Vivienne moved without hesitation, a blur of shadow and malice as she surged forward. Her cws extended, wicked and gleaming in the faint light, each step carrying a predatrace. She didn’t waste time sizing up her foe; hesitation had no pce here. The Arbiter turned sharply toward her, the golden filigree across its ceramic body fring in respoo her approach, its tig intensifying like a tdown to something catastrophic.
"Let's see what’s underh all that por," Vivienne snarled, her voi eerie harmony of tohat resohrough the clearing. She sshed out, her cws sparking as they raked across its chest. The Arbiter reeled back a step but showed no sign of damage; instead, its intricate filigree patterns shifted, log into new figurations.
"Hostile detected," the Arbiter decred, its tone chillingly calm. A crag hum grew from its core as golden light began to coalesce along its forearms. With an almost casual motion, it swung at Vivienne, a radiant bde of energy extending from its wrist.
Vivienne barely avoided the strike, the bde carving a molten lio the ground where she’d stood. Her six eyes narrowed, her grin sharpening. “Oh, it’s got toys. Rava, I hope you’re taking notes!”
“Not the time, Vivienne!” Rava snapped, dodging away as the Arbiter swung its other arm toward her.
Taron, meanwhile, crouched low behind a fallerembling as he tried to make himself as small as possible. His breath hitched as he watched the exge, the terrifying fluidity of Vivienne’s movements trasting starkly with the Arbiter’s meical precision.
Vivienne darted fain, her shadowy form rippling as she feio one side before striking at its legs. This time, she aimed for the joints. Her cws sank into the ceramic pting, crag it, but she was forced to retreat as the Arbiter unleashed a blinding pulse of light. The energy wave knocked her back, and she nded hard, skidding across the clearing.
“o self,” she muttered, pig herself up. “It doesn’t appreciate me poking holes in it.”
“It’s an Arbiter—it doesn’t appreciate anything!” Rava shouted, smming her bare fists into its side in a desperate attempt to throw it off ba staggered slightly, the tig growing louder. “I could really use my gear right about now!”
“ime, we’ll raid an armoury first,” Vivienne quipped, darting bato the fray.
The Arbiter’s filigree patterns began to glhter, arcs of energy dang along its limbs. “Nonpliance will not be tolerated. Initiating suppression protocols.”
“Oh, that sounds bad,” Vivietered, her grin unwaverie the esg danger. She g Rava. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“If it’s ‘hit it harder,’ then yes!” Rava growled, dodging another swipe of its energy bde.
Vivienne’s grin widened into something feral. “Close enough,” she growled. Her voice deepened, eg with a guttural resonance as her body began to transfain. Shadows surged from her skin like ink bleeding into the air, swallowing her form. She greidly, her limbs elongating, her hunched figure now t above even the Arbiter.
Her cws became massive, jagged extensions, crag faintly with raw aetheriergy. The grouh her trembled as her feet reshaped, sinking into the soft earth under her colossal weight. Tendrils of shadow rippled outward from her back, snapping and writhing like living things. Her face, once vaguely humanoid, now stretched into a nightmarish mask of six glowing, star-like eyes that flickered ominously in the darkness.
The Arbiter recalcuted instantly. Its tig quied, frantiow, as it processed the hreat. "Entity cssification updated: Colossus Anomaly. Threat level: catastrophic. Exeg maximum suppression protocols."
Vivienne swayed her massive form forward, cws flexing as she loomed over the Arbiter. But then, her six glowing eyes flickered as she looked down at herself. Her guttural growl softened into a sharp hiss of irritation.
“Oh, for—really?!” Her voice, though monstrous, carried a note of very human exasperation. “The dress! I just put it ba, and now look at it! Ruined. Absolutely shredded.”
Rava, dodging a bst of golden energy from the Arbiter, paused just long enough to g Vivienne and choke back a ugh. “Seriously, Vivienne? You’re worried about your dress now?”
Vivienne’s colossal head turoward her panion, her jagged teeth glinting in what might have been a sheepish grin—if one ighe nightmare visage. “I have priorities, Rava! Do you know how hard it is to fi clothing when you’re part monster?”
The Arbiter’s voice cut through the exge, cold and unyielding. “Hostility persists. Initiating absolute tai.”
Golden filigree etched into the ground fred to life, arcs of energy spreading outward several pilrs of light emerging from the earth around them. Above them, a dome of golden light began to coalesce, sealing the clearing and cutting off any hope of escape.
