Lightning sighed as she leveled a deadpan at the dead end before her. Rolling her eyes, she turned and made her way back down the hall to the fork she crossed that led to her current situation.
"You said you were sure that was the right way," she muttered.
"Sorry," The Voice said sheepishly. "The dark magic seemed to be denser this way so I thought..."
"Hey, it's okay," she smiled. "Don't let it get to ya. We'll just take this one step at a time, okay?"
The Voice didn't respond, but she knew that the mental aspect was in agreement with her. The whole situation was so surreal to her. The very thing that was a constant reminder of all of the shit she dealt with as a kid was now helping her navigate a maze. Out of all of the crazy things in her life, this was the one that made her shake her head and laugh at the insanity of it all. A chuckle slipped past her lips as she thought back to how she gained this new skill, regardless of how messed up it was in the grand scheme of things.
***
Lightning laid panting, rain hammering into her face and the countless bruises that covered her body as she stared up into the permanent storm of her dreamworld. For the last three weeks since she fell asleep, the teen had crossed fists with her element. Each "day" gave her a tighter grip on her magic and more ways to use it against her teacher, but she could feel that something wasn't right. It was subtle at first, a small niggling feeling at the back of her mind every time she used her power, but over time it became harder and harder to ignore. It was because of that that she found herself in her current condition.
Loyalty looked down at her with a sigh shaking her head.
"Looks like this is as far as you can go. Should've seen this coming, really."
"Wh-What are you talking about?" Lightning panted, forcing herself into sitting upright.
Loyalty looked away, a brief hint of sadness catching her host's attention as she did. The element silently worked her jaw as if she was trying to find the best words for what she had to say. In time, she seemed to succeed as she slowly turned her head back towards Lightning. The girl flinched when she saw the pained frown on her element's face before she let her thoughts be known.
"You're not complete. A part of your mind and soul is broken and its getting in the way of your casting."
"What are you talking about?" Lightning frowned, staggering to her feet. "I'm fine."
"No we're not."
Lightning froze, eyes widening as she processed the sound of her voice being spoken by another. Someone other than Loyalty. Someone standing behind her. She quickly turned around, jaw clenched and fist ready to strike the thing that haunted her for most of her teenage life. What she saw made stopped her dead in her tracks, her jaw going slack and eyes widening in shock at what stood before her. It was a much younger version of herself, possibly fifth or sixth grade from what she could guess. The young girl was wore nothing but a tattered burlap sack fashioned into a rough approximation of a dress, though that paled in comparison to the condition of the girl herself. She was skinny to the point of emaciation, her teal skin covered with countless scars and bruises both fresh and old. Her bare feet were cracked and covered with bleeding callouses, the rain doing little to wash the red liquid away as it soaked the hard stone ground. The child's eyes were sunken and sad, all hope long sense faded as they stared back into her older double's shocked ones.
"Wh-Who... What are you?" she asked, letting her arms fall limply to her sides.
"You know what I am," the child said hollowly, her voice sounding like a dry summer wind as she stared down at the ground.
"T-The Voice?" Lightning stammered.
The child nodded, face still pointed at the ground.
"I am the part of you that kept you safe back then. To help you retain your sanity, I cut myself off from the rest of your conscious mind. Every time you felt trapped or hurt, I took the brunt of it for you."
Lightning gulped, then hardened her stare into a glare as she asked, "Then why did you always rub my screw ups in my face? Trying to even the score a little?"
The Voice shook her head and said, "It was to help you. You can't fix a problem if you don't know what it is in the first place."
Lightning's glare sharpened .
"What!? Do you think I'm too stupid to figure things out?!"
The Voice cringed, hands covering her head as she shakily said, "I-I'm s-s-sorry! P-Please don't hate me! I-I-I-I just wanted to help!"
Lightning blinked in surprise at that, not expecting that kind of reaction out of the girl. Heavy guilt settled in her gut when The Voice fell to her knees and started crying, pitiful hiccups racking the poor creature's form as she trembled before her. The teen quickly fell to her knees and pulled her younger self into the gentlest hug she could manage. Her guilt grew when she felt just how fragile the girl was. Every part of The Voice felt as if she would snap if Lightning so much as pushed her.
