The Asura again moved first.
Its massive frame tensed, and it threw back its grotesque head with a roar that ripped through the air.
GRAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!
The sound shook the flatland to its bones. Its eyes burned like molten cores fresh from a divine forge, and its muscles swelled beneath its hide, pushing against rune-scarred skin that gleamed a deeper, blood-red glow.
Without hesitation, it launched itself upward, its movements wild and violent, driven by a fury that held nothing back.
The sky warped as its four arms swung through the air, each movement tearing open streaks of distorted space that trailed behind it like turbulent scars.
Silica raised her palm.
Her aura shifted, not by expanding outward, but by drawing in tight around her body until it felt like the atmosphere itself was being squeezed.
Miasma wrapped around her like living smoke, coiling slowly before gathering into a condensed sphere at her center.