Rava groaned. “Great, now it’s log us in. Guess it didn’t appreciate your wardrobe pints.”
Vivienne shrugged her massive shoulders, sending waves of shadow rippling outward. “Fine. No more chit-chat. Let’s give this pompous walking clock a reason tret its life choices.”
She lunged forward with terrifying speed for something her size, her cws smming down toward the Arbiter. It raised its arm in response, a kite shield formed of radiant energy in a near instant, the resulting impact sending out a shockwave of light and shadow that shook the clearing.
“I think the pilrs are emp it!” Growled Vivienne.
“Thehat thing occupied while I deal with those pilrs!” Called out Rava.
Vivienne’s six glowing eyes flickered toward Rava briefly, her sharp grin widening. "Keep it occupied? Darling, it’s about to wish it had stayed in bed."
She lunged again, her massive cws tearing through the air with a sound like ripping fabric. The Arbiter’s energy shield met the strike, golden light fring against the inky bess of her tendrils. Sparks erupted as their opposing forces cshed, the grouh them crag uhe pressure.
The Arbiter’s meical voice cut through the chaos, unshaken. “Hostility escatioed. Exeg suppression override.” The intricate filigree on its body began to pulse faster, the golden lines shifting and rearranging with arming precision. With a smooth motion, it extes free arm, summoning a glowing spear from thin air.
Vivienne barely dodged the spear’s thrust, the on cutting through one of her tendrils with searing precision. She hissed in pain, recoiling slightly before smming a cwed fist down, f the Arbiter to retreat. "Oh, you are full of surprises. Shame they won’t save you."
Meanwhile, Rava darted toward the obelisk and the glowing pilrs surrounding it, her movements swift aermined. Each pilr pulsed with golden filigree simir to the Arbiter’s, the light eg them in an intricate web that seemed to fuel the dome of energy above.
"All right, let’s see if we stop this thing," Rava muttered under her breath. Her voice shifted into the old Lekiongue, her words carrying the weight of invocation: "Ct evmjtat olfh ae tatolucaem c, cu jev tat olujat mev!" Sparks of lightning crackled to life around her fists, snapping and arg against the charged air. She took a steadying breath, coiled her body, and unched a thunderous punto the first pilr.
CRACK!
The impact sent a shockwave rippling through the clearing. Rava stumbled back, hissing as her knuckles throbbed with pain. "Skath! That hurt," she growled through gritted teeth, shaking out her hand. Her eyes darted to the pilr, where a single, faint crack marred the otherwise pristine surface.
Vivieill tangling with the Arbiter, spared her a gnd smirked. "Oh, you’re adorable. Wao kiss it better?" she quipped before dashing to the side of the Arbiter’s spear. The on whooshed past her, embedding itself into the ground with a burst of golden light.
"Focus on not dying!" Rava snapped, her frustration mounting as she gred at the defiant pilr. She crouched slightly, assessing the faint crack her earlier strike had left. Right. Harder ime. Sparks danced along her fists, their energy building with an audible hum.
Grittieeth, she coiled her body and unched another devastating punch.
CRACK!
The fracture deepened, glowing faintly with a pulsiahat almost seemed alive. The recoil jarred up her arm, and she hissed in pain, shaking out her hand. "Gods, that hurt!" she muttered, blowing on her knuckles as if it would help.
A burst of motion drew her attention. She gnced over her shoulder just in time to see Vivienne.
The nightmare woman was a shadowy blur of raw power, her colossal form twisting and lunging at the Arbiter. Her cws raked against its radiant kite shield, sending arcs of shadow and sparks flying as the two cshed. The Arbiter, unyielding, tered with the bde on its forearm, a golden on glowing with lethal i. Vivienne ducked uhe strike, shadows trailing her movements as she grinned wickedly.
"Rava, darling," Vivienne called over her shoulder, her voice dripping with mockery, "I hope you’re not admiring the view too much. You’ve got a job to do!"
Rava turned her attention back to the stubborn pilr, her frustration boiling over. She ched her fists, the lightning around her arms intensifying to a blinding brightness. "I didn’t want to resort to this," she muttered through gritted teeth.
She took a deep breath, steadying herself, and began ting in a low, resonant tone. “Il caell upholm tate jol.” Her words were ced with power, each sylble sending ripples of energy through the air. The fur on her body stood on end, her hair rising as static built around her. Sparks danced wildly across her skin, aricity arced outward, leaving scorch marks on the ground.
