The hydro-spear screamed through the air like a missile of pure destruction.
Lavender's grin widened as violet energy erupted around her hands.
"Reality Fracture"
She slapped her palms together. The impact sent a shockwave of disruption energy that met the Drownwake head-on. The collision was violent—water and distortion clashing in a explosion of steam and prismatic light.
The hydro-spear didn't just stop. It shattered.
Fragments of hyper-pressurized water became lethal ice shards, spinning wildly through the cavern. Several whistled past Thallasa, who threw herself sideways with a curse. Others ricocheted off stone with sharp pings.
One shard caught Kain across the left cheek as he hauled himself from the water. He jerked his head back with a sharp grunt, blood streaming down his jaw.
Kain hissed, wiping the cut. "That bitch just—"
"Language," Lavender called mockingly from her elevated position. "Very ungentlemanly."
Thallasa rose from her crouch, seafoam eyes blazing with humiliation and fury. Her navy hair whipped around her head like an angry current.
"You think you're clever?" she snarled, water coiling around her arms like living things. "Disrupting my techniques won't save you forever."
"Silence Veil"
She thrust both hands outward. A dome of flowing water erupted upward, encasing the entire cavern in a translucent barrier. Sound became muffled, distorted. The blue-green bioluminescence dimmed as if seen through deep ocean.
Lavender felt the shift immediately—her Structural Sight flickered as the water dome interfered with spatial perception.
"Trying to cut me off from backup?" Lavender laughed, hopping down from her stone platform. Her boots splashed in the ankle-deep water. "Smart. Too bad I work alone."
Kain circled around the dome's edge, Veylspike held low. Blood still dripped from his cheek. "Thallasa, keep her contained. I'll flank."
"First Meridian"
A portal snapped open behind Lavender. But she'd already moved.
"Phase-Slip"
Her body fragmented into violet shards, reassembling three meters to the left. Kain's thrust met empty air.
"Too slow," Lavender taunted. She stomped the water beneath her feet.
"Edit Field: Spike Garden"
The cavern floor erupted. Dozens of stone spikes thrust upward in overlapping waves, forcing both knights to scramble for footing.
Thallasa leaped backwards, her water whips wrapping around a hanging stalactite for leverage. Kain vanished into a portal just as a spike would have impaled his thigh.
"Revolux Spin"
Three portals materialized in a rotating triangle around the spike field. Kain began portal-hopping rapidly—appearing for split-second attacks before vanishing again.
Thrust from the left—Lavender ducked.
Slash from above—she sidestepped.
Stab from behind—she spun, catching the spear shaft.
"Got you," she snarled, violet energy flaring around her grip.
"Unweave"
The metal began to destabilize, surface rippling like liquid. Kain's eyes widened in alarm.
"Echo Entry"
He abandoned the spear, diving through an emergency portal. The weapon clattered to the stone, its blade warped beyond use.
"My spear!" Kain snarled, materializing beside Thallasa. "She ruined it!"
Thallasa didn't look at him. Her attention was fixed on Lavender, who was now holding the destabilized weapon with obvious amusement.
"Oops," Lavender said with mock innocence. "Did I break your toy?" She tossed the warped spear aside with a metallic clang.
"Undertide Lash"
Thallasa's whips cracked outward in fury—four simultaneous strikes aimed at Lavender's head, torso, and legs.
Lavender's Structural Sight mapped the attack patterns. She wove between the whips like a dancer, each movement precise and minimal. The final whip grazed her shoulder, tearing fabric but missing flesh.
"Close, but—"
"Mariner's Grasp"
Water erupted from the ground beneath Lavender's feet, forming grasping hands that caught her ankles. She stumbled, balance disrupted.
Thallasa pressed the advantage.
"Echo Surge"
A bullet of compressed water shot from her palm, dense enough to punch through steel. It struck Lavender in the solar plexus with devastating force.
Lavender doubled over with a sharp gasp, the impact driving her backwards. She hit the cavern wall hard, stone cracking behind her.
Thallasa breathed. "Stay down."
Lavender straightened slowly. Her violet eyes gleamed with predatory excitement.
"That actually hurt," she said, sounding pleased rather than pained. "Good. I was getting bored."
She pushed off the wall.
"Ghostwalk Thread"
An invisible anchor point formed behind her. Lavender charged forward through the water, hands crackling with disruption energy.
Thallasa raised her whips defensively.
