The impact was cold, sudden, and utterly silent.
Lavender plunged through the portal's closing maw into deep, lightless water.
A sharp exhale, limbs tucking as she oriented herself in the crushing dark.
Her Structural Sight flickered automatically, revealing the water wasn't natural. She kicked upwards, violet eyes piercing the gloom.
Her head broke the surface with a gasp that echoed in a vast space.
Waist-deep in still, obsidian-black water, she scanned vaulted stone arches vanishing into shadow. The only light came from bioluminescent algae clinging to the walls, casting an eerie blue-green glow. Dry in the center of this submerged cathedral sat a man in an iron chair at a small, ornate table. A teacup steamed in his hand. Tailored grey suit, matching fedora tilted low over sharp features. His polite smile chilled.
"My lady," his voice echoed, smooth as polished stone.
"You seem to have taken an unexpected dip. Won't you join me? The water is... uninviting." He gestured languidly towards the empty chair opposite him, perfectly dry atop a disc of shimmering, portal-stabilized air.
Lavender wasted no energy on surprise. She waded forward, pushing through gelatinous resistance. She reached the dry disc, water streaming from her clothes but leaving no puddle. She stood before the table, dripping, violet eyes coldly assessing.
"Who the fuck are you?" Flat, devoid of curiosity, only threat.
The man sighed softly. He took a slow sip of tea. "Such violence. You can call me Kain tye Gate walker. The Sixth Knight of the Crimson Watch. A pleasure, truly."
Clink.
The cup settled.
Lavender's lip curled.
"Sixth? Directly connected to that Vathyls bum."
Kain's smile tightened. "Please, watch your words regarding His Majesty."
"Or what?" Lavender scoffed, crossing her arms. Water dripped onto the disc, sizzling faintly.
"The only reason your head isn't decorating this puddle is because this tea party suggests you want to talk. Talk fast. My patience is thinner than your gentlemanly facade."
Kain chuckled dryly. "Very well. Briefings suggested you possess sensitive information. Specifically, an item."
He leaned forward, eyes sharpening. "The Bloodshard Amulet. He sensed its resonance. Hand it over."
Lavender stared, then threw her head back in a sharp, echoing laugh.
"Oh, that's it? 'Hand over the shiny rock'?" She wiped an imaginary tear, laughter cutting off into icy contempt.
"So what? I hand it over, and we skip merrily through the daisies? Of course we fight. Why are you behaving so stupid? Is the 'gentleman' act compensating for Jet level intellect?"
Kain's knuckles whitened. "Your disrespect is noted. The Amulet. Now."
Lavender waved dismissively. "Let's discuss. First question: What are these Crimson Watch knights? Your Majesty's decorative guard dogs?"
"We are the eight most elite warriors at His Majesty's disposal," Kain stated stiffly. "The shield and spear of his will."
"Elite?" Lavender raised an eyebrow. "Like that gardener. The cheerful one? Or used to be. Didn't seem 'elite'. Nice face card though. Too bad she's expired now."
Kain's jaw clenched. "I will let that slide once. Rose was the Seventh. She was Competent."
"Seventh?" Lavender feigned surprise. "Oh! And you're the Sixth! So... you're stronger? By one whole rank? Wow. Do you get a special hat? Or just a bigger sense of undeserved importance?" Her brittle, cruel laugh echoed.
Kain watched, composure fraying. "You seem to enjoy this. Perhaps my invitation wasn't misplaced."
Lavender's laughter stopped instantly, expression smoothing to bored neutrality. "Ohk. Chat time's over. Need to get back to my cute junior." She turned on her heel, water swirling.
"Miss," Kain's voice hardened. "It seems you have no intention of a peaceful resolution."
Lavender didn't pause. "Took you long enough."
"Thallasa," Kain commanded, voice resonating. "Let's conclude this discourtesy."
Behind Lavender, the obsidian water surged.
Not a wave, but a pillar sculpting itself into a humanoid form.
Thallasa stepped from the water as if descending stairs.
Cerulean-tinted skin glistened, water cascading off her sleeveless teal-and-black wrap tunic.