“Embolwh atilc pholwerr,” she growled, her voice rising with iy. Bolts of lightning snapped and crackled around her, illuminating the clearing with every strike. The air grew thick with the metallig of ozone, and her body seemed to hum with barely tained power.
"Waetcat me fhell mwh ememilec!" Rava roared, her voice eg like rolling thunder. Her hair floated around her like a halo of storm clouds, and arcs of raw energy danced from her fiips to the ground. Thunder reverberated through the dome, shaking its golden structure, as her entire flowed with fury of the storm.
Rava exhaled slowly, purposefully, the arcs of lightning around her snapping at the air like restless predators. In that moment, the world faded away—there was no dome, no Vivienne, no Arbiter. Just her and the pilr. An unyielding obstacle that demanded destru.
She pnted her feet firmly into the soil, grounding herself, her stance widening as she brought her fists up, charged with raw, crag energy.
The first strike came like a thunderbolt unleashed from the heavens. Her fist smmed into the pilr, and the impact erupted in a blinding fsh of light. A deafening crack tore through the clearing, thunder rolling in its wake.
The sed strike followed, faster and just as ferocious. The lightning in her fists fred brighter, discharging into the pilr in a burst of energy that sent sparks skittering across the ground.
The third strike rang out, a vivid fsh illuminating the dome as the cracks in the pilr began to spread, glowing faintly with strained energy. The air hummed, alive with static, as if the storm itself had been summoo answer her call.
Then came the fourth strike, then the fifth, and the sixth. Each blow nded with increasing pace, a relentless drumbeat of fury and precision. Her fists were a blur of motioricity arg wildly from her fists and scorg the earth around her.
Rava’s breath came in sharp bursts, her focus razor-sharp as the pilr trembled under her onsught. With a final, resounding strike, a k of the pilr broke away, fragments scattering to the ground as golden energy surged erratically across its surface.
The oeady hum of the dome above faltered, the web of energy eg the pilrs flickering like a dying fme.
Rava stepped back, shaking out her hands as residual sparks leapt from her fists. "One down," she muttered through gritted teeth, her gaze already log onto the pilr.
Behihe Arbiter staggered for the first time, its golden glow dimming as if sensing the weakening of its power source.
Vivienne’s voice carried over, dripping with amusement and menace. “Impressive, darling! I think you’ve actually ruffled its feathers.” Her colossal, shadow-wreathed form lu the Arbiter again, tearing through its radiant shield with a screech of rending energy.
Vivienne dodged another swipe of the Arbiter’s bde, its radiant edge narrowly missing her horned head. She twisted, her colossal form moving with surprising fluidity as she shed out with her cws, aiming for the golden filigree patterns on its armour. The Arbiter raised its shield, blog the strike with an ear-splitting g.
“Rava, how’s that pilr ing?!” Vivienne growled, her voice yered with echoes. She sidestepped as the Arbiter swung its bde again, its movements relentless and meical.
“W on it!” Rava shouted from the pilr, her fists hammering against its surface. “These things arely fragile!”
“Yeah, well, her am I,” Vivietered, though she didn’t feel as fident as she sounded. Every csh with the Arbiter’s shield sent jolts through her limbs, disrupting her aether. Its strikes didn’t just wouhey hurt.
And worse, they felt wrong.
Each cut didn’t just tear through her shadowy flesh but seemed to unravel her aether, like it eeling back yers of her being. The sensation wasn’t new—she’d felt it before. Her cws faltered for a split sed as the memory surged forward, unbidden.
Those spiders. Those dastardly cute skittering horrors.
Her form wavered, shadows rippling like disturbed water. No, she wasn’t going to relive that. Not here. Not now.
“Focus, Viv,” she hissed to herself. She lunged again, smming into the Arbiter with all her weight. This time, her cws found purchase, carving deep gouges into its arm.
For a moment, the Arbiter paused, its head tilting as if recalibrating. Then, with unnatural speed, it swung its shield, catg Vivienne in the side and sending her crashing into the ground.
Vivienne groaned, pushing herself up with one massive hand. Her dress—what remained of it—was shredded, hanging from her colossal frame in tatters. She gnced down and scowled.
“Of course,” Vivietered, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Because the real tragedy here isn’t the giant clourder mae—it’s the fact that I’m pletely ruining my wardrobe.”
The Arbiter moved then, twisting with a speed and precision that defied its size. Its bde arced through the air, glowing with radiant energy, and before Vivienne could react, it cleaved through her arm like a hot khrough butter.