"Tide Coil Step"
She dissolved into rushing water, reforming behind Lavender in a flanking position. Both water whips lashed down at Lavender's exposed back.
But Lavender wasn't there.
She snapped back to her anchor point via instant displacement, reappearing behind Thallasa.
"Fractal Lock"
Lavender's hand clamped onto Thallasa's shoulder. Violet energy pulsed. The water knight's body seized as disruption resonance locked into her nervous system.
Thallasa's spell casting stuttered. Her water whips collapsed into ordinary liquid with wet splashes.
"What—what did you—?" Thallasa tried to turn, but her movements were delayed, unsteady.
"Motor function disruption," Lavender explained casually. "Your brain keeps sending signals, but they arrive late. Like a ghost is riding your nerves, and every move gets there a heartbeat too late."
Kain moved desperately. Without his spear, he was limited to portal tactics.
"Third Horizon"
Three portals launched in sequence—a triple-gate chase meant to get behind Lavender's guard.
Lavender sensed the spatial distortions building. She didn't let go of Thallasa.
"Inverted Veil"
A four-meter disruption field exploded outward from her position.
Kain's portals destabilized as they entered the field. One inverted inside-out. Another began spinning like a drill. The third simply collapsed.
Kain stumbled, disoriented by the spatial chaos.
Thallasa struggled against the Fractal Lock, her movements still sluggish. "Release me!"
"No," Lavender said simply. She tightened her grip.
"Collapse Point"
Violet light pulsed deeper, seeking Thallasa's core vulnerabilities. The water knight screamed as disruption energy found her magical matrices, beginning to unweave her connection to her element.
"I can feel your techniques coming apart," Lavender murmured with scientific interest. "Like pulling threads from a tapestry. How long before you can't even make a splash?"
Desperation drove Thallasa to extremes. Fighting through the neural disruption, she slammed her free hand into the water at her feet.
"Crush Pressure: Implosion"
The water beneath both women compressed violently inward, creating a crushing vacuum designed to break Lavender's grip.
Lavender felt the pressure build. Instead of releasing Thallasa, she shifted her stance.
"Corebreak Pulse"
Her body released a defensive burst of distortion energy. The implosion technique shattered against the pulse, feedback screaming through Thallasa's magical channels.
Thallasa convulsed, blood streaming from her nose and ears. "No... my expression... you're breaking my expression!"
"Breaking is what I do," Lavender said without emotion. She prepared to finish the technique.
Kain made a desperate gambit.
"Anchor Gate"
He touched the cavern wall, leaving a sigil mark, then charged directly at Lavender. No portal tricks. Just a desperate tackle.
Lavender saw him coming but was committed to the Collapse Point execution. She'd have to take the hit.
Kain slammed into her at full speed, both of them crashing into the dark water with tremendous splash.
The Collapse Point technique broke as Lavender lost physical contact with Thallasa.
All three fighters separated, gasping and bloody in the waist-deep water.
Thallasa was on her hands and knees, shaking. Her connection to water felt damaged, unstable. She could barely maintain her state without constant concentration.
Kain hauled himself upright, ribs aching from Lavender's earlier kick. He'd lost his primary weapon and his portal precision was still disrupted by the lingering effects of the Inverted Veil.
Lavender stood in the center, barely winded despite the impacts. Violet energy still coiled around her hands like hungry serpents.
"You're both looking pretty rough," she observed, voice conversational. "Want to surrender? I promise to make it quick."
"Never," Thallasa gasped, forcing herself upright. Her magic felt fractured, but she still had one technique left. The most dangerous one.
She began pulling moisture from the air, from the cavern walls, from their clothes and skin. Every available drop began condensing above her head.
"Drownwake: Twin Spears"
Two massive hydro-spears formed, larger than the first. Their rotation created a whirlwind of pressure that made the cavern walls groan.
"You want to break me?" Thallasa snarled through bloody teeth. "Then break this!"
She launched both spears simultaneously—one high, one low, creating an inescapable crossing pattern.
Lavender watched them come with interest rather than fear.
"Singularity Lace"
She wove several disruption threads into a single point between her palms. The resulting micro-singularity was barely visible—a dot of absolute distortion that crushed cohesion itself.
When the hydro-spears reached the singularity, they simply... stopped existing.
Not destroyed. Not deflected.
Thallasa stared in horror. "That's... that's impossible. You can't just delete magic!"
"Watch me," Lavender said calmly.
She flicked the singularity toward Thallasa like tossing a coin.
