Claudia grunted in pain and even coughed some blood.
Adeline broke the rope that was tying her hands together and then threw the blindfold away from her face. She saw the state that Claudia was in and inched towards her in pity. She thought that her body was still numb and thus she had exerted a little greater force than usual to throw Claudia down. But she ended up hurting Claudia more than what she had wanted.
"Let's stop this fight here and go home," Adeline said to Claudia and offered Claudia her hand.
But Claudia slapped Adeline's hand away. She glared at Adeline, not wanting to yield. And while still glaring at Adeline, she spat the blood that was in her mouth as though she was belittling Adeline. "You behave as though you don't want to fight us but then you do this to me? You are actually enjoying beating me up, aren't you?"
Adeline narrowed her gaze at Claudia and then folded her hands. She was shocked at how her sisters were an expert at twisting their own mistakes and pinning it on her as though they weren't the ones who were at fault..
She glared back at Claudia and then spoke in a sarcastic tone, "Yes, everything is my fault, isn't it? I stole my horse, I injected myself with the sedative, and then I brought myself to this isolated place. And I begged you to attack me just so I could enjoy defending myself."
Adeline sighed and shook her head at Claudia.
Then she turned around to face the others and said sternly, "I am leaving with my horse. I am ready to forget all this if all of you are ready to do the same. I believe that you three were brainwashed by Claudia."
She turned her head and glanced at Claudia who was trying to get up. And she said to the three who were hanging their head in shame, "Please slap some sense into her. The three of you don't want to be dragged along with her, right?"
Adeline glared at all of them and said challengingly, "I don't want the three of you to get bedridden during the test. I don't think I have to remind you that the test is already around the corner. If you fight me now, you will miss the test."
Nefriti, Kaela, and Gustin knew very well that she was not giving empty threats. Maybe if they all had attacked her immediately after she had regained her consciousness then they would have had a chance, but now that Adeline was fully functional again, they knew that they stood zero chance against her even if all of them were to attack her at once.
The three of them didn't dare to say a word. They just kept on staring down at the floor, repenting the mistake that they had committed on a whim of jealousy and greed for the throne.
But Claudia, on the other hand, was so hell-bent on hurting Adeline that she didn't even care if she herself was hurt in the process. She became like a rabid animal who wanted to hurt others even if it died in the process.
While the others were ready to let Adeline go, Claudia discreetly pulled herself out of the broken floor. She had several bruises on her back and her arms. But she didn't care about that. She still had some energy left to try to hurt Adeline.
Adeline was stepping towards the door when Claudia grabbed a broken piece of sharp wood and ran towards Adeline.
Even though Adeline was facing the other way, she could hear the floorboard creaking. She exhaled and then rolled her eyes. And she whispered in an agitated tone, "Why do you never learn to give up?"
And to make the attack even more obvious, Claudia gave out a battle cry and came at Adeline. She aimed to impale that wood on Adeline's heart from the back.
But Adeline didn't want to play anymore. She turned to her side and then grabbed Claudia's arm. She hit on Claudia's forearm as though she was chopping something and threw that stake off from Claudia's grip.
Claudia's other hand was still free and she began to punch Adeline at the side of her stomach. But those punches were so weak that Adeline did not even feel any pain. Rather, it was making her irritated. And something began to boil inside of Adeline. She could feel some kind of strange power surging through her veins.
Adeline wanted something… she didn't exactly know what it was that she wanted but she had this urge to inflict pain on everyone inside the room.
And she glared at Claudia with burning eyes. Adeline gave a sinister smirk to Claudia, she was going to start with the one who she knew was the mastermind behind her and Rion's kidnapping. She gritted her teeth and viciously twisted Claudia's arm to the point where it would break her hand if she twisted it any further.
Tears began to roll down Claudia's cheeks as the pain was getting unbearable. "Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!" She was struggling to get out of Adeline's hold and was screaming in pain. The scream was so gut-wrenching that the other three looked terrified.
But that scream… that scream felt so satisfying to Adeline she wanted to hear more of it. She smelled something sweet in the air. She didn't know what it was but she wanted more of it. She closed her eyes and deeply inhaled the air around her; a soft moan skipped her lips.
And when Adeline opened her eyes, for a fraction of seconds, Claudia saw Adeline's sapphire eyes glowing red. She didn't know whether that was just her imagination or it was real. But her whole body started to tremble in fear. And in fear, she was cursing Adeline, "Leave my hand, you she-devil. I knew you were possessed by something evil. That is why you are so strong."
Claudia was digging her nails on Adeline's hand and was struggling to escape.
But the more she struggled, the more Adeline was enjoying. And suddenly, Adeline had this insatiable hunger for something. She had this urge to twist Claudia's neck instead of her hand.
She lifted her hand to grab Claudia's jaw but when her fingers touched her jaw, she snapped back to her gentle self. For a moment, she felt confused as to what had just happened to her. She remembered everything that she did very clearly but at the same time, she felt as though she was really possessed by something unknown to her.
She glanced at Claudia who was crying in pain and who was trembling like a leaf. She pushed Claudia away from her grip before she would feel like snapping her neck again. Claudia tumble on the floor.
And Adeline tried to scare everyone so that they wouldn't come after her ever again. She did not want to accidentally kill any of her brothers or sisters.
She gave a warning to Claudia while trying to sound furious, "If you try to pull this kind of stunt again then next time the thing that I will twist will be your neck."
But she didn't need to scare anyone. They were already terrified of her.