She lightly stroked the small child's hair as she gently shushed her.
"It's okay," she whispered. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't've yelled at you like that."
The Voice whimpered and grabbed her shirt, the bony fingers surprisingly strong as they clung to her for dear life.
"She separated herself from you at a young age," Loyalty sighed. "As such, she isn't that different from a small child."
As she held her younger self to herself, she remembered all of the things she had to put up with in her earlier years. All of the stress. All of the sleepless nights. All of he fights and times she passed out from overexertion. This version of her took all of that and then some for years and she didn't even know it. A version of her that was nothing but a small child that wanted to help.
Lightning's voice became tight, tears starting to form as she looked down at her double and asked, "Hey, do you have a name or what?"
The Voice shook her head.
"I-I never had one."
A smile crept onto Lightning's face as she rubbed the child's head and said, "Not cool. Sorry about that. How does Lightning Shard sound?"
"L-Lightning Shard?" she asked, a bit of hope filling her teary eyes as she looked up at the girl.
"Yeah," she chuckled. "Cuz you're, like, a piece of me, right?"
"Lightning Shard," The Voice said, her face turning blank as she stared up at the stormy sky.
"It's okay if you don't like it," Lightning smiled. "We can think of something else if you want.
The child shook her head and with a small smile said, "I like it. Call me Shard for short."
"Will do, Shard" she chuckled.
Shard's smile grew and her body started to glow. Little by little, the child named Lightning Shard turned into a bright yellow light and faded into Lightning. When the last of her was gone, Lighting felt something inside of her change. It was as if some kind of blockage that was inside her had finally cleared away and a new warm force of power surged through her. She wrapped her arms tightly around herself as the energy flowed through her, tears joining the rain running down her smiling face.
"Looks like you're ready to move on to the next part of your training," Loyalty smirked.
Sporting a smile of her own, Lightning stood up, wiped her face with her arm and turned towards her element.
"Yeah," she snorted. "I think we are."
***
Lightning chuckled a bit as she made it back to the previous split in the path. She could almost feel Shard look at the two remaining paths uncertainly as the teen tried to think of a way to make it easier for her. That was something that took some getting used to in training. It was one thing trying to be patient with others, but now she had to be patient with herself. While that was a little frustrating at first, she quickly found out how great the payoffs were for having the subconscious copilot. Especially when it came to her magic, given its nature and Lightning's admittedly limited imagination.
"Can you send a spark through the walls?" Shard asked.
"Send a spark? Why?" Lighting asked.
"If there are any metals in the walls, we should be able to use it as a conductor to help me get a better look at the paths ahead."
Lightning blinked then said, "You know, for a kid, you're scary smart."
"Nuh uh. You just don't pay attention in science class," she said, a smile audible in her tone.
"Yeah, yeah," she chuckled, reaching out a hand towards the nearest wall. "You learn anything else in my subconscious?"
"Nothing that can help us right now," Shard giggled.
"What's so funny?" she asked with a smirk as she sent a small bolt into the wall.
"Nothing," Shard said in a singsong kind of tone.
"Whatever," she shrugged, then stared at the wall and said, "Did it work?"
"Yep!" she chirped. "Take the middle one. I'll tell you which turns to make when we get to them."
"Thanks," Lightning sighed as she took the path Shard recommended.
She walked in silence for a few minutes before her former tormenter said something that made her face turn bright red.
"If you think he's cute, why haven't you talked to him?"
"Wh-Who are you talking about?" Lightning stammered.
"Really?" Shard said flatly.
"Right," she grumbled, her blush slightly smaller. "You're in my head. Forgot about that for a second."
" I noticed," she said sweetly. "Well?"
"Well what?"
"Why don't you talk to him?"
Lightning choked on her words for a second, before a meek, "I don't know," made it past her lips.
"Huh?"
"Y-You probably wouldn't get it," she stammered.
"I can try."
She couldn't really argue with that kind of logic. Shard did have access to her subconscious after all. Maybe talking to the mind fragment for a while could help her figure things out. It was a good way to kill time as she made her way through the labyrinth at the very least.
"Okay," she sighed. "I guess... I'm scared to."
"Scared to do what?"
"Talk to him," Lightning grunted. "I'm scared of talking to him."