The Fifth Knight tried to dodge, but her damaged magic couldn't support rapid movement. The singularity struck her center mass and expanded.
For a moment, Thallasa became translucent. Her spell matrices scattered. Her memories blurred. Her sense of self wavered like a candle in moment.
Then she collapsed into the water, unconscious but breathing.
Kain rushed toward his fallen comrade.
Lavender intercepted him with casual ease.
"Phase-Slip"
She materialized directly in his path, one hand extended.
"Unweave"
The touch caught Kain across the chest. His clothing destabilized, his skin numbed, his internal mana flow disrupted.
He stumbled backwards, vision blurring. "You... you're a monster."
"No," Lavender corrected, stepping through the dark water toward him. "I'm just better at this than you are."
Kain tried one final desperate technique.
"Gate of the Ninefold Star"
Nine portals began forming in mid-air, creating a celestial constellation of escape routes.
But Lavender's Structural Sight revealed the technique's pattern before it completed.
"Reality Fracture"
She clapped her hands together. The disruption shockwave shattered all nine portals simultaneously, leaving Kain with nowhere to run.
He fell to his knees in the water, magical exhaustion overwhelming him.
"I surrender," he gasped. "We... we surrender."
Lavender stood over both fallen knights, violet eyes reflecting the bioluminescent glow like gemstones.
"That's more like it," she said, cracking her knuckles with sharp pops that echoed through the Silence Veil dome.
She stepped closer to Kain, water swirling around her boots. Her hand shot out, gripping his jaw with bruising force.
"Now then," she hissed, violet energy flickering around her fingertips. "Let's discuss why you want the Bloodshard Amulet so badly."
The disruption energy pulsed against Kain's skin, making his teeth ache. He tried to pull away but her grip tightened.
"Talk," Lavender demanded, increasing the pressure. "What does your precious Majesty want with it?"
Kain looked up at her for a moment, then threw his head back and laughed. A harsh, mocking sound that bounced off the cavern walls.
"You think interrogation will work on us?" He grinned through the blood on his face. "You must be incredibly stupid if you think a little pain will make us talk just because of a surrender."
Lavender's eyes narrowed. "Hm?"
"Besides," Kain's smile turned cold and knowing. "I didn't surrender to 'you'."
That's when Lavender felt it.
A chill beside her. A presence that made her spine tingle with primal warning.
She turned sideways, violet eyes widening.
A figure stood in the ankle-deep water, close enough to touch. Long, raven-black hair streaked with a single vibrant purple lock cascaded over one pale shoulder. The woman's body was a study in dangerous curves—full hips, narrow waist, and a chest that strained against dark leather wrappings. Her lips were painted blood-red, curved in a predatory smile that promised violence and pleasure in equal measure.
"Hi there," the newcomer purred, her voice like silk over steel. "You're really battering up Kain, aren't ya? Kinda stimulating, isn't it?"
Lavender started to move, but—
SLAM.
The woman's hand shot out, gripping Lavender's head like a vice. With casual strength, she drove Lavender's face down into the water with bone-jarring force.
Splash. Bubbles. Impact against stone.
Lavender's head came up gasping, water streaming. She immediately lashed out with a vicious kick from her prone position.
The woman swayed aside like liquid shadow, her grip never loosening on Lavender's skull. The kick missed by inches.
SLAM.
Another brutal drive downward. Lavender's face hit the submerged stone floor again, harder this time. Stars exploded behind her eyes.
When the woman yanked her head up again, she leaned in close, her breath hot against Lavender's ear. Her free hand traced a slow, deliberate line down Lavender's spine, nails scratching through wet fabric.
"Mmm," she hummed with obvious pleasure. "You're tougher than you look."
Then she hurled Lavender away like a discarded toy.
Lavender tumbled through the water, rolling to absorb the impact before coming up in a crouch ten feet away. Water dripped from her hair, but her violet eyes burned with something that wasn't quite anger.
It was excitement.
"My, my, Kain," the woman said, not taking her eyes off Lavender. "You got yourself some looker here."
Kain pushed himself upright, relief evident in his voice. "It seems that way, Nyx."
Lavender slowly rose to her feet, violet energy beginning to crackle around her hands. A grin spread across her face—wild and predatory.
"Finally," she breathed, voice thick with anticipation. "Someone worthy."
Nyx's blood-red lips curved wider, her own excitement burning in dark eyes.
"Ooooooo," she purred, rolling her shoulders like a cat preparing to pounce. "I like this one."