Navy hair, tipped silver, flowed as if suspended in a current. Coils of hardened water shimmered around her forearms, shifting between liquid and solid. Seafoam green eyes, unnaturally luminous, fixed on Lavender.
"I really don't understand," Thallasa murmured, voice like waves over pebbles. "Why the theatrics, Kain? Unnecessary talk. Unnecessary delay."
Kain rose smoothly, the table vanishing into portal light. He held Veylspike, its blade drinking the light. "Merely setting the stage, Fifth. Easing into the inevitable."
Thallasa's luminous gaze locked on Lavender. "You will release the Amulet." A command.
Lavender turned fully, a slow, predatory smile touching her lips. She cracked her knuckles sharply. "Awwwn, water dancer. I really, really won't. Trust me."
BOOM.
The fight detonated.
Thallasa moved first. A flick of her wrist.
Undertide Lash
The water coils snapped outwards, transforming into two razor-edged whips cutting the air with a pressurized hiss, scissoring Lavender at the waist.
Lavender dropped into a low crouch, the whips passing inches above. Her left hand slapped the disc.
"Edit Field: Shatterpoint" The disc exploded upwards in a shotgun blast of needle-sharp stone shards aimed at Thallasa's center mass.
Thallasa didn't flinch. Her other hand flicked.
Mariner's Grasp
Water surged, forming a concave shield hardening instantly. Stone needles thudded into it, embedding with dull cracks. Kain vanished.
First Meridian
A circular portal snapped open beside Lavender's crouched form. Veylspike thrust through with lethal precision aimed at her kidney.
Lavender rolled backwards under the spear thrust, coming up in a spin. Her right hand shot towards the portal.
"Unweave"
Violet light washed over the portal's edge. The stable ring rippled, frayed like torn fabric, and collapsed inwards with shattering glass. Kain grunted, stumbling as his thrust met sudden resistance.
Thallasa pressed. Her water shield dissolved.
She stepped forward, water at her feet boiling upwards, forming four additional whips joining the first two. Six pressurized tendrils lashed out in an overlapping pattern.
Hiss-CRACK! Hiss-CRACK!
They shattered stone where Lavender stood, but she was a violet blur weaving between them with impossible grace, her Structural Sight highlighting pressure cores and flow paths. She slipped through the gaps.
Kain recovered, eyes narrowed. He planted Veylspike's butt.
"Revolux Spin"
A ring of three shimmering portals materialized around him, rotating like celestial gears. He leapt sideways, vanishing into one portal. Instantly, he erupted from another portal spinning above Lavender, Veylspike descending in a vicious overhead chop.
Lavender saw the portal flare above. Instead of dodging down, she sidestepped into the path of one whip.
Phase-Slip
Her body fragmented into shards, the whip passing harmlessly through. She reassembled instantly behind Thallasa, lashing out with a knife-hand strike at the base of her skull.
Mariner's Grasp
Thallasa sensed displacement. She didn't turn. Water erupted from her back, forming a solid, spiked buckler.
Lavender's hand struck it with a thud, Unweave flaring. The buckler crazed, fissures spreading like ice, but held. Thallasa pivoted, one water whip retracting and reforming into a short trident aimed at Lavender's throat.
Lavender jerked her head back, the trident tip grazing her chind.
She stomped her foot. "Reality Tether: Barrage!"
From the water around Thallasa's feet, thick chains of dark metal erupted, shrieking as they thrust upwards to impale.
Thallasa hissed like escaping steam. She didn't jump.
Tde Coil Step
Her body dissolved into the water at her feet, surging backwards in a liquid rush, reforming five meters away as the chains slammed empty air. As she reformed, she clenched her fist.
"Crush Pressure"
A sphere of water condensed instantly around Lavender's head from air and residual moisture.
Lavender gasped, skull screaming under intense hydraulic pressure. Vision blurred. She clawed, fingers passing through destabilized water.
Structural Sight flared, locking onto the resonant frequency.
"Mana Lattice Reversal"
A violet hexagon flickered over the sphere. The pressurized water exploded outwards with concussive force.