"Is that all?"
"No," she grumbled. "I mean, look at me! I'm not some girly-girl like Rarity or Octavia or Flutters, so I doubt I could get his attention there. I'm not some party girl like Pinkie or Vinyl so that's out. I'm just some dumb boring jock with a short fuse that couldn't get a date even if she payed a guy."
Shard stayed silent for a while after that, only breaking it every now and then to give her directions. Eventually, the mind fragment found her voice and said something that made her pause.
"You think too much. Just talk to him, big sis."
"Big sis?" she blinked.
"Yeah," Shard said, a hint of hopefulness coloring her tone. "I mean... if that's okay with you. I-I understand if you don't want that, but..."
Lightning let out a groan, her right hand coming up to her face to massage her forehead with her thumb and index finger. This was not the first time Shard made things interesting in her life since she took her in. She still remembered the literal massive migraine she went through when she saw a horror movie before going to bed one night. As it turns out, mind shards can scream and said screams hurt a lot. Having essentially a seven year old version of herself in her head took some serious getting used to. Not helping was how easy it was to forget Shard's "age" given her mature vocabulary. Lightning was happy that she didn't need to explain certain things in her life to her new "roommate", but that didn't keep the occasional awkward talk from happening when she was alone. Turns out, the teen's subconscious library had a lot of adult books in it, something Shard teased her over whenever she got the chance. All of it made her want to rip her hair out at times, but at the same time, she couldn't bring herself to hate her. Shard had this hopelessly honest air to her that Lightning rarely got from other people. Sure, Shard wasn't exactly a person in the traditional sense, but she wasn't exactly a figment of her imagination either now that she had magic. She was a part of Lightning, but her own entity at the same time.
How do I see her? she thought with a frown. A friend? No. It feels a bit more...what's the word? Intimate? Yeah, I think that's the word. Is it because she's in my head? Nah. Loyalty's in there too and I don't feel all that close to her. We're more like coworkers than anything else, I guess.
"I've never had a sister before," she sighed. "I don't know if I could be a good one, y'know?"
"Th-That's fine," Shard stammered. "I-I don't want to be any more of a burden than I already am."
"Don't say stuff like that," Lightning smirked as she resumed walking. "I didn't say I didn't want a sister. Just that I'm not the best girl for the job, sis."
For a few seconds, neither of them said anything as she walked. Then, a high-pitched happy scream filled Lighting's mind. Lightning's hand flew to the sides of her head as she fell to her knees, her head pounding under the strain of her sister's excitement.
"God damn it Shard!" Lightning growled, the ringing in her mind winding down along with the pure agony in her head. "Inside fucking voice!"
"S-Sorry sis," she said bashfully, then giggled as she added, "I'm just so happy! I've always wanted a sister and now-"
"I get it," she sighed as she staggered to her feet. "Just remember, your screaming hurts a freaking lot."
"Okay. Sorry big sis."
As she said that, Lightning couldn't help but imagine a smaller version of herself looking up at her with a cutely determined frown and a nod. The image brought a small chuckle out of her as she resumed her forward march.
When did my life get so crazy?
Her smile flattened out when she rounded a left corner into a ten foot long hallway and stopped in her tracks. The room beyond was brighter than the hallways she crossed to get here. Bigger than any of the hallways as well if the space between the opening and its twin on the opposite end of the room was anything to go off of. That was a small detail compared to the figure standing in the middle of the room. Lightning glared at it as she resumed her stride, her wings flaring with electricity sparking off of her feathers with each step.
"Are you ready Shard?" she asked, eyes locked onto the figure in the distance.
"Yeah," Shard said, a faint hint of a growl entering her tone.
They didn't say a word the whole way past the hall's threshold. Lightning did have to do a quick double take when she got a better look at what she had to fight. It looked like a jet-black eight foot tall dragon, looked being the most accurate word as far as the creature's description went. It's body held the general shape of a bird, complete with a pair of membranous wings in place of forelegs or arms and a beak-like mouth. It's tail resembled a scorpion's with said creature's type of stinger at the end. Lighting couldn't hold back a small rueful chuckle as she locked eyes with the monster.
