commands. Specific ones. I don't know if she's being **** to do what she's doing by these things or not, but these couple pages here list them and explain what they do. All I need to do is get her to hear them.

"I've got a plan," you say. "Follow me if you want to help."

"You got it. Lead the way. This fight is pissing me off," Bek says.

"Same here. Tell us what to do," Hedi responds.

Tom nods. "I hope I was helpful."

"You were," you reply. "But there was a bit more. Something none of you would have known. It's a long story. For now, let's go!"