The blast wave staggered Lavender back a step, showering Thallasa with high-velocity water shrapnel. The Fifth Knight raised her arms, water whips forming a spinning shield, deflecting most, but sharp fragments scored lines across her cerulean skin. She hissed in pain.
Kain seized the moment.
First Meridian
He lunged from a stationary portal, Veylspike aimed at Lavender's exposed back. Lavender, recovering, sensed the spatial distortion, turning.
Kain's thrust veered wildly off course; his portal exit had spontaneously shifted ninety degrees.
Lavender completed her turn, seeing Kain stumbling past her, spear thrusting air. Behind him, a Fractured Echo stood for a split second, mimicking her turn. Kain's thrust passed through it.
The Echo detonated in a burst of spatial distortion.
The chaos gave Lavender her opening. She ignored Kain. Focus snapped to Thallasa summoning pulsing globes of suspended water.
The Weeping Garden.
Lavender charged in a zig-zag. Her left hand brushed the cavern wall.
"Threaded Collapse."
Faint violet traceries streaked unseen across stone, floor, and air towards Thallasa.
Thallasa saw her coming. Hands raised, water orbs trembling. Lavender closed: ten feet, five.
"Convergent Shatter"
Lavender clenched her fist.
The violet threads ignited with implosive force.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP
The Fifth Knight screamed, yanked violently backwards, defensive orbs ripped away, water whips snapping. She slammed into the convergence point, pinned by crushing spatial vacuum.
Lavender lunged the final distance, right hand outstretched like talons aiming for Thallasa's core.
Unweave flared around her fingers.
Spoke Lash
A portal snapped open directly in front of Lavender's lunge.
Veylspike thrust through it, the exit flaring inches from her face. Lavender reacted, aborting her lunge, twisting violently.
She slapped the shaft aside, Veylspike vibrated violently, a discordant hum numbing Kain's fingers.
The convergence implosion faded. Thallasa dropped to her knees in the water, gasping, blood trickling from her nose, eyes wide with fury.
The Weeping Garden orbs wobbled erratically.
Kain recovered his grip, grim. "Anchor her!" he barked.
Thallasa pushed herself up, spitting blood. She slammed her palms onto the dark surface.
"Mariner's Grasp: Tenfold!"
Thick, muscular arms of hardened water erupted from beneath Lavender's feet, grabbing for her ankles and thighs.
Echo Entry
A single portal opened. Two exits flared – left of Lavender, directly above. He lunged, choosing the exit above at the last instant. Lavender saw the water arms surge. She stomped down hard.
"Void Bloom"
The water and stone beneath her feet folded upwards, reconstituting vertically into a jagged wall five meters wide. The water arms slammed into displaced stone with heavy thuds.
Kain dropped from the portal above, Veylspike a lightning bolt aimed at Lavender's crown. Lavender, standing on the vertical slab, looked up. She didn't dodge. Raised her hand.
"Fractured Echo"
A perfect afterimage appeared, raising its hand to block. Kain's spear plunged through the Echo's head. It detonated in spatial disruption. Kain cried out, feedback jarring through the spear into his arms, disorientation spiking. His thrust went wild. Lavender, the real Lavender standing safely aside, lashed out with a vicious side kick.
CRACK-THUD!
Her boot connected solidly with Kain's ribs. He gasped, air driven out, crashing into the dark water with a heavy splash.
Thallasa screamed in pure rage. Seeing Kain struck, she abandoned subtlety. Both hands raised high, the cavern trembling. Every drop of water – the pool, condensation, air moisture – vibrated, pulling towards her. Above her head, water spiraled into a massive, churning spear dense enough to distort light.
Drownwake.
Pressure intensified, air thick and heavy. "SILENCE!" Thallasa shrieked, raw and primal.
Lavender stood on her vertical platform.
She watched the colossal hydro-spear form, her violet eyes narrowed.
A slow, feral grin spread. She cracked her neck.
"Finally," she murmured, voice cutting the water's roar. "Something worth breaking." She raised her hands, fingers poised, violet light coiling around them like serpents of pure disruption.