A dragon. Of course its a dragon. What's next? A giant spider? A troll? Hell, I'm friends with a vampire, so why not throw a werewolf at me when this is over?!
"Do you find me amusing human?" the dragon growled.
"Nah," she sighed. "Inside joke. Don't worry about it."
"Explain," he growled, his amethyst eyes glowing as he glared at her.
Lightning shrugged and said, "I got my ass kicked by a dragon in a video game. Thought it's kind've funny that I get to fight one in real life."
The dragon reeled back a bit at that, then leaned forward with bared fangs and roared, "Insolent whelp! I am no simple dragon! I am a Wyvern! A beast of war and destruction!"
"Really?" Lightning frowned, crossing her arms. "Cuz you look like what happens when a dragon fucks a chicken."
The wyvern's glare intensified for a few seconds before his lips curved into a cruel smile.
"You have quite a lot of spirit for a human. Tell me, what do they call you?"
"Lightning Dust," she said evenly, arms still crossed as she met the Wyvern's stare. "You?"
"Yim," he answered. "Do you not fear me Lightning Dust?"
She shook her head, the girl looking more bored than anything else as she let her arms fall to her sides.
"I go to a school that got attacked by a demon and three sea monsters a few months ago. To be honest, you're kind of tame compared to them."
Yim threw his head back and laughed at that. It wasn't often that he met someone with such ice in their veins, but it always put him in a good mood when he did. It was a lot more fun to clash with prey that didn't tremble in his presence. It was twice as much fun when the prey in question could fight back.
"What a world we live in," he chuckled, staring down at his opponent. "Now, Lightning Dust, let us see just how "tame" I am."
As he said that, he spread his wings and shot into the sky, a fierce blast of wind knocking Lightning's hair back briefly as he did.
A crooked smile formed on her lips as she spread her wings, electricity sparking off of her body as she stared up at Yim.
"Ready Shard?" she asked.
"Yeah! Let's do this sis!"
Lightning jumped and shot up towards the wyvern, electricity surging around her left hand as it rolled up into a fist. A battle cry tore itself free from her as she threw a punch at the seed, sparks shooting off of it en mass as it closed in on him. He smiled as he slammed his head into the fist, full bolts of lightning flying in every direction the second the two attacks made contact. Surprised, Lighting flew back six feet away from him. Her surprise grew when she saw how little damage her attack did to him. There wasn't even a burn on the wyvern's scales as he leveled a sinister smile at her.
"Algantha may be the Mistress' favorite," he chuckled. "But I am the strongest of all her seeds. Such a pitiful attack will do nothing against me."
"Really?" Lightning frowned. "Guess I just have to hit harder than."
As she said that, her namesake surged out of her body in a dense field of power. The smell of burning ozone filled the room as the teen's power raged around her, searing the sky like a plasmic cleaver as it raged. Then, in a flash, she appeared in front Yim and slammed her fist into him. The seed's smile grew as the attack failed to even singe his scales before he turned and slammed his tail down onto her, sending her crashing straight into the ground with a literal earth-shattering thud. A pained swear flew past her lips as she dizzily stared up at her opponent. It was in that moment that she found her electrically charged hand grabbing a scorpion stinger just inches away from her heart, the monster it was attached to standing over her with a wide grin. The rest of her caught up with the situation and quickly moved the stinger towards the ground before she rolled out of danger and jumped to her feet. Yim's smile grew as he wrenched his stinger free and took another stab at her with it, only for her to jump back at the last second to avoid it.
Thanks Shard, she thought with a gulp. That was way too fucking close!
"Anytime," Shard chirped happily. "But yeah. This guy's pretty quick."
Tough too. That last attack was strong enough to blow up a tank! What the heck is this guy made of?!
"I don't know, but I don't think a frontal assault would be a good idea."
Lighting nodded.
Obviously, her usual strategy of "Punch it Until it Breaks" wasn't gonna cut it here. She needed to get a better idea of what she was dealing with. Then, as soon as she knew where to punch, she could knock this guy out of the sky. Unfortunately, it was going to be a bit difficult for her to learn anything about an opponent that moved as quick as Yim did. At least, it would be if she wanted to play it safe. A roughish smile grew on her lips as she sent a thought to Shard she knew was a pretty big gamble, but if it all worked out than they might have a shot at winning this.
