[color=757163][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/4QftkpE.png[/img] [img]https://txt.1001fonts.net/img/txt/dHRmLjEyOC4yMzYwOTAuUVhwMWNtVWdUV0Z6YXcuMA/italianno.regular.webp[/img] [/center] [hr][hr] [center][youtube]https://youtu.be/gphqAumZugE[/youtube][/center] [color=#E5E4E2][i]I missed again.[/i][/color] The masked apparition hadn’t attacked since Fedouah’s untimely murder. No matter the attack, the angle, the zips and feints. The enemy had always been able to preemptively avoid without straining herself with the gift beyond a couple of accelerations. It was frustrating, but it had allowed the anger to come out early and Zarina to compose herself. Whatever this killer was, she could not be brute forced. [color=#E5E4E2][i]What can I possibly do?[/i][/color] The ominous being, levitating in a manner that resembled a hanged man, angled her mask in a manner that made the eyes appear as though they were grinning. Mocking the dragon. [color=#5c8ee6]“It drives one mad, doesn’t it? The powerlessness. Enough to make a regular, good person murder their neighbors. For the poor to abuse the rich tenfold. For the worker to devour alive the bourgeois.”[/color] the masked being opened her arms in a mild shrug. [color=#5c8ee6]“It is now your turn to be stripped, Zarina. I have come to take everything.”[/color] [color=#E5E4E2][i]You love to hear yours-[/i][/color] Zarina’s back arched unnaturally outward, her gut was bruised and her mouth left agape from strings of saliva to escape. Without drawing, the Volti envoy had managed to deliver a wicked strike to her abdomen. It was only afterward that the dragon sensed evidence of temporal magic. It was too quick, though - inhumanly quick. On one knee and kept partially standing with her sword planted to the ground, the young dragon felt any sense of control she may have had completely vanished in that moment. [color=#5c8ee6]“I was afraid you weren’t paying attention.”[/color] uttered the distorted voice behind the mask. She raised her hand and flicked her wrist at the direction of the teenager. [color=#5c8ee6]“Now that I have it, however, let’s put you to the test.”[/color] Various parts of Zarina’s body began to steam. It started with a mild warmth but quickly became an agonizing ordeal. Skin was being melted via an unseen corrosive agent. [color=#E5E4E2]“Guh …!”[/color] if standing was hard before, it became far worse now. The pain was one thing, but the stench of burnt and transformed flesh with the agent utilized was possibly the worst thing. It made her want to vomit even more than with the gut punch. [color=#E5E4E2][i]I can’t see right … What is wrong with this bitch?[/i][/color] Zarina finally unleashed a loud exhale. [color=#E5E4E2][i]Fuck off, I’m not going to be your toy.[/i][/color] The Virangish bit back with her counter-spell. The acidic agent was nullified and an internal attack was mixed in with the defensive maneuver, camouflaged as a mere of her recovery effort. [color=#E5E4E2][i]That’s impossible, how?![/i][/color] a wide-eyed Zarina grit her teeth at what she had just witnessed. Her foe had not only countered her disruptive chemical endeavour, but it was as if she had immunized herself before it ever even reached her. This wasn’t just fast, it was nonsensical. [color=#E5E4E2][i]No temporal disturbances. I don’t see anything VOID-like. She’s just there. Alive. Not an illusion as far as I can tell. What the fuck are these monsters?![/i][/color] she did not despair, but the terror became palpable. [color=#5c8ee6]“Your recovery is impressive.”[/color] remarked the woman with the cyan mask. Zarina’s skin-deep wounds had already begun to close and heal. [color=#5c8ee6]“But still in its infancy. I’ll be nipping you at the bud before you bloom and spread your poisonous pollen onto this world.”[/color] The motive of the torturous attacks was clear, it was pure reconnaissance. One of Virang’s ace was but a fledgeling, a vital piece of information for the opposition. [color=#E5E4E2][i]That’s right, keep talking.[/i][/color] the defiant dragon, partially concealed behind her blade, glared right at the Volti. [color=#E5E4E2][i]I will cut you down in the ocean’s deluge. From above![/i][/color] A portal opened above the masked figure and immediately a torrent of ocean water befell her. She only had the chance to look up. In tandem, Zarina had kept enough scraps of temporal magic to perform an uppercut when the Volti would inevitably be smacked down to land. [color=#E5E4E2][i]Something’s wrong.[/i][/color] the water current hadn’t been interrupted and the enemy hadn’t drawn more than what had been stored from previous assaults. She was still in there and NOT coming down. [color=#E5E4E2][i]How?! She's ... Not even trying.[/i][/color] the finest of kinetic barriers perfectly split the merciless waterfall in two, not a single drop touched the enemy. Zarina promptly retreated while the gate closed, revealing an unbothered, floating being. [color=#5c8ee6]“Enough. I’ve wasted enough of the finite time I have left in this world.”[/color] the menace pointed her index finger at the Virangish, her drawn energy focused onto the very tip of her finger. Arcane school, Zarina could tell, or Atomic. But with it came a variety of portals all around the coastal terrain they battled in. The Volti fired a thin yet undeniably deadly ray of energy. It did not aim for the dragon but instead one of the portals. [color=#E5E4E2][i]She’s going for my flank![/i][/color] Zarina dodged to the side. It was her face that ended up being the target. Had she not dilated time around her at the last possible millisecond, she would not have had time to raise her sword and soften the blow. Her right horn was burnt completely off. [color=#E5E4E2][i]I wasn’t wrong.[/i][/color] she remarked after the fact. [color=#E5E4E2][i]It was going for that portal to my left. I knew it did. But it changed right before the beam hit it. That’s …[/i][/color] the once confidence and near-fearless dragon gulped. [color=#E5E4E2][i]A level of control that’s even better than Jocasta’s.[/i][/color] in fact, the way portals were constructed reminded her of elite users, like her sensei. It was at that moment that the masked being’s disposition changed. Her posture stiffened and her chin rose slightly. Something had changed, and it was not the miss, as she seemed ready to fire another beam until she just stopped. Silently, she stared at her greatsword wielding mark. [color=#5c8ee6]“... To think someone like you could be given so many blessings.”[/color] ire could be heard in the otherwise distorted and ephemeral voice. [color=#5c8ee6]“And squander them all by being another tool. Such ineptitude- no, manipulation, is a poison we vow to [b]root[/b] out.”[/color] [color=#E5E4E2][i]We …[/i][/color] For just a moment, the Volti had drawn a considerable amount of energy from the waves and wind. Something big was coming. Zarina readied her blade, only to turn her back on the enemy and lower it. [color=#E5E4E2][i]No …[/i][/color] Another spectral-like entity took the heavens, this one hovering right before the crescent, white-gold moon of Shune, Ceros. [center][hider=A Ghost][img]https://i.imgur.com/qqOgY1Z.png[/img][/hider][/center] [color=ffdead]“Zarina.”[/color] [color=#E5E4E2]“No …!”[/color] [color=ffdead]“Drop dead.”[/color] With a single wave of her hand, a massive internal chemical assault befell Zarina. What could’ve been her entire body shutting down was stifled and focused entirely on one point: Her right leg. It burst in a mist of blood. Overwhelming power.[/color]