The severed limb dissolved into writhing shadows before hitting the ground, evaporating into nothingness. Paihrough her, raw and jagged, but worse than the pain was the disruption. She felt her form falter, the aetheric flow in her body stuttering as if someone had yahe threads of her being loose.
Vivieaggered back, clutg the stump where her arm had been. Shadows rippled and reformed sluggishly, but the pain lingered, a dull ache that reverberated through her entire form.
She let out a guttural roar, part rage, part agony, her voice shaking the air arouhe Arbiter stood tall, bde raised, its featureless head tilting as though her response.
“Viv!” Rava’s sh out across the clearing. “Are you—”
“I’m fine!” Vivienne growled, her tone sharp enough to cut. “It’s just a flesh wound. Or... shadow wound. Whatever.” She forced herself upright, her colossal frame t once more.
But internally, she wasn’t fine. Not even close. That strike had done more than just physical damage—it had disrupted her essence. Her e to the monstrous shadow that formed her body felt... frayed, like an unstable thread on the verge of snapping.
The Arbiter advanced again, its shield humming with energy, and Vivienne’s instincts screamed at her to move. She dodged its swing once again, the on ing dangerously close to her, her remaining cws sshing upward in a desperate terattack.
The strike gnced off the golden filigree on its torso, sparks flying but doing little damage.
“Oh, e on!” Vivienne spat, bag up as the Arbiter pressed its assault.
Meanwhile, Rava’s fists crackled with lightning as she smmed her fists into the sed pilr. Arike, and a fracture split down its side, glowing faintly.
“Just hold on, Viv!” Rava called out, her voice strained with effort. “Almost got this one down!”
“No rush!” Vivieorted, dodging another swing. “Take all the time you need! I’ll just be over here, losing limbs and dignity!”
The Arbiter pivoted sharply, raising its shield to bash her, but Viviened into the shadows, reappearing behind it. She shed out with her cw, raking across its back, and this time her strike ected, gouging deep into the ceramic armour.
The Arbiter staggered, its movements faltering for the first time.
“That’s right,” Vivienne snarled, her voice a growl. “You’re not the only one who adapt.”
The Arbiter spun, its bde humming with renewed energy, but Vivienne was already gone, darting through the shadows to keep it guessing.
Rava’s final punded with a thunderous crack, the sed pilr shattering into shards of golden stohe dome above flickered violently, arcs of energy sputtering as the structure destabilised further.
“Two down!” Rava shouted, already turning toward the . “Just keep it busy, Viv!”
“You keep tellihat like it’s not the ohing I’ve been doing!” Vivienne shot back, a wicked grin curling across her monstrous features, though the faint flicker in her form betrayed her waning strength.
The Arbiter advanced again, its shield glowing with a golden radiahat seemed impossible to breach. But Vivienne’s eyes locked onto it with a predatory focus. One piece at a time, she told herself. I just o break it down.
She sidestepped its swing, shadows rippling as she weaved through the Arbiter’s relentless strikes. Then, with a feral growl, she lunged, her elongated cws curling around the edge of its radiant shield.
For a moment, the Arbiter froze, as though calg her iions.
“Gotcha,” Vivienne hissed, gripping tighter.
With a sudden heave, she poured every ounce of her monstrous strength into pulling. The shield resisted, humming with energy, but Vivienne shrough the strain, her muscles coiling like bck steel cables. The sound of groanial filled the clearing, followed by a sharp crack!
The Arbiter’s shield buckled, then snapped free entirely, taking its forearm with it. Sparks aheric light spilled from the severed joint as Vivieumbled back, holding the torn shield in one cwed hand like a trophy. She managed a feral gririumph short-lived.
The Arbiter, uerred by its loss, swept its bde low, its movements unnaturally fluid. The strike came too fast—Vivienne’s legs gave way beh her as the bde sheared through her knees with surgical precision. She crumpled to the ground with a thundering crash, letting out an inhuman roar of pain that reverberated through the clearing.
Her colossus form rippled and shuddered, the shadows that posed it writhing as though struggling to reform. Instinctively, she tried to shift into another shape—a smaller, faster oo get bato the fight. But no matter how she willed her body to respond, it wouldn’t.
It wasn’t just disrupting her form, like she initially thought. It was log her in.
Panic flickered beh her rage as she cwed at the ground, her massive frame struggling to rise. "Oh, e on!" she snarled, smming a fist into the dirt. "You think this is enough to stop me?"