Wanna to do "the thing"?
"Are you sure?" Shard asked, concern heavy in her voice. "It might be too much for you to handle. I...don't want to hurt you sis."
I don't think we have much of a choice, she thought, not once taking her eyes off of Yim as she "talked" to her sister. Like you said, this guys pretty fast.
A couple seconds passed before Shard let out a sigh and said, "Okay. I'll do it. Just focus on attacking and I'll take care of the rest."
Thanks sis, she thought, her smile becoming a bit more tender as she braced herself for what was about to happen. I'm gonna owe you big for this later.
"Oh you know it," Shard sighed, a hint of mischief present in her tone as she set things into motion.
Yim's grin grew as he watched his opponent, his heart pounding in his chest as he saw her smile as well. He knew that look. It was the look of someone who had a plan, a way to make this fight more interesting. Lightning was already proving to be an exciting opponent. Even some of his fellow seeds struggled to keep up with his speed, Algantha and Pearce being the only ones that could give him any real challenge when his mistress was too busy to humor him. Humans gave him even less of a challenge with Hearths Warming as the only exception. Most of them die from a single strike, but this girl managed to not only avoid his killing blow, but was still willing to face him. Whether it was foolishness or confidence, it didn't matter all that much to him. Regardless of what drove this human to fight, it filled the seed with hope that this would be a fight to remember.
"Alright," Lightning said, eyes narrowing as she smiled at him. "Let's do this."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4kEmZ0ONWY
Her eyes widened as a sudden surge of power ran through her. Quickly, it grew higher and higher as it ran through her body, the force building to critical levels as her body adjusted to the sudden shift. When it finally reached critical levels, gold lightning exploded out of her in a wild electric tempest. This was especially noticeable around her wings, the feathery appendages coated in electricity as they flared wide on her back. Her eyes stayed wide as they quickly scanned her surroundings before setting on Yim. He reared back a bit as her eyes drilled into him, the intensity feeling like they were looking into his soul. In a flash of gold light, the teen zipped in front of him and pulled her arm back to through a punch. Yim smiled as he spread his wings wide in defiance, only for a confused frown to take its place as the teen disappeared in another flash of light. A second later, a wild barrage of blows slammed into his chest before Lightning appeared above him. While the previous assault was no more lethal than a light push, the sheer number of strikes and the fact that he never saw them coming made him a little more leery of the girl's attacks. He struck out with his tail, but she disappeared again before his stinger could make contact. He shot into the air just in time to avoid a kick to the back, her shoe barely clipping the base of his stinger on the way up.
Lighting's eyes never left him as he flew above her, the golden orbs wide and trembling as her spell ran its course. Normally, it was impossible for the conscious and unconscious minds to merge. The strain it had on the body would be too much for it to handle all at once, but Shard helped make it easier. In addition, her electromancy allowed her to give her whole body a massive turbo charge. As an Electromancer, her body had a naturally high tolerance for the element and could even absorb it when needed. The real risk was when she used this spell on her organs, more specifically, her brain.
I can see it, she thought, her wings spread wide as she prepared herself to follow her opponent. Every movement. Every twitch. It's like he's moving in slow motion. I can do this. I can win!
A blast of lightning shot out of her yet again as she flew towards Yim, the wyvern seeing nothing but a flash of gold as the girl seemingly teleported beside him. He moved in slow motion as he turned towards her, a faint glint coming off of the edge of his wing as he swung it at her. As the attack crawled towards her, she let loose several dozen punches into his chest, each holding the destructive power of a hundred lightning bolts as they slammed into him. An irate grimace formed on her face as she ducked under his attack and flew to his other side to continue her assault. After a few seconds of this, she decided that a change of tactics was in order. After delivering a few more punches, she gathered some of her magic into her right hand and straightened her fingers. The electricity swirled around her hand as it formed itself into a fine point at the edge of her fingers like a blade. Without a second thought, she swung her hand out in a wide horizontal chop towards Yim's chest. A wide smile grew on her face as her attack cleaved clean through his scales and left a deep gash in the seed's chest.
"Gotcha'!" she cheered, a cocky smile gracing her face.
