Felicia and Arthur did not follow the woman down the corridor immediately because they had to consider the very real possibility of this being a trap. However, they had just come from the ballroom and they did not find the presence of any trap earlier. Unless the woman managed to set up the traps in a matter of minutes, then she was probably being sincere.

Arthur did not know what Felicia was thinking but what the woman said gave the young man pause. Since the woman was moving the battlefield, it meant that she did care about the children in some ways. The woman did mention that there was something else that was happening behind the scene when Felicia made her accusation earlier. Things might not be what they appeared.

Felicia was probably considering the same things but when she glanced at the row of unconscious children, the fire returned to her eyes and she strode past Arthur to head towards the ballroom for the showdown. She had to save these children.

Arthur hesitated for seconds before he moved to follow. For Arthur, ultimately actions spoke louder than words. The woman could plead her innocence as much as she wanted but Arthur knew what he saw. The woman was trying to suck the life essence out of the children earlier and that was an undisputed fact. Leaving the kids with the woman was definitely a bad idea. On top of that, he had to support his friend. The woman appeared to be formidable enemy and he was not going to let Felicia face the woman alone.

Then, there was the matter of completing the quest, which would have been impossible without dealing with the woman first because she would not have allowed the children to leave the manor on her watch.

When Arthur caught up to Felicia, they were standing on one end of the ballroom while the woman stood on the other. The woman still had the bundle in her arm and her other arm laid freely by her side.

"I honestly do not have the intention to kill, there's already enough blood on my hands," The woman began with a saddened sigh. "So how about this, if you cannot incapacitate me in 30 minutes, you will surrender and leave this place immediately. You will speak of this incident to no one and we will both continue with our lives like normal."

Felicia thought about it and she turned to Arthur for his opinion. Arthur allowed Felicia to make the call, after all, this was his first official quest and Felicia was the more experienced of the two. Felicia turned back to the woman and she answered, "Okay, we accept your terms but if we win, you will allow the children to leave with us."

A moment of hesitation crossed the woman's face like it would pain her greatly to part with the kids but it was unclear whether this meant that she really cared for the kids or she needed them to stay for a more sinister reason. In the end, the woman nodded and said, "Alright."

Felicia took a step to Arthur and whispered, "Based on her confidence, she must be a very powerful opponent, be on your guard."

Arthur nodded.

When all was said and done, it was Felicia who made the first move, she understood how important it would be for morale to land the first strike. The arrows loosened from her bow and they flew right at the woman. The skirt twirled and the woman materialized two metres left to the spot where she was standing earlier. The arrows missed.

Without missing a beat, Arthur channeled his roar and shouted right at the woman. Arthur's power gave the woman quite a bit of surprise but it did not affect her ability to evade it perfectly. After she appeared at the different corner of the ballroom, she commented with admiration, "Young man, that's quite a powerful magic you have there."

Thus began a game of whack-a-mole between Felicia as well as Arthur and the mysterious woman known as the Blood Mother. None of Felicia and Arthur's attack hit, and as promised by the woman, she did not launch any counter attack, all she did was phase all over the ballroom, expertly dodging all the attacks that were directed her way.

Felicia leaned close to Arthur to whisper, "Arthur, this cannot go on anymore. She is moving too fast for us to catch up to her. If only there's a way for our attack to catch up to her speed..."

Then, an idea hit Arthur. He might just have the perfect solution. He whispered the solution back to Felicia and the latter nodded. She believed it might just work. While they kept up their attack, they slowly moved into the position to set up Arthur's plan.

...

Back at the porch, one of the children started to break through the fatigue and her eyes slowly opened. Her head felt ridiculously heavy like she was recovering from a drugged slumber. She tried to orient herself and the first thing that she heard after she stood up was the sound of fight and yells coming from the ballroom inside the manor.

Curious at what was causing the commotion and intending to find her mother, the girl wandered away from the back porch, walked past the backdoor that laid on the ground and into the dark corridor that led to the ballroom.

...

Felicia was standing in front of Arthur and she kept her eyes focused on the appearance of the woman. She had just disappeared again and when she showed up once more, they would put their plan into action.

Felicia caught a flutter of the red dress out of the corner of her eyes and she loosened her arrow right at it. At the same time, she moved out of the way and shouted to Arthur, "Arthur, now!"

Arthur channeled the vocal materialization and he pushed Felicia's arrow forward, giving it an increase in its forward momentum. The woman was surprised by this tactic of theirs but unfortunately, they had underestimated her.

She had been using 80 percent of her power to toy with them, trying to tire them out. The arrow shot at her like a traveling rocket but before it even reached the woman, she phased out again.

Felicia cursed under her breath and was about to come up with another plan when she saw the arrow was still traveling down the corridor that led to the back porch and a small figure was walking out from the corridor.

"Danger!" Felicia screamed on top of Arthur's voice. However, neither of them could do anything to stop the moving arrow. The girl was spooked by their voices and she just froze where she was. The arrow was still traveling at full speed and in another 5 seconds, it would have shot the girl's head right off.

At the nick of the moment, a flash of red appeared and she stood forward, blocking the trajectory of the arrow.