The Arbiter’s fractured core pulsed erratically, its distorted hum rising in pitch—a sound almost akin to mog ughter. The bde in its remaining hand dissipated into a shower of golden sparks, only for it to twist unnaturally arieve the glowing spear embedded in the ground nearby. Its motions were precise, meical, and cold, as if it had calcuted Vivienne’s demise down to the sed.
Above them, the golden barrier flickered, its shimmering light sputtering like a dying fme, before disappeariirely. The oppressive weight of the dome lifted, repced by the cool night air.
“Rava, I could do with a hand here!” Vivienne called out, her voice sharp with urgency. “Maybe a couple of legs too!” She cwed at the dirt, her monstrous form dragging itself backward as the Arbiter’s spear rose high, poised for the final strike.
As if on cue, Rava’s voice rang out like a battle cry. “Gotcha covered!”
She barreled into the fray, her lightning-charged fist smming into the Arbiter’s torso with a crag roar. The impact sent sparks and arcs of energy casg through the clearing, and the Arbiter stumbled, its spear veering harmlessly wide as it staggered tain its footing.
Vivienne ughed despite herself, her shadowy form flickeriically. “About time you showed up! Thought I was gonna have to crawl away in pieces!”
“Rex,” Rava shot back, brag herself for the Arbiter’s terstrike. “I’m here, and I don’t pn oing this rown cuckoo clock skewer either of us.”
The Arbiter, though momentarily off bance, recalibrated with arming speed. Its core fred violently, and the spear twisted in its grip, the energy rippling across its length now darker, more erratic, like a storm barely tained.
Rava narrowed her eyes, electricity snapping at the air around her. “Viv, you’ve got one good shot left in you?”
“Do I look like I’m in any shape for a rematch?” Vivienne snapped, gesturing to her missing hand and legs. “But hey, I’ve got one arm and a bad attitude—what more do I need?”
“Good enough!” Rava shouted, darting in to keep the Arbiter’s attention. She feinted left, drawing the spear’s lethal thrust away from Viviehen delivered a punishing uppercut to its core. The Arbiter reeled, the glow of its core sputtering, but its movements remained relentless.
Vivienne gritted her teeth, f herself upright with a grunt of effort. Her form trembled, shadows surging unevenly as if the damage she’d taken ulling her apart at the seams. She reached for the shattered remains of the Arbiter’s shield, now little more than a jagged sb of metal and more iingly— a crystal-like object radiatiher.
“Rava,” she growled, her grin resurfag despite her exhaustion. “Keep it busy for five seds.”
“Make it three!” Rava shouted, narrowly dodging ahrust of the spear.
Vivienne didn’t answer. She elled the st vestiges of her strength into the jagged shard in her hands, shadows crawling over its surface as it ed under her influence. Her grin widened as the shard grew into a grotesque, makeshift on—part bde, part monstrous cw, pulsating with unstable energy.
“Hey, clockwork!” Vivienne roared, her voice cutting through the chaos. The Arbiter’s head soward her, its core flickering as though in reition of the hreat.
Vivienne unched herself forward, dragging her broken form across the ground with terrifying speed. She swung the jagged on in a wide arc, the corrupted energy trailing behind it like a storm of bck fire.
The Arbiter raised its spear to block, but the makeshift on struck true, cleaving through the spear and smming into its core. The impact sent a shockwave tearing through the clearing, the Arbiter’s distorted hum rising to a deafening pitch as cracks spiderwebbed across its core.
For a moment, everything seemed to freeze—the Arbiter’s fractured form flickering with unstable light, Vivienne’s monstrous grin illuminated by the chaos.
Then the core detonated in a blinding explosion of a golden light being strangled by shadows.
When the dust finally settled, Vivienne y sprawled on the ground, her monstrous form flickering weakly as she let out a low, guttural groan. With visible effort, she rolled onto her side, shadows pooling zily around her as if they, too, were exhausted.
Rava staggered over, arcs of residual lightning still snapping faintly around her battered frame. Without a word, she colpsed o the nightmare, her back hitting the ground with a heavy thud.
For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of their boured breathing and the faint hiss of dissipatiher.
“That victory,” Vivienne finally muttered, her voice rough but ced with dry humour, “e an arm and a leg.”
Rava bliurning her head toward Vivieh a fused scowl. “What?” Her breaths came in ragged bursts.
“It’s—oh, e on!” Vivienne excimed weakly, gesturing with her one remaining arm. “You don’t realise how funny I’m being, and that is genuinely depressing.”
SupernovaSymphony