She quickly split the spell to both of her hands and let loose a flurry of slashes. Dozens of cuts carved themselves into the seed's body, each attack too fast for him to perceive as he futilely tried to track her. To him, the girl seemed to have turned into a living bolt of lightning, a whirling mass of golden electricity briefly hovering in front of him before it zipped twenty feet away from him and turned back into a teal girl. A second later hundreds of deep gashes covered his body, rivers of black blood pouring from them and staining the ground below. His eyes widened as an agonized groan blew past his maw, deep pants fallowing as he stared at Lightning.
"Looks like you're not so tough after all," she smirked, holding up an electrically charged hand.
Yim's wide-eyed shock slowly shifted into a sinister smile before he threw his head back and laughed, the sound wild and untamed before he shifted his attention back to the girl before him.
"Finally an opponent that's worth killing!"
As he said that, the blood stopped flowing from his wounds. In its place, a dense black cloud of what looked like smoke poured out of them. A manic laugh forced its way past the wyvern's lips as he charged towards her, the beast no longer looking slow to her as he closed the gap between them. Lightning extended her Taser Blade spell to the entirety of her arms just in time to block one of his wing swipes. A smart move on her part, as the second the wing made contact, she felt its glinted edge try to cut through her magic to get to her. For a moment, the two combatants traded blows before they broke away from each other to opposite ends of the chamber. As they repeated the exchange several more times, Yim continued to bleed out black smoke into the air. Soon, the whole chamber was mostly filled with it, but that didn't concern Lightning all that much. Even with the smoke giving him cover, her heightened perceptions told her exactly where he was at all times. It wasn't until she started having difficulty breathing that that started to change. That wasn't all she noticed as her vision started to partially blur and her movements slowed.
The fuck? she thought, narrowly avoiding a decapitating blow as she flew back to give herself some breathing room. Shard, what's going on? Is the spell starting to wear off?
"No, its still working," she said, a hint of panic filling her voice. "I think its the smoke!"
What about it? she thought, redirecting Yim's tail as he tried to impale her with it.
"I think it's some kind of poison! Every time we get close to it, your lungs start to freak out. I thought it was just normal smoke damage at first, but now I'm not so sure!"
Anything we can do about it?
"I'm going to try using the electricity in our body to fry it, but it will make the spell lose some of its power. Big sis, this might damage your lungs, but I can't think of anything else to try right now!"
That's fine! she thought, a grunt making its way past her lips as she barely dodged another wing slash. We're dead anyway if we don't do something!
A second later, a sharp tingling filled her chest as Shard went to work trying to keep Lighting alive. At the same time, Lightning forced her body to move faster to land as many strikes as she could. Meanwhile, Yim's attacks were just as relentless as ever, the seed's manic smile never leaving his face even as more gashes covered his body. Soon, the two warriors broke apart from each other, both panting as they stared each other down. Yim's body was a massive mass of cut scales as he smiled at Lighting, blood and smoke pouring out of his body in a dense miasma. Lightning could feel her Super Charge spell starting to reach its limit, her movements slowly starting to go back to their normal maximum and her awareness of her surroundings limiting by gradual intervals.
This isn't good, she thought, wiping some sweat off of her brow with the back of her hand as she glared at Yim. I can't keep this up for much longer. I need to end this before Super Charge times out completely or I'm screwed.
"Marvelous!" Yim laughed. "It's been far too long since someone pushed me to such a degree! With an opponent as amazing as you, I feel no need to hold anything back!"
The seed's smile grew more manic as a small black gem appeared and floated in front of him.
"Come Lightning Dust," he growled. "Let me show you what I am truly capable of!"
With that, he quickly devoured the gem with a loud crunch. The second the gem snapped, all of the smoke in the room converged on Yim in a maddening tempest. Little by little, the black tornado shrank as it merged with its maker and in time the monster that took its place was revealed to the world. The wyvern was now a jet black winged serpent, his new body easily twice as long as his old one with feathered wings of equal change in span. Hundreds of small needle-like spikes covered his body in a way that resembled a shaggy coat of fur that rattled rhythmically as he moved.
If her eyes were't already wide, they would've did so in shock as she took in Yim's new form. The seed chuckled darkly as he gave his mighty wings a flap, the same toxic smoke from before coming off of them in a thin spray into the air.
"Show me Lightning Dust," he smiled. "Show me the full extent of your powers! Show me what you hold deep inside!"
As he said that, all of the spines covering his body stood on end, then fired off of him in a thick swarm. Lightning spread her Taser Blade to her whole body and crossed her arms over her face as the attack washed over her, the needles slamming into her with the force of a furious rainstorm as they pushed her back. All of the needles that hit her were obliterated by her makeshift shield, but she didn't get to celebrate for very long before Yim's tail slammed into her. The shock of the attack knocked the air out of her as she crashed into a nearby wall. She groaned as she pried herself out of the resulting crater just in time to avoid a rain of razor sharp feathers the serpent had sent her way as she tried to get back into the air.
A stream of curses rolled off of her tongue as she frantically flew all across the battlefield, their previous trading of blows now reduced to an arial dog fight. Yim's attacks were just as swift as they were relentless, the seed seamlessly switching between needles and feathers as he tried to take Lightning out of the sky. All the while, Lightning's Super Charge was nearing the end of its time limit.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! What the hell do I do?! He won't let me get close enough to hit him and I'm almost out of time! C'mon Lightning, think!
Yim let out a fiersom roar, but instead of using his normal attacks, the seed belched out a thick cloud of poison smoke that filled the chamber. Lightning's eyes and throat burned as the poison washed over her, but a light tingling in her body told her that Shard was doing everything she could to keep it from getting any worse than that. A faint disturbance in the smoke was the only sign Lightning got before a spine covered tail slammed into her side and pined her to a wall. A single flap of Yim's wings was all it took to dispel the smoke, the seed's blood red eyes glowing with mirth as he stared down at his prey as his spines dug deep into her side. As if that wasn't bad enough, Lightning's spell chose that exact time to finally wear-off. She grit her teeth as the spines stabbed into her, blood dripping down her legs as she glared into Yim's eyes. She channeled some of what little magic she had into her hand and tried to cut into his tail with a Taser Blade, but all she did was cut off some of his spines.
Yim chuckled and said, "Looks like this is as far as you go. Pity, I hoped our fun could've lasted just a bit longer."
"Fuck you," Lighting growled, hand gripping tightly around a few of the spines she cut off as she gathered the last of her magic into the very same hand. "I'm not dying here! So go take your fun and shove it up your ass, pal!"
With that, she rammed the needles into Yim's tail and poured all of her power into them. A look of shock came over the seed's face only for it to shift into agony a second later as his own needles tore through his scales and a whole storm of lightning ripped into him. As he fried from the inside out, a single thought passed through his mind.
So this is what you are capable of. Simply marvelous! I could never ask for a better warrior to be bested by!
Soon, Lightning's attack ran its course and a heavy silence filled the room. The two combatants were motionless where they floated, Lightning still pinned as she glared into the barely living eyes of Yim. Then, a dull crack broke the silence as the great serpent started to crumble, his body falling apart like brittle charcoal as a satisfied smile spread across his lips.
With a voice as dry as sand he said one last thing before his body collapsed completely.
"Well done...Lightning Dust."
A quick flare of her wings let her glide down to the ground as what was left of Yim turned into dust. She bonelessly flopped onto the ground face first, the softness of the flowers paradise after everything she had just went through. She was dimly aware of how her wounds were tingling as she flopped onto her back.
"Status report," she groaned, her whole body a weird mix of tingly and throbbing as she stared at the ceiling.
"A few bruised bones and minor poisoning," Shard said calmly. "Luckily, I held onto enough of our magic to patch this up. We'll need to wait a few minutes before we can patch up everything else."
"So, I'll live?" she smirked.
"Yep!" Shard chirped.
"Good,"she sighed.
As she laid there recovering, a thought crossed her mind that made her laugh.
Can't wait to tell Bonbon and Lyra that I slayed a fucking dragon. Suck it Dark Souls!
"Yeah, sis," Shard giggled. "You're awesome! Maybe now you can talk to him when this is over!"
Lightning's eyes widened as a deep blush covered her face.
"Sh-Shut up Shard," she stammered, an awkward grimace forming on her face as she stared bitterly at a nearby wall.
Shard just giggled and went back to patching her sister back up.